Include some close grip pressing. Inhuman Close Grip Presses are great (google it).
Do some exercises in a lower rep range. You can add more weight that way and really shock the muscles for a while.
Adding more weight to your movements is really the best advice you can get. But don’t expect to make gains if you are going to drop the calories everytime you see a bit of fat.
You’re only working each bodypart once a week?
Since you’re still somewhat newbie, I would go to 2-3 times a week full body routine focusing on getting stronger on the big lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench, rows, chins, etc. Then work your arms after your primary lifts.
Skull crushers are overrated and put alot of stress on the elbow
(imo). Do close grip bench press instead and switch it up with rope pressdowns. For Biceps, nothing beats the old standard oly bar curls, alternating with dumbell work. Keep total reps around 30 and switch up the set/reps 5x5, 4x6, 3x8, 10x3 etc.
Then eat and get some rest.
You seem young and fairly inexperienced. By young I am not putting you down. I am merely saying your expectations are high and that is good! Keep it that way.
Focus on getting stronger with good form. You can do this several ways, but you might want to learn to ramp up to a few heavy sets instead of wasting a ton of effort on every set. Focus on good form, usually young trainees don’t have it, hell most guys in the gym don’t have it. Feel the muscle work, feeling the muscle work is important for size, make sure you are not sacrificing that feeling for heavier weights.
You might change your split a bit so that your muscles get hit more often like pairing biceps with back, triceps with chest and starting your split over quicker. This allows more frequent work and at a young age and a young training age this is probably a good thing.
These are just thoughts and things to think about. Take them for that…no ones word is golden, no one will know more about your body and how it responds than you will in 10 years.
If you stay at it and allow your discouragement to help you learn you will do well. Don’t change things too often, give your logic time to work and then try something new. You won’t gain a ton of weight in one week.
Make it a goal to gain 10lbs a year of quality muscle and in three years that is 30lbs, in 4 it is 40 lbs. Don’t sacrifice form for injuries down the line. Live to train another day. Allow your body to tell you when to go on and when to quit, your mind is much stronger than your body in the beginning…at least mine was and still is, I have to force myself to hold back at times. I don’t know too many people like that though, but I think you might be that way.
[quote]Curzon wrote:
You’re only working each bodypart once a week?
Since you’re still somewhat newbie, I would go to 2-3 times a week full body routine focusing on getting stronger on the big lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench, rows, chins, etc. Then work your arms after your primary lifts.
Skull crushers are overrated and put alot of stress on the elbow
(imo).
Do close grip bench press instead and switch it up with rope pressdowns. For Biceps, nothing beats the old standard oly bar curls, alternating with dumbell work. Keep total reps around 30 and switch up the set/reps 5x5, 4x6, 3x8, 10x3 etc.
Then eat and get some rest.[/quote]
Do you seriously think that somoene with lagging arms (truly lagging, not just somoeone who isn’t making any progress anywhere) will benefit from putting arms last on the list of priorities?
How new someone is should not preclude them from giving as much attention to their arms as the other muscle groups. If a newb focuses on squats, deadlifts, and bench press while neglecting other muscles their body will become more efficient at those movements earlier on in their training career.
When the person eventually decides to prioritize arms he/she will be at a development disadvantage because the body has become accustomed to using certain muscles groups more than others. For someone with great arm genetics this may not be the absolute worst thing, but for anyone else this would surely become a major setback in achieving a balanced physique.
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
Curzon wrote:
You’re only working each bodypart once a week?
Since you’re still somewhat newbie, I would go to 2-3 times a week full body routine focusing on getting stronger on the big lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench, rows, chins, etc. Then work your arms after your primary lifts.
Skull crushers are overrated and put alot of stress on the elbow
(imo).
Do close grip bench press instead and switch it up with rope pressdowns. For Biceps, nothing beats the old standard oly bar curls, alternating with dumbell work. Keep total reps around 30 and switch up the set/reps 5x5, 4x6, 3x8, 10x3 etc.
Then eat and get some rest… [/quote]
I’m doing the same split as the OP and im making ridiculous gains. I tried doing upper body/lower body for a bit and it was a lot tougher and the gains came slower.
I got asked by a couple guys tonight if i was taking steroids due to how fast I was gaining (which felt fucking awesome).
The whole topic that beginners should be following a full body or upper/lower split is the biggest load of garbage i’ve came across.
Carrying on from that, OP: A couple things I would suggest to speed up your strength gains: 5/3/1 training from Jim Wendler - apply that to your main 4 lifts (bench,squat,m.press/deadlift)
Also, pyramid up on your sets for the majority of your movements.
I think you’re just starting to find out that your body grows in different ares, and in spurts.
Try making sure you do weighted pull ups, and some good row exercises, along with Hammer curls. These will make your arms grow just as much as your arm’s day bc they work the brachialis, the muscle under your bicep.
And like others said, the close grip bench press is really good for the tri’s. So are weighted Dips but be careful with those bc u can fuck up your rotator cuff’s if you go too low.
Keep your reps low too. theres a good article on here somewhere about how to set up your work outs. (not just for arms)
Basically ur first exercise is your power movement (bench) where your rep range is 3-6, your second one is a secondary exercise (incline press) and you do 6-8, and your third is a pump exercise like Fly’s and you do 10-12 just to pump the blood into your muscle your working.
Other than that I’m sure its just that your body’s growing in phases. BTW 10 lbs in a year would be a shitty amount of weight to put on in a year!..
If you stay on top of your food intake, and lift hard you can gain a shit load more than that right now because your under 200 lbs. Once you start getting really heavy then you’ll slow down. Until then you’ll continue to gain a lot.
[quote]Curzon wrote:
You’re only working each bodypart once a week?
Since you’re still somewhat newbie, I would go to 2-3 times a week full body routine focusing on getting stronger on the big lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench, rows, chins, etc. Then work your arms after your primary lifts.
Skull crushers are overrated and put alot of stress on the elbow
(imo). Do close grip bench press instead and switch it up with rope pressdowns. For Biceps, nothing beats the old standard oly bar curls, alternating with dumbell work.
Keep total reps around 30 and switch up the set/reps 5x5, 4x6, 3x8, 10x3 etc.
Then eat and get some rest.[/quote]
not a big fan, i go heavy on compound lifts and do between 4 sets of 4-6reps,
1rep maxs are:
DL: 415
Squat :355
Bench : no idea never tried
Incline : 235
I know how to lift and what i should be doing, its just i havent figured out what will make my arms grow.
So for my first bicep exercise go heavy and just try for 6-8reps for 3-4 sets? then for the other two bicep exercises go heavy enough to fail right at 8-10 reps?
and same for triceps?
[quote]mavrcksurfer69 wrote:
I think you’re just starting to find out that your body grows in different ares, and in spurts.
Try making sure you do weighted pull ups, and some good row exercises, along with Hammer curls. These will make your arms grow just as much as your arm’s day bc they work the brachialis, the muscle under your bicep.
And like others said, the close grip bench press is really good for the tri’s. So are weighted Dips but be careful with those bc u can fuck up your rotator cuff’s if you go too low.
Keep your reps low too. theres a good article on here somewhere about how to set up your work outs. (not just for arms)
Basically ur first exercise is your power movement (bench) where your rep range is 3-6, your second one is a secondary exercise (incline press) and you do 6-8, and your third is a pump exercise like Fly’s and you do 10-12 just to pump the blood into your muscle your working.
Other than that I’m sure its just that your body’s growing in phases. BTW 10 lbs in a year would be a shitty amount of weight to put on in a year!..
If you stay on top of your food intake, and lift hard you can gain a shit load more than that right now because your under 200 lbs. Once you start getting really heavy then you’ll slow down. Until then you’ll continue to gain a lot. [/quote]
Ya from aug 07 to aug 08 i put on 35 pounds, and so far since aug 08 ive put on 11, im hoping to hit 200 with 16.5-17 inch arms, and have a matching body with the same bodyfat im at now, then cut all the way down.
The workout with bench, incline and flys. Thats how i work the rest of my body but my arms, heavy compound, heavy incline db, then medium flys super setted with pushups.
oh i forgot…something i started doing that really worked my tris was the close grip bench press with a little tweak to it. Do it on the Incline… for some reason i feel it more on incline close grip than i do regular… but yeah dont forget to hit the brachialis…
that should put another 1/2 on your arm in no time bc it really makes the arm thicker, so many people forget to work it and just do regular curls.
lol sounds like we’re the same on about everything except im a few months ahead of you on weight and size, even your goals are the same as mine. I always had small arms/skinny everywhere. I felt like i wasted years of lifting by not taking the food/sleep thing seriously.
The day i started counting calories was the day i started gaining weight. Theres an article on here called 12 weeks to great guns or something like that. He’s got some pretty good advanced arm work outs, but if you want to keep working everything else (which i suggest you still do) then you have to cut pieces of his routine and stick it in with the rest of your routine.
His routine has you working arms twice a week and laying off the rest of your upper body. So what i did was took the exercise and put them into my arm day. The best part is since its a 12 week program it gives you enough arm stuff to keep switching it up every month or so.
My arm workout starts with heavy CGB, straight bar curls, weighted dips, Really heavy hammer curls, skullcrushers, preacher curls with ez bar.
I do 4-5 sets 6-10 reps. Only about two are really heavy work sets. These are done super heavy nothing left on the table. The rest are warm ups.
I follow that up with tons of food and good nights sleep. Worked for me so far. Goodluck!
Try spooning whole potatoes into your mouth with some beef stew. Your arms will Grow!
More direct armor work, go heavier… uhh eat more… uhh repeat for a year.
[quote]scrace89 wrote:
Goodfellow wrote:
scrace89 wrote:
jehovasfitness wrote:
gain more weight?
i went from 175 in aug to 186 right now, around 11-12% BF, and I figured the general rule of thumb is an inch on your arms for every 10-12 pounds gained, and ive got nothing.
Situation A:
Weight: 175lbs to 186lbs
Strength:
Barbell bicep curl: 80lbs for 6-8 reps to 80lbs for 6-8 reps
Tricep pushdown: #10 for 10-12 reps, to #10 for 10-12 reps
Situation B:
Weight: 175lbs to 186lbs
Strength:
Barbell bicep curl: 80lbs for 6-8 reps to 110lbs for 6-8 reps
Tricep pushdown: #10 for 10-12 reps, to #14 for 10-12 reps
What one will get you bigger arms?
You have not mentioned your progress in your workouts ONCE. You need to increase your workload to increase your muscle size.
sorry went to take a shower.
went from BB curls 70 for 10 to 85 for 10.
skull crushers went thru the roof, 75 sets of 10 to 95 for sets of 8.
I increase the weight every week it seems like on at least one exercise, i used to curl 35s for 10 now i curl 40s for 10.
[/quote]
Switch things up then. Lift heavier for less reps. Or vary your loading scheme. Increase the number of sets you’re doing.