How often should one trains arms?

AM07

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I started neglecting my arms almost a year ago since I was only concentrating on compound lifts such as squats, deads, and incorporated cleans for a short while. As a result of that and injuries that laid me out of the gym for awhile, my arms are puny and have no definition whatsoever. It seems like my legs grow the quickest, which I don't mind at all since decently sized legs look great, but I would really like my arms to catch back up to how they used to be.

With that said, I'm going to hit them twice a week. My training regimen is pretty unorthodox in the sense that I don't really follow a set routine. I just go in there and make sure to hit one compound lift (either bench, front squats, or deads) and then other random stuff such as pullups, lat pulldown, rows, incline, etc. So would doing shoulder presses, dips/close-grip bench, and random curls 2-3 times a week be okay, assuming I keep it at 5-6 sets each time?
 

futurepilot

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Throwing different exercises all together will hinder all your lifts. If you bi's are sore your back suffers. Tri's sore you chest suffers etc. I would set up a routine were you do arms later in the seek after your main body parts. I cant imagine the mish-mash workout scheme will help you reach your goals.
 
Sprawl

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You need to straighten out your routine. You will only get out of it what you put into it. Good mindset though using mostly compound lifts. I would suggest throwing biceps in after you do your back work (deads, rows, pullups, shrugs, etc) and tris in after you do your pushing exercises (bench, shoulder press, etc). So you'll have a push day (chest delts tris), a pull day (back traps bis), and a legs day (quads glutes hams calves).

Just a suggestion.
 
strester

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That works as well.
upper/lower x2

i've also gotten some good arm size with my current 5 day split, finishing off the week with arms:

Back
Chest/Calves
Shoulders
Legs
Arms
 

AM07

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I'm thinking of doing something like this.

Chest/Tris
Back/Bis
Off
Shoulders/bis/tris
Deadlifts
Off
Repeat

But on days I deadlift, alternate it with front squats and deadlift so I'm not deadlifting every 6 days.
 
strester

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I'm thinking of doing something like this.

Chest/Tris
Back/Bis
Off
Shoulders/bis/tris
Deadlifts
Off
Repeat

But on days I deadlift, alternate it with front squats and deadlift so I'm not deadlifting every 6 days.
why not put deads on back day and alternate that with rack pulls? you won't be deadlifting every 6 days, then you can dedicate the day after shoulders to legs (squats, leg press, etc.)
 

ptdanny

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I've always loved doing bi & tris together to get a great pump. And i've personally had good gains with it. Over an inch in grown in about 4-5 months.

Doing back/bi & chest/tri has always been a common one people do, its good to do a small muscle group with a larger one. However, if your really focusing on your arms, i thinking giving them their own day is better. Also tossing in another day or so might help, just go a bit lighter with sets of 10-12. Thats what i did for my shoulders, just added 1 extra day and beat them up and they grew really fast.

I think twice a week is fine if you keep to your heavy lifts and eat well.

this is my current split, i just change the move one of the days to twice a week when I'm focusing on that area, like right now, mine is shoulders, just change it to arms for yourself.

shoulders
chest/back
off
shoulders
legs
arms

i try to keep the intensity high on both days i repeat, but i usually use one day to do more heavy sets and compound movements and the other on slightly lighter stuff.

best of luck!
 
Sprawl

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why not put deads on back day and alternate that with rack pulls? you won't be deadlifting every 6 days, then you can dedicate the day after shoulders to legs (squats, leg press, etc.)
Agreed with the dead/rack pull alternation.

You need to have a day for lower body my friend.
 
dawaro

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I started neglecting my arms almost a year ago since I was only concentrating on compound lifts such as squats, deads, and incorporated cleans for a short while. As a result of that and injuries that laid me out of the gym for awhile, my arms are puny and have no definition whatsoever.
For me the exercises that have had the biggest effect for my over all arm mass have been weighted chin-ups and dips. In fact the results I have seen since I started doing them do not even come close to what I got when doing iso's like curls and pressdowns. I do a superset of them with a quasi-rest pause method similar to the DC Training. My goal is 15 reps of each using as many sets as I need to get them. When I hit positive failure I rest for 10-15 breaths and switch lifts.
Usually I end up with something like this:
Chins - 8 reps, 10-15 breaths, Dips - 8 reps, 10-15 breaths
Repeat until I hit 15 reps.
I do this 3x a week at the end of my full body routine.
 
Rodja

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Weighted Dips have given me some nice tricep and delt thickness the past several months.

I like to alternate my volume every week when aiming for muscular hypertrophy. One week, I'll hit them 1x/wk and then the next week, I hit them 2x/wk. Techniques like drop sets, rest-pause, and TUT are also great options.
 

AM07

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why not put deads on back day and alternate that with rack pulls? you won't be deadlifting every 6 days, then you can dedicate the day after shoulders to legs (squats, leg press, etc.)
I'm going to mainly use deads as a leg exercise because I can't do conventional squats. So I'll switch it up each week, one week conventional deads, other week sumo.

How about this for a routine. By the way, I'll be using a little extra help during this routine and eating a ton, you can reference my thread in "Cycle Info" if you'd like.

Chest/Tris/Shoulders
Back/Bis
Cardio
Chest/Tris
Deadlifts/Shoulders/Bis
Cardio, light chest
Cardio, or some light front squats and whatever I feel may need some touching up

I understand the volume may be a little high, but getting help allows this.

What do you all think about this routine?
 
Sprawl

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I'm going to mainly use deads as a leg exercise because I can't do conventional squats. So I'll switch it up each week, one week conventional deads, other week sumo.

How about this for a routine. By the way, I'll be using a little extra help during this routine and eating a ton, you can reference my thread in "Cycle Info" if you'd like.

Chest/Tris/Shoulders
Back/Bis
Cardio
Chest/Tris
Deadlifts/Shoulders/Bis
Cardio, light chest
Cardio, or some light front squats and whatever I feel may need some touching up

I understand the volume may be a little high, but getting help allows this.

What do you all think about this routine?
IMO that would be overtraining and not doing enough legs. Do leg presses if you can't do squats. Deads are great, but they are a back move more than a leg move.
 
strester

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my wheels don't like to grow so I need to dedicate at least one day to just that body part ... if you can still grow with some light front squats then I envy you
 

AM07

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That's the thing, I think my legs grow easily compared to the rest of my body. That's why I have a puny upper body compared to my lower body.

When I do sumo deads, I definitely feel it more in my legs than my back.
 
RenegadeRows

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PRIORITIZE dudes!

My triceps are weak when compared to my biceps, so I work them more often and work them harder.

For a while I didn't work arms at all until I brought the rest of my body up to par.

PRIORITIZE !

Like Arnold says, if one part of my body grows the rest has to grow as well. Bring those lagging parts up.
 
Rodja

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my wheels don't like to grow so I need to dedicate at least one day to just that body part ... if you can still grow with some light front squats then I envy you
My legs grow from just deadlifts and box jumps. They're a gift and a curse.
 
LSU Gladiator

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Does anyone on here have trouble consistently getting their arms sore?

Sometimes I can bust my AYUSS working arms, and the next day I feel like I could do it again because I didn't get sore. It's more of a veteran issue than a novice trainee issue. When I first started working out (8 years ago) I could w-r-e-c-k my my guns every several days and they would get sore and grow like a weed.

My workout routine is typically:

Chest (+ Abs)
Back (+ Front Squat)
OFF
Shoulders (+ Bench Press + Abs)
Arms
Legs (+ Bent Over Row)
OFF

I typically work out everything once a week, but I work out compound lifts 2x weekly. Now I've noticed a unique phenomenon with my training. If for some reason I get a training delay between weeks and I work my arms out again after >7 days, they get awfully sore. CONSISTENTLY.

I'm thinking about an alternating schedule where for: Week 1, I omit an arm day and just do a couple of arm exercises on chest and back days. Week 2, work out in the schedule mentioned above and have an arm day.

Any thoughts?
 

anapolack2

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since you been working out for 8 years....i dunno....try something different in order,rep scheme and variation..........you still may not get sore
but then again you aint supposed to work out to get sore
 
Rodja

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I have difficulty with biceps, but not with triceps and delts. Part of the problem is that I do low volume on biceps (6-7 sets @ 10-12 reps/set), but it's not really a priority.
 

AM07

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I'm going to switch up my routine. Now it's going to look like this:

Chest/Tris/Shoulders
Back/Bis
Cardio
Chest/Tris
Deadlifts and/or pullups
Shoulders/Bis/Tris
Off

I understand some may think this is overtraining, but I'll be using some Ergo stuff to help me along the way, and eating a lot as well. If I feel I'm overtraining while on this routine, I can always take one day completely out.

On the last off day, cardio MAY be incorporated, not sure yet.
 

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