I Have observed that guys who easily develop back and chest, very often have arms that are their lagging body part. Many of these guys have short arms so the chest and back do the majority of the work in bench, and row/pullup (usually a good thing).
The problem is exacerbated when they do their direct arm work eg curls. They use too much weight, and use momentum to get the weight started, keep it going with swinging and don’t accentuate the negative. That’s great if you want to impress the guys in the gym with a heavy curl, but it isn’t going to do much to bring up your lagging biceps.
Its likely you need to seriously drop the amount of weight you are doing for both bi’s and tri’s, slow the tempo at the very least for the negatives(you can do this for the positive too, see what feels the best). This will allow you to really feel the muscles working and take more dominant muscles out of the pattern. Seated rather than standing will also help to stop you using body momentum. Short rests between sets can help to focus on the pump 30secs-1min max.
For arms it’s all about pump work. Heavy barbell curls isn’t what’s gonna make them grow - using less weight, in a rep range of like 8-12, and focusing on the contraction is. If you really wanna bring them up, I would try to hit them at least twice a week. For biceps, base your workout around dumbbell curls, barbell curls, or preacher curls. The former is what works best for me.
You don’t need to completely obliterate them. Hit about five sets of 8-12 dumbbell curls, then do a pump movement after that, like concentration curls. Find the minimum it takes to make your biceps grow and add to that as needed. That’s the basics. Also, my biceps never grew until I started using full range of motion. You can use partials on your pump movement.
[quote]Miller308 wrote:
Also, a friend of mine who has HUGE arms said to count the reps after I start feeling the burn.
[/quote]
He is right. This is because you lack the mmc to make use of heavy weights at lower rep ranges.
What you want to do now is NOT purposefully use exercise variations that force you to go light or eliminate cheating etc, but use methods to improve on your mmc since that should be the objective. Once you do that, you can make anything work.
For example, from what your friend suggested, you can something barbell curls for high reps at the start, with the objective of getting as much of a pump as possible. Then, do standing dumbbell curls as heavy as possible for 6-8 reps. Notice the difference when your biceps are pumped up. Squeeze the weight up forcefully from the bottom, maintain the contraction all the way and lower the weight under control with the biceps. You CAN cheat as long as you are lifting the weight with your biceps. You can end up doing a weird dance like Branch Warren as long as the mmc is there.
In the end, you should be able to do this without pumping up your biceps at the start because your mmc is good enough. The arms are just like any other bodypart. You can train them the same way.
What about 1 bicep and 1 tricep exercise, per session, twice per week.
The dips and rows and chins and presses will wear your arms out. You won’t have the juice to do tons of arm work. Just finish 1 upper body session with your incline curls, and a tricep extension with elbows “out.” Do barbell curls and a tricep extension with elbows “in” to finish another upper body session.
This way you get more frequency, without adding tons of garbage arm volume.
I’ve read in sciences that small muscle groups like your arms can recover from exercise in 12 hours. So, theoretically, you could even do 1 bicep and 1 tricep, pump style move on 1or 2 of your lower body days. In scientifical theory.
Lots of guys talk about doing hi rep tricep pushdowns with bands or something on an off day. Not exactly a whole arms day. Just something to do besides drinking beer while you watch football. I just started this week.
Pun,
I thought I saw some grenade balls in your last photo. How do you like those things? Years ago I had a softball with a screw-eye in it, but it was kinda whack.
Miller,
As far as tempo and reps, I agree with beyond. Slow execution, especially on the negative. Hold the peak contraction for a pause. Do many reps. Make this the opposite of your strength work.
Grenade balls are pretty nifty. I don’t really get much of a “grip strength” benefit from them, but I like them for relieving elbow pain. Having that open hand for curls, extensions, pulldowns, etc really goes a long way. A heavy duty carabineer makes them pretty versatile too, and they’re dirt cheap. Elitefts always has some sort of sale going, and a bunch of other companies make analogues as well.
Don’t fall for the trap of thinking compound movements are enough for big arms. You NEED isolation to make your biceps grow. For triceps, you can get away with it more.
Also, what the guy above said about MMC is also very important.
Height is about 5’9"
Weight is around 190-195. I’m having quite a bit of fluctuation so I don’t have an accurate measure.[/quote]
Jeez, I’m about the same size as you (5’9" on a tall day and around 200lbs) and I’m sitting around 14.75" biceps. I guess I’m going to have to work on these girls as well. Never found their size to be un-proportionately small though.
Although last night was my first direct bicep exercise in awhile, like you mostly compound lifts.