Arms!

[T1DMMA2BB]

Ok so I am a pretty big guy but my arms do not match the rest of me. They are small (well I think so). Currently about 16.5 inches. I have not been able to get them larger even after hitting them twice a week. I want a routine that will help with this. Already in cycle and eating pretty clean and taking in the necessary protein. Ideas?

[BikerTrash]

Ok so I am a pretty big guy but my arms do not match the rest of me. They are small (well I think so). Currently about 16.5 inches. I have not been able to get them larger even after hitting them twice a day. I want a routine that will help with this. Already in cycle and eating pretty clean and taking in the necessary protein. Ideas?

Your hitting your arms twice a day? Sounds to me like you need to give them a rest , Possibly over training them and not giving them time to heal and grow

[T1DMMA2BB]

Your hitting your arms twice a day? Sounds to me like you need to give them a rest , Possibly over training them and not giving them time to heal and grow

Sorry Biker I meant twice a week. Post corrected.

[BikerTrash]

Ahh , that makes sense now ,
I always work mine twice a week ,I do Bicep with Back day and Tricep with Chest day .
The arms get used in so many different ways and lifts that there easily over trained with little to no time to recover.
Do you switch up the routine you use to train bicep and tricep ?
I have found that switching it up from week to week seems to help a lot . I will use the easy curl bar one week for biceps and next week use the straight bar and mix in dumbbell curls as well with hammer's

[T1DMMA2BB]

I have tried so many different workouts for arms. Im not sure if I should tax them harder when training or switch up the routines that I am doing. I do do the one exercise with back and chest for bi's and tri's. What do you usually do for arms? I always do DB's and incorporate the EZ bar quite a bit or cables. I havent used the straight bar in a long time actually. I should get that in the mix.

[Dawgpound_Hank]

Ok so I am a pretty big guy but my arms do not match the rest of me. They are small (well I think so). Currently about 16.5 inches. I have not been able to get them larger even after hitting them twice a week. I want a routine that will help with this. Already in cycle and eating pretty clean and taking in the necessary protein. Ideas?

No magic bro - just plain ol' hard work on the basics. Barbell curls, dumbell curls & preacher curls for bi's, and close-grip bench, skullcrushers & cable pushdowns for tri's are enough to build guns for any stage. If that don't do it, just chalk it up to genetics. Try dropping back to 1x per week for arms - sounds like you might be overtraining them.

[A.B]

I was in the same boat for years. Smaller arms and when I was running a decent cycle this is how I made them grow.

I've always been a heavy lifter. Go big or go home mentality. I rarely hit arms. But what I did was biceps with back and triceps with chest. When I lifted them though I went light weight, and very high reps, always too failure.

I know this sparked a growth in my arms cause of all the years of heavy lifting my arms got used to it. Heavy bench, heavy deads, heavy military press, weighted pull ups. Switching to low weight high reps sparked the growth I wasn't getting from years of just heavy

[DGAF]

I got pretty big arms and I train them once a week, bis and tris together. My routine takes about 20-25 mins total in and out of the gym. I do 3 exercises for bis and 3 exercises for tris. I do 10,8,6 reps each exercise.

Biceps:
*Alt. db curls- 3 sets, 24 reps total
*Alt. db hammer curls- 3 sets- 24 reps total
*Seated db concentration curl- 3 sets- 24 reps total

Triceps:
*Cable push downs(cambered bar)- 2 sets(10,8) in and 2 sets out(10,8)- 36 reps total
*Tricep curl(reverse grip on cambered bar)- 3 sets- 24 reps total
*Tricep rope- 3 sets- 24 reps total

That's my basic routine, takes about 25 mins. My arms are sore and tight afterwards.

[T1DMMA2BB]

No magic bro - just plain ol' hard work on the basics. Barbell curls, dumbell curls & preacher curls for bi's, and close-grip bench, skullcrushers & cable pushdowns for tri's are enough to build guns for any stage. If that don't do it, just chalk it up to genetics. Try dropping back to 1x per week for arms - sounds like you might be overtraining them.

I was in the same boat for years. Smaller arms and when I was running a decent cycle this is how I made them grow.

I've always been a heavy lifter. Go big or go home mentality. I rarely hit arms. But what I did was biceps with back and triceps with chest. When I lifted them though I went light weight, and very high reps, always too failure.

I know this sparked a growth in my arms cause of all the years of heavy lifting my arms got used to it. Heavy bench, heavy deads, heavy military press, weighted pull ups. Switching to low weight high reps sparked the growth I wasn't getting from years of just heavy

I got pretty big arms and I train them once a week, bis and tris together. My routine takes about 20-25 mins total in and out of the gym. I do 3 exercises for bis and 3 exercises for tris. I do 10,8,6 reps each exercise.

Biceps:
*Alt. db curls- 3 sets, 24 reps total
*Alt. db hammer curls- 3 sets- 24 reps total
*Seated db concentration curl- 3 sets- 24 reps total

Triceps:
*Cable push downs(cambered bar)- 2 sets(10,8) in and 2 sets out(10,8)- 36 reps total
*Tricep curl(reverse grip on cambered bar)- 3 sets- 24 reps total
*Tricep rope- 3 sets- 24 reps total

That's my basic routine, takes about 25 mins. My arms are sore and tight afterwards.

Thanks guys I appreciate it. Ill try dropping back to once a week and going till failure. I also wanted to ask what rep range high reps is. I have quite a bit of endurance from MMA. Should I still go till failure if it means I can knock out 20+ or should I just increase the weight? I appreciate the help for sure.

DGAF do you increase the weight for your sets?

[DGAF]

Thanks guys I appreciate it. Ill try dropping back to once a week and going till failure. I also wanted to ask what rep range high reps is. I have quite a bit of endurance from MMA. Should I still go till failure if it means I can knock out 20+ or should I just increase the weight? I appreciate the help for sure.

DGAF do you increase the weight for your sets?

Yup, increase weight and lower reps.

[Dawgpound_Hank]

I got pretty big arms and I train them once a week, bis and tris together. My routine takes about 20-25 mins total in and out of the gym. I do 3 exercises for bis and 3 exercises for tris. I do 10,8,6 reps each exercise.

Biceps:
*Alt. db curls- 3 sets, 24 reps total
*Alt. db hammer curls- 3 sets- 24 reps total
*Seated db concentration curl- 3 sets- 24 reps total

Triceps:
*Cable push downs(cambered bar)- 2 sets(10,8) in and 2 sets out(10,8)- 36 reps total
*Tricep curl(reverse grip on cambered bar)- 3 sets- 24 reps total
*Tricep rope- 3 sets- 24 reps total

That's my basic routine, takes about 25 mins. My arms are sore and tight afterwards.

How can one rest/recover enuff between sets to use heavy weights when performing 19 sets in 25 minutes dude?

[Dawgpound_Hank]

Thanks guys I appreciate it. Ill try dropping back to once a week and going till failure. I also wanted to ask what rep range high reps is. I have quite a bit of endurance from MMA. Should I still go till failure if it means I can knock out 20+ or should I just increase the weight? I appreciate the help for sure.

DGAF do you increase the weight for your sets?

Typically going 20+ reps isn't going to build much size for arms. However, you may not fit into that "typical" category and may benefit from the advice A.B gave you. However, before going that unorthodox route, it would be wise to post the routine, reps, total scheme you have done in the past that has given you 16.5" arms. Only then can one give you a more tailored program.

Also, how long have you been hitting the iron seriously? If not so long, you will get bigger pipes just from hitting the Mac Daddy exercises like bench, militaries, bent rows, chins, etc etc.

[DGAF]

How can one rest/recover enuff between sets to use heavy weights when performing 19 sets in 25 minutes dude?

A set of 10 reps only takes about 15-20 seconds if you bust them out, so even at 30 seconds per set that is only nine and a half mins of actual lifting, so I got time in between sets to rest and recover. I don't have to be in the gym an hour to do 6 exercises for arms, cause they are easy to do and I don't have to change the weights or anything, just pick up the dumbells and rock n roll. If it takes you any longer than a half hour to do arms then IMO you are either over training them or you are not doing them correctly and using way to heavy of a weight where you take 5 mins each rep or you are talking to much. My arms are a good size at almost 19" and that's all I do for them and they grow like crazy. I curl a lot too bro, I am working my way up to 100lb dumbells , I am on 75lb dumbells right now for my last set of 6 reps. When I did do barbell curls I could curl 205lbs for 2 reps on a max set after all my other sets, and all the while I was only in the gym less than a half hour training on arm day.

[DGAF]

My advice for the original poster would be to go in the gym and try a few different ideas out and see which works well for him. Like go in there for a month or two and try doing a few exercises for bis and a few for tris and do a scheme like I do and see if it works, if not try more sets, less reps each set, or more weight, or till failure. Trial and error, everyone is different so everyone will respond to something different than the other guy. I know guys that don't train calves at all and theirs are huge and cut, and I know guys that train them 2-3 times a week heavy and got nothing.

[reps]

I have big arms and didn't always have big arms. I found that years of heavy lifting didn't get me to where I needed to be in muscular stature. I mix it up everyworkout for example doing bis I do seated dumbbell curls, hammer curls, one arm preacher curls and then finish with one arm cable curls light weight strict form. I do tris with two arm overhead dumbbell ext, skull crushers, machine pushdowns then do cable single arm reverse grip pushdowns light weight strict for contracting all the way through the movement. a lot of people miss the mind muscle connection and just lift the weight, this takes practice to get down and hard work, you gotta feel the weight to be a bb and lift the weight to be a pl or ol. good luck
reps