You just asked the self professed noodle arm club about arm growth! But since you asked…
I blame my lack of arm size on years of neglect, it may also be dreadful genetics, probably a combo of the both. I know the times where I have seen arm growth were periods of chasing progressive overload in generally the 6-8 rep range, not the typical pump style work. Flip side of that I struggle to get a good pump anywhere, even with NO preworkouts or taking beet supplements or citrulline or any of the other things (vanadium, Chromium etc!) Not necessarily through lack of MMC my body just isn’t particularly pumpy - so it might be I work best there due to lack of pumpage.
I don’t think chins or dips work well for arms either, maybe for certain people they do but not for me or even the majority. The problem with the heavy stuff is thought that you can easily take over with the non target muscles particularly in cgbp. In summary from my limited experience focused isolation work where you can still utilise decent loads and progress weight over time is the ticket.
But neither of you guys are giving me hope here, your both on cycle or have cycled and still have crap arms - that was going to be my last resort
I know Brian’s work and physique (ran dark horse last year and loved it) I’m going to go out on a limb and say his arm genetics are decent - a lot of powerlifters do cgbp and chins and still have meh arms.
This is my sentiment and definitely the route I’m taking!
All relative. Compared to average joe, they are pretty good. Compared to how I would like them to look (Arnold’s arms in his prime), they are a long long way off. I would say I am kinda built like Omar Isuf (not as lean as he currently is though) if you know who that is.
Yeah, I can Bench 375, and do a total weight chin with about 300 lbs, and I have a great back and chest…
100% agree. I think I’m there on biceps, FINALLY. But now I’ve got to figure out triceps. The back of my arms from elbow to rear delt is almost flat, it’s so sad mane
Did all 8 working sets on chest supported iso row with 125lbs of weights per handle, which is a pr. I’d usually drop the weight a touch for final couple sets. So that’s good.
I started triceps and got an important phone call I had to take. Lasted a good while and my pump and motivation was gone lol. I did manage to do incline skill crushers with ezcurl bar and actually felt something! Worked up to the 80lb bar and did a couple sets to failure. I guess playing around with them at home has helped with the mind muscle connection, so I was happy about that.
You ever try tricep kick backs lying on your stomach on the bench holding weights neutral and finishing the movement with palms facing up? You can use pretty light weight(15-20) and get a good squeeze at the end and hold for a second. Those blow my tris up. I also do rope pull downs bent over a bit using 2 ropes so you can get a fuller range of motion. These also hurt me.
I just had the best workout of my life. Like, I didn’t want it to end. Towards the end when I was losing my pump and just getting drained, I was so sad it was over. It was that good.
Hit 10 seated DB OHP with the 75’s no problem. Had 1-2 more reps in me for sure!
Finished out with the 75’s and had the best mind muscle connection ever for delts.
The whole workout I had such a great mind muscle connection, even rear delts which is rare. Found a new “cue” that works for me. It’s like I’m trying to split my chest open straight down the middle, for some reason it helps lol.
Biceps were amazing as well. Turns out I have (atleast) one big vein running down each bicep on the top. Gonna look so cool when I’m lean
So what’s this mysterious biceps solution that you have suddenly found? Asking for a friend. You probably mentioned it somewhere above, but I am behind on logs.
Nice on the OHPs, repping the 75s like that is no joke.
The biggest thing is effort I think, and the extra volume I’m sure. And flaps idea to swap biceps for push days and triceps for pull days has kept my elbows and tendons happy enough to do it.
It basically went like this:
Ok, I’ve got to try harder
Ok, this is definitely harder! Givin it all I can!
Wait… no you’re not you pussy.
Did this for about 3 cycles and finally figured out a bicep can take Tripple the abuse your mind can.
So now when I take a bicep exercise to failure, it’s really failure. I’ve also made sure to focus on good reps with good contractions as well as choose the limited exercises for me where I feel them the best.
Now, I have tiny arms, and I’ve only recently got confirmation that it’s finally working, so please don’t take any of this as gospel and feel free to laugh.
Also, thanks for the compliment on the 75’s! I was stuck at 70’s for a while. Then last week (maybe? Last push day for sure) after a few reps with the 90’s the 75’s feel so much better. Maybe more confidence now, who knows.
I watched a dude with a physique I’d love to have so his whole work set with 100’s. He was upset they didn’t have 125’s. So, I wanna be like him.
Also, that may make zero sense. It’s 3am and I’m up because I just died a gruesome death after fighting for my life for a while in my dreams clearing my head with some forum time. That was all typed half asleep with one eye shut. I might completely disagree when I wake up again.
Perhaps you need the new 30-10-30 workout. It added 17 lbs of muscle in 14 workouts according to today’s article. Really, you should give it a read, I was snickering the whole time. There are before and after pictures. Apparently the after picture is 6’2", 211 lbs and just a bit below 8% BF. My scale and perception of my BF must be way way off. I guess I am now 250 lbs, at 3% BF, if the after picture is correct.
Dude it’s so annoying. I even got an email about that. There are thousands of fitness related forums online now days, and To me, T-nation is one of THE best for not having gimicky click bait crap and an active user base of stupid people. To me this just drags the forum down.
I will say my life is better now that I’ve blocked that whole sub forum of fat cult people.
I just don’t understand how people don’t fall off that bandwagon. I thought the creatine I bought would add an inch to my arms, and 10 lbs of muscle to me in a month when I was 14-15, but after one month I learned my lesson about outrageous claims. After that I was never swayed by an advertisement in muscle and fitness again.
I guess if we all could do two or three 13 minute workouts a week and look like a pro, we would all likely just be doing that.
