Guns Won't Grow!

I have not been able to put size on my arms for the past year. I am stuck at 15 1/2. I really want to be at 17 at least. I do plenty of compound exercises, bench, pull-ups, bent over rows with 100 pound dumbbells. I’ve tried isolation exercises, X-reps, Drop Sets, etc. I also try to eat plenty.

Have any of you guys had this type of drought and overcame it?

“For god’s sake, Mr. Burgundy: stop calling your arms ‘guns’!”

You mean a guy with 15 1/2" arms can pull a woman like your wife? Man, why do I even bother lifting!

Give EDT for arms a shot, worked for me.

adam, I think many, including me, are going to tell you the old you need to gain the bodyweight to add the arm size.

I hovered around 205 to 210 for a long time and my arms were always in the 15 to 16 range. In the past six months I have gone to about 224 and my arms now are at the 17 1/4 mark.

To add size on arms you need to add overall bodysize for the most part.

D

Ona serious note…

How much leg work do you do? Often if your other body parts (eg legs, back) are not up to snuff size and strength wise then your arms won’t grow. I noticed lots of arm devlopment (eg 3/4 inch) after I started doing more pistols and 20 rep squats.

Your body doesn’t like to grow too far out of proportion. Also be sure to work through various rep ranges and switch to new crazy movements. And likely you should leave your arms alone for a while (like 3 weeks) and then hit them again really hard for a short cycle. Or try stuff like isometrics and be sure your forearms are big enough. If you leave your forearms behind then your upper arms may refuse to grow. It’s all specualtion, have fun.

-chris

If that’s you in the avatar then yeah, I think you elft your forearms behind. Go back and pick them up with wrist curls and rollers.

-chris

[quote]Dedicated wrote:
adam, I think many, including me, are going to tell you the old you need to gain the bodyweight to add the arm size.

I hovered around 205 to 210 for a long time and my arms were always in the 15 to 16 range. In the past six months I have gone to about 224 and my arms now are at the 17 1/4 mark.

To add size on arms you need to add overall bodysize for the most part.

D [/quote]

Well said. I don’t even understand guys expecting their muscles to get HUGE without them gaining much body weight. That shouldn’t even make sense to a newbie.

Adam, on a side note that inch of growth over a six month period of time had little to no direct arm work. I did a lot of pull ups, rows, dips, benching, overhead pressing, squats and deads, but very little direct bicep training other then in the early phase of our program.

D

Dedicated… I always have to right click on your avitar and hit “view picture”. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

[quote]realpeanutbutter wrote:
If that’s you in the avatar then yeah, I think you elft your forearms behind. Go back and pick them up with wrist curls and rollers.

-chris[/quote]

Actualy my fore-arms are pretty big. it’s just the angle that might make them look smaller. I’m like popeye the sailer man.

Hey, thanks Lonnie, it takes hard training to build pecs like that! FYI that’s Veronica Zemanova. :slight_smile:

D

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Dedicated wrote:
adam, I think many, including me, are going to tell you the old you need to gain the bodyweight to add the arm size.

I hovered around 205 to 210 for a long time and my arms were always in the 15 to 16 range. In the past six months I have gone to about 224 and my arms now are at the 17 1/4 mark.

To add size on arms you need to add overall bodysize for the most part.

D

Well said. I don’t even understand guys expecting their muscles to get HUGE without them gaining much body weight. That shouldn’t even make sense to a newbie.[/quote]

I gained 20 pounds a little while back and my arms stayed the same. I guess I could have gone 30.

Alot of people forget how many muscles are in their arms, are you sure you’re training them all? Almost everyone does curls for biceps, and gets some triceps from benching, but what have you done for your brachialis and brachioradialis lately? Forearms can often be a lagging area as well. Here are some suggestions that have helped me:

Farmers walk
Hammer curls
Reverse curls
Supported wrist roller
Chinups
Rear delt rows (wierd but true, try them and notice how your arms are moving)
Incline Dumbbell curls
Dumbbell wrist rotations

Don’t try and do all of those, but the general idea is to use something that hits different muslces in your arm than you are now.

adam, you gained twenty pounds. So, where was this twenty gained? You had to get bigger somewhere.

D

We grow pretty evenly. If arms are say 5% of your total body mass, if you gained 20 pounds that may have put 1 pound into your arms, making half a pound per arm, with a quarter pound into each bicep and tricep. That may equal how much in the end, half an inch? Keep bulking and working hard, they will grow. I sincerely believe that it is more what you do out of the gym, diet, rest, etc, than what you do in the gym.

[quote]Dedicated wrote:
adam, you gained twenty pounds. So, where was this twenty gained? You had to get bigger somewhere.

D[/quote]

Basically everywhere else, chest back and legs mostly.

First of all I dont disagree with anything said. Its all solid stuff. Overall muscle gain is your best bet.

But I also noticed you didnt mention any direct arm workouts. How’s come? While there are some that can get away with doing only compound movements like pull ups, some can’t. So you’ll hear some say you dont need any, or for people like me, its needed. Check out a good program on here like Armed for Combat or other arm programs. Its not crazy to do direct arm work.

P10 by Chad worked well for me. What’s more, I was able to add size to my arms with little overall body weight increase.