I’m just curious as to what the consensus is on arm growth progress. Right now my arms aren’t small, but aren’t big either. In fact, they’re closer to small than big by weight lifting standards.
So I’m just curious as to what is possible with arm growth say every month or couple of months?
I have 1 day where all I do is biceps and 1 day where I do a tricep/shoulder workout. My other days entail the usual compound lifts. I’m taking creatine, protein, bcaas and salmon caps along with a big calorie healthy diet.
I know this is a big leap of faith/estimate but I want to be able to track my progress compared to the possibilities so I can adjust if things aren’t working out.
Sorry if this is just a stupid idea but I thought it was worth a shot.
Well are you gaining weight? They say you have to gain roughly 15-20 lbs of lean body mass to gain 1 inch on your arms. And a whole day dedicated to bi’s seems like overkill. Instead throw in a couple of extra sets for arms on multiple days like CW’s Perfect 10 program.
The only reason I have a ‘day’ for them is because if I didn’t I wouldn’t have anything to do four days of the week and I’d feel like a slouch. I only do about 12 sets.
Since I got back into gaining mass instead of maintaining, which has been about a month, I’ve gained some mass but it’s hard to tell how much of which is muscle. I’d say I’ve gained 5-8 pounds since new years.
There is no “consensus” on how much arm growth to expect. If you give a large number of lifters the same program, same diet etc the results will presumably fall into a normal distribution (ie bell curve).
What matters is maximising your own growth relative to potential. The only way to assess whether you are doing this is to use a variety of approaches and be meticulous about recording what you did and what the results were. Of course, this takes a long time, which is frustrating for most ADD afflicted young lifters.
Good luck!
PS as one of the other posters noted, don’t expect your arms to grow disproportionately to the rest of your body.
[quote]slickid wrote:
The only reason I have a ‘day’ for them is because if I didn’t I wouldn’t have anything to do four days of the week and I’d feel like a slouch. I only do about 12 sets.
[/quote]
What does this mean? You wouldn’t have anything to do four days of the week? What does your training split look like right now?
I don’t really buy the 15 pounds theory. That’s more of a correlation than causation. If you want bigger arms than you are going to have to lift more weight for more sets and/or more reps. You do this by progression. But, of course, if you only train arms than you will eventually be limited by the strength of shoulders and back and your body in general. Than it would be necessary to gain more weight (strength).
[quote]caneman wrote:
I don’t really buy the 15 pounds theory. That’s more of a correlation than causation. If you want bigger arms than you are going to have to lift more weight for more sets and/or more reps. You do this by progression. But, of course, if you only train arms than you will eventually be limited by the strength of shoulders and back and your body in general. Than it would be necessary to gain more weight (strength).[/quote]
Obviously it is not a direct correlation, but the theory is that if you put mass on evenly throughout the body, then roughly 15 pounds will equate to 1 inch on your arms. You certainly could just train arms, and if you put on 15lbs of muscle in your arms, then yes, it would certainly be more than a 1 inch gain.
However, at some point your shoulders and back will need to grow in order to handle the load needed to cause significant biceps/triceps growth. This is especially true with standing biceps curls. If your bodyweight can’t counter balance the load you are lifting, then obviously your form and ability to complete the lift will suffer.