How to Get Bigger Biceps?

Training Bodybuilding
41

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
chilco wrote:
waylanderxx wrote:
chilco wrote:
Professor X wrote:
chilco wrote:

Brother… you are a bitter dude! Some BS…I don’t. My roomate went from bodybuilding to powerlifting and was indeed a genetic freak.
I wouldn’t shy from you in any way what so ever. There are many I’d walk down a dark alley with. You are not one of them. You hide behind a keyboard and spout your whimsical nonsense. You flame others with little regard.

You are most likely one the few people any one should take advice from. You make the error of mistaking humility for weakness, until you are lying flat on your back. You are a pseudo-intellectual with the personality of a snail. May God protect you and keep you fit. Remember it’s the outter quadrant of the glute, not the center, lest you hit the sciatic nerve!

lol did you just threaten to beat up Prof X? Interesting.

2 words: KRAV MAGA

4 words: I HAVE A GUN[/quote]

Oh yeah I’ve got many of those as well. Stocking up on ammo these days. When all else fails, but actually I prefer lead pipes and bricks.
I threaten no one…but fear no one as well. I’m just a nice guy who knows the deal and can sense a bully when I see or hear one. Being a former wrestler you learn to get over the “fear factor” pretty quickly. Still…there is always that initial sense of fear until a successful takedown is performed, and then comes the rush and a surge within the spirit.
Shoot that gun and shoot it often!

42

[quote]chilco wrote:
Brother… you are a bitter dude! Some BS…I don’t. My roomate went from bodybuilding to powerlifting and was indeed a genetic freak.
I wouldn’t shy from you in any way what so ever. There are many I’d walk down a dark alley with. You are not one of them. You hide behind a keyboard and spout your whimsical nonsense. You flame others with little regard.

You are most likely one the few people any one should take advice from. You make the error of mistaking humility for weakness, until you are lying flat on your back. You are a pseudo-intellectual with the personality of a snail. May God protect you and keep you fit. Remember it’s the outter quadrant of the glute, not the center, lest you hit the sciatic nerve!

[/quote]

Uh oh…is it that time of the month already when the Prof gets challenged as a keyboard warrior?

43

[quote]chilco wrote:
MISCONCEPTION wrote:
my advice:
what are your elbow extensors like? brachi? reverse curls? do you do them? do you do them with low reps? not doing those will put a cealing on your growth fast.

second what are your chins like? what is your chin form like? do you ever do extra weight? what is your tempo and range of motion like?

how many sets to failure are you doing for your arms? how close to each upper body workout are you training arms?

lastlys what is your nutrition like?

I’ll focus on the hammer curls and the reverse curls more cause the other stuff ain’t gittin it done. Thanx.

[/quote]

They respond best to multiple sets of low reps 2 to five reps per set. also cheat curls (reverse) with isometrics.

44

To get BACK ON TOPIC:

How are you training your biceps now? Obviously what you are doing now doesnt seem to work, so it’s time to try the opposite.

The biceps and brachialis responds differently to different lifting speeds and intensities. I suggest you try both fast and slow concentrics and eccentrics. You might also want to try changing between low-rep heavy work, and high-rep work. Drop sets makes my biceps really work hard :slight_smile:

45

[quote]josh86 wrote:
Professor X wrote:
I also wouldn’t take the word of someone on this unless their arms were close to that size as well. It is damn near impossible for some much smaller guy to “eye” 21"+ arms accurately.

Sooo true, I’ve had smaller people ask me on more than one occasion if I have 20" arms and they are tad over 17"…[/quote]

LMAO… Put a tape to 21’ and dangle it around your arm, then try not to cry. See just how big a 21’ arm actually is.

Yes, you can gain size on your arms without curls.
No, you won’t increase the peak in your bicep without curls (unless your a freak). and,
No you won’t get full activation where you wanting it unless you supernate your grip. Even raise your pinkies higher then your thumbs to emphasis it further.

46

[quote]chilco wrote:
Brother… you are a bitter dude! Some BS…I don’t. My roomate went from bodybuilding to powerlifting and was indeed a genetic freak.
I wouldn’t shy from you in any way what so ever. There are many I’d walk down a dark alley with. You are not one of them. You hide behind a keyboard and spout your whimsical nonsense. You flame others with little regard.

You are most likely one the few people any one should take advice from. You make the error of mistaking humility for weakness, until you are lying flat on your back. You are a pseudo-intellectual with the personality of a snail. May God protect you and keep you fit. Remember it’s the outter quadrant of the glute, not the center, lest you hit the sciatic nerve!

[/quote]

LOL. You hit the nail on the head. Everyone here is such a side kick to the “professor”. lol. Whatever. No man has all the answers or experience. I don’t care if it’s Coleman or Rhul.

He likes being a big fish in a small pond. He’s a bit egotistical and does suffer from a superiority complex which he manifests through his pseudo intellectualism. But anyway.

My workout partner in the past was a Russian dude who had 18 inch forearms and 20 inch arms cold. His forearms were simply “ridiculous”. He has hugely muscular shoulders, upper arms and forearms and that’s on a small framed guy at 6 feet tall.

He built his musculature on pullups, pushups and direct arms work. But for his direct arms work he always went light to medium weight. He would do hammers starting with 40lb DB’s then superset down to 2.5lbs DB’s. He was the Golds gym freak for arm development. Yes he was a freak. Yes he did have bigger arms then most professional bodybuilders. So, i’ve seen it too and i believe your story.

The Professor won’t believe it because he has a hard time believing anyone could be “better” then him in anything. You know, the superiority complex thing.

47

[quote]Dedicated wrote:
Two things, lots of heavy pulling movements like row, deadlifts, chins, and lots of heavy duty curls, bar, ez bar, dumbbell.

D[/quote]

Best post!

48

The whole point is this: You two guys are both admitting that those people you know who had 21" arms and did almost no direct work were FREAKS. How many people around here have the genetics to get to 21" arms in the first place? And further, if your genetics are not ‘freak’ level, why emulate exactly the training of someone who is FREAK?

It’s like talking to the guy who has had genetically gifted calves and says “I don’t do any direct calf work, nor have I ever needed to” and then thinking you don’t need to do any direct calf work either… even though your genetics aren’t the same as his.

FOr every guy who has ‘21" arms’ with close to zero direct work for them, I can bet you there are about a dozen or two guys who have done that tactic and are unhappy with their arm development. Curls exist for a reason.

49

[quote]Gregus wrote:
chilco wrote:
Brother… you are a bitter dude! Some BS…I don’t. My roomate went from bodybuilding to powerlifting and was indeed a genetic freak.
I wouldn’t shy from you in any way what so ever. There are many I’d walk down a dark alley with. You are not one of them. You hide behind a keyboard and spout your whimsical nonsense. You flame others with little regard.

You are most likely one the few people any one should take advice from. You make the error of mistaking humility for weakness, until you are lying flat on your back. You are a pseudo-intellectual with the personality of a snail. May God protect you and keep you fit. Remember it’s the outter quadrant of the glute, not the center, lest you hit the sciatic nerve!

LOL. You hit the nail on the head. Everyone here is such a side kick to the “professor”. lol. Whatever. No man has all the answers or experience. I don’t care if it’s Coleman or Rhul.

He likes being a big fish in a small pond. He’s a bit egotistical and does suffer from a superiority complex which he manifests through his pseudo intellectualism. But anyway.

My workout partner in the past was a Russian dude who had 18 inch forearms and 20 inch arms cold. His forearms were simply “ridiculous”. He has hugely muscular shoulders, upper arms and forearms and that’s on a small framed guy at 6 feet tall.

He built his musculature on pullups, pushups and direct arms work. But for his direct arms work he always went light to medium weight. He would do hammers starting with 40lb DB’s then superset down to 2.5lbs DB’s. He was the Golds gym freak for arm development. Yes he was a freak. Yes he did have bigger arms then most professional bodybuilders. So, i’ve seen it too and i believe your story.

The Professor won’t believe it because he has a hard time believing anyone could be “better” then him in anything. You know, the superiority complex thing.

[/quote]

I haven’t seen to many genetic superfreaks in my day but my roomate was one of them. The guy had wrists as thick as fireplugs and drank whole milk buy the gallons. I’m not sure if it was the milk or a “hot dose” of something he had taken along the way, whatever the case he was a brutally strong fellow.
As far as the Professor, well that’s forgotten. I’ll let him rant, criticize, etc., but when it comes down to calling me a liar then it’s like he just laid hands on me, and whether it’s online or in person we can rock. There’s nothing I love more than stomping on a bully that thinks arm size = heart!
I just get tired of all of the nonsense. Let’s face it, most of us in here know “the deal.” So let’s get beyond the ego and at times it’s okay to admit we have a weak bodypart here or there or our diet is not at 100%.
I have seen and trained with world class bodybuilder’s who actually got fat or carried alot during an off season. Did it surprise me???..Hell yeah. But after a while you realize all people have genetic weakness, character weaknesses, and yes vices. You show me something that is perfect and I’ll show something that isn’t!
I work with MD’s and attorneys all day long, and they usually fall into 2 classes: 1. nice guys 2. jerk offs
For the most part most of them fall into category 1. Those that fall into category 2 feel they have something to prove or can’t get past the fact they were on the high school band and weren’t scoring with the cheerleader’s or girl bandies.

50

[quote]Der Candy wrote:
The whole point is this: You two guys are both admitting that those people you know who had 21" arms and did almost no direct work were FREAKS. How many people around here have the genetics to get to 21" arms in the first place? And further, if your genetics are not ‘freak’ level, why emulate exactly the training of someone who is FREAK?

It’s like talking to the guy who has had genetically gifted calves and says “I don’t do any direct calf work, nor have I ever needed to” and then thinking you don’t need to do any direct calf work either… even though your genetics aren’t the same as his.

FOr every guy who has ‘21" arms’ with close to zero direct work for them, I can bet you there are about a dozen or two guys who have done that tactic and are unhappy with their arm development. Curls exist for a reason.[/quote]

We’re just shooting the breeze man. But you are right different strokes for different folks. In the end we gotta go with what works for us. Not you…but I can’t get past some of the hostility I’m reading on these posts. At this point I’m all for medical marijauna and nubain to chill some of these guys out.

51

Because the interesting this is, if you’re not gifted in the genetics department for arms, doing more direct arm work can be very counterproductive, just as it can be very productive for some.

My arms always grew better from heavy squats and pullups then arm curls as the main growth movement. My arms frustrated me and doing more work, more variety didn’t work. What worked was doing almost nothing for them. They grew to 19 inches from doing squats and deads, when in the years prior all the curls in the world for them to 17.5.

So there is a take home message there that will apply to some.

52

[quote]Professor X wrote:
chilco wrote:
My college roomate was enormous. He was a powerlifter and I can only recall him training biceps once in our 4 years of friendship. Dude benched 575 lbs. Did behind the neck presses with 375 lbs. for 3 reps. Well you get the idea.
His arms were well over 21 inches and on the day that I urged him to train arms with me I couldn’t believe how strong they were. He could literally stand strait up with very little sway in his barbell curl and use 225 lbs. for sets of 6.
His attitude was f*ck the bicep work “I’ll just go heavier on deadlifts.” He may have had a point???

He only had a point if you also have 21" arms from NOT training them.

I also won’t even go into how I feel about the truth of that claim…

On second thought…fuck it. 21"+ arms are nothing to play with. That is national level bodybuilder material and you are claiming he did that with no direct training?

Yeah…right.

Not to mention that how some big guy trains today may not be how they trained to get there.

Hell, there are pro bodybuilders who don’t have arms that big.

I will be glad when some of you start posting pictures of these claims. Everyone always claims they know someone as big as Ronnie Coleman who doesn’t lift yet we NEVER see these people in pictures or just walking around.

I also wouldn’t take the word of someone on this unless their arms were close to that size as well. It is damn near impossible for some much smaller guy to “eye” 21"+ arms accurately.[/quote]

Funny how Matt Kroc complained in his log that his arms (and delts I believe) are the only muscle-groups/bodyparts of his which haven’t grown in a decade or so… And in that time he went from one-arm DB rowing peanuts to 270 or so for 10 or something like that. Done 250 for 20 or some such crazy number, too, if not more. He also deadlifts a damn lot. He also benches a damn lot. Etc.

And yet he actually started including arms and delt days into his routine … (though his exercise selection is horrible ;D Sry Matt)

So I don’t believe any of those “my buddy/roommate/uncle/…”-claims, unless the person in question is 6’6 or some such or his name is Paul Dillet…

Btw LDC over at IM (Powerlifter who switched to DC) has Levrone-like Tricep attachments (size too :wink: and his arms obviously blew up from all the tricep/bench assistance work etc… His bis were lagging big time though and he can bb-row numbers with strict form that would probably make Matt Kroc jealous. Now that he’s training his bis directly he’s gained an inch or more in a fairly short amount of time…

Or look at Dave Tate. He got to his best shape/size when he was training with/under Justin Harris (who trained under DC too) and did more than enough direct arm work… And he’s always done quite a bit of tricep assistance work (and the last time I checked a Close-Grip BenchPress was still considered direct arm/tricep work… Add in Tate-Presses and such) to balance out his messed up pecs.

53

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Professor X wrote:
chilco wrote:
My college roomate was enormous. He was a powerlifter and I can only recall him training biceps once in our 4 years of friendship. Dude benched 575 lbs. Did behind the neck presses with 375 lbs. for 3 reps. Well you get the idea.
His arms were well over 21 inches and on the day that I urged him to train arms with me I couldn’t believe how strong they were. He could literally stand strait up with very little sway in his barbell curl and use 225 lbs. for sets of 6.
His attitude was f*ck the bicep work “I’ll just go heavier on deadlifts.” He may have had a point???

He only had a point if you also have 21" arms from NOT training them.

I also won’t even go into how I feel about the truth of that claim…

On second thought…fuck it. 21"+ arms are nothing to play with. That is national level bodybuilder material and you are claiming he did that with no direct training?

Yeah…right.

Not to mention that how some big guy trains today may not be how they trained to get there.

Hell, there are pro bodybuilders who don’t have arms that big.

I will be glad when some of you start posting pictures of these claims. Everyone always claims they know someone as big as Ronnie Coleman who doesn’t lift yet we NEVER see these people in pictures or just walking around.

I also wouldn’t take the word of someone on this unless their arms were close to that size as well. It is damn near impossible for some much smaller guy to “eye” 21"+ arms accurately.

Funny how Matt Kroc complained in his log that his arms (and delts I believe) are the only muscle-groups/bodyparts of his which haven’t grown in a decade or so… And in that time he went from one-arm DB rowing peanuts to 270 or so for 10 or something like that. Done 250 for 20 or some such crazy number, too, if not more. He also deadlifts a damn lot. He also benches a damn lot. Etc.

And yet he actually started including arms and delt days into his routine … (though his exercise selection is horrible ;D Sry Matt)

So I don’t believe any of those “my buddy/roommate/uncle/…”-claims, unless the person in question is 6’6 or some such or his name is Paul Dillet…

Btw LDC over at IM (Powerlifter who switched to DC) has Levrone-like Tricep attachments (size too :wink: and his arms obviously blew up from all the tricep/bench assistance work etc… His bis were lagging big time though and he can bb-row numbers with strict form that would probably make Matt Kroc jealous. Now that he’s training his bis directly his arms he’s gained an inch or more in a fairly short amount of time…

Or look at Dave Tate. He got to his best shape/size when he was training with/under Justin Harris (who trained under DC too) and did more than enough direct arm work… And he’s always done quite a bit of tricep assistance work (and the last time I checked a Close-Grip BenchPress was still considered direct arm/tricep work… Add in Tate-Presses and such) to balance out his messed up pecs.

[/quote]

So the point is that different thing work for different people. No approach works for everyone universally. And that’s the point of all of this. And with people that worked for with DC, the hallmark of their training was low volume high intensity.

Everyone should know by now that there are people who’s body parts will respond to low volume, high volume, heavy, light, direct work and no direct work. Then answer is not always as simple as go heavier or do more work. Sometimes it can be the opposite. Less work and less weight.

54

[quote]Gregus wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Professor X wrote:
chilco wrote:
My college roomate was enormous. He was a powerlifter and I can only recall him training biceps once in our 4 years of friendship. Dude benched 575 lbs. Did behind the neck presses with 375 lbs. for 3 reps. Well you get the idea.
His arms were well over 21 inches and on the day that I urged him to train arms with me I couldn’t believe how strong they were. He could literally stand strait up with very little sway in his barbell curl and use 225 lbs. for sets of 6.
His attitude was f*ck the bicep work “I’ll just go heavier on deadlifts.” He may have had a point???

He only had a point if you also have 21" arms from NOT training them.

I also won’t even go into how I feel about the truth of that claim…

On second thought…fuck it. 21"+ arms are nothing to play with. That is national level bodybuilder material and you are claiming he did that with no direct training?

Yeah…right.

Not to mention that how some big guy trains today may not be how they trained to get there.

Hell, there are pro bodybuilders who don’t have arms that big.

I will be glad when some of you start posting pictures of these claims. Everyone always claims they know someone as big as Ronnie Coleman who doesn’t lift yet we NEVER see these people in pictures or just walking around.

I also wouldn’t take the word of someone on this unless their arms were close to that size as well. It is damn near impossible for some much smaller guy to “eye” 21"+ arms accurately.

Funny how Matt Kroc complained in his log that his arms (and delts I believe) are the only muscle-groups/bodyparts of his which haven’t grown in a decade or so… And in that time he went from one-arm DB rowing peanuts to 270 or so for 10 or something like that. Done 250 for 20 or some such crazy number, too, if not more. He also deadlifts a damn lot. He also benches a damn lot. Etc.

And yet he actually started including arms and delt days into his routine … (though his exercise selection is horrible ;D Sry Matt)

So I don’t believe any of those “my buddy/roommate/uncle/…”-claims, unless the person in question is 6’6 or some such or his name is Paul Dillet…

Btw LDC over at IM (Powerlifter who switched to DC) has Levrone-like Tricep attachments (size too :wink: and his arms obviously blew up from all the tricep/bench assistance work etc… His bis were lagging big time though and he can bb-row numbers with strict form that would probably make Matt Kroc jealous. Now that he’s training his bis directly his arms he’s gained an inch or more in a fairly short amount of time…

Or look at Dave Tate. He got to his best shape/size when he was training with/under Justin Harris (who trained under DC too) and did more than enough direct arm work… And he’s always done quite a bit of tricep assistance work (and the last time I checked a Close-Grip BenchPress was still considered direct arm/tricep work… Add in Tate-Presses and such) to balance out his messed up pecs.

So the point is that different thing work for different people. No approach works for everyone universally. And that’s the point of all of this. And with people that worked for with DC, the hallmark of their training was low volume high intensity.

Everyone should know by now that there are people who’s body parts will respond to low volume, high volume, heavy, light, direct work and no direct work. Then answer is not always as simple as go heavier or do more work. Sometimes it can be the opposite. Less work and less weight.

[/quote]

The point was actually that even three powerlifters who pulled, pushed and squatted extreme numbers only got seriously impressive arms (well, matt’s still need a lot of work) once they started doing direct arm work.

Edit: And yes, you actually have to get stronger at those arm exercises. I just thought I’d mention it again, since people on here seem to believe that you somehow grow from just doing a program and then doing another one without ever thinking about lifting more and more…

These “everyone responds differently/everything works for a time etcetc” are such overused phrases. Right in the right context only.

None of the biggest bodybuilders or powerlifters got there from lifting “light”. All of them are extremely strong, whether that be for a 1rm or a 10rm. The only exceptions are the very few freaks like Dillet and Wheeler, and how many of those exist/have existed? 4 maybe? 5?

55

Look at Magnus Sameulsson and his direct arm work. He closed a CoC 4 as well.

This is the most idiotic thread. Add direct arm work and eat more. Once again, common sense reigns supreme.

56

Ok, what if someone adds direct arm work and their arms don’t get stronger? Like the OP. What then, more work? And if they still don’t respond? Even more work with heavier weight?

Doing the same or more of the same in the hope that the outcome will be somehow different is the very essence of insanity.

Some of you are truly one track minded in your training. lol.

57

[quote]chilco wrote:

2 words: KRAV MAGA

[/quote]

Is that one of the specialty coffee’s at Starbucks?

58

[quote]Gregus wrote:
Ok, what if someone adds direct arm work and their arms don’t get stronger? Like the OP. What then, more work? And if they still don’t respond? Even more work with heavier weight?

Doing the same or more of the same in the hope that the outcome will be somehow different is the very essence of insanity.

Some of you are truly one track minded in your training. lol. [/quote]

Why would you want to do more and more?
You add in some heavy-duty arm exercises, BB curls, Alt. offset Db curls, Close-Grips or IH/RGB’s or whatever and maybe one of the better extension movements and there you have it. If you don’t get stronger on those, maybe try to eat something once in a while? If you stall out, switch to a different exercise for some time?

Are you seriously trying to tell me that there are trainees out there who have their nutrition, rest and routine right but due to no reason at all can’t get stronger at fucking close-grip benchpresses ?

Why do you people think that exercises designed to target primarily the arm-musculature are somehow radically different from other exercises?

Just pick something that allows for good progression… No one here is saying that you should depend on something like reverse-grip one-arm pushdowns for tricep growth.

59

[quote]Gregus wrote:
Because the interesting this is, if you’re not gifted in the genetics department for arms, doing more direct arm work can be very counterproductive, just as it can be very productive for some.

My arms always grew better from heavy squats and pullups then arm curls as the main growth movement. My arms frustrated me and doing more work, more variety didn’t work. What worked was doing almost nothing for them. They grew to 19 inches from doing squats and deads, when in the years prior all the curls in the world for them to 17.5.

So there is a take home message there that will apply to some. [/quote]

A) do your arms only consist of biceps or something?
B) You progress on some arm exercises ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE and get bigger arms and a bigger you in general. This is somehow impossible to understand? How much did you curl and why the hell didn’t you do squats and deadlifts beforehand?

60

[quote]chilco wrote:
waylanderxx wrote:
chilco wrote:
Professor X wrote:
chilco wrote:

Brother… you are a bitter dude! Some BS…I don’t. My roomate went from bodybuilding to powerlifting and was indeed a genetic freak.
I wouldn’t shy from you in any way what so ever. There are many I’d walk down a dark alley with. You are not one of them. You hide behind a keyboard and spout your whimsical nonsense. You flame others with little regard.

You are most likely one the few people any one should take advice from. You make the error of mistaking humility for weakness, until you are lying flat on your back. You are a pseudo-intellectual with the personality of a snail. May God protect you and keep you fit. Remember it’s the outter quadrant of the glute, not the center, lest you hit the sciatic nerve!

lol did you just threaten to beat up Prof X? Interesting.

2 words: KRAV MAGA

[/quote]

Take your shit to the Combat Sports forum.