Arm soreness, i cant get any?

[I Stand Alone]

i have made a goal of adding 1 in to my arms by next may. I do 2 different exercise every two weeks and do 1 core in a different order( easy bar curls and tricep push downs are the core exercise) reps are 10,10,8, hopefully 8 by almost always to failure) so usually i am doing 3 exercises with 4 sets for bicep and triceps. But no matter what i do, i can never get a soarness in either muscle, not even if i take a week off arms, what gives? anyone else in the same boat? is the routine shitty or what? Any help would be great.

[DBarcelo]

It sounds like you should increase the weight. Once I can lift weight for 10 reps, I move up. You should probably also try to add another set or two. Also, don't count warm-up reps. An example would be:

1 Warm-up set w/ 30lb dumbell for 5 or 6 reps.
4 Working sets w/ 50lb dumbells until failure (you should be able to lift it at least 6 times, but no more then 10 times).

or.

1 Warm-up set w/ 30lb dumbell for 5 or 6 reps.
2 Working sets w/ 50lb dumbells until failure.
2 Working sets w/ 100lb barbell or E-Z curl bar.

Pick a few different excercises for your bis and mix them all in.
(same goes for the tris)

Also, remember, you should feel tight and stiff, not a burning feeling. When you feel burning, you have lactic acid buildup on the muscles and your muscles are basically being poisoned.

You can also get a measureing tape with cm's. Your arm should go up about 1 cm with the extra blood. That should give you a pretty good idea if you're really getting pumped.

You can try working your arms every 3rd day or every other day. I'm a strong advocate for getting to know your body and working out according to how you believe you can handle it and not base it only on a calander.

[solidj55]

There isnt any relationship between soreness and growth... Just because you dont get sore doesnt mean you wont grow.

[bornbad71]

Make sure u have the mind muscle connection. U might need to try some contraction holds(hold the contraction for 15-60 seconds). I do not do the same exercises from wk. to wk., I like to change my workout on a weekly bases. It might only be reps or total sets, but there is a change. Two exercises that get my arms sore are: lying tri exten./spider curls...did them fri. and arms are still alittle sore today.

[British Bulldog]

Solid is correct. When you feel sore the day after a workout it is your tendons that are saw and not your muscles. Muscle strength increases a lot quicker than tendon strength so you end up in a situation where your muscles can handle the weight but your tendons are under strain. As your muscle strength increases and also the weights you are lifting increase then you may find that you start to feel sore because your tendon strength is slow to follow.

[sp9]

Mix up the exercises, there are tons of exercises for bi's and tri's. definitley use some dumbbells and cables.

Here is a Ronnie Coleman quote, " I never advocate the use of the exercises cited as the kind of mass building for the biceps: the barbell curl.

Like everybody else, when I started bodybuilding, I waned bigger biceps, even tough I am blessed with good arm genetics. I though the route to follow was doing barbell curls, but my early experiences with that exercise taught me that although barbell curls allowed me to use heavy weights, the muscular stress caused by the poundage was in no way being applied 100% to my biceps. I believe that the heavy weights employed for barbell curls encourage the user to cheat through the exercise, perhaps without even knowing it. A person tends to bend the upper torso to let the momentum of the weight take over. In addition, instead of the biceps powering out the reps, forearms and front delts are called into play too much.

You must analyze what kind of development you are aiming for with your biceps training. You should seek full development in terms of thickness and fullness of your biceps muscle attachments, plus optimum accentuation of the biceps peaks. Those aspects are best achieved by exercises that isolate the biceps - ones that allow you to put maximum stress on your biceps throughout the completion of each set. Cheating on barbell curls means that at certain times during the course of a rep, the biceps are given an easy, if not free, ride."

Try dumbbells and cable exercises. Also weighted dips, using the rope, and single arm cable exercises.

[sp9]

I am going to mix up a new arm routine today, gonna pick probably 3-4 exercises for bi's and another 3-4 for tri's, thinking of some of these. Seated alternating dumbell curls, cable pressdowns, incline bench dumbbell preacher, weighted dips, standing dumbbell hammer curls, machine press downs, seated rope cable curls, seated dumbbell tricep extensions.

[TheJuicer]

I have the same problem...I actually hate barbell curls and I do preachers and alt. curls....then in 2 months I change it to incl. curls with hammer curls...In. curls and preachers kill my f&*kin' arms!

[solidj55]

Try not doing arms directly. Try sticking to compound movements for upper in general. Lots of compound pushes and pulls will make your arms grow bigger and stronger than any isolation movement.

[I Stand Alone]

Thanks for all the input,
interesting point Solid and Bulldog.

as always, this board provides good, logical answers and examples.

thanks again
ISO