I was wondering how many of you dont train arms at all. I havent trained arms directly in about four months. They definitely havent gotten smaller. I focus mainly on basic exercises like presses and chins.
Only recently have I incorporated curls into my routine on a light day. My routine up to then had no direct arm training, just presses (bench, dips) and pulls (chins, rows). Did the trick for me. My opinion is that the peripheral work should be incorporated sparingly to bring up a lagging body part when needed.
Goldberg, I have considered it, but have never had the nuts to do it. See I was genetically blessed with good legs, great calves, a great backside (according to the ladies) a skinny ass ribcage and twig arms. I have an issue at this point where my chest and back look damn good, but my arms and shoulders still dont look great…to give you an idea, look at the undertaker on the WWF…he is big…but the arms…well, not great…that is pretty much my body, so although I have been tempted to try exactly what your doing, I am scared to death of gaining even more in the chest and back, and not gaining anything in the guns, which wouldnt help the issue. Let me know how it works for you…cause if you gain arm size on it well…it might give me the guts to try it for a bit.
I don’t do zero arm training but I’m close. 3 sets (2 warm up 1 max) of barbell curls on back day (once a week) and 4-5 sets of tricep work on chest/shoulder day (also once a week) is all i do. I really don’t need much direct bicep work with all the rowing/pull ups i do, but I’m as guilty as the next guy in liking the pump a couple of sets of direct arm work will give you. And i find my arms are bigger now that i’ve added a few sets of tricep work (which i never used to do). Even with all the pressing I was doing, i wasn’t hitting the long, inside head of the tri.
I’ve been lifting for 3 sporadic years over the past 9 and 2.5(or there about)of those years I didn’t do arms at all except what you get from upper body training and my arms are acceptable at 16 inches,5’10 180.
I have not worked arms directly in 3 months and I’ve gone from 16 to 16 3/4 with a bodyfat of 10%.
I only do 2 sets for tris and bi’s once a week and this worked out great.Unless your arms are your weak area, go for it.Why waste a day to arm traning if there not your weak point when you could focus on other bodyparts.
I too am like Whopper with the twig arms and shoulders. But I’ve noticed that direct arm work doesn’t do anything but give me a better pump. My workout is now very basic doing five sets of five. I do get some arm work from exercises such as close-grip benches, dips and barbell curls. That’s pretty much the extent of arm work other than what may occur from hitting other basic exercises (deadlifts, chins, benches). My arms have never been big, and probably never will be, but they feel a lot harder and stronger when I just hit the basics and leave out the foo foo pushdowns and dumbbell curls.
I do arms twice a week mon and thurs i go three sets of six heavy about 140 to 165 or so i am 5’11" with 17 1/2 inch arms and still growing i up the weight every month or so.
I find that the hang cleans give me a huge instant pump in the bi’s, anterior delts, and traps. Try them.
My arms went from just over 14" to just under 15" in the last year and I haven’t had and “arm day” since summer and only do 1-3/wk at the end of a workout. But I’m sure I’d get better progress is I gave them more volume.
Initially I didnt work arms and got minimal gains. I now do about 9 sets each for bis and tris and they’re noticable for my size at 15.5 inches. Im pretty sure they would neither shrink nor grow much more without direct work and plan to try even more volume (intially GVT, 12 sets, bear, maybe some twice a week). My best gains to date were from a few weeks incorporating extra heavy slow negative bicep curls. Re delt mass - 8-12 Rep heavy controlled behind the neck presses do it for me.
I also haven’t trained arms in about 4 or 5 months, and did very little work on them before that time…i think it depends on your goals - you can easily get big arms by sticking to the heavy basics, but if you want to refine them, then specific work is in order. it’s especially true with the triceps…the only way to really develop the inner head is to perform skullcrushers or overhead db extensions. the lateral (outer) head can be built just by using presses.
I only train arms using chins or gymnastics type of movements. After doing the big lifts I’m pretty spent. So direct arm training doesn’t happen to often.
I have been leaving out arm isolation exercises for awhile, concentrating on heavy presses, dips, rows and pull-ups. Sometimes, I do a set or two of arms at the end of an upper body workout just to see where they are in strength. They seem to do just fine as long as I am going heavy on the complex movements. I’m 5-11, 205 lb, and arms are 17".
It seems that most people dont really train arms that much. I read something by Poliquin where he said that he recommended no arm training for a certain block of time and just concentrating on the major lifts. Theres also an article on his website that recommends doing the same thing.