Big Arms With High Volume and High Reps
Big Arms with High Volume and High Reps
Huge Biceps and Triceps with Maxx Charles
Maxx Charles, aka “The Conquerer,” is a man on a mission to build muscle with heavy lifting and an intense training style similar to Ronnie Coleman’s. Charles has been steadily moving up in the pro ranks in recent years, placing third in the 2018 Muscle Mayhem Pro, second in the 2017 Tampa Pro and Arnold Classic Australia, and winning the Tampa Pro in 2015. Here’s a guide to the man behind the physique and the hellish arm training he undergoes.
The Haitian Creation
Maxx Charles was born in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, with one brother and one sister. His father left for the United States when Maxx was just a year old, to work and send much-needed money home to his family. Maxx wouldn’t meet him until he was 10 years old. As a child, he would wake up early to go running at a local park. There, he would see people lifting weights and wanted to try it, but his mother forbid him. Instead, he played the national sport of soccer, and was “pretty good” by his estimation.
At the age of 12, his family finally had enough money to leave Haiti and relocated to Long Island, east of New York City, where he remains to this day. It was a very tough adjustment for young Maxx. “We got there in November, and I had never experienced that type of cold before,” he recalls. “People laughed and said it was going to get much worse in the next couple of months. I was miserable and just wanted to go home to Port-au-Prince.”
In addition to the new, harsher climate, he suddenly had to learn English, which he did in about a month, thanks to carrying his French/English dictionary everywhere and watching TV. “I had watched ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ and ‘Family Matters’ in French back home, so now I watched them in English to pick up the language.”
Enter the Iron
Maxx had never forgotten about the weights. By the age of 14, he had been inspired by seeing Arnold’s physique in movies, and had also managed to check out a few bodybuilding magazines. “I liked Shawn Ray— he looked so polished and professional in the way he presented his physique,” he begins. “Flex Wheeler also had a very pretty look, like a sculpture. But my favorite pro, the one I really wanted to look like, was Kevin Levrone. To me, he was the greatest.”
Maxx was doing push-ups and lifting chairs at home in efforts to start trying to build muscle. A neighbor took notice, and donated a 25-pound dumbbell he didn’t want to Max’s cause. “I was about 145 pounds then, skinny but very lean and muscular,” Maxx notes.
By 15, his mother saw how dedicated he was to working out at home, and lifted the ban on weights. A friend of his named Jean-Marc took him to a local gym, where they trained together for three months before going their separate ways. In that time, all Maxx worked was chest and arms, every day. Both responded quite well. But he quickly became aware that the rest of the body should probably be trained too, and proceeded to train every body part— three times a week! “I asked as many questions of the older, bigger guys as I could,” Charles remembers. “Some had bad attitudes and didn’t want to help me, while others would give me advice that conflicted with what others were telling me. It was tough to sort out the right information from the wrong.”
But superb genetics can’t be stopped and by age 19, Max was a true beast. “By then I already had most of the size I have now,” he claims. “It was just softer and had very little detail to it.” People around him urged him to compete, but in his heart he was nowhere near ready yet. Training at Bev and Steve’s Powerhouse Gym in Syosset, Maxx saw plenty of pros and top amateurs, so the standards he held himself to were extremely high.
A Winning Streak Begins
In early 2008, Maxx finally felt it was time. He entered the Eastern USA and won the super heavyweight class, then didn’t reappear onstage again until the 2011 Atlantic States, where he repeated the same feat. Russian IFBB Pro Eugene Mishin, Maxx’s friend from the gym, told him it was time to advance to the national level and agreed to work with him on his diet. At his first Nationals in 2011, he took second place in the supers a year before the NPC changed the rules so that the top two in that contest turned pro. At the 2012 USA he took third place at 265 pounds, and in 2013 he proved the third time is a charm by sweeping the super heavyweight titles at the USA Championships in Las Vegas.
“I wasn’t that excited when I won, if I am being honest,” he divulges. “In my head, I was thinking this was only the beginning and I had a lot of work to be done before I could be a good pro.”
Size wasn’t an issue. But Maxx knew he needed more polish and detail to stand out on a stage where pretty much everyone is huge. He also had to bring his average legs up to match his freakishly thick and round upper body musculature. “I avoided squats for a long time,” he explains. “I had lower back issues plus an odd injury where a vein burst inside my left calf, and I also worried they would make my glutes grow too much.” Once all the issues were resolved and Maxx started squatting regularly, his legs began to grow.
Don’t Train Like Max, Don’t Eat Like Max … Because You’re Not Max!
OK, we’re at that part now that will have you rolling your eyes in either disgust or disbelief. Let’s start with his training. Most bodybuilders, even the pros, will train for 60-90 minutes at a time. Maxx’s workouts average three to three and a half hours, six days a week, and this is without cardio. “Very high volume works for me,” he says. “The more I did, the more I grew, so I don’t care who says I am overtraining or whatever. I know most people would not gain very well on my routine.”
His style of rep performance has also been the subject of derision, as he prefers a fairly short range of motion. “I do about half the range of motion on most exercises, getting the stretch but not going anywhere near lockout,” he explains. “It keeps the tension on the muscle. I used to use a full range of motion like everybody else, but I tried shortening it up and that works even better for me.”
Now that I’ve got you all warmed up, it’s Maxx’s nutrition that will really freak you out. You would assume a man who weighs over 300 pounds at 5’11” most of the year loves to eat, and eats enough to feed a village. Nope! He hardly has an appetite, and hates eating. “It’s like torture to me until I start my prep and finally start feeling hungry,” he says. In the off-season, he usually has very moderate servings of rice, beans and chicken just three times a day. But boy, does he drink! Maxx puts away two to three gallons every day of V8 juice in fruit punch or strawberry-banana flavors, plus Sprite and Mountain Dew. “I’m always thirsty,” he notes in an understatement.
Once he starts prep, Maxx cuts out all the juice and soda and consumes seven meals a day. Within a week or so, his muscles look markedly fuller and the fat is already melting away to reveal thick veins and deep striations. But I can’t say this enough— don’t try this at home!
Max’s Unique Arm-Training Principles
Maxx certainly does things his way, and doesn’t worry about whether or not it happens to conform to the status quo. With that in mind, here are some principles he adheres to when it comes to his arms, which tape out at 23 inches in the off-season. You can debate his logic or methods all day long, but one thing you can’t argue with is his results!
High Reps
The best rep range for arms is a matter of opinion, with some advocating as low as four to six and others feeling 15-20 reps is the way to go for this relatively small muscle group. Maxx pushes that latter range even higher, typically doing 20-30 reps and often going as high as 40-50. “I did lower reps like everyone else in the past, and I just didn’t seem to get much out of them,” Maxx says. “Maybe it wouldn’t work for everyone, but I do know it gives me the best pump possible.”
High Volume
You will also hear arguments about the ideal number of sets needed for arms. Most bodybuilders do between 12-20 sets each for biceps and triceps, and strive to finish their arm workouts in an hour or less. Not only is Maxx in no rush to complete any of his workouts, but also he isn’t afraid to do more volume than most would consider acceptable. “My goal is to work my arms until they are numb, until I can’t even lift them up anymore,” he shares. “I know most people say that’s overtraining. I don’t know if it is for other people and I am not saying anyone should do as much as I do. I just train the way I have found works best for me.”
‘Double Sets’
Maxz’s favorite intensity technique is what he calls “double sets,” which is his term for what many others refer to as rest-pause. He will do as many reps as possible until the combined skintight pump and lactic acid burn forces him to stop, then rest about 5-10 seconds before resuming the set. In this way, he often gets a total of 25-30 reps with a weight he would normally only get for about 15 reps. “I like this technique better than drop sets, because you don’t have to reduce the weight you are using,” he notes.
Training Split
Sunday: Hamstrings
Monday: Shoulders
Tuesday: Chest
Wednesday: Quadriceps
Thursday: OFF
Friday: Arms
Saturday: Back
Maxx’s Arm Workout
Biceps
Standing Cable Curls (facing stack) 1 warm-up x 30, 4 x 20-30
Standing Cable Curls (away from stack) 3 x 20, 1 x 40-50
Close-Grip Lat Pulldowns 3 x 16-30
Rope or Dumbbell Hammer Curls 2 x 16-20
One-Arm Dumbbell Curls on Preacher Bench 2 x 20 each arm
Alternate Dumbbell Curls 2 x 20-30
Curl Machine – with elbows above shoulder level 1-2 x 20-30
Curl Machine – with elbows just below shoulder level 1-2 x 20-30
Dumbbell Concentration Curls 1 x 20-30
Triceps
Wide-Grip Cable Pushdowns – using lat bar 5 rest-pause sets,
total 25-30 reps each
Rope Pushdowns 7 rest-pause sets,
total 25-30 reps each
Lying Cable Skull-Crushers+ 3 rest-pause sets
Dip Machine 2 rest-pause sets
Cable Kickbacks* 1 x 40-50 reps each arm
*These are done alternating arms until rep total is reached.
+Maxx prefers to do these lying on a seated cable row with his head facing the stack.
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