HELP with Bulking Arms

[Coolhand5599]

My routine is pretty good but no matter what I do I cant build my arms. I care nothing about streanth but I really hope someone can give ma an ARM BUILDING workout that works.

[gmantheman]

Are you gaining size all over? You can't add an inch to your arms unless you add about 15LBs of equally distributed mass all over.

[V-ROID]

My routine is pretty good but no matter what I do I cant build my arms. I care nothing about streanth but I really hope someone can give ma an ARM BUILDING workout that works.

Well you better start caring about strength if you want to get bigger!

Are you gaining size all over? You can't add an inch to your arms unless you add about 15LBs of equally distributed mass all over.

I never heard that correlation before but sounds about right. But tell that to "The Man Whose Biceps Exploded"...

[Nooomoto]

What do you do for your back?

[Coolhand5599]

I am gaining all over. For back I do bent over rows, lat pull downs, sitting row, flys, I pretty much do 3 sets of 12 to 15

[gmantheman]

What is your height, weight, waist size and arm size?

[Coolhand5599]

What is your height, weight, waist size and arm size?

5'9" 195lbs waist 35 arms 15"

[chuckfinley]

for arms im guessing you have a bi/tri split, and a different day for shoulders. for me what works best for triceps are: close grip bench press, weighted dips, tricep pull downs, and for biceps, i like close grip pullups, preacher curls, hammer curls, and db curls. make sure your form is solid and you periodize or progress so you can constantly shock ur muscles

[Coolhand5599]

for arms im guessing you have a bi/tri split, and a different day for shoulders. for me what works best for triceps are: close grip bench press, weighted dips, tricep pull downs, and for biceps, i like close grip pullups, preacher curls, hammer curls, and db curls. make sure your form is solid and you periodize or progress so you can constantly shock ur muscles

LOL, I guess I should of mentioned I am unable to do close grip bench, dips, pull ups due to a shoulder injury from 20 years ago. . I have to do all my chest in Dumbbells

[Black]

Are you gaining size all over? You can't add an inch to your arms unless you add about 15LBs of equally distributed mass all over.

Not to go too off topic, but I've never understood the 15 lbs. = an inch of arm mass. I've seen it thrown around a lot before too.

Say you have a fellow who weights 190lbs and has 15" arms. To add 4" (which is a decent amount) he'd have to add 90lbs to his frame. A 280lb man with 19" arms is far from impressive or logical.

I know it's not to be taken exact, but even remotely this seems kind of undesirable.

[gmantheman]

It was Charles Poliquin that stated the 15LBS=1 inch. Here are some excerpts.
Bob Hoffman in 1939: "Big arms are generally the result of all around training. A moderate amount of specializing in arm development should be sufficient to bring them to outstanding size, strength, and proportions.

You could not expect to use a Mack truck tire on a Ford or other light car. Neither could you expect to build a 17-inch arm upon a 120-pound body. It's essential that a bigger body be built, so that bigger arms may be obtained."

Charles Poliquin in 2000: "A good rule of thumb is that for every inch you want to gain on your arms, you need to gain roughly 15 pounds of equally distributed body mass. In other words, to make significant improvements in your arms, you have to gain mass all over your entire body.

The human body is a finely-tuned machine that will only allow for a certain amount of asymmetry. Therefore, if you devote your training energies solely to building big arms, you'd eventually reach a point of total stagnation because you weren't training your legs."

The Lesson: First of all, if some part of you doesn't think it's awesome when a cute girl hangs onto your muscular arm as you walk into a room together, you're a low-down filthy liar. The trouble is that some guys want the arms without "big, bulky thighs" or "wide lats that don't fit comfortably into Affliction T-shirts."

I hate to break the news to you boy-men, but with big arms comes a big body. Anything else will leave you looking like a shaved chimpanzee, with a likely training-IQ to match.

Secondly, in the "incredibly unlikely" event that somebody thinks they just read "don't train arms to get big arms," you can put your head down and take a nap. The grown-ups are talking.

What I'm saying, and what Hoffman, Poliquin, and plenty of other coaches are saying, is that in order to get your arm size into the high teens (or upwards of 45cm for my Euro brothers), you've got to be doing specific biceps and triceps work in addition to putting plenty of time and energy into squats, deadlifts, and other big exercises.

That might seem like common sense for more experienced lifters, but common sense is a rare commodity in the 15-to-22 year old gym member demographic. These are kids whose idea of lifting heavy involves quarter-rep shrugs with 30 pounds less than their bodyweight, but they're exactly the guys who need to be deadlifting, rowing, and pressing more often than they hit the incline hammer curls and overhead one-arm cable extensions.

Hoffman couldn't have said it more plainly: You can't build a 17-inch arm on a 120-pound body. To build significantly bigger arms than you've got right now, you need to build a larger complete body, and the fastest path there requires a training plan that gives plenty of attention to the big lifts while also giving some attention to direct arm work, not the other way around.

[gmantheman]

5'9" 195lbs waist 35 arms 15"

I would say your arms are small for your h/t and bw. Going by your waist size I would estimate your B/F to be around 12-14%. Chunkfinley bought up some good points. Also you could try supersetting negative chins with negative dips.

[Black]

It was Charles Poliquin that stated the 15LBS=1 inch. Here are some excerpts.
Bob Hoffman in 1939: "Big arms are generally the result of all around training. A moderate amount of specializing in arm development should be sufficient to bring them to outstanding size, strength, and proportions.

You could not expect to use a Mack truck tire on a Ford or other light car. Neither could you expect to build a 17-inch arm upon a 120-pound body. It's essential that a bigger body be built, so that bigger arms may be obtained."

Charles Poliquin in 2000: "A good rule of thumb is that for every inch you want to gain on your arms, you need to gain roughly 15 pounds of equally distributed body mass. In other words, to make significant improvements in your arms, you have to gain mass all over your entire body.

The human body is a finely-tuned machine that will only allow for a certain amount of asymmetry. Therefore, if you devote your training energies solely to building big arms, you'd eventually reach a point of total stagnation because you weren't training your legs."

The Lesson: First of all, if some part of you doesn't think it's awesome when a cute girl hangs onto your muscular arm as you walk into a room together, you're a low-down filthy liar. The trouble is that some guys want the arms without "big, bulky thighs" or "wide lats that don't fit comfortably into Affliction T-shirts."

I hate to break the news to you boy-men, but with big arms comes a big body. Anything else will leave you looking like a shaved chimpanzee, with a likely training-IQ to match.

Secondly, in the "incredibly unlikely" event that somebody thinks they just read "don't train arms to get big arms," you can put your head down and take a nap. The grown-ups are talking.

What I'm saying, and what Hoffman, Poliquin, and plenty of other coaches are saying, is that in order to get your arm size into the high teens (or upwards of 45cm for my Euro brothers), you've got to be doing specific biceps and triceps work in addition to putting plenty of time and energy into squats, deadlifts, and other big exercises.

That might seem like common sense for more experienced lifters, but common sense is a rare commodity in the 15-to-22 year old gym member demographic. These are kids whose idea of lifting heavy involves quarter-rep shrugs with 30 pounds less than their bodyweight, but they're exactly the guys who need to be deadlifting, rowing, and pressing more often than they hit the incline hammer curls and overhead one-arm cable extensions.

Hoffman couldn't have said it more plainly: You can't build a 17-inch arm on a 120-pound body. To build significantly bigger arms than you've got right now, you need to build a larger complete body, and the fastest path there requires a training plan that gives plenty of attention to the big lifts while also giving some attention to direct arm work, not the other way around.

Yeah, I've read that before. My argument is the amount of mass that's stated to gain an inch. I know it's just an estimate. The numbers should be totally taken out of it, because they aren't relevant and can be confusing. 15lbs is generalized. If that's 15lbs of muscle, you are going to be putting on more than an inch or your training is seriously lacking.

I added 3/4 of an inch to my arms within the last two months and only gained a couple pounds.

[Joemace]

I think the point the guy is trying to get across is to buil bigger arms you need to have a bigger frame. The 15ibs is probably only a guide line. Not sure how much 15ibs is we work in kgs in Britain but I'm guessing it's quite a lot?

[gmantheman]

15 LBS is about 6.8 kg.

[gmantheman]

Yeah, I've read that before. My argument is the amount of mass that's stated to gain an inch. I know it's just an estimate. The numbers should be totally taken out of it, because they aren't relevant and can be confusing. 15lbs is generalized. If that's 15lbs of muscle, you are going to be putting on more than an inch or your training is seriously lacking.

I added 3/4 of an inch to my arms within the last two months and only gained a couple pounds.

Maybe you dropped some fat as well.

[marcus300]

What's your full body routine?

[gmantheman]

Not to go too off topic, but I've never understood the 15 lbs. = an inch of arm mass. I've seen it thrown around a lot before too.

Say you have a fellow who weights 190lbs and has 15" arms. To add 4" (which is a decent amount) he'd have to add 90lbs to his frame. A 280lb man with 19" arms is far from impressive or logical.

I know it's not to be taken exact, but even remotely this seems kind of undesirable.

Like the OP, 15" arms on a 190-195 LB frame does indicate the arms are a weak-point. I think at 190 a good arm circumference would be around 16.5"

[Joemace]

That's a massive amount of kg to increase by

[mirin_serratus]

bench press variations, underhand row/pullups variation = only way to get big arms naturally
if you're on gear then it doesn't really matter what you do

[PrairieDawg]

try wide grip lat negatives with only your body weight on back day. 4 sets-5 sets, negatives; do them as slow as you can until you're literally just dropping from the starting position, 30 second rests in between sets. my bi's are more sore doing this than when I work them on arm day. It's yet to be seen whether this can be mass building or not. Not likely but it will probably shock your bi's at least.

[AvMouse]

For a couple of weeks now I've been doing supersets (bi's/tri's)with high volume and have worked on my diet eating cleaner and increasing calorie intake. I've noticed my arms have been getting a bit bigger and a liitle more defined. This has worked for me.