How many cycles to add size to arms?

**M302_Imola** · 01-22-2013, 06:33 AM

Originally Posted by FONZY007

16 inch biceps, lol that's the size of my forearms lol

Well no shit! Is that you Arnold? lol

**basketballfan22** · 01-23-2013, 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by marcus300

Nothing to do with aas, its all down to your genetics, training and diet. Drugs aren't the answer and once you learn how to train very intensely you will see huge gains in arm size...aas are a tool what we use to help us repair the real damage is done in the gym and your arms should be sore after each arm workout, if they not your not training hard enough.

Not to challenge your knowledge marcus300 as I am very sure you know a lot more about this than me, but I do have a problem with simple "black and white" statements like that. There are VERY few things in this world that can be said to be true universally. Perhaps it is the mathematician in me that doesn't like making statements that even have one counterexample, but I have definitely read peer-reviewed articles about DOMS that have shown it doesn't necessarily affect everyone all the time. Even Ronnie Coleman himself has stated that he no longer experiences soreness, instead attributing it to his body's being conditioned to muscle overload.

Now it may be extraordinarily rare as we are all not Mr. Olympia; but I do think it may be possible to sufficiently work a muscle group and not experience much, if any, soreness the following day.

**dan991** · 01-23-2013, 02:16 AM

Okay.... I'll chime in on this one....

So... soreness it typically equated with lactic acid build up in muscle tissue. Lactic acid build up is typically from oxygen deprivation in muscle tissue and a byproduct of glycolysis. Lactic acid build up is a sign of trauma of tissue in recovery and a baseline indicator that you actually "did something" however its not always necessarily there depending on oxygen starvation. For the masses- being sore indicates tissue damage and is a baseline to measure some level of muscle fatigue from working out.

Now- in order to grow, you must fatigue a muscle by force to failure. Failure in itself is a falsified term as it would mean the muscle can no longer operate. Nobody ever actually works a muscle to the point that it stops working completely; that is true failure. What you are looking for is more to do with enough resistance to create additional muscle growth to support additional load. In theory- you can do 1 rep and force growth as well as induce failure. Grab a 100 lb dumbbell and attempt to curl it one rep; sooner or later you'll be able to actually do it (not that its recommended to attempt to grow this way).

Where Marcus is coming from with his response to the original thread topic of "how many cycles to to add size to arms". The correct answer is NONE. Cycles have absolutely nothing to do with it. Cycles do NOT just create growth nor muscle tissue hypertrophy on their own. Anabolic steroids do not create muscle- period. Anabolic steroids help in protein synthesis (feeding) as well as recovery of muscle tissue broken down in the gym. In order to maximize growth not only must you provide enough nutrition and rest to the muscle but you must also cause enough stress to force a muscle to grow. A good indication of causing stress is lactic acid build up which is a byproduct that creates soreness. Plain and simple- sticking a needle in your ass of any substance does not cause muscle to grow. Nutrition and load do with or without anabolic steroids. If anyone thinks that they are going to get huge just off sticking a needle in their ass; you have another thing coming. I don't care how many grams of whatever substance you do and how much you work out; you don't feed your muscles enough and don't allow them to recover and you are just wasting your time. The original posters question of how many times do I need to shoot up to get 17 inch arms is well.... stupid. The answer is none, take your ass to the gym and eat; and THEN you have a chance in getting 17 inch arms.

Ronnie Coleman; that dude as well as other pro body builders have so much in "reserve" that its almost impossible for them to achieve enough muscles distress to cause lactic acid build up. Those guys are machines and they have the nutritional supply as well as oxygen delivery system in place over the years that it has become almost impossible for them to run out of energy feeding a muscle. That's a whole different game as they aren't the norm on this forum. Most people on this forum have never seen true failure and if they did; they would be calling 911. There is a fine line between true failure and damage; if you don't know what your doing you can get in trouble and the next thing you know you are dealing with a completely torn muscle.

The easy way to find out if you've exhausted a muscle is when you cannot do another rep of the same weight. At that point; you did enough and let it rest. When your muscle cannot contract to move the load; its over. It doesn't matter how many sets you do; it matters how much load you have placed on the muscle to force growth.

**basketballfan22** · 01-23-2013, 09:24 AM

Yeah, I agree that the thread topic is rather absurd; and judging by his comments and the comments of other members, he is not making any friends here. However my comment was primarily motivated by marcus300's comment to patrick4588 which I thought was rather petty. I definitely agree with all that you said, and I would have expected that knowledge to be commonly held here. As for the Ronnie Coleman comment, I was merely providing an example to support my statement that DOMS doesn't universally occur all the time. I don't believe one needs an extreme example like him though. I have no reason to immediately discredit patrick4588, and I believe it is possible albeit rare to not experience DOMS.