Take PRIDE In Your Supplements!

JOE MERENDINO 

"Pride Athlete"

Rising amateur bodybuilder and Pride Nutrition Athlete Joe Merendino trains arms with the same intense drive he uses as an officer on the Addison Police Force.  Joe has been using Pride Nutrition Supplements for several years and is a loyal supporter of Pride Nutrition. Below is a article that MuscleMag Magazine did of Joe's arm workout back in March 2010.

Arm day for Joe spells a full 90 minutes of shaping and refining his already hefty biceps and triceps. “I have genetically big arms, from my dad,” he admits. “The most my dad ever weighed was 170, and even though he never worked out, he always had big arms.” Genetic blessing or not, Joe doesn’t take his arms for granted, making sure to work them thoroughly once per week.

He begins with biceps, because, in his words, “they wear out faster.” But looking at his 20-plus inch arms, it’s hard to believe they could tire at all. He warms up with a light set of dumbbell curls using the 25s; his biceps pop into action and almost visibly swell as he throws down 15 reps with each arm, easy.

“I like to do my heaviest meat-and-potatoes move first, standing alternating dumbbell curls, when I have the most energy,” Joe says, picking up the 40s and holding them at his sides with his palms neutral. Using one arm at a time, he curls the weight, corkscrewing his wrist so his palm faces the ceiling at the top and his biceps peak springs to life. Then, hesqueezes hard for a count before lowering back to the start. He continues in this pattern, alternating arms, for a set of 12. He does two more sets, increasing the weight 10 pounds with each set and subsequently dropping the reps a few at a time. For his fourth and final set, Joe curls the 80s for six.

“Sometimes I’ll do EZ-bar curls next, but more often I do hammer curls, and today is a hammer day,” explains Joe as he shakes out his arms. “If I was doing EZ-bar curls, I’d put a 45 on each side and do 3–4 sets of 8–10 reps. I like to switch my grip around on that move, using the inner and the outer positions, to hit the biceps from different angles.”

Joe pulls the 50-pound dumbbells from the rack and stands erect with his feet hip-width apart, shoulders down and back, holding the weights at his sides with his palms neutral. He alternately curls the weights toward his shoulders, maintaining his neutral wrist position, hammering out 12 reps fairly easily on each arm with the 50s. On the next set with the 60s, however, he gets only nine reps apiece. He gets eight reps with the 70s, struggling on the last one, then rests several minutes, mentally preparing himself for that final set. After a long exhale, Joe grabs the 80s with purpose and has a mini stare-down with himself in the mirror as he curls the 80s four times smoothly, efficiently, with each arm. On rep five he looks away from the mirror and down at his working arm as he curls, as if mentally willing the muscles to contract harder; even though the going is tough, Joe never breaks form.

He grabs a 45-pound dumbbell and readies himself for one-arm dumbbell preacher curls. He sits on the bench, extending his right arm along the pad so it’s fully supported from top to bottom. He flexes his wrist slightly; then he curls the weight, keeping his upper arm pressed into the pad as he raises the dumbbell in an arc toward his forehead, squeezing hard at the top. He reverses the move and slowly lowers the weight back down to a full extension, all the way through his wrist. He does 10 reps on each arm, and then stands up. He does another set of 10 on each arm with the 45s before resting for a full minute, sipping water. Joe then picks the weight back up and works through two more sets of 10 preacher curls on each arm, and calls it a day for biceps.

He gets into position for parallel-bar dips (he does his first set without weight and then adds plates for successive sets), standing inside the dip apparatus and placing his hands on the bars.

He straightens his arms so his body is perched vertically between the bars. He lifts his chest and pulls his elbows inward so his arms are tucked in close to his body. Then he bends his elbows and smoothly lowers his body between the bars, staying vertical and moving only at his elbow joints. Joe’s careful not to let his elbows flare out at any point during the movement. When his upper arms are parallel to the floor and his elbows form a 90-degree angle, he presses through his palms and straightens his arms forcefully to come back to the top (a fully extended but not locked position). He does 28 evenly paced repetitions, and then hops off the machine and grabs a drink of his shake.

Joe attaches a rope to the upper pulley and stands in front of the weight stack ready to start his last move for the day — rope pressdowns. He slides the pin into the 70-pound slot, and then he grips the rope just above the knobs, locking his arms in close to his sides. Moving only from the elbows, he extends his arms, pressing the rope downward and outward as he approaches the bottom. Here, he squeezes hard, his triceps popping out in a thick horseshoe, before releasing to come slowly back to the start, and then completes 12 reps. He increases his weight to 80 pounds for his next set of 11, and then does another set with 90 pounds for 10 reps.

He pulls one end of the rope through the loop so it straightens out and decreases the weight to 60 pounds. He grips one rope knob in his right hand, puts his left hand on his hip and presses the rope down and out for 10 reps, grimacing as his triceps quaver and then fail at No. 11. He repeats the process rep for rep with his left arm and finally calls it a day.