I’ve had good success in my muscle building efforts in all areas except my guns. So, this week i decided to give the great guns program a shot. What kind of gains has any one else made?
Gained 3/4 of an inch. That’s great considering how long I’ve been stuck in that area. Also, many people don’t realize what a huge visual difference an inch or so makes. It’s a great program; give it a go!
Paul, what did you do to maintain other muscle groups? I’m assuming it won’t interfere at all with legs, but what about chest/back/shoulders?
Matt, I like to take weekends off so my schedule looked like this: Monday: Arms- Workout A
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Chest, Back, Shoulders
Thursday: Off
Friday: Arms- Workout B
Weekend: off
Legs: One week I squatted and did other quad dominant exercises. The next week I did sprints and hip dominant exercises like deadlifts.
Upper body- I did basic stuff: wide grip pull-ups, rows, bench, overhead press etc. I just tried to keep the volume lower than normal, lower number of sets, etc… I trained abs after arms since Ian’s arm workouts don’t take very long once you get used to the programs. Don’t worry, it FEELS like you trained them for three hours! Oh, and I also avoided things like close-grip chins because these hit the bi’s too much. Same goes for close-grip bench and tri’s. Believe me, these muscles get enough work on Ian’s program!!
Hope this helps!
I gained almost two inches–and that’s not a lie. I was measured by the same trainer before and after, and when the after results came is we were both stunned. We re-measured at various times to make sure it wasn’t just a pump effect. The trainer suggested that the size was from creatine, and was bewildered when I replied that I do not use creatine. Now, my arms aren’t “great guns” in the 20-inch range, but they went from a mere 14.5 inches to 16.25 inches, which is 1.75 inches added (and that’s with 10 pounds of fat loss during those weeks, as of last week). I’ve only been doing this for 6 months, too, so don’t joke me on my progress right now. It’s something I’m proud of and gaining that much in 12 weeks is nothing to sneeze at.
Akicita, how did you split up the rest of your training?
Akinita, how much weight did you gain? Its funny how everyone jumps on bandwagons, remember when Charles Poliquin said in order to gain an inch on your arms you had to gain 15 pounds? So since you said you gained two inches, you gained 30 pounds right?
Dave, I don’t think Poloquin was saying you have to gain 15lbs to put an inch on your arm, it’s an approximation. I think it was more like him saying that on a program which treats all bodyparts equally, every 15lbs equals an inch on the arm. Especially while doing a program which specializes for and prioritizes the arms, you don’t have to gain anywhere near 30lbs to put 2" on your arms. I’ve seen guys work nothing but arms and chest, their arms balloon, yet their back and legs haven’t budged, and they put on minimal weight. I think another point Poloquin was making was that although you can put size on your arms by specializing them for awhile, that won’t last forever and eventually your whole body needs to be worked for you to put size on your arms because the body works as a balanced system and can take only so much disproportion. But anywho, I think 2" is pretty fucking good progress!
Check out the men’s gymnastics coverage and you will see a big exception to the bodyweight ratio. There is an American named John Roethlisberger who is 165 and does no weight training at all. He has skinny legs, and his back and shoulders (usually very impressive on male gymnasts) are defined but not all that big. What the guy does have are freaky large arms. It actually looks sorta funny in a Popeye sort-of way. Makes me wonder if I should just give up on close-grip benches and hit the pommel-horse.
Matt, let me ask you this, did that gymnast put two inches on his arms using Ian’s great guns workouts? I am not doubting that someone 165 could have huge arms. However, if he were to claim to have put two inches on his arms and not have any change in bodyweight I would doubt it. Also what did this gymnasts’ legs look like?
Something to consider is if the guy who claimed to gain 2" (sorry, I don’t remember the name) had taken a long layoff from training or was just beginning. Though 2" is a lot, it might account for such quick growth.
C’mon guys, let’s play nice…
I’m sure we can all think of examples of guys who have had considerable growth in their arms without any concurrent growth in their legs, chest, or back simply because all they lifted was arms. I knew several people like this in high school. However, I also think Poliquin’s point is valid in its theory, but maybe was taken out of context… The “bodybuilders” I’ve seen who train only arms definitely made great progress on their guns for a while, but after a few months, nada… They stayed the same until they started training their body proportionally. I think Poliquin’s point was not that a bodybuilder can’t ever build his arms without subsequent increases in the rest of his body. If that were the case, no bodybuilder would ever be able make improvements in lagging bodyparts, be it calves or arms or hamstrings or whatever. Perhaps if someone wants to develop his arms without growth of his other bodyparts, then his body is already out of balance and will therefore “allow” his arms to catch up.
In other words, I think Poliquin may have been too dogmatic with his 15lbs per inch philosophy. The body definitely allows some misproportion, as I’m sure all of us have witnessed those nerds who bench three times per week, and maybe do a few lat pulldowns on the side? What happens to these guys? Well, it’s obvious that they develop big pecs and have zero development in the scapula retractors, giving them a humped over appearance more suited to a gorilla than a human. If imbalance was impossible, this scenario would not happen. But it does.
So, the moral of the story is that for some people, having the arm development that they want may be perceived by their particular body as “out of balance.” But that doesn’t mean this imbalance is impossible to achieve.
I remember when i was seventeen ,and in the space of 3months i lost about 20pounds while trying to get fit for football ,running 5 days perweek ,i did no weights only chins at home while losing all this weight i actually gained 1 1/2- 2inches on my arms .
Well I’m not sure for a fact, but I’m guess ing that Poliquins statement was for arms that are already pretty much at there peak for you weight. Some guys might have lagging arms for there size, so a prgram like Ian’s would put on quit a lot of size for them. I know one guy I helped had 16 inch arms and weighed 190. All he did was bench press and squats, when I introduced him to an arm workout (simply from getting sick of seeing him do the same thing over and over) his arms grew to 17 1/2 inches while he stayed at the same weight. So my guess is if your arms are already about the largest they can be at your weight then yes to what Poliquin said, but if you are lacking in the guns department I see know reason at all why that would not be possable. Thats just my thought though, I have no hard evidence to back it up.
I’m not convinced of Poliquin’s statement. People who lose their limbs and end up in wheelchairs end up with bigger arms usually as a result of pushing themselves around. These people have clearly lost weight.
I think Charles statement means basically that to get bigger arms - the easiest way is to get bigger all over.
Sorry guys, its true. There is a need for weight gain in order to gain size on any bodypart. If my legs are lagging and I specialize them for a couple of months and I gain an inch on each thigh, don’t you think I should have gained some weight in that time? Do you think the muscle that was gained is weightless? Go back and listen to the audio files with TC and Poliquin. And as far as the guy that used the wheelchair guys as an example, people in wheelchairs experience significant atrophy in the leg muscles. This results in lost bodyweight, the arms will grow since they are the only muscles being worked hard. But there is weight loss in the legs and weight GAIN in the arms. Sorry but there is no way to be 180 pounds and gain two inches without some weight gain. Unless you are using synthol.
Dbol, the issue here isn’t whether or not adding muscle to your arms adds overall bodyweight. Anyone with half a brain will tell you it does. The issue is whether or not it is possible for the arms to grow without concurrent growth in the rest of the body.
My contention is that yes, it is in fact, possible. The body allows for a certain level of muscle mass which it may perceive as disporportional. But this only occurs up to a point. Once a certain level is reached, muscle growth in all areas of the body must occur for any further growth in the arms to take place.
An example of this are the guys who only train their chest and biceps. Their chest and bis will certainly grow, up to a certain extent. At this point, their bodies become so disproportioned that they will allow no further growth until the trainee starts training the rest of his body.
Dbol, the point is that it is possible to lose weight and gain size in the arms. The wheelchair athletes often have NO legs and still manage to increase arm size. There is NO WAY a wheelchair athlete weighs more after the lower body atrophies than they did before.