Big Arms Without Direct Arm Work

Bigger Stronger Leaner
21

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]yustas wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]yustas wrote:
I use “huge arms” loosely. Elite and or professional bodybuilders have huge arms, but for a regular guy “huge arms” would be the picture on the left. In other words, you can tell that this guy lifts weights by looking at his arms and his overall upper body development. Here are a few more pics of Martin Berkhan.

[/quote]Question…why are we discussing “regular guys” on a bodybuilding forum?[/quote]

Well, regular guys can be bodybuilders. I am a regular guy and I am working on gaining muscle mass, so I am bodybuilding, my body, that is, but I am not a professional bodybuilder.

[/quote]

Ok…so why would a BODYBUILDER looking to BUILD THEIR BODY as optimally as possible AVOID training an entire muscle group directly?[/quote]

I do not know why, which is why I asked the question.

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The guy in the pic also mentions doing chins with an extra 100 lbs around his waist. Sounds like a version of “direct arm training” to me. It’s not bicep curls but he is giving his bi’s plenty of stimulation. That being said, he could get them significantly bigger if he did more “traditional” direct arm work (i.e. curls, etc).

Are you looking to avoid work? Why short change yourself? If your serious about this then go after every strategy to increase the size of your muscles.

23

Not at all. I am just trying to find out what the “truth” is. I love doing standing barbell curls, for example. At the same time, however, I do not want to waste my time on stuff that does not work. Here is another example: I prefer doing dips or close grip bench press to triceps kickbacks, but do I need to do the kickbacks? I am just trying to figure out which exercises are the most effective. As I have already mentioned, I am not a professional bodybuilder, so my time in the gym is limited.

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[quote]yustas wrote:

Not at all. I am just trying to find out what the “truth” is. I love doing standing barbell curls, for example. At the same time, however, I do not want to waste my time on stuff that does not work. Here is another example: I prefer doing dips or close grip bench press to triceps kickbacks, but do I need to do the kickbacks? I am just trying to figure out which exercises are the most effective. As I have already mentioned, I am not a professional bodybuilder, so my time in the gym is limited.
[/quote]

I’m confused. These guys are NOT big. The guys who ARE big train biceps directly. Why would you be confused about what the truth is unless you were thinking that big muscles don’t mean that the person trained right to get them?

I wanted to be big…so I did what the really big guys did. Why would I look at little dudes to see what the best way to train optimally is?

25

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I wanted to be big…so I did what the really big guys did. Why would I look at little dudes to see what the best way to train optimally is?[/quote]

I agree. Even if everyone could agree that this guy has huge arms without directly training them, he is ONE guy out of many with big arms. 99 out of 100 guys with big enviable arms train them directly. So why follow the program of the ONE oulier?

26

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I wanted to be big…so I did what the really big guys did. Why would I look at little dudes to see what the best way to train optimally is?[/quote]

I agree. Even if everyone could agree that this guy has huge arms without directly training them, he is ONE guy out of many with big arms. 99 out of 100 guys with big enviable arms train them directly. So why follow the program of the ONE oulier?
[/quote]

Even if you could get big/huge arms without direct work, wouldn’t you want bigger/huge-er arms with it?

I just don’t get the point.

27

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]yustas wrote:

Not at all. I am just trying to find out what the “truth” is. I love doing standing barbell curls, for example. At the same time, however, I do not want to waste my time on stuff that does not work. Here is another example: I prefer doing dips or close grip bench press to triceps kickbacks, but do I need to do the kickbacks? I am just trying to figure out which exercises are the most effective. As I have already mentioned, I am not a professional bodybuilder, so my time in the gym is limited.
[/quote]

I’m confused. These guys are NOT big.[/quote]

Martin Berkhan is “big,” wait, he is “huge,” compared to the majority of regular guys who go to the gym. Who are the “big” guys that you have in mind? Arnold, Ronny, Cutler? Of course, they are huge, but they are the elite. I will never look like them, nor do I want to. So, for me, there is no point in trying to copy how they train and eat.

In other words, if I am trying to improve my swimming skills, for example, and want to become a great swimmer, I do not think it is necessary to train like Michael Phelps. In fact, it would be a complete waste of time for an overwhelming majority of people who want to develop great swimming skills to train like Michael Phelps. So, why would I need to train like, say, Arnold?

Having said that, there is no doubt that some exercises used by Arnold and other huge guys are certainly useful and effective for regular people. The trick is to figure out which exercises are effective and which are not, which is why I asked the question. Like I said, I love doing direct arm work, but I simply wanted to know if it was a good use of my limited time.

28

[quote]yustas wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]yustas wrote:

Not at all. I am just trying to find out what the “truth” is. I love doing standing barbell curls, for example. At the same time, however, I do not want to waste my time on stuff that does not work. Here is another example: I prefer doing dips or close grip bench press to triceps kickbacks, but do I need to do the kickbacks? I am just trying to figure out which exercises are the most effective. As I have already mentioned, I am not a professional bodybuilder, so my time in the gym is limited.
[/quote]

I’m confused. These guys are NOT big.[/quote]

Martin Berkhan is “big,” wait, he is “huge,” compared to the majority of regular guys who go to the gym. Who are the “big” guys that you have in mind? Arnold, Ronny, Cutler? Of course, they are huge, but they are the elite. I will never look like them, nor do I want to. So, for me, there is no point in trying to copy how they train and eat.

In other words, if I am trying to improve my swimming skills, for example, and want to become a great swimmer, I do not think it is necessary to train like Michael Phelps. In fact, it would be a complete waste of time for an overwhelming majority of people who want to develop great swimming skills to train like Michael Phelps. So, why would I need to train like, say, Arnold?

Having said that, there is no doubt that some exercises used by Arnold and other huge guys are certainly useful and effective for regular people. The trick is to figure out which exercises are effective and which are not, which is why I asked the question. Like I said, I love doing direct arm work, but I simply wanted to know if it was a good use of my limited time.[/quote]

I think this is proof to the sponsors that there needs to be a sub-forum entitled “I Don’t Want To Be A Bodybuilder Training”

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And 100% of the guys with the BEST arms train them directly. Why do anything else?

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[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
And 100% of the guys with the BEST arms train them directly. Why do anything else?[/quote]
Cool. That is all I wanted to know. Thanks.

31

Uhm, we just had a whole thread going over what BIG is or isn’t. That was WHY I made the damn thread. If you are still asking what BIG is after all of that,. something is wrong.

32

I’ve grown my arms doing heavy-ass curls, rows and lots of pressing (unfortunately, no direct triceps work on a consistent basis).

Then I had to stop doing direct arm work for about five years.
I still got stronger and stronger at horizontal and vertical pressing and pulling.
Very strong, I might add.

But my arms didn’t grow - in fact, after I had to drop direct arm training, they shrank some. Right down to about 16.5". And I have some decent arm genetics (I’m !bugeishaAD: shitty lats, good arms).

Fast forward to April 2010 - I had started to do some slight direct arm work.
Fast forward to now: I’ve added some good size to my arms since then.

Direct arm training is necessary to get your arms as big as possible.
Or at least big!

  • Boss Alpha -
33

[quote]yustas wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]yustas wrote:

Not at all. I am just trying to find out what the “truth” is. I love doing standing barbell curls, for example. At the same time, however, I do not want to waste my time on stuff that does not work. Here is another example: I prefer doing dips or close grip bench press to triceps kickbacks, but do I need to do the kickbacks? I am just trying to figure out which exercises are the most effective. As I have already mentioned, I am not a professional bodybuilder, so my time in the gym is limited.
[/quote]

I’m confused. These guys are NOT big.[/quote]

Martin Berkhan is “big,” wait, he is “huge,” compared to the majority of regular guys who go to the gym. Who are the “big” guys that you have in mind? Arnold, Ronny, Cutler? Of course, they are huge, but they are the elite. I will never look like them, nor do I want to. So, for me, there is no point in trying to copy how they train and eat.

In other words, if I am trying to improve my swimming skills, for example, and want to become a great swimmer, I do not think it is necessary to train like Michael Phelps. In fact, it would be a complete waste of time for an overwhelming majority of people who want to develop great swimming skills to train like Michael Phelps. So, why would I need to train like, say, Arnold?

Having said that, there is no doubt that some exercises used by Arnold and other huge guys are certainly useful and effective for regular people. The trick is to figure out which exercises are effective and which are not, which is why I asked the question. Like I said, I love doing direct arm work, but I simply wanted to know if it was a good use of my limited time.[/quote]

Are you honestly making posts like this?

Did you just ask, on an internet forum, if training your arms is a waste of time?
How the fuck are we supposed to know? You didnt even post a picture of your own arms. What do those guys have to do with YOUR arms? When did you completely lose the ability to use common sense and logical reasoning?

And youre also completely out of your mind if you think the guy on the left doesnt have elite genetics for biceps development. His triceps are miserable but his biceps are very good, regardless of body fat %. Not common, AT ALL.

You talk about your limited time. You surely arent using it wisely making threads about this when you could be in the gym experimenting.

34

IMO: Rows\pullups\chinups are better for your Bis than curls.
same goes to doing bench presses\military presses\dips instead of kick backs.

35

[quote]hwh89 wrote:
IMO: Rows\pullups\chinups are better for your Bis than curls.
same goes to doing bench presses\military presses\dips instead of kick backs.[/quote]

hahaha

what does chad’s dick taste like?

36

[quote]yustas wrote:

Not at all. I am just trying to find out what the “truth” is. I love doing standing barbell curls, for example. At the same time, however, I do not want to waste my time on stuff that does not work. Here is another example: I prefer doing dips or close grip bench press to triceps kickbacks, but do I need to do the kickbacks? I am just trying to figure out which exercises are the most effective. As I have already mentioned, I am not a professional bodybuilder, so my time in the gym is limited.
[/quote]

My time is limited as well. I look for effective work as well. But I don’t neglect direct or isolation work. For Biceps I do Barbell Curls and Hammer Curls. And I do Rows and I do Chin-ups also. I do a lot of other stuff too. I chose what I felt would be most effective in growing that muscle and not deliberately missing a tricep head or shoulder part. For triceps I do CGBP/Smith CGBP and Tricep Pushdowns with Rope. I haven’t done a kickback in centuries.

If your just looking for the most effective exercises for a body part then maybe you should have structured your question like that and not “i want to get something big but i don’t want to work on it directly” - does that even make sense to you?

37

[quote]hwh89 wrote:
IMO: Rows\pullups\chinups are better for your Bis than curls.
same goes to doing bench presses\military presses\dips instead of kick backs.[/quote]

So in your expert opinion training a muscle directly is somehow LESS effective than training it indirectly?

(^^obviously that’s a facetious question. If that’s your opinion, and I take it from the part where you said “IMO”, that it is… Your opinion is dumb)

Do you have pics of these arms that were built without direct arm work?

38

The “no direct arm work” seems to be a fashionable stance taken by many of the new breed of strength coaches. None of which has an impressive set of biceps, from what I’ve seen.

Reverse grip chins and barbell rows are definitely excellent secondary type bicep movements. But you’re not going to see a truly impressive set of arms on someone who hasn’t put in years of ass-busting work doing thousands of sets of curls.

39

I’m just gonna go ahead and say that MOST who advertise no direct arm work, either can’t figure out how to train them, or are lazy and have a lagging biceps/triceps, thus creating excuses not to train right.

But the genetics card also comes into play.

And why the hell wouldn’t someone want even bigger arms ? Why the hell would someone do only “enough” ? Why the hell would indirect training be better than direct training ?

Those are the mysteries of life.

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Clearly, his arms were built with military presses and chin-ups only!