[quote]daneq wrote:
wicked08 wrote:
INCREASING WEIGHT ISN’T THE ONLY WAY TO GET RESULTS.
thank you.
[/quote]
It deffinately isn’t the only way to get results, but it sure is a helluva good way. I’ve never failed in increasing size by getting my lift numbers up.
I agree with Mr. Popular. Especially for someone with under 15 inch arms (I assume a relative beginner), strength should be the primary goal.
Intensity techniques have their place when the body is more developed and much quicker to adapt to exercises.
Strength is also a relative term. Advising a beginner to aim for more weight on their sets of ten is still very good advice for the pursuit of mass. A true strength routine would be low rep sets, which is NOT what his advice is.
Your arms aren’t gonna grow(fast)if the rest of your body stays small. Those intensity techniques would make more sense if you were going from say 17 to 18. But 14.75…you need to eat and train…eat and train…
I’m 6’7" tall and have a 7’0" wingspan. My best advice is to go simple and go heavier. It took me a while to figure this out. Don’t do too many exercises focusing on the bicep. Get a lot of your bicep work in on exercise where the bicep is secondary. Work on your overall strength and everything else will come along, as some have mentioned. Also, eat plenty, as many have said already too.
I usually isolate biceps once a week and it’s never the primary focus of the workout. At your stage, the focus of your workouts should be the larger muscle groups first. The smaller muscles will come along. It may not be the most glamorous way to go about, but it’s the right way… and in the long run, your biceps will blow by all the curl jockeys at the commercial gym.
well long arms can’t suck that much look at magnus samulson, he is 6’7 and has huge wingspan yet has 20+inch biceps. Don’t make excuses for yourself.
[quote]MasterfulStroke wrote:
I am 6’0 and my wingspan is 6’4 and I have slightly larger than 17 inch biceps at this moment. So stop whining.
Oh, and deadlifting is my best lift. The long arms help for that.[/quote]
Word. Long arms only help in the deadlift. By the way, your bicep size isn’t 14". Your ARM size is 14". Work on your triceps and your arms will get bigger. Triceps make up 2/3 the size of the arm.
[quote]shizen wrote:
well long arms can’t suck that much look at magnus samulson, he is 6’7 and has huge wingspan yet has 20+inch biceps. Don’t make excuses for yourself. [/quote]
Couldn’t agree more. I am 6ft 6", not sure of my arm span, but I can tell you that it may be hard work getting there, but at least you can get there, the shorter guys will always be short (no offence intended).
If you are tall and put the effort in, you will gain the size and eventually look like a beast.
I’m 6’4" with a 6’5" span, toting 14 inch noodles.
Considering I started at 11.5" I’m pretty proud of my increase so far.
Im 5’10" and have a 75" wingspan. Long arms are the best. Get stronger and you can make up for the stuff the short arm guy beats you at, then you can beat them at what they are made for and better at what you have an advantage at, its the best of both worlds man. And if you disagree with me, your wrong so shut up.
[quote]brains wrote:
Word. Long arms only help in the deadlift. By the way, your bicep size isn’t 14". Your ARM size is 14". Work on your triceps and your arms will get bigger. Triceps make up 2/3 the size of the arm.
[/quote]
Good to see someone mention the tri’s. If you truly want larger arms, focus on increasing the strength of you triceps. Look to heavy lifting (3 reps x 8-10 sets) to hit your fast twitch fibers which have the most potential for growth; close grip bench, decline scull crushers, weighted dips, etc. Bicep work should really be secondary. Personally, I like incline DB curls, and preacher curls for bicep work vs standing curls.
Also, take a look at Thib’s article today for bicep work.
http://www.T-Nation.com/article/most_recent/up_for_a_quickie
Triceps and Biceps together = big guns…
My biceps suck, but my triceps are what helps my arms look bigger.
You’ll find that if you gain weight as other have said all over (squats/deadlifts/benching/o-lifts/etc) you’ll be able to gain more in your amrs too.
Eat well, consume some extra calories, and have a day where you focus on your Tri’s and Bi’s. Thibs article on biceps is good as Shawn stated above, and search for some of the tricep ones.
[quote]LeanCleanLaw wrote:
My goal is to get 16" biceps.[/quote]
Or 16" arms? Then dips would help. Triceps are 2/3 your arm size. Increasing your tricep size will increase your arm size faster. Chins are also a great help. Don’t be stuck with just bicep curls. Train hard. Train smart. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
I’m 6’3 I’ve my arm mesurement is over 18 inch and in my case heavy ass curls is what works best(reach failure at 6 reps at best), I keep the overall volume low and try to hit the biceps 2x a week, notting fansy just dumbell and barbell stand up curls
edit: you can have big arms without having impresive biceps + big forearms make your arm look much bigger (I’m still working on those)
Thanks to all that provided useful advice.
I am going to keep this thread in mind as I start my program.
Could some of the taller guys list their max for curls, deadlift, etc.?
This will give me a ball park figure to shoot for because everyone knows that goals are important for achieving results.
[quote]LeanCleanLaw wrote:
Thanks to all that provided useful advice.
I am going to keep this thread in mind as I start my program.
Could some of the taller guys list their max for curls, deadlift, etc.?
This will give me a ball park figure to shoot for because everyone knows that goals are important for achieving results.[/quote]
I’m 6’4’’ and 245lbs
I’ve never gone to my max on this but, since you wanted it… here. I’ve only been training (properly) since July, so I’m probably not the best guy for motivation 
Deadlift = 335lbs x2
EZ Bar Curl = 110lbs x4
6’2"
245 lbs
520 max on dead lift
100 max on curl
I agree, I do not think long arms help lifters with arm-involved exercises. Look at my deadlift max I listed. Now look at my bench. 210-230. I haven’t maxed in a while, but that’s about my estimated max on bench. I do think that big, long arms are more impressive than big, short arms though. I guess once I get those 20" arms, it will look sick. Have about 3 inches to go.
Oh, and I’ve never touched a weight in my life before September of 2007 for reference.
6’4" 175 lbs
Deadlift: 295 lbs
Standing Bicep Curl: 100 lbs
I’m a beginner though. (Only 8 months training and 5 of those seriously.)
if it were me I’d really look into programs that will up my deadlift poundages. This is one lift you can be an absolute freak at. It will allow you to move great weights comparatively speaking. If you don’t think deads are a good way to build your bi’s talk to one of the thousands who have torn biceps doing dead lifts. I would dead 2x a week, once 10x3 and 3 days later 4x10, and be sure to not be a pussy when it comes to eating. A dead centric program will drive your appetite through the roof, listen to your body.
That’s your bi and overall weight gain portion along with chins.
Tri’s will be challenging for you, I’d stick with a more hypertrophy based scheme for tris with 4x10 pressing movements, flat bench (elbows more in then out), weighted dips 4x10 and fuggin eat.
as far as a program, don’t go nuts on other stuff if you want your arms to grow. Focus on them, do barely maintenance on everything else, eat and rest.
[quote]pushpulljunkie wrote:
as far as a program, don’t go nuts on other stuff if you want your arms to grow. Focus on them, do barely maintenance on everything else, eat and rest. [/quote]
I didn’t really have a problem with your post until you said this.
Come on man. From your pictures you look like a relatively experienced guy.
The OP has 14 1/2 inch arms, you REALLY THINK he needs to specialize on his arm size at his level? You don’t think he should be concentrating more on making gains ALL OVER HIS BODY?
So much flaming going on here, when did it become acceptable to come to T-Nation and act like a bunch of 12 year-old girls?
If the OP gets significantly stronger on bench/pullups/chinups/dips, and gains 30 lbs, his arms will be bigger. Anyone want to disagree? Now stop the bickering guys.