Biceps Won't Grow?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Quick question for yall. I’m currently 18 YO and have been lifting on and off for about 2 years but about 6 months ago i began to take my MMA and weight training very serious instead of just wasting my time. I havent missed a workout in either sport for the last 6 months and have got a relatively dialed in diet.

My only problem is that my biceps wont grow. My chest, triceps, shoulders, legs etc. all seem to be gaining strength and size but not my biceps. I only work them once a week and my bicep w.o is 5x5 barbell curls, 3x8 dumbell curls and a 3x10 seated concentrated curl.

However, both of my biceps have stretch marks that run up and down them (from the inside of my shoulders towards the elbow joint). So it seems that there is irrefutable biological evidence that they are growing yet they are nowhere near the size of my triceps and they dont seem to be getting stronger

p.s. I do back and biceps the same day and I am progressing nicely with those lifts associated with my back just fyi.

2

How much do you weigh?

Triceps compose 2/3 of the arm. I hope that your bi’s aren’t the same size.

3

I would train triceps harder than your biceps since the triceps are the muscle that will give your arm the “huge” look.

4

i mean comparatively. the triceps in the back and on the side and large and my bicep is small in comparison. for ex.

Julien has a balance bicep to tricep ratio. My bicep is smaller and doesnt seem to be gaining.

In fact the main question is how do I stimulate my bicep to grow to its maximum potential, regardless of tricep size.

5

So do arms on their own day and hit them harder.

The more you prioritize something the faster/better your results will be. Within reason.

6

haha well any ideas on a setup then to hit them harder? rep ranges, lifts?

7

Well I would start by putting triceps/biceps on the same day. Do biceps first. I almost always stay in the 8-12 rep range, but for BB curls I’ll do 5+

I like to do 4 sets of each exercise:
BB curls
Standing alternating DB curls
Seated Hammer Curls
Preacher curls
3 sets of 21’s to finish with a burnout

All of these are staples of my bicep routine bu I always end up adding plenty more depending on how I feel.

8

I like the exercises walanerxx laid out for u, but I wud not do all those exercises for 4 sets each! Add in pullups, then weighted pullups to the exercises above. pic out 3 exercises, do 3-4 sets of each exercise and use the 8-12 rep range. hope this helps

9

[quote]beestings wrote:
I like the exercises walanerxx laid out for u, but I wud not do all those exercises for 4 sets each! Add in pullups, then weighted pullups to the exercises above. pic out 3 exercises, do 3-4 sets of each exercise and use the 8-12 rep range. hope this helps[/quote]

Why is everyone afraid of volume, sheesh.

10

You skipped the most important response in this thread.

How much do you weigh??

11

6 foot 1 and 195.

real skinny heh. im a hardgainer.

12

[quote]Tysdon wrote:
6 foot 1 and 195.

real skinny heh. im a hardgainer.[/quote]

No. You just don’t eat enough.

Eat more. Train hard. The rest follows.

13

[quote]mr popular wrote:
You skipped the most important response in this thread.

How much do you weigh??[/quote]

Amen. What’s the deal? 15 lbs of weight for every inch on the arm?

Eat more. Watch them grow.

14

I Do. Gains are slow for me though. and I train hard as hell.

15

the OP said every other body part is growing, so if that’s the case he just isn’t hitting his bi’s hard enough.

16

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
mr popular wrote:
You skipped the most important response in this thread.

How much do you weigh??

Amen. What’s the deal? 15 lbs of weight for every inch on the arm?

Eat more. Watch them grow.[/quote]

15 lbs for every inch on the arm would be a weird lookin guy. 15 inch arms on a 225lb guy?.. wtf

17

Maybe your arms are just going to take a longer time to develop? I know even at 245 I couldn’t get my arms past 17", and I’m about 6’3. Make sure you’re covering your bases. You said your diet is relatively dialed in? Let’s see it…

18

8am heavyweight 9k shake w peanut butter

10:40am 2 chicken breasts or an assload of turkey. sometimes ill have a few big scoops of rice but im trying to keep the carbs down till later in the day when i consume alot of them

12-1pm big bag of mixed nuts w ~20-40g protein. Ill do some kind of meat or maybe a bar. depends on the day and what ive cooked

4pm large meal. Different every day but high protein med-high carb

5:30 something small like a bar or some more nuts

6:30-8:00 MMA training

8:00pm high carb med. protein. usually drink a carbo rush 63g carbs and down one of those 42g protein shots.

8:30-9:30 lift

9:30pm some kind of meat; steak chicken or fish, often times this meal will be 3-4 cans of tuna because its quick and easy. Ill have a large portion of rice or potatoes with this most of the time. also a muscle milk shake.

10:00-10:30 couple spoon fulls of fat free cottage cheese and hit the sack.

On days where I dont have MMA training ill eat at 4pm. lift from 6ish to 7:30ish and do the same meal plan w.o the carbo rush and protein shot. however, after the workout ill have a meal and a shake. then 9:30 and on its the same. minus the 9:30 muscle milk(thats for post w.o)

19

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
the OP said every other body part is growing, so if that’s the case he just isn’t hitting his bi’s hard enough.[/quote]

I’d have to agree with waylander, if he’s gaining bodyweight at a decent rate (like 1 lb per week) and everything else is growing, then he’s not stimulating his bi’s to grow. Or, he’s burning them out with his back exercises, and thus doesn’t have any steam left to really hit his bi’s.

I don’t know if he needs a seperate arm day (nothing wrong with that suggestion though), but he should try at least not pairing them with back.

Maybe:
Chest/bi’s
Legs
shoulders/abs
Back/tri’s

or

Chest/bi’s
Quads/calves
Shoulders/tris
Back/hamstrings

The increased frequency of stimulus coming from working bi’s twice a week (once directly and once indirectly via his back exercises) might result in some additional growth as well.

In regards to volume, as long as the OP can make consistent improvements from workout to workout (like adding weight to the bar or get a few more reps with the same weight), then the amount of volume isn’t all that important. Different people will be able to handle different amounts of volume, and you never really know where you fall in that category unless you try out a number of different options.

20

[quote]Tysdon wrote:
8am heavyweight 9k shake w peanut butter

10:40am 2 chicken breasts or an assload of turkey. sometimes ill have a few big scoops of rice but im trying to keep the carbs down till later in the day when i consume alot of them

12-1pm big bag of mixed nuts w ~20-40g protein. Ill do some kind of meat or maybe a bar. depends on the day and what ive cooked

4pm large meal. Different every day but high protein med-high carb

5:30 something small like a bar or some more nuts

6:30-8:00 MMA training

8:00pm high carb med. protein. usually drink a carbo rush 63g carbs and down one of those 42g protein shots.

8:30-9:30 lift

9:30pm some kind of meat; steak chicken or fish, often times this meal will be 3-4 cans of tuna because its quick and easy. Ill have a large portion of rice or potatoes with this most of the time. also a muscle milk shake.

10:00-10:30 couple spoon fulls of fat free cottage cheese and hit the sack.

On days where I dont have MMA training ill eat at 4pm. lift from 6ish to 7:30ish and do the same meal plan w.o the carbo rush and protein shot. however, after the workout ill have a meal and a shake. then 9:30 and on its the same. minus the 9:30 muscle milk(thats for post w.o)

[/quote]

Well there’s another glaring reason why you might be having trouble increasing your strength on your biceps exercises. Doing weight training only 30 minutes after doing 90 minutes of MMA training (which, if it’s anything like the MMA training that I’ve done, is some really intense exercise) is a bad idea.

You’d actually be better off doing the lifting before your MMA training, and even better yet would be to do your lifting in the am, or on days that you don’t do MMA.

It also looks like not much food for someone who is training MMA, trying to gain weight/build muscle, and an ectomorph.