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need some help on my arms; anyone went through the same thing?

willc86

Member
Hi! genetically, I have small arms. I felt like my arms got a bit bigger but not like it should from all the hard work I put them through in comparison to chest back legs and even neck.

currently I am 6ft weight 200lbs ill say about 14% body fat (not sure if that would help target what exercises I should be doing) and my goal is to be 220 - 230 with about 8% body fat.

I can feel my chest getting bigger but what would you recommend for tiny arms? I would like to get them about 17 inches. Any advice on what type of exercises worked for you to get bigger arms?

Should I lift heavy or do a lot of reps?
how many different exercises?
how many sets on each exercise?
Should I work it out once or twice a week?
 
i once heard that to add 1in to the arms you need to gain 15lbs of overall mass. not sure if its true.

and i am big believer that if you want to grow there is no optimal rep/set/intensity/frequency setup. all of the variables will help some part of the muscle grow. so do them all. and 17" arms may take years. like 5 or more, if not 10. so be patient.

i have also noticed that the guys with the biggest arms are also the strongest at all the lifts. so dont just focus on arms. maybe a change in grips on major lifts will help. like close grip pressing. and guys i know with strong powerful backs have big biceps. i dont see guys with big guns and tiny bodies.
 
In general, 2/3 of your arm is triceps, which is often overlooked. Also, a lot of people think bigger arms will come from an "arms day". This is often not the case either. My opinion.. Think about it - if you want big arms, that means that your arm muscles need to rip. The best way to rip muscles is to overload them with weight while still maintaining a solid 8-12 rep range. How do you do that?

Well, with triceps .. its working your chest. With biceps .. its working your back. I mean when will your triceps ever lift as much weight as your chest on an "arms day"? When you do chest, you really workout your triceps a lot, so finishing up your chest day with a nice tricep workout would optimize your weight lifting capacity for your arm muscles.

If you are happy with your chest, try to do strength/hypertrophy on your chest/tricep day for you chest. Then for triceps, try only hypertrophy. Same for Back/biceps. Something like..

Chest - Bench, Incline, Decline, Flys, Cable Crossover (All 3 sets of 8)
Tricep - Skulls, Pushdowns, Pullovers, Dips, Bench Dips (All 3 sets of 10-12)

Same idea for Back/Bicep

The idea is to overload your tricep muscle during chest and really promote hypertrophy during the tricep part of the chest/tricep day.

Remember, the important aspect is that you get 8 reps per set during chest. this means that you SHOULD NOT be able to get 9 or 10. Choose weight accordingly so that you always get 7-8 but you don't have the ability to get more.
Same for 10-12 reps, you should never be able to get 13.

Days look like:

Chest/Tricep
Back/Bicep
Shoulders/Traps
Legs
Rest

Just what I would do if I were you, this breakdown is huge in the BB community.

Goodluck
 
oh dam nice lol.

so been doing biceps and triceps all in one day, so best bet is just do chest and tri back and bi?
 
if you're not going to commit a day to bi/tri... i would work chest/bi and back/tri .. but that's me, most others do the opposite.. but by the time i'm done killing back.. my bi's are pretty crapped out
 
willc86 said:
oh dam nice lol.

so been doing biceps and triceps all in one day, so best bet is just do chest and tri back and bi?
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best bet? i mean best bet would be whatever gives you the best gains, which obviously nobody would know haha hence the post for advice

i would say try a chest/tri, back/bi, shoulder/trap, leg, rest , cycle and see how that goes. i think if you take my previous advice OR use a pro's workout that follows that form then ull be fine. just workout hard and eat right and take the right supplements obviously, without that, u might as well not waste ur time and catch up on a bunch of movies.
 
lol thanks ill probably stick to that and see how that works out.

What should I be doing to get mass gains? should I am for moderate weight and do like 15 reps? or heavy and do like 8 6 5

I tried BI and it seems what works best for me is when I overload my biceps and do loads of sets (not reps) and different exercises, but I am not sure if that is good for the muscles. If I hit fatigue, thats when I reach my work out point? or should I avoid hitting fatigue?
 
jbonez said:
best bet? i mean best bet would be whatever gives you the best gains, which obviously nobody would know haha hence the post for advice

i would say try a chest/tri, back/bi, shoulder/trap, leg, rest , cycle and see how that goes. i think if you take my previous advice OR use a pro's workout that follows that form then ull be fine. just workout hard and eat right and take the right supplements obviously, without that, u might as well not waste ur time and catch up on a bunch of movies.
Click to expand...

Pros who use insanely high volume and supplement their training with steroids? Better idea:

Focus on compound movements, ie bench, bent rows, pull/chin ups, dips, etc. I say it often, but increased strength comes from two places: neuromuscular adaptation and increased CSA of your muscles (which will result in size gain). Get stronger in those, and you will see changes.

Also, contrary to popular belief, you don't have to train to failure constantly to realize gains. Maximal training does a number on your muscles and nervous system and can be difficult to recover from if most of your training is high volume, always to failure. That's where periodizing your training to allow yourself to recover becomes important. Periods of high volume should be interspersed with lower volume training that will be focused on strength and recovery over hypertrophy and beating yourself up.

Finally, if you want to use one to two arm exercises following your main lifts for the day, there are techniques such as drop sets and clustering, but again they should be used sparingly. Generally, you'll be ok keeping sets/reps similar during lower volume training, but slightly higher reps during high volume training could also be beneficial.

Just remember, focus on main lifts first and use accessory work as a supplement.
 
i always tell guys who get pissed because my biceps are smaller then theres but my arms measure bigger that its all in the tricep. smash those triceps and see if it makes a difference. weighted dips have help a lot.

i like to use drop sets for both bi's and tri's. i only do one excersize for each though i.e. barbell curls, tricep press downs.
 
The first thing you should know is that your arms have two muscles - biceps and triceps (ignoring forearms for the moment). These each have two heads - long and short; both of which require different movements to exercise. There's a difference between hammer curls and standard grip barbell curls for biceps. There's also a difference between push-downs and reverse-grip push-downs for your triceps.

Don't mean to boast but I have pretty good arms because I know the muscle anatomy of them. Can't say the same for the rest of me though but that's why I'm on this forum - to learn!

Try and check out different movements that you can do to surprise your muscles and get them to grow.

You also need to work your forearms but do that at the end of your workout otherwise you'll wreck your grip for the rest of your workout!! Trust me, I've made that mistake before haha!

Hope this helps buddy.
 
I'd do a mix of low reps and high reps for arms, especially the triceps. And if you devote an arms day to your split, start off with a compound press movement for the triceps for lower reps and move on to more isolation exercises for higher rep ranges.

You might benefit from increasing the frequency you work out your triceps. I don't know what kind of split you have, whether it's push/pull, push/pull/legs, a bodypart split, or what. But lets say you stick with some sort of bodypart split. You could have a separate shoulder, chest, and arms day (definitely separate shoulders and chest as far apart as you can, though having chest before shoulders is not the worst thing in the world), and on shoulder and chest day you could do one or two exercises for triceps, with arms day being 3 exercises obviously. That's what I had to do to get my measly triceps to grow.

I've been on DC for a while, and they do an alternating split between upper and lower body (basically), but because I don't work out my triceps as frequently as before my biceps are disproportionately bigger than my triceps now. Triceps are worked once every 4-5 days basically, as opposed to 3 times a week in the split mentioned above. And in contrast, biceps are worked not only on lower body days (where you're supposed to do bicep exercises for DC), but I also work them on upper days doing any sort of back work; so they're worked every other day, and it shows.
 
thanks guys...whats some good compound exercises for biceps/triceps that I should be doing then to bulk up?
 
Mivvi said:
The first thing you should know is that your arms have two muscles - biceps and triceps (ignoring forearms for the moment). These each have two heads - long and short; both of which require different movements to exercise. There's a difference between hammer curls and standard grip barbell curls for biceps. There's also a difference between push-downs and reverse-grip push-downs for your triceps.

Don't mean to boast but I have pretty good arms because I know the muscle anatomy of them. Can't say the same for the rest of me though but that's why I'm on this forum - to learn!

Try and check out different movements that you can do to surprise your muscles and get them to grow.

You also need to work your forearms but do that at the end of your workout otherwise you'll wreck your grip for the rest of your workout!! Trust me, I've made that mistake before haha!

Hope this helps buddy.
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Several points:
  1. The name triceps dictates three heads: long, medial, and lateral. All three extend the elbow, but the long head also aids in shoulder extension.
  2. The biceps has two heads, but condenses to a single muscle belly. Thus, unless you have some stellar genetics and extremely low body fat, you won't realize the differences grip and movement patterns will have on activation patterns.
  3. The grip variations you mention are used to place priority on certain muscles by taking advantage of the wonderful science of physics/biomechanics. The brachialis, which sits under the biceps, is generally unaffected by grip, as it inserts on the ulna. So it stays active no matter the position of your hands. The biceps, however, is in its strongest position during forearm supination (palms up) and halfway between being supinated and prone (semi-prone). The twisting of the radius (the bone that actually moves during pronation of your forearm) prevents the biceps from exerting maximal force, just as flexing the shoulder will (since the long head is involved in shoulder flexion). Finally, your brachioradialis (which attaches to the humerus and wrist) is a bit "lazy," and is best activated in that semi-prone position during loaded conditions with moderate to fast contraction speeds. Otherwise, it doesn't like to do much.
  4. I won't really get into the triceps (or the anconeus, the red-headed stepchild of functional anatomy), but suffice to say the research is out there on the effects of various implements (ropes, etc.) and shoulder positions. I'll revert to point 2 here. Unless you are training for a bodybuilding competition and possess great genetics and a low body composition, slight changes in activation patterns aren't going to be that big a deal. Focus on getting strong. You'll get bigger. And with a decently low body comp, you'll have triceps that pop.
  5. As far as the forearms, points two and four apply here as well. Train deadlifts, farmer's walks, pull-ups/chin-ups, tire flips (if you've got one and are into that), and other strongman movements (again, if you're into strongman) foremost. You can include reverse curls and reverse roll-ups (the only name I can think of; basically a plate on a rope that you roll up via your forearm and wrist extensors) if you want, but "isolation" movements aren't that high of a priority unless you are bodybuilding, doing a photo shoot, etc.
  6. Finally, "muscle confusion" as most people understand it is a load of bull. Changing movements every workout to "keep your muscles guessing" might provide some benefits, but planned, systematic variations in exercises are far more beneficial.
 
bicep long-head: close-grip stuff (chins and barbell curls), hammer curls, cable curls

bicep short-head: preacher curl (make sure you try and twist you pinkies inwards for an extra squeeze), dumbbell curls (also incline curls), wide-grip stuff

triceps long-head: extensions (dumbbell lying, EZ bar, dumbbell overhead and cable overhead)

triceps lateral-head: pushdowns and close-grip bench press

Hope this helps chieftain.
 
willc86 said:
thanks guys...whats some good compound exercises for biceps/triceps that I should be doing then to bulk up?
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  • Chest,delts,triceps: Bench (and variations), overhead presses, and dips are the meat and potatoes. Face pulls can be used for the long head of the triceps as well as some posterior delt work (which is neglected by a large majority of gym goers).
  • Biceps and the extensors of the upper extremity (rear delt, long tricep, lats, etc.) are best hit by rows of the bent over variety (bent-over, prone, DB bench, etc.) and pull-ups/chin-ups. Again, face pulls can be used here for some auxiliary work after you've done your major lifts.
 
I have used a split that allows me to train many days in a row without direct overlap..i sometimes go ten days before taking a rest day or two.. I never rest on specific days, i train until my body says rest.

For lagging arms: which i had, but not anymore.

Chest with focus on triceps along with chest.( chest press/ hammer strenght or similar. Shoulder width close grip benches, free weights or smith machine.. In smith, keep your butt for the bench, look up dc training vids on youtube.. Weighted dips)

Back, focus on including biceps. ( reversegrip pulldowns, pullups, reversegrip rows etc) perhaps include drag curls and pinwheel curls.

Shoulders and triceps... After regular shoulderpresses and laterals. Go for a highvolume triceps work, but this time, dont do closegrip bench or dips, but cable pushdowns variations, and skullcrushers. Reverse grip smith wide grip bench can be done this day for power movment.. , again check out dc traing clips on youtube.

Quads,hams,calves, biceps. This time, regular barbell curls for power, then curl machines and every other pumping exercise under the sun works.

I f you do this split and train more than 5 days a week, and have powerfull legs, skip quads every other legs/biceps day...that makes it almost a rest day recovery wise... If i go 10 days on , i only do quads every third rotation..

This is for the bodybuilde with powerful legs, but weaker upperbody..no other method has packed on mass on my upperbody like this .. Skipping lquad training allows for better overall recovery.. But if you have weak legs, itshould not be skipped like i do.
 
Nothing packs on arm mass like close grip benches.. I actually no longer do regular benchpresses, and not had shoulde issues since then . Cg bench hits chest a bit too. I close grip bench 250 lbs for 6-8 reps.. And now have a bit over 17inch arms but im short 5'4" so it looks pretty swole... My biceps are short and smallish, but my triceps make up for it.

I started with close grip benches on a dc program a few years back , 15" arms and lifted 100lbs ... You can progress like crazy on those lifts.. While my skullskrushes have only increased with 20lbs... My cg bench increased with 150lbs... Guess what gave me most growth!!!
 
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