+ 1 Disproportionate Growth
First off merry Christmas guys, I wish you all a wonderful day filled with family friends and good food.
To the post, training natty I had normal proportions and honed in a decent training program that seemed to hit everything pretty equally. I push, pull, legs up to 6 days a week.
Recently it's becoming increasingly obvious my delts, chest and traps(I don't even do trap specific excercises and they have gotten huge compared to my tiny head lol people are noticing that more than anything) are way out pacing my arms. Density of androgen receptors and gear to blame no doubt.
So I'm racking my brain, and thinking about plunging into a new training plan and I'd love some feedback, or a plan to follow that could help me achieve some more hypertrophy in the arms department without piling on a lot more volume.
I hit my biceps and triceps in isolation for about 10 sets per week each, plus the less focused work they do pushing and pulling.
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Close grip underhand chin ups if u can't pull your body weight use lat pull down, pull the bar to your collar bones not straight down like a pull over. Close grip dips, bench dips and diamond push ups. On the parallel bar do the neutral grip. Grip the end like your on a decline, and turn your hand inside out like your doing a diamond push up and put your fingers on the inside. That'll get your arms bigger cuz your moving your whole body so it'll balance out. If u don't think so go to jail where all u can do is push ups pull ups and dips everyone got huge arms well most of the black dudes and the few white dudes who got the genetics. Lucky for me they always told me i have genetics like a black guy. Wait is that a compliment? Maybe they just told me that cuz i was in jail too. Lmao.
That's fucked up but i couldn't help it, it was funny.
Use hgh Utitropin and your head will become bigger
I also build traps, delts , and chest much easier than arms. I've started doing a few different exercises to combat this with some success. I use a modified lat pulldown , straight down kneeling under the pully imagine a one armed pull up keep it in front of you. A cable curl with your back to the cable machine . Hammer and reverse curls with dumbells and a bent bar , for the bent bar I use a standing curl platform to isolate until failure then cheater bounce a few standing till failure. Got +.75" after losing about 30lbs so maybe an inch after the fat dropped over 7 months . Two months on cycle.
Lkl0623I mainly go off how my body feels when it comes to training. I've also done my due diligence in research but there are so many doctrines and differing views. From what I understand, the abdominal muscles and biceps are among the muscles that recover the fastest; also, I understand the lower back and upper legs (quads/hams) to be the slowest to recover. I've known guys that had trouble growing their biceps and would train them everyday. I don't think that's a good idea at all, but I do believe it's ok to train them 2-3 times per week. You just have to try to listen to your body and build that mind-muscle connection. You'll be able to feel when certain movements are hitting different than others. It just takes discipline and time, like anything else worth having in life. It's subjective to the individual because everyone is so different. Just make sure you listen to your body and really focus on the movements so you can stick to what's efficient/effective, and weed out the movements that aren't so much.
That last sentence is key. Well the whole comment is good and should be followed honestly. Everyone of us have a weakness. And to add to what you said I would probably add calves to recovering fast
Lkl0623Yeah I was going to add calves but omitted it, not even sure why just subconsciously said fuck it I guess lol
Lol nah I can see why. I say that cause most folks hate training calves. I kinda like that painful pump training then gives sometimes lol. Man giving em that knowledge! Keep it up
Lkl0623I wish my gym had a seated calf machine I fuck with those tough. Now I just do 2 sets of parallel standing and 2 sets of toes/heels staggered. One each way. I need to switch it up though I've been on a multi-year plateau my lazy ass LOL
At least you admit being on a plateau lol. It happens. Hell I had a lazy break not too long ago lol. I like seated calf machines too. Hits more of the soleus which I didn't realize a long time ago pushes out the gastro part of calf. And you know what I noticed that effect after doing seated raises. My thing is old school calf raises on a wooden block with a smith machine. But can't go wrong either way though. I just got a find that optimum rep range.
You are definitely correct on lower back and hamstrings taking forever to recover, my hamstrings/glutes can take weeks especially around the tendon areas.
Lkl0623The older we get, the more we learn the importance of tendon maintenance and wish that we'd gone a little easier in our younger days lol. I did heavy power cleans, deads and squats in the same week on a regular basis when I was younger and now I realize that wasn't very smart lol
Trying to do squats after deadlifts is always a funny experience, lower back feeling like caving in at any given moment Lol
Lkl0623I still do squats and deads in the same week. But I don't go 'heavy' with either movement. If I want to go heavy I'll usually do one or the other and just that movement that week but it all depends on how I feel. I used to squat twice a week too. Some people can do them both heavy in the same week no problem
I have long lanky skinny arms that are a bitch to grow. I had to spam them for a couple weeks with a lot of exercises till they would be on fire. That and constant bench pressing, ez bar curls, preacher curls, free weight excercise etc at low rep ranges(6-8). Now I have a ton of veins and capillary beds all over my fore arms and biceps that I’ve never seen before and my arms are getting bigger. They’ve always been a problem and now I think I’ve crossed the tipping point because I notice the progress. Also, a lot of videos I watch say the arms will lag behind and be the last thing to grow.
Solid advice, might have to be more patient
EfficientPhysiologyTrain bis and tris twice a week. Everything else once.
So arms twice, shoulders and chest once, back once and legs once make sense?
So....your goals??
My first goal was to gain 15 lean-ish pounds. I smashed that and gained 23 so far while still maintaining abs and ribs showing. My new goal is to catch my arms up with my shoulders, chest and traps. My arms look kind of thin compared to the rest. Legs are filling out great, I bought nice dress pants last year that fit well and now they're so tight I could rip them flexing my ass lol my wife loves it
Sounds like youre doing well! Have you tried 6 sets of your arm exercises with a burnout finisher? Get a real big pump to stretch the muscle fascia. Ive been doing arms and delts as their own day. Seems to be doing well. Chest calves abs....back....legs...bis tris delts abs..off.
Oh shit I never even stopped to ask myself if the answer could be as simple as adding 1 more set to my existing arm training!
But I also like that split you're describing but I'd drop abs off the first day and train forearms
Adjust as needed but it gives arms some push/pull...then a day of just FUN. Good luck bro! 6 to 8 weeks switch styles. Supers drops pyramids etc
Bis and tris should never be trained at the same volume all things being equal. Triceps should be 2/3 of your upper arm, training volume should reflect that.
Stop training the muscles that are being overblown and pick them back up once everything else catches up.
Any other questions?
Untrue. No science there. Only personal genetics.
Sorry which statement? The tricep should be 2/3 of the upper arm? I’ll die on that hill. I know bodybuilding symmetry.
It’s true that individuals will need different ratios of volume but en masse if you do a meta analysis generally 2/3 to 1/3 training volume will make most guys look better.
Could you give me a sample of excersises and volume? Currently I do 2 sets tricep pushdown or dips, and 3 sets of French press on push day, and 3 sets of rear curls and 2 sets of preacher curls on pullday. This varies a bit, I'll do other curls or tricep excersies, but always 2 sets of one movement and 3 of the other for a total of 5. I feel pretty gassed by the with all the other pushing and pulling movements. I limit every session to about 15-18 total sets, beyond that I don't feel the intensity is there.
Lkl0623If you're trying to build upper arm mass, I would stick to the movements that are notorious for that.
• Triceps mass movements
° Bench Dips
° Close-grip Bench
° Skullcrushers
• Biceps mass movements
° Barbell Curls
° Chin-ups
° Dumbbell Hammer Curls (brachialis development enhanced bicep aesthetics)
** Adjust your grip on Close-Grip Bench if the movement causes wrist pain. Some substitute reverse-grip bench to deal with this issue, although I'm not positive the effect is the same. Both movements work for me.
** I believe Zottman/Reverse Supination curls are great for building arm mass, given your tendons can handle them. Some people get a lot of tendon pain from the movement. I would always start relatively light when experimenting with new exercises.
These are just the exercises I believe in. I'm not saying they're best for you. Always listen to your body and go off what it tells you.
I like the answer, I currently don't do any close grip bench, never have and it's probably time to start. Not sure why it always slipped my mind.
Lkl0623Personally I like to pre-exhaust my chest first before I hit Close-Grip but find what works for you bro