Originally Posted by
007
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
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