💪 4 Cable Biceps Workouts for Big Gains

We’re in the home stretch before the unofficial start of summer in three weeks. Lucky for you, The Ripped Report is back, as always, with advice for getting some last-minute gains.

Here’s what’s on the agenda today:

• Four cable biceps workouts you need in your routine.

• How strong was two-time Mr. Olympia Franco Columbu?

• Our 12 favorite supplements for muscle growth.

WORKOUTS

To the Cables!

Everyone loves training arms. Biceps workouts can be a standalone session during which you attack a weakness in your physique or the carrot-on-a-stick to finish your upper-body day. In any case, cables are easily one of the best tools ever to happen to arm training.

Cables open your training up to a whole world of possibilities and exercises that can serve your long-term goals. With so many options on the table, you need to know how to design a biceps workout that gets you what you’re after. With that in mind, here are the four best biceps cable workouts.

BODYBUILDING

The Strongest Mr. Olympia?

Standing at 5’5″ and weighing anywhere from 185 to 200 pounds, the late Franco Columbu can lay claim to being one of the — if not the — pound-for-pound strongest Mr. Olympia winners ever.

The “Sardinian Strongman” was renowned during his career for incredible feats of strength that went well beyond what bodybuilders typically display. He was proficient in powerlifting, tried his hand at the inaugural World’s Strongest Man competition, and loved to show off with odd feats ranging from lifting cars to blowing up hot water bottles to tout his lung strength.

Along with his best friend and training partner Arnold Schwarzenegger, Columbu dominated the late 1970s and early 1980s bodybuilding scene and helped propel the sport into the mainstream. But we want to look beyond the plaudits and instead focus on the brass tacks: Just how strong was Franco Columbu? Let’s take a look.

NUTRITION

Supps for Growth

When it comes to building muscle, there are countless supplements that can help you as you work toward your goals. There are powders and pills you can take before, during, and after you work out, all designed to boost your gains and provide some extra bulk to fill out your shirt sleeves.

But remember when we used the word countless before? We’re not kidding — the supplement industry is a powerhouse worth untold billions of dollars, so it’s nearly impossible to parse through every product from every company.

To make things a little easier, we’ve compiled 12 of our favorite muscle-building supplements under one roof (well, article) to help make your buying choices that much easier. In order to make sure we’re only highlighting the best of the best, we made our decisions based on four factors: Supplement type, price, research, and dosage.

THE DROPSET

The Tom Platz Challenge

• Back in 1992, bodybuilder Tom Platz etched his name in iron lore by squatting 525 pounds for 23 reps. Recently, powerlifter Bradon Gulch tried to break The Quadfather’s legendary mark.

• The walking lunge is a unilateral lower-body exercise that can be done for strength development, muscle hypertrophy, and sport-specific training purposes. Here’s how to do it properly.

• The 1st Phorm St. Louis Pro bodybuilding show took place this weekend. See which Men’s and Women’s Physique competitors earned their Olympia qualifications.

SOUND OFF!

Getting to Know You

THE RESULTS ARE IN

Let’s Talk Legs

In the May 2 edition of The Ripped Report, we asked if you train legs every week. Here’s how you voted:

1. Yes, more than once a week (44.91%)

2. Yes, once a week (41.92%)

3. I try to, but not always (8.38%)

4. I rarely — if ever — train legs (4.79%)