The Big Guy Look

You tell me you want to get bigger. But it’s not just getting bigger that you’re after. You already lift and you’ve got some muscle, but something is missing. What you’re actually chasing is the big guy look. What’s “the big guy look”? It’s Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. It’s the Mountain in Game of Thrones. It’s looking big even when you’re wearing a shirt. But you might be at a bit of a loss for what to do. You’re already hitting the gym hard, eating enough, and sleeping enough.

So, what’s holding you back? You might not be putting effort into the right places. Literally. Having that appearance of being a big guy really comes down to focusing on growing the right muscle groups while not letting the others lag. So, what are the magic muscles that make a guy look big even when he’s wearing a t-shirt? Neck, traps, and forearms. While all the others are important, those three will give a man a look that says “power”. Let’s have a quick look at how each muscle group contributes to the big guy look.

Neck. If you’ve ever played a contact or combat sport (rugby, American football, wrestling, muay thai, boxing, jiu-jitsu, or judo), then you know how important having a big, strong neck is. It’s the thing that allows you to take a hit and come back with a smile instead of down with a crash. Building your neck will make you look a lot harder to put away. I mean, is it any wonder that a common term for a weakling is “pencil-neck”?

Traps. Nothing screams “power” like having traps that like mountains of meat propping your head up. People tend not to mess with the guy whose neck is incredibly thick and is in danger of being swallowed by his shoulders. Traps are one of the muscle groups that you only get by going hard and heavy. Lots of guys have big biceps, but not everybody is walking around with the traps to match.

Forearms. I don’t know which gets less love, forearms or neck. But if you’re trying to look big and strong with a t-shirt on, then you can’t neglect your forearms. Big, beefy forearms show that you can get your hands dirty and do some serious work…or damage. Forearms size and strength is essential to working and working out harder. It means your grip is strong. For fighters it means your wrist won’t buckle when you land a punch.

So, you want the big guy look. But what does that training look like? You’ll train each of the above body parts twice a week. They can be done toward the end of your workouts, though I wouldn’t recommend doing your forearm work on the same day that you’ve done a lot of other work that taxes your grip (heavy rows, deadlifts, high rep/weighted pull-ups, etc.)

Here’s the plan for training for the big guy look. You’ll simply put this at the end of two of your workouts per week. I highly recommend you do them on upper body days, but if you need to put it somewhere else to fit your schedule, feel free:

Demos for each exercise: Barbell shrug, dumbbell shrug, neck flexion, neck extension, wrist curl, wrist extension, dumbbell wrist curl, dumbbell wrist extension

For the first workout, for each exercise pick a weight that’s tough but very doable. For difficulty, on a scale of one to ten, it should feel like a seven. Every exercise you’ll try to get all of the reps on all of the sets. If you fail to get any of the reps on any of the sets, you’ll repeat the weights on that exercise next time you do that workout. For example, if you’re supposed to do four sets of ten barbell shrugs and you get ten on the first three sets, but only eight on the last set, you’ll do the same weight next workout. If you succeed, you’ll increase the weight next workout. By increase, I don’t mean just throw a ton of weight. Add five pounds for dumbbell exercises, ten pounds for barbell. An exception is your neck work. Progress this very slowly. Do not go too heavy. Your neck is not built to carry hundreds of pounds or be loaded heavy quickly. Start too light, take your time, progress slowly. If you don’t, you will regret it. I did.

You’ll do the workouts for Block 1 for eight weeks. Then you’ll start Block 2 and do that for eight weeks. Your goal is to make consistent progress in all the lifts. This program lasts for sixteen weeks. Follow the directions and focus on progress. This is meant to build size, so be sure to eat for it. Lifting for size and not eating enough is like trying to build a house, but not giving the builders material.

You’ve probably never really focused on these areas, so you should make good progress. As long as you push it hard and eat enough, you’ll be well on your way to having the big guy look. There are a lot of guys with big biceps and pecs, but still have pencil-necks and noodle forearms. Don’t be like them.