Fast arm building workout Ellington darden

Bigger Stronger Leaner Ellington Darden HIT Coaching
1

Hello Dr Darden. I hope you are doing well. I came across a Iron man magazine article you wrote a while back named fast arm building workouts where you trained an athlete named Edwin Truck Brown who had gained an inch of growth on both his arms making them 20 solid inches. The routine was as follows:

Routine A

  1. Chinups, 30-30-30

  2. Dips, 30-30-30

  3. Barbell curls, 30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Lat pulldowns, 30-30-30

  2. Dumbbell triceps extensions,

30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Barbell bench presses, 30-30-30

  2. Machine leg curls, 30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Leg presses, 30-30-30

Routine B

Routine B

  1. Barbell curls, 30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Lat pulldowns, 30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Negative-only chins, 1 half rep performed very slowly for 30-60 seconds

  2. Dumbbell triceps extensions,

30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Barbell bench presses,

30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Negative-only dips, 1 half rep performed very slowly for 30-60 seconds

  2. Leg extensions, 30-30-30

Immediately followed by

  1. Leg presses, 30-30-30

I was wondering what sort of changes would you make to this routine with your current knowledge and wanted to ask if you still think a person can increase his arm size with this routine?

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You do realize that this guy is loaded with steroids? Also, there is no magic arm workout to add quick size. That comes from progressive overload and time. I’m just laying it out in case you’re new to working out. Any quick size increase is from inflammation.

Yeah you didn’t ask me, I get that, but just give it a try. There is no right or wrong method for every physique. Trying new techniques is always good for a period before changing it up.

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3

Great answer. I guess it might breathe some life into the forum, but these questions where people are looking for a magical routine are tedious. I think I am becoming an old grumpy cliche lol.

Just do the routine if it interests you. See how you like it. Do you enjoy it? Does it cause you aches and pains?. Can you recover and grow from it? If you can answer those questions, then what do you care what some dude with 20 inch arms got out of it?

Is someone here going to give you a miraculous tweak to the routine that will make your arms grow? Any input you get from some dude on the internet is just a wild guess.

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4

I see you asked essentially the same question back in January and here is the response Dr D gave you:

”I like your arm workout. Let me know how you feel after two weeks?”

heh.

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5

8 minutes of slow motion lowering sounds like a lot!

Over the last few years we’ve seen a couple guys who used a ton of negatives burn out and stop progressing pretty fast.

Was this workout supposed to be used for months at a time? Or as a special, 1 time, ultra intense arm blast?

If you’re planning to use it for awhile, you might consider not doing 30/30/30 for Every lift. Or starting with 10/10/10 and building up.

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6

I recently documented in my training log that I get close to an inch worth of pump on my arm days!

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7

That crazy but you have great arm size so I could see that. Even when doing Mountain Dog arm programs I didn’t see even 1/2” in pump.

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8

I go with really brief or no rest breaks on arms, which really elevates the pump, probably not unlike BFR training. I also supplement with a pre workout with l-citrulline, use an intra workout carb powder, aminos and take a PeakATP supplement pre-workout, all of which likely help improve bloodflow and increase the “pump capacity”. This may be considered bro-science, but I definitely am a believer in a big pump helping to deliver nutrients like amino acids and carbs into the muscle through the blood.

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9

I would not change a single listing. This workout was a great routine for Truck.

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11

I followed this routine every third workout, alongside 30-10-30 and 4/4 cadence, full body HIT routines, twice weekly for a year or so. It worked phenomenal for me. The 30-30-30 part of this schedule was the “strength driver” which allowed me to increase the weights progressively over time.

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12

I agree about a little Strength Work helping to keep progress rolling along.

Its cool that you were able to get the effect of heavy, low rep work in a totally different way.

Plus the benefits of great MMC and long TUT that you get from the slow cadence.

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