Arm Training With Rich Piana

THE UNCANNY ARMS OF RICH PIANA

Rich Piana claims that biceps have always been a weak body part for him, although anyone who has seen him in person at the Mutant booth might beg to differ. Though the 6'1", 285-pound Piana hasn't competed since 2009—and not seriously since 1999—he was mobbed by fans clamoring for the chance to pose beside his gargantuan guns, or just get a look at them. 

Nevertheless, he says, “I actually had weak arms for my structure, so I was really obsessed with training them.” The native Californian, who spent his childhood in Sacramento accompanying his mom, bodybuilder Chris Bennett, to the local Gold’s, started training at age 11. Like mother, like son. Mom won the ’84 NPC California Golden Bear. Rich did his first show, the Teen Northern California, at 15, taking fourth in a lineup of 12.

He weighed 250 pounds at 19 and went on to have a notable amateur career, winning the prestigious NPC California Championships in ’98 and competing on the national level.

The focus on biceps started at age 11 as well. “I was doing everything I could,” he recalls. “I was watching the big guys in the gym and just mimicking. Whatever they did, I did—curls, cable curls, concentration curls, preacher curls. There was a time when I would do three sets of a hundred reps for triceps and biceps—skull crushers and dumbbell curls—every night before I went to bed. It’s called a ‘feeder workout.’ You’re just pumping the muscle with oxygen and blood to feed it.”

All evidence to the contrary, Piana believes he’s never really turned the corner on arm development. “I struggled for many years,” he says. “I know you look at me now and say, ‘Whatever,’ but it’s like someone who’s been fat their whole life. Even if they’re 95 pounds, they look in the mirror and still feel that they’re not quite where they want to be.”

Not being satisfied is a key to success for Rich—in life as well as in bodybuilding. “I still feel my whole body needs work,” he says. “I’m definitely not satisfied, which is a good thing because it keeps you pushing to get better and better.”

In the 2000s, the longtime L.A. resident got into acting, appearing in dozens of commercials. Currently, he’s involved in producing and starring in “a documentary about three guys who choose a road that they think is going to find them financial success and come to realize it’s not what they think.” Needless to say, one of the three is a bodybuilder.

Piana is also currently a Mutant athlete, and his outgoing personality made him an asset at the Los Angeles FitExpo—he had to be torn away from the crowds to get him to talk more about the G.G.s—aka gargantuan guns.

Nowadays, he believes in training smart. “I try my hardest to keep my ego out of the gym,” he says. That translates to “training lighter, going for the feel, squeezing the muscle.”

Higher reps are also in the mix, and “worrying about the joints, ligaments, tendons rather than just throwing around heavy weight for the sake of impressing the people around me.”

He still does everything under the sun for biceps—except barbell curls. “I mix it up constantly because the body gets used to whatever you do.” Asked to narrow it down to his five favourite exercises, he says, “My favourite is overhead cable curls, where basically you’re doing a double-biceps pose, curling the cables to the head. It gives me an incredible pump … to where my muscles are burning so bad, I can’t take it.

“Also, I love hammer curls. I believe forearms are very important, and I train them constantly. Hammer concentration curls are another one of my favourites, dumbbell curls—and I definitely love preacher cable curls.”

Any advice for the teens of today who are just beginning their quests for big arms—besides to never be satisfied? “My best advice is to eat more. Whatever you’re eating, you have to eat more. That’s so important because your metabolism is so fast that you’re just burning it up, and you’re not going to put muscle on without eating those calories.

“Number two is, you have to train hard, and the most important aspect is having that positive mindset.…When you finish a set, all you should be thinking about it is, ‘Wow, that was an incredible set, and my arms are going to grow from it.’ If you believe that, your arms will grow.”

Rich Piana's Top 5 Fave Arms Exercises

Dumbbell Curls
Preacher Cable Curls
Overhead Cable Curls
Hammer Curls
Hammer Concentration Curls