Bicep Gap

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]wher0001 wrote:
Genetics only gets you so far. Your brain and your intelligence get you further.

Strict spider and preacher curls and Arnold’s 21s with a reverse grip.
Start with a light weight and at the end of the last set…hold the weight 60-65% from a full extension for at least 20 seconds.

[/quote]

My brain has let me know that you do not change your genetic shape and can only make whatever muscle you have bigger.

Once again, if you build arms bigger than 18", no one is going to notice a
“gap”.

Also, apparently Albert Beckles was in dire need of your “genius brain”.[/quote]

I’ll echo this, and not just for 18" plus arms because I used to think I had a large “gap” and now even with just over 16" arms I can see the difference.
Bigger forearms help, I think that the other muscles of the arm (brachialis and brachioradialis) are just as important to a full looking arm, especially near the elbow.
I do some kind of reverse grip curl or hammer curl nearly every workout.
Don’t expect it to change overnight though because arms grow slowly unless you prioritise them above everything else.

Nice to see come common sense on this topic because there are alot of people talking shit out there…

I got in one massive fucking arguement over on the other site with some guy who was suggesting all these exercises to promote changing the shape of the muscle belly in the flexed state. The dumbass was a ‘personal trainer’ who kept bringing up and misinterpreting these science articles that demonstrated that sarcomere addition causes muscle fiber lengtehning which he infered was due to the plasticity of cells in the muscletendonious junction??? The stupid bastard had most of the board sucking from his dick because he knew how to do a pubmed search… he couldn’t seem to grasp that the shape of the bicep muscle is determined by bicep tendon length, and that stems cells don’t fucking donate sarcomeres to other cells??? and even if they did this would do fanny all to affect the shape of the muscle belly when flexed.

Be careful of personal trainers spreading their bullshit. Just make your arms bigger and the gap will be less evident.

There is no upper or lower part of the biceps. Just the short(forearm to upper arm) and long (forearm to shoulder) heads which lie side by side, basically.

At the elbow you get the brachialis though, which lies below the bis…

Nothing you can do about your insertions, short of tearing the muscle and… Having it re-attached even higher and thus get MORE of a gap :wink:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
There is no upper or lower part of the biceps. Just the short(forearm to upper arm) and long (forearm to shoulder) heads which lie side by side, basically.

At the elbow you get the brachialis though, which lies below the bis…

Nothing you can do about your insertions, short of tearing the muscle and… Having it re-attached even higher and thus get MORE of a gap :wink:

[/quote]

Um ya right C_C, next you’ll be telling us there’s no inner and outer chest.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
You never see guys with 20" arms worried about “a gap”.[/quote]

[quote]Sarev0k wrote:
Dude, some people just have longer muscle bellies than others. Arnold and ronnie colman have huge bicep muscle bellies.

Albert eckles has short bicep muscle bellies

http://www.schwarzenegger.it/mro/beckles/ab225.jpg[/quote]

Albert Beckles does indeed have a pretty large gap and being a former My. Olympia I’m sure his arms were over 20". And besides him there are plenty of very large men with significant gaps in between their bicep muscle belly and their forearm. I know because I always find it a bit odd when I see it, high peaks but small bicep bellies. Sorry I just don’t like the well if your big enough you don’t have to worry about genetics argument that you seem to have been implying.

Short muscle does not equal high peak by default.
Dave Henry has short bis with little peak… Even though he improved his arms a lot in general over the last few years, that is still an issue for him and will forever be.
There are quite a few guys with short and non-peaking bis… Which is the worst-case scenario, genetic-bi-shape-wise.

Some guys like Arnold lucked out with bis which are both long and peak high…

[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
You never see guys with 20" arms worried about “a gap”.[/quote]

[quote]Sarev0k wrote:
Dude, some people just have longer muscle bellies than others. Arnold and ronnie colman have huge bicep muscle bellies.

Albert eckles has short bicep muscle bellies

http://www.schwarzenegger.it/mro/beckles/ab225.jpg[/quote]

Albert Beckles does indeed have a pretty large gap and being a former My. Olympia I’m sure his arms were over 20". And besides him there are plenty of very large men with significant gaps in between their bicep muscle belly and their forearm. I know because I always find it a bit odd when I see it, high peaks but small bicep bellies. Sorry I just don’t like the well if your big enough you don’t have to worry about genetics argument that you seem to have been implying. [/quote]

You seem confused.

YOU CAN NOT DO SHIT ABOUT YOUR GENETICS SO WHY THE LIVING FUCK WOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT IT!!!

If your biceps are short, so fucking be it. You can’t do shit about it but make your muscles bigger to take away the focus from it.

You are the one not making sense.

I have naturally high calves which means even though they are OVER 18", they still don’t look that big. Nothing I do is going to suddenly cause my calves to insert closer to my heels.

The gap gives you a peak.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
You never see guys with 20" arms worried about “a gap”.[/quote]

[quote]Sarev0k wrote:
Dude, some people just have longer muscle bellies than others. Arnold and ronnie colman have huge bicep muscle bellies.

Albert eckles has short bicep muscle bellies

http://www.schwarzenegger.it/mro/beckles/ab225.jpg[/quote]

Albert Beckles does indeed have a pretty large gap and being a former My. Olympia I’m sure his arms were over 20". And besides him there are plenty of very large men with significant gaps in between their bicep muscle belly and their forearm. I know because I always find it a bit odd when I see it, high peaks but small bicep bellies. Sorry I just don’t like the well if your big enough you don’t have to worry about genetics argument that you seem to have been implying. [/quote]

You seem confused.

YOU CAN NOT DO SHIT ABOUT YOUR GENETICS SO WHY THE LIVING FUCK WOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT IT!!!

If your biceps are short, so fucking be it. You can’t do shit about it but make your muscles bigger to take away the focus from it.

You are the one not making sense.

I have naturally high calves which means even though they are OVER 18", they still don’t look that big. Nothing I do is going to suddenly cause my calves to insert closer to my heels.

[/quote]

You seem to be reiterating my point, which is that you can’t do anything about your genetics. But from you first post, by saying that guys with 20" never worry about a gap, that (to me anyways) was implying if you have 20" arms you don’t have to worry about a gap because it wont be there. I was merely saying that despite how big your arms are if you have a gap you’re going to have a gap. And I’d bet there are guys with 20" arms that wish they didn’t have such a big gap. Especially with how anal some BB get in regards to how each muscle looks. Just my 2 cents.

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
The gap gives you a peak. [/quote]

I disagree. I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not, but the fullness of the muscle belly itself gives the peak, not the gap.

[quote]Sarev0k wrote:

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
The gap gives you a peak. [/quote]

I disagree. I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not, but the fullness of the muscle belly itself gives the peak, not the gap.[/quote]

Nah I just felt like saying some dumb shit.

[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
You never see guys with 20" arms worried about “a gap”.[/quote]

[quote]Sarev0k wrote:
Dude, some people just have longer muscle bellies than others. Arnold and ronnie colman have huge bicep muscle bellies.

Albert eckles has short bicep muscle bellies

http://www.schwarzenegger.it/mro/beckles/ab225.jpg[/quote]

Albert Beckles does indeed have a pretty large gap and being a former My. Olympia I’m sure his arms were over 20". And besides him there are plenty of very large men with significant gaps in between their bicep muscle belly and their forearm. I know because I always find it a bit odd when I see it, high peaks but small bicep bellies. Sorry I just don’t like the well if your big enough you don’t have to worry about genetics argument that you seem to have been implying. [/quote]

Beckles was the shit… That dude had (IMHO) the best bicep peak ever… Was also a huge person to look up to for the older guys, as the stuff he was able to do would crumble a 20 year old…

[quote]Smallfry69 wrote:

[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
You never see guys with 20" arms worried about “a gap”.[/quote]

[quote]Sarev0k wrote:
Dude, some people just have longer muscle bellies than others. Arnold and ronnie colman have huge bicep muscle bellies.

Albert eckles has short bicep muscle bellies

http://www.schwarzenegger.it/mro/beckles/ab225.jpg[/quote]

Albert Beckles does indeed have a pretty large gap and being a former My. Olympia I’m sure his arms were over 20". And besides him there are plenty of very large men with significant gaps in between their bicep muscle belly and their forearm. I know because I always find it a bit odd when I see it, high peaks but small bicep bellies. Sorry I just don’t like the well if your big enough you don’t have to worry about genetics argument that you seem to have been implying. [/quote]

Beckles was the shit… That dude had (IMHO) the best bicep peak ever… Was also a huge person to look up to for the older guys, as the stuff he was able to do would crumble a 20 year old…[/quote]

He is not a former Mr. Olympia though (though I believe he did place 2nd to Haney one year).

He is however a good example of X’s point that you can’t do a damned thing about your genetics, so stop worrying about them. Instead, just try to maximize the genetics that you do have by building your muscles as big as you can build them. If you ever hit 20" arms, they’ll be impressive and a success, biceps gap or not.

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Short muscle does not equal high peak by default.
Dave Henry has short bis with little peak… Even though he improved his arms a lot in general over the last few years, that is still an issue for him and will forever be.
There are quite a few guys with short and non-peaking bis… Which is the worst-case scenario, genetic-bi-shape-wise.

Some guys like Arnold lucked out with bis which are both long and peak high…

[/quote]

This is my situation as well. Short bis, zero peak. Oh well. At least I have big tris like Dave… oh wait.

FML.

you have to get creative


I like my gap.

[quote]bwhitwell wrote:
I like my gap.[/quote]

That’s because you have “model arms”. Didn’t you used to get paid for that?

You and guys like onemorerep are exceptions in that the shape of your arm is enough that even if you aren’t as big as some guys, your arms still stand out.

Could it be said that increasing forearm size would give the impression of a smaller “gap”?

[quote]Therizza wrote:
Could it be said that increasing forearm size would give the impression of a smaller “gap”?[/quote]

No. If you have a big gap, you just have one. I really don’t even see what the problem is here. This would be like making posts because you aren’t tall enough…or because your parents were Asian instead of Eskimo. You can’t change your genetic make up. While working your forearm can create more impressive forearms and may even take attention away from the area, there is still going to be a gap there.

And guess what…no one ever lost a bodybuilding contest because they have a larger “gap”.

Build big enough arms and no one is going to care.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]Therizza wrote:
Could it be said that increasing forearm size would give the impression of a smaller “gap”?[/quote]

No. If you have a big gap, you just have one. I really don’t even see what the problem is here. This would be like making posts because you aren’t tall enough…or because your parents were Asian instead of Eskimo. You can’t change your genetic make up. While working your forearm can create more impressive forearms and may even take attention away from the area, there is still going to be a gap there.

And guess what…no one ever lost a bodybuilding contest because they have a larger “gap”.

Build big enough arms and no one is going to care. [/quote]

Fair enough. I have about a half inch “gap” as I test it right here. Would that be considered “small”?

P.S.- X man you gotta relax a bit man. You are an inspiration but every time I read a post from you I fear you’re spiking your blood pressure or even cortisol level! lol jk thanks for the tire iron smack in the face back to reality.