Why does everyone have this “bare minimum” mentality lately?
What if he gains 30lbs, gets stronger on his bench/pullups/dips, AND gets stronger on his curls and tricep extensions?
Do you honestly believe that will make no difference?
We’re talking about what would be best to do, not what would be barely acceptable as the minimum results you could achieve.
Are you kidding, you are a lucky bastard to have arms that long. Many deadlifters are very jealous of you.
???
With each new thread things get more bizarre.
I’m sure you already know what to do to get those bigger arms. Just keep going. Train your whole body, don’t just do arms, and don’t skip arms either, do it all.
Also, long arms are great, if you had little short arms you wouldn’t be able to tie your shoes.
With long arms comes a tall body. Women LOVE tall men, not short men with short man’s complex who drive Tonka trucks jacked up high to compensate for their lack of god given height.
[quote]joburnet wrote:
Eat my ass. I’m 5’9 and I would kill you slowly to be 6’2.[/quote]
AMEN.
[quote]djwhizkid wrote:
do lots of chin ups and heavy deadlifts…[/quote]
i think thats good advice for anyone no matter the problem.
Start walking around with your chest puffed out, invisible propane tanks under each arm and respond to everthing with “WHAT BITCH!!”. Then everyone will think you are jacked.
[quote]RPC wrote:
With long arms comes a tall body. Women LOVE tall men, not short men with short man’s complex who drive Tonka trucks jacked up high to compensate for their lack of god given height.[/quote]
Eat my ass. I drive a 1991 Honda Accord and would kill you slowly for that truck.
6’1" 220 lbs
Deadlift 530 x 1 (Probably closer to 560, as I was foolish enough to jump from 530 to 585 and got it off the ground, but crashed and burned. Stupid me.)
standing dumbbell hammer curl 100 lb dbs x 3 Sorry, haven’t done heavy straight bb curls in…well, a long time.
dumbbell row–130x20, 150x12—thrown in to show you that heavy rows do help your arm strength and size.
Now, to be fair, my arms suck size wise because I don’t do any isolation work for the biceps (16.5 inch, flexed, cold). Well, almost none. In 6.5 years of lifting I can count only about 2 months where I actually did have an “arm day”. I’ve started throwing some in when I’m bored at the end of a training session (which is rare b/c I’m usually cramped and/or limping and/or wanting to throw up). This was mostly because I find that higher rep curls (20-30ish) help with tendon pain (thanks Eric Cressey!!). No real size benefit there though.
I would believe isolation exercises work if I were a bodybuilder. But I’m not, and I don’t chase the “pump”. Still, the point is, if you can’t row heavy weight, you also can’t expect your biceps to be huge. Your back has to support the weight you curl.
You know, I would typically agree with people who advocate intensity techniques (drop sets, clusters, supersets, etc) because they work well. However, you mentioned you’d been training for only about 1 year. You are still a n00b. You need to get bigger in total bodyweight and get stronger in general, including biceps AND triceps.
The general rule is this–get stronger (in general) as much as you can. When you can’t get get stronger in the basic lifts, change your rep scheme for a while. So if you’re training 3x10 for 2 months, and you progress and then stall for the next month, change your rep scheme! Do 10x3 or 5x5 with heavy weight for a while, and you’ll grow again. Intensity techniques are fine for you to throw in once in a while–they make lifting fun–but you’re new enough not to need them, so just get strong doing regular exercises. Key words are “once in a while”. And if you don’t eat for muscle gain, you won’t grow.
BTW Mr. Pop,
Call me crazy but deadlifting 2x a week is more then enough stimulation to increase overall muscle gain, especially with a 10x3 day mixed in. I said don’t go nuts above maintenance because any more work isn’t likely to make a difference. Also, read up on some of Thib’s specialization articles and you’ll see where I’m coming from.
My whole point is that the OP is clearly a beginner and doesn’t need any “specialization” yet.
Telling a newbie to do “barely maintenance on everything else” is crap advice, and I don’t care how you want to spin it.
You find me one bodybuilder who has built an impressive physique through just specializing in the deadlift and then maybe ill change my mind.