Biceps...How to shock them into growth!!??

[bloated]

Ive been working out for about 1 year now..Mostly dumbells and a little toning on the machines. One thing that i havent really seen progress in is the biceps. However...triceps seem to be gettin bigger.....especially when im pumped up curling...(when im elbows are locked in to my sides)

its not my nutrition either.i eat like a cow...gettin lots of protein and carbs in the day....water...and sleep


Stats

Age: 16
Weight: 160
Height: 5'10

thats my pic....of my chest

any help bros?

[Jack87]

The advice I'm gonna give you my seem a little crazy, but if you want your biceps to grow you have to do some heavy and I mean heavy back work...

Bent-Rows
T-Bar Rows
Dumbell Rows
Chins
Close Grip Pulldowns

All of these done with high intensity and heavy weight will have your arms growing in no time....

Just consider how much more weight you can lift when doing back exercises.... Even thogh you're using you back, your arms take a beating....

And don't forget how important nutrition is... You need enough protein for recovery and calories for growth to occur....

good luck building those guns....

[Warrior]

You need to base your routines on compound movements. Now that you are moving out of the beginner stage and have the CNS and ligament/tendon strength - use more intense workouts. Machines are only good for melting them down into more dumbells - okay, they have their place but mostly as a finishing movement for a pump.

Free weights keep the integrity of the negative and your natural range of movement. An exception is Hammer Stregth machines - which are great. Speaking of which you should train at a 4-0-2 tempo for most movements to induce a response. 3-0-2 for short range movements. The first number being the negative, the second is midrange pause and the last is the positive range.

Not all bodyparts are created equal. Biceps are small. They should not be trained like... say chest.

What is your current split?

[bloated]

Thx for the advice

gonna start doing some back workouts as buff said

warrior have a few questions though..

what is the tempo? 4-0-2..is that 4 seconds going with no pause and 2 going down?

and split?

not sure with the terms

[Warrior]

Originally posted by bloated
what is the tempo? 4-0-2..is that 4 seconds going with no pause and 2 going down?

Tempo: The time in seconds to preform each movement. For 4-0-2, that would be 4 seconds for the negative, 0 seconds in the mid range pause, and 2 seconds for the positive.

For a bench press using the 4-0-2 tempo you would lower for 4 seconds, no pause at the bottom, then push it up for 2 seconds. The negative must be controlled and never neglected. Your body actually responds more to a negative.

Speaking of which I was training with someone the other day. We were doing some Incline Dumbell Curls and his final rep he did the positive and then walked over to rack the weight - I had a heart attack. I told him, "WTF!?! - doing the positive is the whole purpose so you can get the negative!!!" I had him do one more with an 8 second negative I take my time in the gym to seriously sometimes But people never argue about good workouts with me.

Originally posted by bloated
and split?

What kind of routine are you on?

[bloated]

My routine.

M-AMRS
T-LEGS
W-ARMS
T-LEGS
F-ARMS
S-LEGS
S-nothing

Arm workouts

Barbell Curl
------------
Hammer Curls
------------
dumbell curls
------------
overhead things...hand behind my head holding my arm...while i do a down up like raising my hand with a dumbbell
------------

Shoulders
Overhead push things....with a dumbbell
-----------
machine life workout


Chest
Machine bench
------------
pushups
------------
arms curling does the chest to.....
------------


Legs
Leg presses
----------
squats
----
calf raises

[Warrior]

Originally posted by bloated
M-AMRS
T-LEGS
W-ARMS
T-LEGS
F-ARMS
S-LEGS
S-nothing

Is that a typo? Arms and legs every other day?

[bloated]

I do arms one day than legs the next

Is this good or bad?

[RoNNy THe BuLL]

Yikes bro. Arms and legs aren't the only bodyparts you got brah *hope not?*. Synergistic muscle growth is the key. You need to work out ALL the muscle groups you have, not just legs and arms, here's some reasons why...

1) You're overtraining and releasing cortisol which is catabolic, bye bye muscle tissue.
2) All your other body parts will lag behind.
3) Injury injury injury!!!

Just do a simple split and you'll notice you'll start to grow if the nutrition is there.

M - Chest
T- Back
W - Legs
T - Shoulders
F - Triceps (or arms)
S - Biceps (or arms) *if you do arms, eliminate one day and do them together on the same
S - Rest

Only do 4 exercises for 3 sets of 6-10 reps and you'll grow. Just make sure to rest and eat. It's not quantity of a workout, but quality.

[Warrior]

So you only work arms - where do chest and back fall into this?

Forget that... your split seems a little scewed anyways. You need to either get in the car and run over to the book store and grab a good basic bodybuilding book and do some reading or start surfing the Internet for editorials. Since I could never type everything for you in this thread... but if you ddo not understand something as you read - feel free to post. This is a very broad topic here regarding your split.

BASICALLY...

At 16 you should get off the macines (your chest workout needs major adjustment) and push some compound movements.

As an advanced beginner you should move on to this:

M-Chest/Delts
T-Biceps/Triceps/Abs
W-Rest
T-Quads/Hams/Calves
F-Back/Abs
S-Rest
S-Rest

Get familiar with free weight Squats, Dead Lifts, Bench Press, Barbell Rows, Barbell Curls, Military Front Press, Tricep Dips or Extensions as your core movements. Doing these now will give you slabs of muscle as your foundation. Your previous rountine got you started, but now is the time to advance... and learn.

[brad fuel]

here's an idea i haven't tried it, just kinda thought it up myself. Pairing your biceps with either deadlifts or squats. Those exercise promote the most testosterone and Growth hormone so hopefully it'll help your biceps automatically.

what do you guys think?

[Warrior]

Originally posted by brad fuel
here's an idea i haven't tried it, just kinda thought it up myself. Pairing your biceps with either deadlifts or squats. Those exercise promote the most testosterone and Growth hormone so hopefully it'll help your biceps automatically.

what do you guys think?

Squats and Deadlifts do boost your Test production and intensity is good for growth hormone but... you should keep in mind that you are not growing IN THE GYM. You grow while at rest and eating. IMO, pairing biceps in this fasion would not directly effect them. But these movements do boost growth over the entire body.

Basically what I am saying is that if you did biceps the day before you were to do a big compound movement the stimilus would still be there to adapt that muscle and the Test/GH production would still effect the bodypart.

[Warrior]

Nice training theory BTW...

[brad fuel]

Hmmm i think it would help cuz GH spikes last for a few hours then trail off. But i see what you mean in how your muscle will take more than 1 day to heal itself so if you did squats or deadlifts the next day, GH will still afftect the muscle.

Another thing that is known to work is workout in the day time. Then at night go for a hard sprint till your legs are filled with lactic acid to get the same GH spike. This is idea is a little different, it's theory behind this is to have a elevated level of GH for a longer period of time.