[quote]chobbs wrote:
[quote]gregron wrote:
Take your vitamins and say your prayers at night and you too can have huge arms.[/quote]
Dang what’s mark bells little brothers name that says this in the bigger faster stronger documentary…[/quote]
Chris Bell…He was paraphrasing “Train, say your prayers, take your vitamins” which Hulk Hogan used to say.
[quote]Majin wrote:
Only thing I could imagine is that you’re not working you are not placing the tension on the target muscles. The goal should be to place tension on the bis and tris, not to just lift the weight up. I would choose ONLY exercises where you feel the most comfortable and in control and work on mind-muscle connection with those.
[/quote]
I agree with this. Focusing on tension of the target muscle vs lifting the weight has given me much better progress for my arms.
15:00 mark
OP, I have the same problem as you… it sucks donkey balls. I’ve tried everything you said.
I’m gonna try this though:
[quote]
Only thing I could imagine is that you’re not working you are not placing the tension on the target muscles. The goal should be to place tension on the bis and tris, not to just lift the weight up. I would choose ONLY exercises where you feel the most comfortable and in control and work on mind-muscle connection with those.
Even if it’s only two exercises per muscle group, doesn’t matter. Drop the forearm shit, or put it at the end. Get a weight that you can do 12-15 reps all out, tighten your abs and body, shoulders down, grip that motherfucker so that every muscle in your arm is squeezed and contracted, and pump out 6-8 reps like that. Pure muscle action. It doesn’t have to be slow or grinding to failure. None of that. Just full control with every muscle of the arm(bis, tris and forearms) contracted. Just my 2cents. Try it for a month.[/quote]
I kinda always had an idea that for some reason I don’t activate my biceps properly but I can feel it being used so it baffles me. But I will try this ^.
Well, your arms are your weak bodypart so there’s not much that’s gonna get them to grow except time. Just keep grinding and growing and eventually they’ll grow, there’s not much else you can do about it.
[quote]Majin wrote:
Only thing I could imagine is that you’re not working you are not placing the tension on the target muscles. The goal should be to place tension on the bis and tris, not to just lift the weight up. I would choose ONLY exercises where you feel the most comfortable and in control and work on mind-muscle connection with those.
Even if it’s only two exercises per muscle group, doesn’t matter. Drop the forearm shit, or put it at the end. Get a weight that you can do 12-15 reps all out, tighten your abs and body, shoulders down, grip that motherfucker so that every muscle in your arm is squeezed and contracted, and pump out 6-8 reps like that. Pure muscle action. It doesn’t have to be slow or grinding to failure. None of that. Just full control with every muscle of the arm(bis, tris and forearms) contracted. Just my 2cents. Try it for a month. [/quote]
X2
Next time while performing biceps exercises try imagining that someone is asking you to “make a muscle” with the weight in your hand(s). In other words just try to contract the muscle as hard as you can against the weight (and pick a weight that makes the desired rep range challenging to do this). If done correctly the top of the movement should be the greatest degree of contraction; unlike how most people who have trouble building their biceps feel like they get a “rest” at the top of the movement.
Likewise, next time you do triceps also imagine that you are trying to hit a triceps pose, but with the weights. Again, you are simply trying to contract your triceps against the weight as hard as possible for the desired number of reps.
You can also practice “posing” (which is at least partly about learning how to contract your muscles voluntarily/gain better MMC) throughout the day/week to continue to improve your ability to recruit your arm muscles.
Hope this helps.
Great advice so far OP …
In my own case (as identified above) … Nothing worked for arms until I lost the ego and focused on making the targeted muscle strictly do the work … If that means concentration curls with 20’s, so be it …
Chest, legs, back respond to whatever for me … Arms needed (need) frequency, higher reps, and strict form - with way more mind/ muscle connection than other body parts
Some pictures would help. Seriously. A lean (i assume) 230 pounds at 5’11 but rocking 16.5 in arms flexed (I assume)?
And since strength-wise everything is going “great” just how great? Numbers on bench, squat, weighted chins, dips, BB row, standing curl?
[quote]GS2014 wrote:
First off some info about me. I’m 25 and have been training for approx. 4 years now. Put on decent size since I started and sitting at about 230lbs at 5’10" and around 11-12% bodyfat. Strength wise everything is going great,
even on my arms where I feel I lack size. However I don’t see myself as a powerlifter but more a bodybuilder so size > strength.
Size wise I think most bodyparts are up to par and pretty much everything (except arms) is growing. Chest could use some more size and my delts and quads are overly dominant. My arms however don’t match my frame. Currently rocking a mighty 16.5in flexed and they have been this size for about a year now, no noticable growth. At the moment I train arms about once every 5-6 days and do forearms first, then triceps and biceps after. Forearms are growing as I never really targeted them before.
Workout would look something like:
Forearms supersetted;
Wrist curl 3x15
Barbell reverse curl 3x15
Triceps;
Cable pushdown (bar or rope) 4x15
Bar dips (weighted) or closegrip bench press 4x pyramid 12-4 reps
DB tricep extension 4x10
Biceps;
DB curl 4x 10-8 reps
Preacher curl (machine) 4x 10-8 reps
Cross body hammer curl 4x 10-8 reps
Above is what I’ve been doing lately but before I’ve tried numerous things like:
Mountain dog arms (article here on T-Nation)
Higher rep / volume workout (15-20 range)
High intensity low volume workout (4-6 range)
Switched bicep exercices to basics like bb curl etc
Train arms every other day
Train arms only once a week
None seem to really make a difference. And it’s not like I only did this for a week but usually for 4-6 weeks and still nothing. Also noteworthy, biceps never get sore the day after. I do keep a strict form with no ‘throwing’ and it does burn like crazy during the workout. I don’t really know what else I can try at this point because visually it’s getting worse because my delts keep growing and they overpower my arms. Other muscles are growing so it’s either in the workout or it’s some genetical barrier…
Maybe the solution is something simple and I just can’t see it anymore. Just wanted to post this to see if anyone can relate 
[/quote]
Sorry for the late reply. I thought this thread got deleted or something. Anyway I’ll try to reply everyone and post some pictures:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
4 years time is considerable, but also, we don’t know where you started. For someone who started at 14" arms, packing an extra 2.5 is nothing to sneeze at, especially if it’s lean gains. Considering you haven’t made recent noticeable progress, I would agree that something new might be in order.
I know a lot of people get great results from having an ‘arm’ training day (bis and tris togther), but in all my years of liftingI never took that approach myself. In MY opinion, and this doesn’t mean other methods won’t work, I made decent gains by focusing solely on trashing one muscle, and not concerning myself with the awesome pump you may get by hitting antagonists in the same session, which while blood flow is great (nutrient delivery, fascia stretching etc), it doesn’t always guarantee that you’ve stimulated a growth response.
Have you always had an arm day, or have you ever made use of throwing in the smaller arm muscles after larger muscle groups? I always liked hitting biceps after back for example. The biceps were already warmed up and worked to some degree, and then I’d target them specifically with additional exercise selections. This may not be the final, amazing, ground breaking solution you’re looking for, but if you’ve never made use of this common bodypart split, it may just be.
S
[/quote]
I started at ~170lbs. Not fat but not a tight belly either. I did not measure my arms before I started obviously but here’s a picture of how I looked before I started. I cut out the rest of the picture as it’s of no use here
To answer your question on a specific arm day; this has just been something of the recent year. I used to do biceps after back and triceps after either shoulders or chest. In any case they haven’t taken a growth spurt on either approach.
[quote]gregron wrote:
OP, if your biceps and triceps aren’t growing (noticeably) then why are you hitting forearms first on your arm day? Do you think that prefatiguing your forearms/grip is hindering your biceps/triceps training?
Increase your frequency. Try keeping your arm day but throwing in a few extra sets of triceps on chest day and biceps on back day. That could help.[/quote]
The forearm thing has just been something of recent. It is hardly fatiguing, my workout after that does not suffer. I have already increased frequency on numerous times.
[quote]Depression Boy wrote:
Some pictures would help. Seriously. A lean (i assume) 230 pounds at 5’11 but rocking 16.5 in arms flexed (I assume)?
And since strength-wise everything is going “great” just how great? Numbers on bench, squat, weighted chins, dips, BB row, standing curl?
[/quote]
Well I might have to rephrase “going great”. What I mean on this is that my strength is still rising on arm work (and other groups too)
Here are a few “max” numbers on the exercices I do often. I convered them from KG:
CGBP: 264 lbs
Bar dips: Bodyweight + 100 lbs
Squat: 440 lbs
Deadlift: 507 lbs
DB press: 121 lbs
Shoulder db press: 101 lbs
DB curl: 52 lbs
I am limited to what pictures I have here at the moment so here are a few:
Overall
I know I don’t look 230 but the scales don’t lie I guess. A lot of weight is is in the wheels so just let the weight thing slide if you will Bodyfat is just a guess based off what I looked like at 9-10% last summer. All pictures above were made in the evening where I’m 500g+ carbs heavier and I tend to bloat up pretty easy. I have a decent six pack when I wake up for what it’s worth.
Oh and chest is lacking too I know but this is actually growing good since I started focussing more on fly exercises instead of pushing the weight on compounds.
You need more tricep focus, weighted dips, CGB, for at least 3mths, tri’s , and chest could use a Pling cycle or two, other wise everything looks good. You look shoulder dominate, this can can get in the way of tri, and chest training, mabey a little pre exhaust for these two before heavy training, keep doing what your doing for bi’s, they look right for your build, and arms will look alot bigger, when you get some meat on the back of your arms. 2cents
[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
You need more tricep focus, weighted dips, CGB, for at least 3mths, tri’s , and chest could use a Pling cycle or two, other wise everything looks good. You look shoulder dominate, this can can get in the way of tri, and chest training, mabey a little pre exhaust for these two before heavy training, keep doing what your doing for bi’s, they look right for your build, and arms will look alot bigger, when you get some meat on the back of your arms. 2cents[/quote]
Thanks for the reply.
I guess that seems about right since unflexed my arm looks small. There is indeed not much meat at the back. What would you change on the tricep workout (as shown in my original post)? I already have the weighted dips in there as well as cgbp.
But have u tried synthol?just kidding
[quote]BrickHead wrote:
[quote]GS2014 wrote:
I’m 25 … about 230lbs at 5’10" and around 11-12% bodyfat. [/quote]
Ummm, do you have a picture?[/quote]
I would love to see one too…those are some serious stats!
edit…should have finished the tread. Regardless of %, you look great guy!
[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:
[quote]BrickHead wrote:
[quote]GS2014 wrote:
I’m 25 … about 230lbs at 5’10" and around 11-12% bodyfat. [/quote]
Ummm, do you have a picture?[/quote]
I would love to see one too…those are some serious stats!
edit…should have finished the tread. Regardless of %, you look great guy![/quote]
Thanks man!
To be perfectly honest your arms look in proportion to the rest of your body. I see nothing that suggests that they are falling behind your overall development. I’d just keep doing what you’ve been doing if you are making slow steady progress.
It kind of depends what your week looks like, what split your on, but i would have two days where I started with a tri move ( push downs, french press) then go to weighted dips, or CGBP for some heavy volume, like 5x5, then on to the rest of my chest, or shoulder workout, finishing off the workout with one last tri move, before you go home, to leave with a pump.
As far as bi’s, you could still have an arm day, similar to what you have, working tri’s 3 x a week for 3mths won’t kill you, just think outside the box a little. As a PLer, if I want to improve somthing, I’ll work it 4-5 times a week for a 3mth cycle, so focus on getting stronger on dips, and close grip, by giving them they’re own day, and making them a priority for awhile.
The worst thing that will happen on a program like this, is your chest, and shoulder’s stay the same as they are now, while your tri’s grow, but likely you’ll still make some improvements on these anyway. Point is if you want somthing, make it a priority. 2cents
you can do some curls between sets of squats, and deads, as well if you feel you need extra work there.
Try the chin-up project by Shugart on the home page. I’m not a big guy (5’11 185) but i’ve added 30 lbs in the last 2-3 years with 5x5 and starting strength workouts and felt like my arms weren’t growing with the rest of me. I’ve been doing the chin-up project and visually noticed my arms look bigger after 2-3weeks. Could just be a bit of a pump from the constant chin’s but it’s worth a shot if you’re not getting what you want out of all the other programs.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
To be perfectly honest your arms look in proportion to the rest of your body. I see nothing that suggests that they are falling behind your overall development. I’d just keep doing what you’ve been doing if you are making slow steady progress.[/quote]
+1
I think you look great. But if I HAD to be critical… a little more on the lateral head of the triceps. Biceps are just fine.
If you are 230, I imagine your legs are pretty solid.
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
To be perfectly honest your arms look in proportion to the rest of your body. I see nothing that suggests that they are falling behind your overall development. I’d just keep doing what you’ve been doing if you are making slow steady progress.[/quote]
+1[/quote]
+2. also get your close grip bench up and do most pressing thumbless(obviously be safe, use rack etc)
Also am loving this at the mo…
