+ 15 Lets Make Those Arms Grow!
Recently I seen several post, bring attention to the lack of hypertrophy in their arms. I felt incline to submit this article in the attempt to help them develop a larger pair of arms...
When we look at arm hypertrophy there's several factors we need to take into consideration. The arm is composed of several different muscle making up the sum of the arm. In order to maxim hypertrophy and overall size, we must focus on each muscle and bring them to their fullest potential. What I mean by that is take this example; the tricep consist of three heads.(Long head, Lateral head and the Medial head.)
In order to have a large arm we must focus on increasing the mass of each tricep head, by isolation and forcing growth. We must take this concept and apply it each individual muscle group and the individual muscles that compose that group... Another example would be the bicep. The bicep is composed of two heads, the long inner head and a shorter outer head... the bicep is consider the triceps antagonist. The bicep contracts and pulls towards you and the tricep contracts and "pushes" the arms into a straighten position.
As you can see from the illustration there are two other muscle located in the upper section of the arm, they are brachialis and coracobrachialis both muscle support the functions of the bicep and to help the forearm rotate. The brachialis is often neglected, and this is a reason why biceps just don't grow. When you maximum the size of the brachialis you force the bicep up and the tricep down and out... this inturn causes the appearance of a much more mature bicep with a higher peak. The arms are also a small muscle, well the individual muscle groups are rather small, and are meant to do lots of reps and recovery quickly.. Going really heavy when working arms doesn't stimulate hypertrophy it actual produce the opposite effect you're looking for. Going heavy can cause the bicep to shrink into a ball... it's best to do larger rep sets and force blood into the arms to force the expansion of muscle fiber and inturn growth... I found through personal experience 21's are the absolute best exercise for biceps... You could also isolate the upper section of the bicep by doing the top portion half rep and really emphasize the isolation and build up of a higher more prominent peak. When it comes to the triceps I find the best stimulation for the long head is over head tricep dumbbell extensions... and of course the cable machine, with multiple grips, reverse grip tricep cable press down, tricep rope pulled downs, press downs and dips... When it comes to both brachialis any kind of hammer curl motions has the best stimulation for hypertrophy. I really enjoy doing isolation hammer curls on the preacher bench between, my preacher curl sets. Remember in order to maxim size you must maxim the size of each individual muscle sub group. That includes your forearms.
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Ya I definitely have lackluster biceps, absolutely no peak, and not good definition when relaxed, but I have a decent ball shape to it, just seems like it needs to "roll" up and I'll have a peak. But it makes sense needing to focus on building up the brachias will be including a lot more hammer and isolated preacher hammers in my next arm workout! Good job great article very in depth!
thanks for sharing the article, this makes good sense. I've been starting with higher weight reaching my max then going down to get more reps chasing that pump untill 20 reps with 10 lbs is even hurting me. Dunno if thats good but it's def releasing endorphins for me witch is feels nice.
Yeah bro, right now I'm just doing very basic exercise just upped the reps.. Right now I do concentration curls with the 30lbs DB for 4 sets of 50, and then stand bicep cable peek curls with 50lbs drop set to failure... 50,40,30,20, just the cable.. arms just hit the 18" mark about two weeks ago
Niice! I will duplicate this and hopefully duplicate the results. Do you ever start heavy before working your way down or do you think that is a mistake. I would assume since I go heavy on chest days i'm already tearing down my myofibral tissue. And by going lighter to failure and chasing my pump i'm strengthening my sarcoplasm tissue. Am I right here? It would make sense to tear down the "meat" of the muscle so it grows back bigger and stronger to adapt to the stresses of weight lifting, then strengthening the housing of the muscle. So...is that a mistake for me to start heavy instead of puting in the time with the lighter weight. I will put your feedback into effect, can't argue with results.
Good read... I agree 21's are awesome I've always done lighter weight and my arms are bigger than guys that are curling 80's good info man. You know any specific exercises for the botttom of the long head (tricep)
jzagGreat info. Thanks for posting. I never knew that for arms higher reps is better than heavy weight.
I love the overhead tricep dumbbell extensions but every time I do them they leave my elbows in pain for about a week. So I rarely do them anymore.
I've always done full range of motion on curls, recently started changing up starting angles and it's been working magic. +1 great post.
jzagAngles? What's that?
Like how he says:
"You could also isolate the upper section of the bicep by doing the top portion half rep and really emphasize the isolation and build up of a higher more prominent peak. "
I change my starting angles from full to partial extension with Tricep and bicep exercises concentrating on the bottom or top of a contraction. This doesn't mean I neglect a full ROM, I just incorporate shorter ranges as well.
jzagGotcha. I'll give that a try. Thanks
I never do it first. Always after the elbows well and truly warmed with other exercises
jzagGood call. I'll try that.
Two reason why that is happening is form and the weight is to heavy.. drop the weight a little, and try it again..I beat it'll feel a lot better bro.. one of THE best tricep mass builder.
jzagI'll give that a try. Do you keep your elbows in or wide? And how far down do you take the dumbbell? 90 degrees, or further down?
Thanks
This is one of those exercises you need to feel where the weight sets comfortably, I usually keep them not tucked in, but not wide either, when you grab the weight behind your head, it kinda dictates where your elbows point, because wrong form will cause instant discomfort, it's easy to correct. I extended to the base of my skull and extend to the top of my skull, I never pull the weight over my head, I use the 100-120 lbs dumbbells, I have tremendously strong triceps, and OHTE is the reason.
jzagOk, so you don't fully extend your arms? Maybe that's what my problem has always been with this exercise. I'll give it another shot.
Thanks again.
Thank you my friends
Good post, man!
Excellent post. Definitely food for thought.
awesome read man
good stuff...grip it and rip it !! +1
I agree with biceps high rep training, my arms never grew under heavy weight.
However triceps, heavy close grip bench on the smith, that's where the money is at baby. Triceps are 60% fast twitch muscle fibers (they like heavy weight) which is why heavy compound movements are best (close grip bench, dips, skull crushers)
so your logic is less weight more reps? I hear so many different opinions on weight vs reps. anyone want to chime in?
bodybuilding is about the pump, so yes...
Well of course every body responds differently. However, the more blood you can pump into the muscle the more the fascia stretches which allows for more room for growth. This is typically why higher reps seem to induce muscle growth as opposed to the heavier lower rep workouts. Something I have started doing before my arm workout is 10 sets of 10 reps for both barbell curl and triceps cable pushdowns. These are down in superset fashion, however with no break, just alternate between the exercises with no rest until you have reached 10 sets for each. This really gets the blood into the arms and primed for growth. From that warm up you can then work to failure with a heavier weight. Again mileage may vary and you always want to experiment to see what works best for you.
Bodybuilding is about The Pump
OK. I'm game too. Gonna try it this evening. Thanks
Hell, My warmup consist of abt 5 sets light to med and then med to heavy. I then go back to a 3 set of 15 reps,low/medium weight to flush blood in and THEN go superheavy on my arms. I'm prob older than you guys and blood around the ligiments & joints equals more protection for us. BUT, I'm gonna try your warm up and see. Changing it up is what it's all abt anyway. Peace.
How did this work for you brother?
Shit, Just saw this. This is my new handle. Worked great in protecting the muscles and ligs. I can literally go balls to the wall with super heavy weight on the preacher curl and not get hurt working out like this BUT I'm now gonna try the light approach and see what happens. It's just hard to go light in the gym. too much of a fanatic I guess!! Haha. Know you can dig it. I'll let you know how that goes. Thanks for all the wisdom Brotha!!!!!! Peace.
95% of the post i see of why the person is not growing is because their lack of taking in enough calories.
This is a good one too, "I'm on a cut but my arms won't grow" Well no shit! That's what the offseason is for, to put on muscle! Pick you battles.
Although great in theory what it leaves out is not everyone's arms or muscle types are the same. Some have longer muscles, some have more fast firing muscles, e.t.c. For example if you compare yourself to someone the same size as you i.e height and look at their bicep or even the space between the forearm to the bicep when in a flex position, you will notice major differences in size. Longer muscles benefit from specific exercises shorter muscle types benefit from others and so on and so forth. Some people grow more when they do high reps low weight and some the opposite. It all comes down to "whatever works for you keep doing it." Nothing in this game is cookie cutter, if it was everyone would be Ronnie Coleman's walking around. I go by science 90% of the time when it comes to the human body because one workout routine works for you; will not work for me.
Regardless of the muscle shape it doesn't change how the muscle works or response to an exercise. I do agree that some specific exercise are more beneficial in relation to the muscle "size" to an extent. I've also read articles stating that preacher curls elongating the bicep, I don't see how it possible to alter the length of your biceps...I also very much agree with "whatever works for you keep doing it"
Awesome info! Thanks!!!
Good read bro..+1