Arm-wise, I’ve definitely added some size to my biceps, although I don’t measure (the mirror doesn’t lie) so I can’t state specifics. Something else I’ve tried is doing my hammer curls and other single-arm movements in an alternating fashion, thus improving my strength levels as I’m able to focus on one arm at a time (keeping in line with Coach Thib’s contribution to this thread).
Now I’m to the point where I feel my triceps are falling behind, so I’m going to bump the reps up a bit on my triceps movements.
While I think the triceps benefit greatly from heavy loads, the fact that I’m working mine as an accessory movement after already hitting the pushing structure with heavy compound movements has proven to be a tad redundant. If I had a day devoted solely to arm movements, I’d feel free to go heavy again.
You have the knowledge but you do not believe… a watched pot never boils… so stop looking at yourself and focus on the workouts. set goals for your lifts, not your looks.
Take down all the mirrors in your house and wear baggy clothes to gym. never look at yourself because self-perception lies everytime. the way to tell if you’re getting bigger is by how much smaller other people are looking.
[quote]swivel wrote:
dude…you have no faith.
you have the knowledge but you do not believe… a watched pot never boils… so stop looking at yourself and focus on the workouts. set goals for your lifts, not your looks. take down all the mirrors in your house and wear baggy clothes to gym.
Never look at yourself because self-perception lies everytime. the way to tell if you’re getting bigger is by how much smaller other people are looking.[/quote]
as today I figured out valuable information wich I had not before:
I don’t load enough carbs because I wrongly tougth it was unneeded.
I do expect too much from arms, they are tightly related to my whole body weight.
I have to improve the neuromuscular connection, which only happens when you use the muscle.
I am too driven by numbers, I have to relax and flex.
I really perceive what you say, how smaller people that I already know they look (from my perspective), I tougth it was just my imagination. There are couple of gym goers which I met from time to time, obvious, they stay the same.
[quote]leon79 wrote:
juanjromero wrote:
the fact that I’m working mine as an accessory movement after already hitting the pushing structure with heavy compound movements has proven to be a tad redundant. [/quote]
that way is exactly the one that give me results.
[quote]
If I had a day devoted solely to arm movements, I’d feel free to go heavy again.[/quote]
This is my problem. I see tris lagging behind and for them the whole arm. forearm is growing well, biceps too, not the same for tris.
In my humble effin opinion, Your entire body isnt big enough yet to have big arms. Fuck the curls, get a bar, load the hell out of the thing and lift it off of the ground. This is what is going to happen.
Your body is going to go HOLY FUCK THIS BAR IS HEAVY. The result will be slabs of meat on your body that were put there because your body knows your going to be lifting heavy shit again soon. Your goal each time you do this is to lift more weight.
Next, take that bar and put it in a squat rack. Brace the bar on the top of your back or across your shoulders with your hands. Now squat down as low as you can. This is what is going to happen. Your body is going to go OH MY GOD IF I DONT HOLD THIS UP MY SPINE IS GOING TO BREAK!!!. The result will be even more slabs of muscle on that body.
If you can still walk after this, grab that same bar or some heavy as dumbells and lie down on a bench. Now press them up and down.
Now, put some chalk on those hands and grab a chin up bar and start doing those. Each time add more reps untill you are in the upper teens. When you reach this point get a dip belt and slap a 25 pound weight on it. Continue.
Now theres alot of people in this thread that have alot more experience than me and know alot more. But getting big and strong, science aside, comes down to this fact. In order to look like a beast, you need to lift weights like a beast.
Fuck arm days, you arent big enough yet to break muscle groups down like that. Stop worrying weather or not your tricep is overpowering your bicep and shit like that. Get a damn bar and deadlift the fuck out of it. You will grow like a weed.
[quote]mthomps wrote:
In my humble effin opinion, Your entire body isnt big enough yet to have big arms. Fuck the curls, get a bar, load the hell out of the thing and lift it off of the ground. This is what is going to happen.
Your body is going to go HOLY FUCK THIS BAR IS HEAVY. The result will be slabs of meat on your body that were put there because your body knows your going to be lifting heavy shit again soon. Your goal each time you do this is to lift more weight.
Next, take that bar and put it in a squat rack. Brace the bar on the top of your back or across your shoulders with your hands. Now squat down as low as you can.
This is what is going to happen. Your body is going to go OH MY GOD IF I DONT HOLD THIS UP MY SPINE IS GOING TO BREAK!!!. The result will be even more slabs of muscle on that body.
If you can still walk after this, grab that same bar or some heavy as dumbells and lie down on a bench. Now press them up and down.
Now, put some chalk on those hands and grab a chin up bar and start doing those. Each time add more reps untill you are in the upper teens. When you reach this point get a dip belt and slap a 25 pound weight on it. Continue.
Now theres alot of people in this thread that have alot more experience than me and know alot more. But getting big and strong, science aside, comes down to this fact. In order to look like a beast, you need to lift weights like a beast.
Fuck arm days, you arent big enough yet to break muscle groups down like that. Stop worrying weather or not your tricep is overpowering your bicep and shit like that. Get a damn bar and deadlift the fuck out of it. You will grow like a weed. [/quote]
Man, i am already doing 20rep squat, big (to my size) deadlifting and getting strenght. it is just working on advance for the days to come. But thanks for your words of encourage.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Come to think of it, in my whole life I actually have never taken any measurements of any of my muscle groups. I go by the mirror and my progression in the gym.
I measured my arms when I was a kid. I avoided taking even one measurement of my arms until years later when they hit 18". I remember reading an article by Larry Scott when I was in junior high about how the progress is MEASURABLY slow so frequent measurements could only discourage.
Considering how important the mental state is to making significant progress, anyone taking any more measurements than body weight on a frequent (weekly) basis is simply harming themselves.[/quote]
In the year i have been training, i seem to have missed the boat on all these weird hang ups… Measuring your arms every few days is fairly weird and bordering on OCD.
How about stop measuring yourself for 6 months add MORE food to your nutrition and train more.
Also Prof didnt you post as on stage that males at 40 yrs of age have all but no chance of adding serious amount of muscle… drug free of course ???
Also Prof didnt you post as on stage that males at 40 yrs of age have all but no chance of adding serious amount of muscle… drug free of course ???[/quote]
That’s not what I meant. There are guys in their 40’s who just started competing and are doing well as pros. It is simply fact that someone won’t be gaining over the age of 40 like they would in their 20’s and 30’s.
That is why TIME is a huge factor and also why so few people who claim they are going to “gain slowly” ever actually build enough muscle to impress anyone.
The point was don’t waste time now with the belief that you have plenty of it when it comes to true physique change and the gain of a lot of muscle mass.
I accepted my OCD clearly from the beginning. I am statistically compulsory.
I am not worried for measuring my arm, I just observed my arm looks smaller after working it directly than by compound. And I wonder Why. The whys in my opinion has been answered.
I am growing anywhere, women hand can assure that. Shirt sleeves and chest fullness is evident. Scale too. I am increasing half pound a week. that is a fact. It is muscle: waist going down, weight going up. Vascularity increasing every day. not just arms, chest and hips.
I certainly can assure you about aged 40’s man, that my body don’t know about the statement and keeps growing. I have to smile to the affirmation of some guys at gym that said I am on roids. wich is certainly false.
Once I reach my supposed natural limits which is calculated for another expert on “old people” at 170 pound, I will determine my route from there, as for now, I just keep doing naturally and conditioning and creating the foundation to become a complete bodybuilder.
[quote]Short Hoss wrote:
Noticed how it ignored the “eat more”.
I wouldn’t be suprised if he is the same size a year from now.[/quote]
Man, i am eating well, I am increasing 0.4pound per week.
I think i have to adjust my carb/protein/fat ratio. That is something I am going to adjust. I think i have to low carb ratio, I try to keep it on 40/40/20. will try with 50/30/20 or even 60/30/10. What is yours?
I am not same size than a month before, I am not same size than 2 months before, I am not same size than 6 months before. everything is inches greater.
If you are doing brutual chest and back work, then your tris and bis are being subject to a lot of load.
I never see anyone with a massive back and chest with spaghetti arms.
After your back workout, throw in 3 sets heavy curls and after your chest, 3 sets skull crushers,or 3 sets of close grip bench presses. Make sure you go a little heavier each week.
These are small muscles and don’t need loads of sets per se.
Hit them and quit them. Sounds like you are breaking your arms down too much by doing too much direct work on them.
[quote]York Plate wrote:
You might be over-training your arms.
If you are doing brutual chest and back work, then your tris and bis are being subject to a lot of load.
I never see anyone with a massive back and chest with spaghetti arms.
After your back workout, throw in 3 sets heavy curls and after your chest, 3 sets skull crushers,or 3 sets of close grip bench presses. Make sure you go a little heavier each week.
These are small muscles and don’t need loads of sets per se.
Hit them and quit them. Sounds like you are breaking your arms down too much by doing too much direct work on them.
2cents [/quote]
That would be ME !
I have grown up in the gym with the anti curls/bench mentality ^^
I fucking LOVE my squats/deads and DESPISE bench
I might try an arm specialization program see how that gets on
[quote]York Plate wrote:
You might be over-training your arms.
If you are doing brutual chest and back work, then your tris and bis are being subject to a lot of load.
I never see anyone with a massive back and chest with spaghetti arms.
After your back workout, throw in 3 sets heavy curls and after your chest, 3 sets skull crushers,or 3 sets of close grip bench presses. Make sure you go a little heavier each week.
These are small muscles and don’t need loads of sets per se.
Hit them and quit them. Sounds like you are breaking your arms down too much by doing too much direct work on them.
[quote]Corkonian wrote:
York Plate wrote:
You might be over-training your arms.
If you are doing brutual chest and back work, then your tris and bis are being subject to a lot of load.
I never see anyone with a massive back and chest with spaghetti arms.
After your back workout, throw in 3 sets heavy curls and after your chest, 3 sets skull crushers,or 3 sets of close grip bench presses. Make sure you go a little heavier each week.
These are small muscles and don’t need loads of sets per se.
Hit them and quit them. Sounds like you are breaking your arms down too much by doing too much direct work on them.
2cents
That would be ME !
I have grown up in the gym with the anti curls/bench mentality ^^
I fucking LOVE my squats/deads and DESPISE bench
I might try an arm specialization program see how that gets on
[/quote]
I think he is suggestion to workout arms same day than back/chest, i have seen results with that approach, he added to me, the what to do. I supposed it worked for him.
I have made arm specialization and I had to stop the others, so, arm received full attention and rest, leading them to grow as in fact it was.
Also Prof didnt you post as on stage that males at 40 yrs of age have all but no chance of adding serious amount of muscle… drug free of course ???
That’s not what I meant. There are guys in their 40’s who just started competing and are doing well as pros. It is simply fact that someone won’t be gaining over the age of 40 like they would in their 20’s and 30’s.
That is why TIME is a huge factor and also why so few people who claim they are going to “gain slowly” ever actually build enough muscle to impress anyone.
The point was don’t waste time now with the belief that you have plenty of it when it comes to true physique change and the gain of a lot of muscle mass. [/quote]
Man, i asked CT about this, I think all the post about my workout is because I see this way:
I work every part to make it grow and by that make the whole grow. But everybody sugest doing just plain work to make the whole to grow without caring about the parts, and left that for the after.
Would you say that this is acurate?
Now, it is never big enough, months ago I was 139 and I tought I would be happy on 160, now i am 154 and think I will be happy on 170. then, If I am never happy with weight, and keep just pumping with disregard the parts, when is the working the parts time?
I’m not sure why your not following the advice of many respected members on this site. Let’s get a few things straight.
First , you are small. At 154 lbs , there is no point in measuring yourself every week let alone working your lagging points for the sole fact that EVERY PART is a lagging point.
Second off , what are your goals? If you are not a bodybuilder , why do care your biceps are a little “small”?
Simply put , I’ve seen too many posts from you that worry about little things. Stop nitpicking and get back to the basics. Once you get up to 180 lbs, then start specializing.
[quote]juanjromero wrote:
<<< Now, it is never big enough, months ago I was 139 and I thought I would be happy on 160, now i am 154 and think I will be happy on 170. then, If I am never happy with weight, and keep just pumping with disregard the parts, when is the working the parts time?[/quote]
Emphasis mine
This is a good sign in my book.
Nobody is saying to disregard individual body parts, but only that getting yourself caught up on one or two will distract you from the main goal of getting bigger overall.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
juanjromero wrote:
<<< Now, it is never big enough, months ago I was 139 and I thought I would be happy on 160, now i am 154 and think I will be happy on 170. then, If I am never happy with weight, and keep just pumping with disregard the parts, when is the working the parts time?
Emphasis mine
This is a good sign in my book.
Nobody is saying to disregard individual body parts, but only that getting yourself caught up on one or two will distract you from the main goal of getting bigger overall.[/quote]
[quote]zooropa1150 wrote:
I’m not sure why your not following the advice of many respected members on this site. Let’s get a few things straight.
First , you are small. At 154 lbs , there is no point in measuring yourself every week let alone working your lagging points for the sole fact that EVERY PART is a lagging point.
Second off , what are your goals? If you are not a bodybuilder , why do care your biceps are a little “small”?
Simply put , I’ve seen too many posts from you that worry about little things. Stop nitpicking and get back to the basics. Once you get up to 180 lbs, then start specializing.[/quote]
The issue is not me accepting I am small, I know it, when I reach 200 I will still think “I am small”. I DO CONSIDER MYSELF A BODYBUILDER, others are repeating me that because I am small, I am not a bodybuilder. all my posts are around arms.
I wil take your advice in a general hint, because I have to determine that basics, because if I ask, start all over again. Many posts are because I react to OTHER people that do not bother to read all the thread. I have to stop that from my side.
