Keep in mind that I'm not the guy with genetics on his side. I have wide shoulders, but otherwise a small frame, and every bit of development I have was earned through training and diet. I'm not bragging or anything, but I'm not one of those guys who puts on muscle really easily and then tries to tell hard gainers how it's done.
Anyway, I train my arms independently at the end of my training week. Throughout the week I've involved my triceps, biceps, and forearms in doing my compound lifts (presses, deadlifts, ect..), but on my last day I like to give them some extra work, which has proved worthwhile over the years, and especially this past half year or so. As I progress in knowledge about training, my training practices become more efficient, therefore I see extra development. I actually weighed more at the end of last summer than I do now (by about 8lbs, staying at about the same leanness), but my arms - especially my upper arms - look more impressive than ever, thanks in part, in my opinion, to how I've been training then as of late.
So that aside, I'll get into my training practices:
Flexing and Isotension -
I'm a big supporter of flexing (isotension) between sets, and after workouts. During my workouts it allows me to keep more blood pumped into my muscles, therefore allowing them to work more efficiently. There's a time and place for stretching (dynamic and static), but flexing is something I don't see a lot of people doing intentionally (as in, other than just wanting to check themselves out in the mirror). So first off, flex your arm muscles! After every set of anything involving the arms specifically, flex them as hard as you can! I'll usually hold these flexes for 10-20 seconds, trying to get as much blood pumped to the muscles as possible, but still allowing them to get a little bit of rest before I jump into my next set. Flexing is a form of isotention exercise, because you are in fact contracting the muscle. One of the great things about flexing is that you can involve muscle fibers that might not have been involved (to a great extent) during your set, so it helps you make sure you're stimulating as many muscle fibers as possible.
The biceps has two functions: to curl the arm, and to aid in pronating and supinating the wrists (rotating them). Rotate your wrist and you can see that your biceps are contracting to aid in that movement. So I think it makes sense to keep that in mind when you're training. When you flex your biceps, try flexing with the wrists facing different directions (obviously you're limited here). I find that when I flex my biceps and rotate my wrist so that my thumbs are facing away from my arms as far as they'll go (basically I'm saying flex the biceps but rotate the wrist out as far as it'll go), my outer biceps, over time, has begun to stick out more and more, to the point where I can flex in a certain way as to pop that muscle out enough to show definition. I couldn't do this a year ago, when I actually weighed more (staying at about the same leanness). So keeping that function of the biceps in mind, put it into play with your training. After each set of biceps, rotate the wrist all the way in both directions for a few times, then flex them as hard as you can. Also, during dumbbell exercises for the biceps, you can rotate your wrist during the movement. I especially like doing incline curls, and at the top of the movement, flexing the biceps as hard as possible while I try to rotate my wrist outward as much as possible, trying to make the muscle fibers on the outer biceps contract harder than they normally would had I just done a regular curl. I squeeze my biceps as hard as I can for a brief moment at the top of every curl.
During my last biceps exercise I do static holds on the last set or two. Meaning, I'll do as many regular, full range reps as I can (remember, always go full range of motion, staying as strict as possible, unless otherwise advised), and on my last rep, once I can't do any more full ones, I'll hold the weight at various points, making my biceps contract to their maximum, trying to keep the weight up. This is best done on cable exercises, I think, so I usually end my biceps workout with either cable preacher curls or cable curls.
And like I said before, after my arms workout, I'll do a lot of flexing and stretching, of course. Even later on in the day I might do a series of stretches and flexes. Sometimes when I'm driving my car, with my free arm, I'll hold a straight arm pose, flexing the triceps and stretching the biceps, then go the opposite way; flexing the biceps and stretching the triceps. After a while, all this flexing helps to bring out more definition, in my opinion (considering your arms are lean enough to show good definition). My arms are by no means shredded, but I have made them more defined lately, just by changing the way I train them.
My Routine -
My arms routine varies almost every week, but usually holds the same framework. I always start off with a lift I can use heavy weight on (glose-grip presses for triceps, or barbell curls for bieceps, for instance). I also like using supersets, because it not only lets me reduce my training time, making my training more intense and efficient, but it gives me a great pump! Here's an example of what one of my arms routines might look like:
Glose-grip Bench Press 3 x 10,8,6
Curl Bar Curls (using an arm blaster) 3 x 10,8,6
Superset: DB Kickbacks and Incline DB Curls 3 x 6-8
Cable Preacher Curls (or Cable Curls) 3 x 10,8,6
Reverse Pushups 3 x Failure
Superset: BB Wrist Curls and Reverse DB Wrist Curls 4 x 8-10
** Remember, on the last biceps exercise I like to hold the resistance at various points along the path of the movement, making my biceps work as hard as possible. I also do this during my reverse pushups (reverse dips). I also like doing 21s, or variations thereof, on reverse pushups. Sometimes I might do 10 for the bottom half, 10 for the top half, and then 10 full range. I squeeze the triceps at the top of each rep (I usually contact my muscles at the peak of most lifts, to make them contract that much harder).
So basically my arms training revolves around flexing the crap out of my muscles and trying to work them from as many angles as possible, trying not to leave any muscle fiber behind!
Do however keep overtraining in mind, being that the arms are subject to a lot of indirect work. If you start to feel like you might be overtraining, then change your workouts accordingly.
P.S. - FORM IS EVERYTHING!!! One of the biggest mistakes I see is people getting caught up in how much weight they can lift, when they should be thinking about how much weight they can lift while keeping great form. My arms are bigger and look better than a lot of guys in my gym, who are trying to lift heavier weight than I am.
P.S.S - I just now watched that guy's video and he's got the right idea. However, that last exercise he does, doing the curls seated, really restricts his range of motion, so he's not working the biceps along it's entire range, which is something I feel you should do. This does apparently work for him though! Kind of a weird choice of music, haha!
