Arm troubles

flexfit

flexfit

Member
My arms do not seem to grow like the rest of me. They are by no means small, but in comparison to how developed the rest of me is they look inferior.

I train arms directly once a week, and have recently added a few sets at the end of chest and the end of back day.

I train with higher reps on arms for the most part...Super setting bi and tri exercises.

For anyone out there who was able to make stubborn arms finally grow, what was your battle plan that yielded the best results?
 
flexfit said:
My arms do not seem to grow like the rest of me. They are by no means small, but in comparison to how developed the rest of me is they look inferior.

I train arms directly once a week, and have recently added a few sets at the end of chest and the end of back day.

I train with higher reps on arms for the most part...Super setting bi and tri exercises.

For anyone out there who was able to make stubborn arms finally grow, what was your battle plan that yielded the best results?
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Big compound lifts helped grow my arms.

But I've seen more evident changes in my biceps Vs triceps tho, maybe that's just me.

Heavy dls, Chins, and Kroc rows (strapless)
Dunno but these worked for me.

I can't really comment on triceps, always felt mine were small and weak.
 
Do you use different positions of flexion? Elbows in different posistions essentialy, in front, at your sides, and behind your torso? When I had clients incorporate seated incline curls as heavy as they could for a few sets before the rest of their bicep work they saw pretty good results. The same for triceps, overhead sets first then move on to rest of your tri work.
 
mountainman33 said:
Do you use different positions of flexion? Elbows in different posistions essentialy, in front, at your sides, and behind your torso? When I had clients incorporate seated incline curls as heavy as they could for a few sets before the rest of their bicep work they saw pretty good results. The same for triceps, overhead sets first then move on to rest of your tri work.
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I don't really use different points of flexion no...I guess I should ool.

I mean obviously I use different techniques. ..barbell, dumbbell, preacher, etc.
 
flexfit said:
I don't really use different points of flexion no...I guess I should ool.

I mean obviously I use different techniques. ..barbell, dumbbell, preacher, etc.
Click to expand...
Lengthen the muscle as much as possible, you'll have to go lighter in the weights. Also, try and use cables sometimes with angles that pull against you, it helps increase time under tension.
 
try adding in a second workout for your arms. I like to do a real heavy day with around 6 reps and a lighter day of 10-15
 
The relation between heavy squat and bicep/triceps building is that heavy squats put your body in an anabolic state because of the hormones release that happens when you go heavy in compound exercises like this.

Then all the arms related exercises work better! :)
 
See a chiropractor have them work on the arms
 
That makes since and I'm aware of the connection...I do mostly heavy compound lifts. Squat, deadlift, bench, military, bent over row every week.


brucebarrera said:
The relation between heavy squat and bicep/triceps building is that heavy squats put your body in an anabolic state because of the hormones release that happens when you go heavy in compound exercises like this.

Then all the arms related exercises work better! :)
Click to expand...
 
That's what I was thinking. I need to go back to heavier arm work instead of simply chasing the pump. Then on back day and chest day I can add some bis and tris with higher volume.

cumminslifter said:
try adding in a second workout for your arms. I like to do a real heavy day with around 6 reps and a lighter day of 10-15
Click to expand...
 
Experience with this? What would they do to your arms that would help induce growth? ...Crack my back then inject my arms with synthol lol? ;)
 
flexfit said:
That's what I was thinking. I need to go back to heavier arm work instead of simply chasing the pump. Then on back day and chest day I can add some bis and tris with higher volume.
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I think the high volume stuff is what might be doing it. Do 8-10 reps with a weight that you can barely get on the last 2. I actually have the opposite problem of you. My calves and legs can't keep up with my arms and upper back. I don't wanna to look like that dude on the geico commercial haha
 
flexfit said:
That's what I was thinking. I need to go back to heavier arm work instead of simply chasing the pump. Then on back day and chest day I can add some bis and tris with higher volume.
Click to expand...
i think that sounds like a good plan
 
I had to catch my arms up as well. I did a chest and Bi and a back and Tri day and also had a direct arm day during the week. Started lifting heavy on tri's on both days of the week i worked them and they really started responding.
 
I don't know if you have any shoulder issues, but here are my recommendations for triceps growth:

1. Dips - Heavy dips.
2. JM Presses.
3. Heavy close grip bench.

Those three should be staples. I started dips with body weight 3 years ago, and I am now dipping with BW(225)+ 3 plates. Needless to say, I have seen some excellent growth in that area. JM presses are not well known outside of powerlifting, but I can tell you it is amazing. Search it on Youtube, and find the video with JM Blakely, the man himself, who invented the exercise.

For biceps, I really don't have much advice, because I was blessed with large biceps.

I will make one final recommendation to you on how to grow your arms. Do high rep sets daily, one set each for triceps and biceps. Nothing less than 40 reps, and as high as 100. Personally, I picked 40 as a number, and went with that. I focused on trying to add more weight week to week while running this. It seems to work best in 4-6 week cycles. I know what all the keyboard warriors are going to say. That's crazy, you would be over training!!! To which I ask, do you even know what over training is? It's one set, and it's low weight........ so, no. It's NOT overtraining. It's not taxing on the CNS, nor are you using enough weight to do any real muscular damage. So before the debate begins, STFU, cause all of you who think it's over training are wrong. It works, I have used this technique to bring my arms to 17.5" naturally. Rich Piana talks about this very technique, and he calls it "feeder sets." In any case, I am not up for a debate, so I am not even going to engage the subject further. You can either try it out, and grow your arms, or not.
 
Try a heavy day early in the week with compound movements in the 6-10 rep range, 3 days later do a pump workout mostly cables and machine preacher curls for biceps and press downs and dip machines for triceps.
 
wray98 said:
Try a heavy day early in the week with compound movements in the 6-10 rep range, 3 days later do a pump workout mostly cables and machine preacher curls for biceps and press downs and dip machines for triceps.
Click to expand...
o really.......
 
brucebarrera said:
The relation between heavy squat and bicep/triceps building is that heavy squats put your body in an anabolic state because of the hormones release that happens when you go heavy in compound exercises like this. Then all the arms related exercises work better! :)
Click to expand...

This is technically true, but the response isn't long enough to lead to significant changes. Testosterone is something that needs chronic elevation and not a small jump like the ones that come from training.
 
Personally, I found doing heavy dual supersets did well for me and my training partners. By this I mean, two Biceps excercises, "superset" together followed by two tricep excercises followed together. These were both low rep (4-8) which made longer rest time necessary but due to the longer duration of the set this resulted in a continuous movement pretty much. This was followed by a more moderate rep set and sometimes a moderate/high rep set. There was usually only one set that was a "superset" unless we reduced volume. We would do this for a month, followed by a moderate tohigh rep training routine, without the supersets.

Sounds crazy, but it got me amazing results, especially in the biceps.
 
I do a direct day for arms and do a 'pump' set for tris and bis after each of my other workouts,,, but I find that heavy work builds them the best bcuz they are filled with more glycolitic muscle fibers than oxidative fibers
 
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