Need serious help with arm growth

[proberts]

I am 6'2", 205 lbs, with probably 15% body fat...no stud to say the least. I really need help shocking my arms into growth. The rest of my body seems to grow at a normal rate, but I struggle with the growth in my arms. I dont know if I dont train them enough, train them too much, train them incorrectly, etc...... I do chest/triceps on mondays, back/biceps on tuesday, wednesday rest, legs on thursday, shoulder/forearms on friday, and rest sat and sunday. The problem is not the diversity of excercises, I dont get stuck on one routine, I always try to mix it up. I do 10-12 reps for arm specific exercises with 3-4 sets for each exercise........ANNNY Tips on improving training, specific exercise to shock muscle growth in arms, etc would be realllly helpful. I'm so ****in tired of having twigs for arms lol. THanks for any help.

[dangerous dan]

what does your tricept and biceps workout look like?

[Matt]

To get big arms, get yourself on a basic program that focuses on the leg, hip and back structure without neglecting the arms themselves. As you improve your squatting ability, for reps and say 100lbs, your curling poundage should readily come up by 30lbs or so if you work hard enough on curls. This will add size to your biceps. While adding 100lbs to your squat, you should be able to add 50-70lbs to your bench press, for reps. This assumes you've put together a sound program and have worked hard on bench. That will add size to your triceps.

If your desperate to add a couple of inches to your upper arms you'll need to add 30lbs or more over your body, unless your arms are way behind the rest of you. Dont start thinking about 17inch arms or even 16inch arms so long as your bodyweight is 130, 140, 150, 160 or even 170lbs. Few people can get big arms without having a big body. Your unlikely to be one of the exceptions.

15 sets of arm flexor exercises and 15 sets of isolation tricep exercises with a few squats, deadlifts and bench presses thrown in as an afterthought will give you a great pump and attack the arms from all angles. However, it wont make your arms grow much, if at all, unless your already squating and benching big poundages, or are genetically gifted.

As your main structures come along in size and strenght (hip, thigh and back structure, and the pressing structure), the directly involved smaller body parts are brought along in size to. How can you bench press or dip impressive poundages without adding alot of size to your triceps? How can you deadlift the house and row big weights without having the arm flexors, not to mention the shoulders and the upper back to go with those lifts. How can you squat close to 2 times bodyweight, for plenty of reps without having alot of muscle all over your body.

The greater the development and strenght of the main muscular structures of the body, the greater the size and strenght potential of the smaller areas of the body. Think it through. Suppose you can only squat and deadlift 200lbs, and your arms measure 13inches. Your unlikely to add any more than half an in inch or so on them no matter how much arm specialization you put in.

However, put some real effort into the squat and deadlift, together with the bench press and a few other major basic movements. Build up the poundages by 50% or more, to the point where you can squat 300lbs for over 10 reps and pack on 30lbs of muscle . Then unless you have an unusual arm structure, you should be able to get your arms to around 17inches. If you want 18inch arms, plan on having to squat more than a few reps with around 2 times bodyweight.

All of this arm development would have been achieved without a single concentration curl, without a single pushdown and without a single preacher curl. This lesson in priorities proves that the shortest distance between you and big arms is not a straight line to a curl bar

[proberts]

Like I said I always incorporate many different exercises into my tricep and bicep workout. I do 3 different exercises of triceps after my chest workout, each exercise for 3-4sets, 10-12reps each. Same thing with biceps, 3 exercises, 3-4 sets, 10-12 reps each. Note this is after a chest and back workout each, so Ive already trained indirectly each body part before i get into specific exercises.

[dangerous dan]

To get big arms, get yourself on a basic program that focuses on the leg, hip and back structure without neglecting the arms themselves. As you improve your squatting ability, for reps and say 100lbs, your curling poundage should readily come up by 30lbs or so if you work hard enough on curls. This will add size to your biceps. While adding 100lbs to your squat, you should be able to add 50-70lbs to your bench press, for reps. This assumes you've put together a sound program and have worked hard on bench. That will add size to your triceps.

If your desperate to add a couple of inches to your upper arms you'll need to add 30lbs or more over your body, unless your arms are way behind the rest of you. Dont start thinking about 17inch arms or even 16inch arms so long as your bodyweight is 130, 140, 150, 160 or even 170lbs. Few people can get big arms without having a big body. Your unlikely to be one of the exceptions.

15 sets of arm flexor exercises and 15 sets of isolation tricep exercises with a few squats, deadlifts and bench presses thrown in as an afterthought will give you a great pump and attack the arms from all angles. However, it wont make your arms grow much, if at all, unless your already squating and benching big poundages, or are genetically gifted.

As your main structures come along in size and strenght (hip, thigh and back structure, and the pressing structure), the directly involved smaller body parts are brought along in size to. How can you bench press or dip impressive poundages without adding alot of size to your triceps? How can you deadlift the house and row big weights without having the arm flexors, not to mention the shoulders and the upper back to go with those lifts. How can you squat close to 2 times bodyweight, for plenty of reps without having alot of muscle all over your body.

The greater the development and strenght of the main muscular structures of the body, the greater the size and strenght potential of the smaller areas of the body. Think it through. Suppose you can only squat and deadlift 200lbs, and your arms measure 13inches. Your unlikely to add any more than half an in inch or so on them no matter how much arm specialization you put in.

However, put some real effort into the squat and deadlift, together with the bench press and a few other major basic movements. Build up the poundages by 50% or more, to the point where you can squat 300lbs for over 10 reps and pack on 30lbs of muscle . Then unless you have an unusual arm structure, you should be able to get your arms to around 17inches. If you want 18inch arms, plan on having to squat more than a few reps with around 2 times bodyweight.

All of this arm development would have been achieved without a single concentration curl, without a single pushdown and without a single preacher curl. This lesson in priorities proves that the shortest distance between you and big arms is not a straight line to a curl bar

^^^

also i would switch up from 10-12 sets and maybe go for a 6-8 range....with working the chest then the tri's you could be overtraining

[POPS]

Like I said I always incorporate many different exercises into my tricep and bicep workout. I do 3 different exercises of triceps after my chest workout, each exercise for 3-4sets, 10-12reps each. Same thing with biceps, 3 exercises, 3-4 sets, 10-12 reps each. Note this is after a chest and back workout each, so Ive already trained indirectly each body part before i get into specific exercises.

I would go with a slightly higher weight for 6-8 times instead of 10-12. My strength and size of my arms greatly improved from doing this for 3 weeks out of the month then the last week Ill do 10-12 reps...jmo..

[dangerous dan]

x2 id try changing reps 6-8 and increase the weight. i think 10-12 is too high

[liftw8t]

I have the same problem but I figured it would come over time but if I ever saw them getting far behind I would gun them. Now i'm hijacking this post My split is as follows

Chest
Leg
rest
back
shoulders
arms

If i'm a hard gainer for arms should I give them there own day? Oh and usually do about 6-9 sets for each part of the arm (bi/tri)

[kaptainkeezy04]

Why don't u give arms their own day, so they can be fresh, and also try doing drop sets, super sets, giant sets, rest-pause sets, etc. People scared me away from doing drop sets for a while because of the "risk of inury" that comes with them, but as long as you maintain good form, and listen to your body, you will be fine. Also, treat yourself to BIG mass building meals after arms. My arms are so sore from my workout yesterday, so right now I am treating them to a 9 oz. steak, a sweet potato, and a loaded baked potato. Talk about a meal that builds some f**kin muscle, right? The main thing is to keep your arms guessing. Do arms twice a week sometimes. One week, focus on the eccentric part of the rep a lot, and then next week, put more focus on the concentric part of the rep. The human body is very adaptive, and will only put on muscle if it absolutely has to. Good luck.

[Klimax]

Why don't u give arms their own day, so they can be fresh, and also try doing drop sets, super sets, giant sets, rest-pause sets, etc. People scared me away from doing drop sets for a while because of the "risk of inury" that comes with them, but as long as you maintain good form, and listen to your body, you will be fine. Also, treat yourself to BIG mass building meals after arms. My arms are so sore from my workout yesterday, so right now I am treating them to a 9 oz. steak, a sweet potato, and a loaded baked potato. Talk about a meal that builds some f**kin muscle, right? The main thing is to keep your arms guessing. Do arms twice a week sometimes. One week, focus on the eccentric part of the rep a lot, and then next week, put more focus on the concentric part of the rep. The human body is very adaptive, and will only put on muscle if it absolutely has to. Good luck.

Yes make arms on their own. When you train bi and tri at the same time, you feel a great pump.

[redz]

I like to train my arm muscles all on one day as well. This is the first cycle I have really seen my arms grow fast.

[jbm]

I dedicate 1 day for arms and forearms...

[tonyz 716]

I agree with 007 100% and can't stress that enough. Let me give you some other pointers as far as arms go that you may want to consider. For one give your arms their own day I feel this is very important especially for triceps and don't do them after the day after chest and give the chest at least a day rest after, based on your routine I would place this day on saturday. There are 2 main reasons for this. First after your chest workout your tricep strength is down and the less weight you use the less you will grow the same goes for training biceps after back. Second by giving your triceps their own day and starting off with either dips or close grip benches you will get stronger thereby increasing your strength in the shoulder press and bench press which will lead to more strength and overall growth. By starting off with triceps your arms are so full of blood when you get to bi's that your biceps will be ready to explode from the first set but they won't be weakened by this like they will from doing them after your back workout.

Ok so let's get to the workout for triceps like I said I always like to start with either close grips or weighted dips(don't lean forward), follow that with skullcrushers or overhead extensions then a second extension and either a pressdown one or two arms or a reverse pressdown. For biceps I feel you should always lead off with barbell curls followed by either incline curls or preacher curls, hammer curls(brachialis is very important for big arms) and if you want you can finish off with something for peak. Now I know this seems like a lot of exercises doing 4 for each but it's what works for me. I don't however believe in doing high volume I follow the Dorian Yates modified heavy duty where you do two heavy sets instead of just one although I think I do more exercises than he did for arms. You have to find what works best for you and that goes for everything system, exercises, rep range, diet and everything else that goes into bodybuilding mix things up and see how you grow.

Oh and one more thing for forearms don't rely too heavily on straps instead deadlift real just an over under grip and some chalk and when you do your other back and trap exercises for your warmup and moderate sets leave the straps alone only use them when they are gonna effect your performance. I have never really trained my forearms and they've always had good size. I really hope you take this advice into consideration and let me know how it worked for you. Good Luck now get to it!