I’m extremely frustrated. I finished an 8 week program that worked very well for me. I had been stuck at 14.5 inch arms for far too long and finally broke the 15 inch mark with this routine. I took a de load week and am back down to 14.5 inch arms. What the fuck gives! Can you really have a half inch worth of inflammation? Very frustrating. I’m pretty close to throwing in the towel altogether because all of this effort and dedication for years and years is paying zero dividends.
Yes.
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What all have you tried to get them to grow?
Damn that is really frustrating. Not sure where to go next with training. I guess just bringing up overall body weight but I have a hard time not bringing along plenty of fat when I do and that’s just as bad to me. Feels like I have to spin my wheels just to maintain.
What’s your training look like and did you hit every day, every every movement, every set and rep?
Day 1 upper body push
Day 2 upper body pull
Day 3 legs
Day 4 off
Day 5 arms day super setting pull ups and incline curls, dips and tricep extensions to hit chest and back a second time for the week. I also added 3-4 sets of pump work for shoulders
Day 6 legs
Day 7 off
Rep range was 6-8 reps. I tracked every set, every rep and weight and added 2.5 to 5lbs per week on all the compound lifts. I ate to support growth. About a 300 calorie surplus. Any more than that and i just gain belly fat unless i want to do cardio which I dont have time for. I can give you the specific exercises if you want.
Yes please. If you can drop in what sort of RPE you think you were using on those lifts, that would be great.
Used double progression for compound lifts adding weight each week. RPE was closer to a 7 in the first few weeks with compound lifts but always at a 9 or more with isolation lifts. RPE was 8-9 the second half of the program on all compound lifts. If I push it to failure on compound lifts my strength putters out within 2-3 weeks so I really tried to start light and focus on continuous progression. I did get stronger with this program. I did see size gains but they all have seemed to disappear.
Day 1 - 3 sets each
close grip bench. Started light and worked up 5lbs each week. 1-2 reps short of failure by week 3 or 4
Hammer strength chest press. Added 5lbs per week. 1-2 reps short of failure
High low cable flies. Always to failure on each set.
3 sets nose breakers. Added weight when I could. I did more of a double progression with these too adding reps with 90 lbs. Couldn’t quite break that weight and started to get weak with these after 4 or 5 weeks.
3 sets Overhead extensions. Same as above
25lb plate raises 50 reps. By week 3 did 50 reps in one set going to failure each set. Started to get weaker on these by week 5 and had to break the sets up again.
Machine lateral raises 3-4 straight sets followed by 4 drop sets. Went to failure on most of these
3-4sets shoulder shrugs 2 sec squeeze
Day 2 pull 3 sets each- double progression
T bar row with 2 sec squeeze as more of an activation warm up. So low RPE
Bent over rows always within 1-2 reps of failure after week 3.
Rack pulls RPE 9 almost always going to failure.
Ex bar curls double progression usually 4 sets
Cable curls 3 straight sets 3 drop sets
Legs did the mountain dog leg program
4 sets seated calfee raises 2 sec contraction 2 sec stretch
8 drop sets of calf raises on seated leg press drop set controlled but faster tempo
Day 5 arms
Did charles poliquins program of super setting weighted pull ups and incline curls with dips a d cable rope overhead extensions. Started at 3 sets built up to 5. RPE was always 7 to 9. Started feeling pain in my brachialis with the dips on the eccentric portion almost like a shin splint and had to back off on these by the end of the 8 weeks
I also did pump work for shoulders this day and sometimes so extra cable flies for the chest. went for high reps and for the burn but generally still progressed with weight.
Day 6 legs. Toward the middle of the training cycle I managed fatigue by keeping in or taking out this second leg day which really helped to keep me from burning out. I ended up hitting this second leg workout about every other week as legs weren’t my focus. I was really focused on bringing my arms up.
Would at least do the above calf workout a second time during the week
I should add, my back and lats are my strongest area so I didn’t want to add any unnecessary fatigue throughout the week by hammering them. And I hadn’t done rack pulls before so I thought it’d be fun to add them in
What is your weight?
What does your diet currently look like?
What did you eat yesterday?
Can you give us a general idea of your strength levels, i.e. 1 rep maxes or other rep records on barbell movements?
I’m 5’8 160
Strength is kind of all over the place. Haven’t dont 1rm in over a decade but
Squat 225 for 5
Bench 185 for 5
Deadlift I very rarely do so not even sure.
But I can do 35 bodyweight pull ups and 8 dips with 2 45s so admittedly I havent spent much time on the big lifts. Maybe theres my answer.
I follow a pretty similar diet daily
Pre workout breakfast whey with almond milk creatine a banana and 2 shots of espresso
Post workout, half a cup of fruit with 25 grams of dextrose in almond milk
Snack 3 eggs and hand full of nuts
Lunch is generally a meat and veggie
Snack either 2 to 4 slices of cheese, handful of nuts or a chicken sausage
Dinner is a meat and a veggie and sometimes a starch.
Evening I could pig out but try to refrain. Usually have a case in protein shake before bed with 2 tbsp of almond butter.
I am pre diabetic despite being an otherwise healthy looking and lean 36 year which is why I keep carbs very low. Also the second I eat more carbs than that I gain belly fat which I dont want. I’d rather stay smaller and leaner than just get big to get big at any cost.
How long have you been prediabetic and how are you mitigating it?
The reality is, if you want your arms to get bigger, you will need to gain weight. At the very least temporarily. There just isn’t going to be a magic program that gets you to over 15 inch arms and has you still weighing 160.
To gain weight you’ll need to eat more calories in general, but in particular you will probably need to eat more carbs. So solving your pre-diabetic state is crucial to resolving this deadlock you’re in.
The other thing about gaining weight is it will most likely tank some of your pullup/dip numbers which I assume you don’t want since that seems to be such a big part of your training.
I suppose a lot of this may be obvious to you but I’m just highlighting the fact that your priorities are conflicted and you might need to rethink what you really want and whats best for you.
If you’re still bent on getting bigger arms, you might be better off reducing volume and increasing intensity, i.e. taking one or two sets to failure for every lift instead of doing this:
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Maybe that is the best solution. You stated that you won’t eat more due to fat gain, you don’t like cardio, and you don’t want to get any bigger just to get bigger.
Your current state is your point of homeostasis. If you don’t want to do anything that would change that, then just don’t.
Or do a more bodybuilding/bro split type thing where you hit muscles and groups 2x per week- for like a year. Those 8 wk. programs are entirely inadequate for a time frame of actually building muscle.
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Its 8 weeks, in muscle building terms that is nothing. Keep doing it for the next 3 years then measure again.
The expectation of rapid gains in just a few months causes many people to get frustrated and change things or quit. It’s just a few months! I don’t know why people expect to just blow up in a matter of weeks.
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For such a rapid decline, hypertrophy may have been predominantly sarcoplasmic. Real muskle with myofibril hypertrophy cannot disappear so quickly if you eat well and you don’t stop training. I also think that a natural lifter should not do as much isolation exercises. Muscle decline can also be due to overtraining.
At first, I went wrong with your accomplishments, but then I found that your personal weight was not great. I see that you are doing well with the other lifts. By the way, everyone can compare to the other training people https://strengthlevel.com/
Honestly I think that ‘what gives’ is that it takes much longer than 8 weeks to add half an inch to your arms. If it wasn’t, we’d all be walking around with 20+ inch arms.
Your arm measurement is less than 50% bicep typically, with your triceps being most of the ‘meat’, to add half an inch via bicep growth requires a very significant increase in bicep mass.
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Well that’s the frustrating part. I’ve been lifting very consistently since I was 14. I’m far from new to this. I have been stuck for a very long time. I work very hard in the gym every workout and seem to get no where.
Your arm size is what I would expect at this height and weight. I am slightly less than an inch taller than you and 35lbs heavier.
Bodyweight gains are going to be necessary.
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I really appreciate all the responses. Thanks for the input. Just frustrating to put so much energy in and get such little return. I guess focus on getting stronger in the big lifts? I just never really cared about strength that much so it wasn’t a focus.