Taking Up Arms for Battle : Is arm-wrestling a sport of brawn or brains? Think strategy and speed . . . and don’t get too pumped.

Even though he concedes that size really doesn’t matter, Terry Shapiro hasn’t had a piece of candy in six weeks. He’s cut down on his beer drinking, too, and has begun squeezing a doggie toy. With only a few days left before Saturday’s Yukon Jack Arm Wrestling Championships in Venice, Shapiro is pumped: “I want to be fast,” says the six-time world champion arm wrestler and Simi Valley resident. “I want to get the arm down as quickly as possible.”

But not too pumped.

Serious arm wrestlers say it takes more brains than brawn to win this competition, which offers cash prizes and the chance to participate in the World Arm Wrestling Championships in New York City this August. Concentration, speed and technique--22 variations on palm positions and wrist rotations--tend to win out over bulk. Still, most arm wrestlers like to weigh in on the high end of their classes. The men fall into one of three groups: 165 pounds and under, 166 to 198 pounds, and 199 and up. In the open women’s division, competitors of all sizes face off.

The fact that size isn’t paramount is part of the sport’s appeal, competitors say. Also, it’s portable, inexpensive and accessible. The Pennsylvania-based American Armwrestling Assn., which sanctions the Yukon Jack and about 15 other tournaments each year, reports that the modern-day version of the Stone Age sport is growing in popularity. Over the past eight years, more than 10,000 men and women have competed in the Yukon Jack alone. Many also enter smaller monthly tournaments, compete in the annual Goodwill Games and hold subscriptions to the AAA’s quarterly publication, the Arm Bender, which covers the circuit, lists upcoming events, and advertises a $29.95 Super Gripper for “powerful hands, wrists and forearms” and an $89.95 gold charm depicting locked arms.

Arm-wrestling enthusiasts take their sport seriously. They work out two or three times a week, lifting weights, hitting punching bags and doing pushups and pullups. And they watch what they eat so they can stay in a favorable weight class. Neil Bell, a longtime Los Angeles arm-wrestling veteran, says that while many wrestlers compete on the professional level, winning top prizes of about $750 per tourney, no one can afford to quit a day job.

“I’ve met doctors and lawyers,” says Bell, who has been wrestling for 14 years. “It’s always interesting to hear what people do when they’re not arm-wrestling.”

Most competitive arm wrestlers say that what they like most about their sport is its one-on-one, in-your-face quality. “There’s no one to blame but yourself if you lose,” says Shapiro, 41, who wrestled his first match at the Ventura County Fair 13 years ago.

These days, he hosts a weekly arm-wrestling practice for local wrestlers on a regulation-size wrestling table in his living room. The 41-inch-high leather surface features two hollow circles, in which each wrestler rests an elbow, and two rubber pegs--something for the non-wrestling hand to grab. Opponents stand at opposite ends of the table with palms joined. The first to make his or her rival’s arm hit the “pin”--a padded pillow--wins.

During a recent workout, seven wrestlers, all of them men, practiced arm starts and burns--two techniques that improve speed--on each other. With only a few days left until the Yukon Jack, where two matches run simultaneously as fans watch from bleachers, most were giving their tendons a rest.

Stretching his arms over his head, Craig Greene, a 15-year, 172-pound veteran of the sport who will compete Saturday in both the right- and left-handed divisions, steps up to the table to wrestle Shapiro.

Greene says he has always been good at the sport, proving himself initially at parties and in bars. “I was 150 pounds beating 210-pound brick layers,” he recalls. He finally entered a local competition and took third place. He has since collected more than a dozen national and world titles.

Two years ago, tendinitis forced Greene, who lives in Simi Valley, out of the sport for more than a year. Now he’s careful not to put too much strain on his arm. He does calisthenics and stretches his arm by pulling on a tire tied to the side of his garage. During the summer, the 35-year-old cabinet shop owner water-skis twice a week. He’s careful not to eat too much sugar, which he says gives him a false sense of energy, and eats healthy foods.

Although nearly 70% of America’s arm wrestlers are men, the number of women picking up the sport is increasing, particularly in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. The world champion, however, hails from North Hollywood.

Dot Jones, 31, is far more than a speck on the women’s circuit: She weighs in at about 240 pounds, stands 6-foot-4 and can beat just about any man.

“When I do promotions I hear a lot of, ‘No woman’s gonna beat me,’ ” says Jones, an actress who has appeared on “Married With Children,” among other TV shows. “I always beat a man who says that.”

Jones got into arm-wrestling when some friends insisted that she sign up for a competition--she won. The right-handed arm wrestler now holds 13 world titles.

In the early years, Jones didn’t train. But nowadays she pulls on an old bicycle inner tube that she wraps around her foot, and she goes to the gym daily.

“I really enjoy it,” Jones says. “You’re in total control. It’s a real high.”