Every day is arm day.
It’s strange that there is so much confusion on all this “heavy” vs. “light” mumbo-jumbo.
Like any body part, pick a basic exercise (ie barbell curls) and focus of weight progression. This means you will maybe work in the 6-10 rep range trying to build strength with a relative “heavy” weight.
Then pair it with an isolation exercise (ie concentration curls) where the focus is feel, perfect forms, peak contraction, etc. The reps here are typically in the 10-15 range.
The key is progression. Progression in weight moved, progression on your scale weight, progression in your arm measurements. These don’t lie.
the best thing I ever did short term for arms was upping my frequency and heavy ass weight. Especially with isolation movements.
Long term this was a shitty idea. Two years later and I know my arms could be much bigger and better if I didn’t destroy my left elbow and I still deal with pain and have no idea how to train around the pain efficiently or get rid of it 100%.
zraw was talking about John Meadows’ philosophy on arms in his thread – basically Meadows advocates pumps for growth. If using lighter weights gives you better pumps and `feel’ then use lighter weight.
Why do you ignorant fools keep bringing up pros? No one here is anyway near to 50% of Kai Greene, forget any comparisons to actual Kai Greene.
And what Rockula said - FST7. It hurts so good.
It’s all after of perspective, as others have said.
“Heavy” to you and me could be different. Same thing with “light.”
Most people at the gym going “heavy” are using some back, some shoulder and some biceps to get the weight up. Not optimal but whatever. You do what you want but dropping the weight a bit and making sure it’s all biceps throughout the entirety of the movement is best IMO.
Besides, everyone knows all you really need is heavy rowing + lots of close grip chin ups to get good biceps.
For the record, I didn’t interpret ‘going heavy x-times a week’ as ’ “maxing out” x-times a week’.
I flat BB bench one day and typically do close grips or board presses or use the RAM to overload tri’s. On my ‘arm day’, I do weighted dips, so there’s 2 “heavy” triceps days, but not two “max days” per week. Then, the tri’s get it again indirectly (or directly) on ‘shoulder day’.
I don’t think that’s outrageous or groundbreaking or voodoo or anathema or dangerous, but for me, it’s working, and it’s been for all intents and purposes a ‘long term’ approach.
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
zraw was talking about John Meadows’ philosophy on arms in his thread – basically Meadows advocates pumps for growth. If using lighter weights gives you better pumps and `feel’ then use lighter weight.
Why do you ignorant fools keep bringing up pros? No one here is anyway near to 50% of Kai Greene, forget any comparisons to actual Kai Greene.
And what Rockula said - FST7. It hurts so good.[/quote]
I’ve had much more success with hypertrophy lifting light and focusing on the contraction. I don’t go heavier than 30 lb DB’s on my current routine since it is focused on the pump; FST7 concept. I can curl 60’s for sets, but my biceps get much more destroyed staying in the 20-30lb DB range.
[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
zraw was talking about John Meadows’ philosophy on arms in his thread – basically Meadows advocates pumps for growth. If using lighter weights gives you better pumps and `feel’ then use lighter weight.
Why do you ignorant fools keep bringing up pros? No one here is anyway near to 50% of Kai Greene, forget any comparisons to actual Kai Greene.
And what Rockula said - FST7. It hurts so good.[/quote]
I’ve had much more success with hypertrophy lifting light and focusing on the contraction. I don’t go heavier than 30 lb DB’s on my current routine since it is focused on the pump; FST7 concept. I can curl 60’s for sets, but my biceps get much more destroyed staying in the 20-30lb DB range.[/quote]
I’m with you, but those weights don’t feel “light,” lol, they’re heavy for the exercise and form.
I’ve swung aroung the 80s-100s plenty of times. Enough with that though, seeing growth from a JM approach that I haven’t had in a while.
Most body parts will respond well to higher frequency, you just have to worry about not causing any tears in the long run. My arms suck, and but when summer is coming I’ll do them up to 5 days a week. This is the only way they hold any size. I mix up the weight though. No way I can go heavy then rep out 2 or 3 back to back days that’s a good way to ask for a tear.
I agree with Gregron.
I had a shoulder issue so my upper body was lagging. According to Chad Waterbury i tried 6-7 days weekly pulldown for 4 weeks and my biceps responded well. Now i added pushups (good response again from triceps) and a few others exercises i do daily and the response is positive.
At the gym i train heavy, later at home i train light/bodyweight. Never to failure, adding a rep daily, sets just happens whenever. 10-25 minutes should not compromise recovery if using common sense build up. On Jan. 1 i started at 5 reps, today was 22 reps.
What does Waterbury suggest – doing pull down/pull ups 7X a week?
Waterbury’s principles seem to be that high frequency is the best for gains, at least for the natty and beginner/intermediate/sports athlete. Ancedotally why mechanics have huge forearms, gymnast huge triceps, etc without much weightlifting time etc. blah, blah, blah
But isn’t CW frowned upon in this sub-forum 
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
Most body parts will respond well to higher frequency, you just have to worry about not causing any tears in the long run. My arms suck, and but when summer is coming I’ll do them up to 5 days a week. This is the only way they hold any size. I mix up the weight though. No way I can go heavy then rep out 2 or 3 back to back days that’s a good way to ask for a tear. [/quote]
Ditto! Had my best arms ever with this approach last summer. I knew it was purely cosmetic as they deflate miserably after a week off. I’ll probably never put on enough lbs head to toe to have natural guns without being a fat ass, but at least I’ll have the pumps.
[quote]giograves wrote:
Waterbury’s principles seem to be that high frequency is the best for gains, at least for the natty and beginner/intermediate/sports athlete. Ancedotally why mechanics have huge forearms, gymnast huge triceps, etc without much weightlifting time etc. blah, blah, blah
But isn’t C.W frowned upon in this sub-forum
[/quote]
I’ll admit: after hearing Chad Waterbury on Iron Radio, I was left wondering why I had ever seen his name on these boards. Far as I can tell, he has virtually no expertise or authority in bodybuilding training. And he doesn’t even claim to.
[quote]Gettnitd
What does Waterbury suggest – doing pull down/pull ups 7X a week?[/quote]
From our articles databank you might select from 166 articles from Chad here are 2
I use some of his suggestions, but i like training so i never fallowed his 3 days full body training suggestions.
[quote]BHappy wrote:
[quote]Gettnitd
What does Waterbury suggest – doing pull down/pull ups 7X a week?[/quote]
From our articles databank you might select from 166 articles from Chad here are 2
I use some of his suggestions, but i like training so i never fallowed his 3 days full body training suggestions.
[/quote]
I hit my back pretty hard once a week and biceps as well at the end if chest day. Wou ld doing alk these pullups effect my back workouts in a bad way?
A training routine is specific for the athlete. Generalized routines with specific days and specific exercises work well. Well is not optimal.
In my opinion no lifter should worry about overtraining a muscle by adding one session a week. Or 3. Or 4. If I feel like my chest is no longer sore and I can actually go heavier/as heavy as on my last chest session, I will train it immediately. The heavier you go, the more sore you’ll get => more rest.
Soreness is a good indication of recovery, as well as mental fatigue.
Listen to your body, not to a workout plan