Arm workouts

[Steihl]

Just wondering, do you guys train biceps and triceps on the same day or on seperate days? Since these are smaller muscle groups, do you guys also do less sets for these muscles?

I’ve noticed most people tend to do them both on the same day, but I’ve always done them on seperate days. Mainly cuz I try to get in about 16 sets total for bicep and triceps. If I do them both on the same day that’s 32 sets and it would take forever. Should I reduce the number of sets and do them both on the same day?

[Ignorant_Slut]

When I read 16, I thought you meant 16 total for bis and tris. That seemed okay if you were going for volume, but 32 sets? That’s a LOT of arm work. My vote is for reducing the total number of sets. At the very least, break it up over two days during the week.

[Thunder]

That seems like an awful lot of arm volume, considering all the indirect work they’re already getting.

I just prepped a guy for a show and I didn’t have him training at all for 16 weeks. The result? No size loss whatsoever. In fact, they were a little bigger. Of course, the scenario is a little different, as he was dieting. However, the take home message is still the same.

This coming from someone who doesn’t really train arms though.

[system]

Yes, 16 sets is excessive. It’s hard to say how many sets you should be conducting because you failed to provide us with your goals and/or rep range you are working in. As far as conducting less sets for smaller muscle groups, here is a section from a recent article John Roman and I co-authored on specialization:

We mentioned earlier that regardless of which muscle(s) you choose to specialize, we’ll be using the above weekly split and set/rep scheme. “But what if you choose to specialize a smaller muscle group, such as the biceps? Surely, you can’t train your biceps with the same amount of volume in which you train your quads!” It is this reasoning that causes many a strength coach to recommend reducing the training volume for smaller muscle groups. For instance, they’ll reason that while it may take 5 sets of 12 reps to fully stimulate a large muscle group such as the quadriceps, it will take significantly less volume to stimulate a small muscle group like the biceps, perhaps only 3 sets of 12. This is faulty reasoning in our opinion. Yes, the biceps are smaller than the quads, but advocates of this approach fail to realize the difference in magnitude between the movements used to train each muscle group. Performing 5 sets of 12 reps in the squat is a heck of a lot more taxing than performing an equal number of sets and reps in the bicep curl! Large muscle groups are trained with big, demanding movements, while smaller muscle groups are trained with movements that are less taxing to the CNS and your overall recovery ability; therefore, the movement performed compensates for the difference in muscle size and there is no need to alter the volume from muscle group to muscle group.

Joel

[Steihl]

16 sets is excessive? For all my muscle groups, typically I do 16 sets.

Usually the breakdown is:

• chest, biceps, triceps, legs, shoulders, back each done on seperate days

• 4 exercises

• 4 sets each

• rep range from 12 to 6 approximately linearly decreasing from the first set to the last. (ie 12, 10, 8, 6)

• weight used generally increases with each successive set.

Is this too much volume for ANY muscle group? I actually thought I wasn’t doing enough volume…

Currently I am on the T-Dawg 2.0 diet trying to shed some body fat. I train heavy in order to prevent strength and muscle loss.

please let me know if I am doing anything incorrectly… thanks.

James

[rderieux]

I am doing the Canadian Cannons workout and it has 13 sets plus two extended sets (zoot man curls and machine curls).

Based on the above replies, is this also too much?

I am not having any problems with it and have been able to increase my weight every week (on different excersices not on all of them).

Rene’

[system]

Yes, 16 sets is excessive, ESPECIALLY while dieting.

First off, you train your bis and tris on seperate days, but you group “legs” into a single session. Your quads and hamstrings are two of the larger muscle groups in the body and are generally trained w/ the most taxing movements (squats and deads).

Check out the thread “New Ripped, Rugged, and Dense Routine” for a good program to follow in order to maintain muscle mass and increase strength while dieting.

Take care,

Joel

[Food_Stamp]

Dude, if you train bis/tris on the same day independent from other days like chest or back then you’re setting yourself up for overtraining (IMHO).

Most people I know have a training split like this:

Day 1: Back
Day 2: Bis/tris
Day 3: Chest
Day 4: Shoulders

(They’re shitheads, they don’t train legs)

So looking at this training split, we can see that they’re not giving their biceps a good enough rest from Day 1 to 2. And they’re not giving their triceps enough rest from Day 2 to 3. Because biceps are ancillary movers for most back (pulling) exercises and the triceps are ancillary movers for most chest (pressing) exercises.

Now I’m not saying your training split is like the one I mentioned up there. But I am saying that if you have a separate day for bis/tris then you’ll set yourself up for something like that.

[glute_spanker]

WHy train ams at all? tain heavy enough with compound moves and you need it. Ill post a shot of my arm and I havent curled anything in at least half a year.

[KnightRT]

I’ll second that. Arm-specific movements can be superfluous in a program with heavy dips and full ROM supinated pullups. Not always by any means, but if you intend to drop an exercise, curls, and even more so, extensions, are the first to go.

DI