Arm Focus, Need Some Help

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I am 6’2" 203-205lbs, not too sure of BF but it’s not that important to me. I’m currently trying to bulk up to around 220. For my size, I feel like my arms are lagging behind a bit. Currently my upper arms are 15" and my forearms are 13". I would like to see an inch by September or October. My workouts look like this:

Mon: Chest
Flat bench, incline bench, decline bench, dips, flys

Tuesday: Back
Wide grip pull ups, T-bar row, seated cable row (narrow grip), pulldowns, straight leg dead lifts

Wed: Legs
Back squats, legs curls, leg press, romanian deadlift, calf raises

Thursday: Off

Friday: Arms
Barbell curls, close grip bench, alternating dumbell curls, skullcrushers, hammer curls, kickbacks

Saturday: Shoulders
Dumbbell press, side and front laterals, front rows, cable pulldowns (rear delts), shrugs (back or front)

Sunday: Off (extra abs if I missed durring the week)

As far as what I eat, practically everything. I’m having 1 scoop whey before workout and 2 after with 2 bananas and thats a constant as with 4-6 eggs and raisin bran every breakfast. Other than those constants I eat everything thats high in protein and a lot of it…

So, that’s pretty much how I’ve been training and eating. If there is anything that needs to change in order for me to excell in arm growth I would greatly appreciate a little bit of info tossed my way. Thanks all

2

When I was 200# and fairly lean (6’ tall) my arms were 15" as well.

The funny thing? I never did a single curl, very rarely even do them today.

“Friday: Arms
Barbell curls, close grip bench, alternating dumbell curls, skullcrushers, hammer curls, kickbacks”

Waaaaaay too much isolation, kickbacks are useless by the way.

Just focus on the compound work, put an extra 10# of muscle on and you’ll add the extra 1"

You can easily accomplish that by September/October.

3

Thanks. Actually, I noticed more soreness in my arms the days after chest and back than I do after arms haha. And I felt the kickbacks were slightly useless but my tris are normally shot after the close grip and skullcrushers and thats the only thing I got energy for, which probably means i shouldn’t be doing another exercise anyways haha. So I weighed in today at 204.5 and I’m going for 215 by late sept. Wish me luck and thanks for the help.

4

WOW 15 inch arms at 200lbs without doing any curls!?!?

OUTSTANDING, I’M REALLY GOING TO TAKE YOUR ADVICE

5

why is everyone on these forums against doing direct isolation work on a muscle group to improve that muscle group ?

6

why is everyone on these forums for doing direct isolation work on a small muscle group when larger muscles clearly are less important ?

7

[quote]pachell wrote:
When I was 200# and fairly lean (6’ tall) my arms were 15" as well.

The funny thing? I never did a single curl, very rarely even do them today.[/quote]

I’m 160 and my arms are 15", all I have trained in the past 5 months is back/legs, trying to heal a shoulder injury.

Guess what, if I trained chest, shoulders and ARMS as well, they would be bigger.

15" is not hard to obtain.

[quote]pachell wrote:“Friday: Arms
Barbell curls, close grip bench, alternating dumbell curls, skullcrushers, hammer curls, kickbacks”

Waaaaaay too much isolation, kickbacks are useless by the way.

Just focus on the compound work, put an extra 10# of muscle on and you’ll add the extra 1"[/quote]

If you want a muscle group to grow, you must train it.

I agree compounds make your arms grow, but not as much when combined with direct arm work.

Did you miss the part when the OP said ‘For my size, I feel like my arms are lagging behind a bit’?

I doubt that dropping arm work is going to make that situation any better.

OP - For arm size the best advice is usually to gain weight all over and your arms will grow also (as long as you are TRAINING THEM).

However, since they are small for your body, it’s probably best to look at training frequency, how much weight you are using, and the sets/reps used in your arm workout.

It also MAY be that your arms can’t cope with the training stimulus you are giving them, but I highly doubt it - still something to consider though.

This may be what you are looking for, if nothing else it is a good starting point for you, your ticket to the gun show:

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1373279

If that doesn’t work then drop direct arm work for a couple weeks.

8

haha yeah arnold just gained weight to build his arms, he never curled.

if you want bigger legs though, you need to curl, because adding weight to your arms will increase the size of your legs obviorisously!

9

[quote]cyph31 wrote:
why is everyone on these forums against doing direct isolation work on a muscle group to improve that muscle group ?[/quote]

Not everyone. Just those that are mildly retarded.

10

From experience, direct arm work will increase your size more than compound.

I went from 15/16 to 17 from direct arm training. Recently I have been doing all compound lifts (Rippetoe) and have only seen a 0.5" increase.

[I think I need to add barbell curls and take my own advice.]

11

[quote]mr popular wrote:
cyph31 wrote:
why is everyone on these forums against doing direct isolation work on a muscle group to improve that muscle group ?

Not everyone. Just those that are mildly retarded.[/quote]

We don’t know how strong this guy is. If he’s benching 115 I don’t think lack of curls are his problem. Which is why many people say stuff like that on this forum section in particular. Not saying that this guy is that weak, I actually doubt it, but that’s why people say it.

12

Yes let’s orient all the advice we give to a small percentage of people who are pathetic weaklings and come from the foggy end of the genetic pool, and apply it to everyone who asks a general question.

Because hey, this guy COULD be abnormally weak and incompetent, and unable to handle the demands of training a bodypart that he wants to improve (gasp!), so lets assume he is and give advice without asking.

13

[quote]mr popular wrote:
Yes let’s orient all the advice we give to a small percentage of people who are pathetic weaklings and come from the foggy end of the genetic pool, and apply it to everyone who asks a general question.

Because hey, this guy COULD be abnormally weak and incompetent, and unable to handle the demands of training a bodypart that he wants to improve (gasp!), so lets assume he is and give advice without asking.[/quote]

It’s the beginners forum, have you read some of the posts here? It’s really perfectly rational to assume that he’s not a point where isolation work will be the most effective path to to his goals (.

14

[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
From experience, direct arm work will increase your size more than compound.

I went from 15/16 to 17 from direct arm training. Recently I have been doing all compound lifts (Rippetoe) and have only seen a 0.5" increase.

[I think I need to add barbell curls and take my own advice.][/quote]

Me thinks that would be some good advice… I got some decent strength in my arms but the size doesnt match the strength… so my next goal after getting totally roundhoused in the nuts from doing Smolov will be a EDT cycle for arms with compound and isolation work. Aint nothing wrong with packing some serious heat!

15

Haha, no I’m not benching 115 haha. My main lift accomplishments are 230 bench, 315 squat, 300 deadlift. I can also do sets of twelve wide grip pullups just in case that makes a difference as far as strength is concerned. I’m not going to cut out isolation work, I was just seeing if the isolation work I was doing is effective.

I’ve tried a lot of different things and that’s what I’ve been doing for a month, month and a half now. I just wanted to see if there were things I should substitute or things I should drop, or add. Honestly, my arms are the slowest part in my body to grow so far. I mean I’ve see dramatic results in all of my bodyparts except for my arms.

Maybe it’s because I look at them 1000000 times a day waiting to see bowling balls haha, but anyways I’m no weakling haha, and I was just seeing what workouts worked for you. Thanx guys

16

It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner. It makes no sense to avoid direct arm work (except in the case of some freakish pro bodybuilders that have to STOP training certain bodyparts because they grow TOO EASILY and throw off their physique).

A beginner needs to train EVERYTHING. Why set them off on a course towards imbalances?

17

[quote]mr popular wrote:
It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner. It makes no sense to avoid direct arm work (except in the case of some freakish pro bodybuilders that have to STOP training certain bodyparts because they grow TOO EASILY and throw off their physique).

A beginner needs to train EVERYTHING. Why set them off on a course towards imbalances?[/quote]

Did someone just say “mildly retarded”??? Body part specific work is the only way one could become imbalanced.

Imbalances aside, I do agree that the OP should be doing direct arm work unless it’s at the expense of his compound lifts. If his arms are truly lagging compared to his back, why not put some extra focus there? Besides, curls and machine work are rather fun. Plus, you get a great pump by doing them after your chins and rows. It’s a win/win situation.

18

Just do that arm specialization program from CT there.

You could be some sort of freak where your arms overtrain very easily, but i doubt it.

19

[quote]Kruiser wrote:
Body part specific work is the only way one could become imbalanced.

[/quote]

…was this a joke?