Puny arms HELP!

[thatwaslight]

My arms just refuse to grow past 17.5, and although everything else is coming along nothing I do seems to budge them.

Has anyone else got stuck before and can recommend a solution?

Arms is once a week with supplementary work done on compound days, typical arm day revolves around close grip/floor press, cables & bar pushdowns, skulls, barbell curls, db curls ect 25-30 sets

[tomsammce]

how do u structure the workouts i.e supersetting bis and tris, or all tris first then all bis, or alternating them as you go? have u tryed really high rep days?

your bicep muscle is only about the size or an orange yet people put as much focus onto if not more than they do muscles twice they size.... (stimulate not annihilate)... you would probably know that tricep makes up mmore than half of your arm muscle mass so haveing bigger triceps will make your arms bigger perhaps put more effort into them.... another thing to take into account is your form... its so easy to cheat on arm exercises without even really being aware of it... make sure your not using ur shoulders or back... go abit lighter and feel the burn in ur arms.

Mint.

[HarryB]

how do u structure the workouts i.e supersetting bis and tris, or all tris first then all bis, or alternating them as you go? have u tryed really high rep days?

your bicep muscle is only about the size or an orange yet people put as much focus onto if not more than they do muscles twice they size.... (stimulate not annihilate)... you would probably know that tricep makes up mmore than half of your arm muscle mass so haveing bigger triceps will make your arms bigger perhaps put more effort into them.... another thing to take into account is your form... its so easy to cheat on arm exercises without even really being aware of it... make sure your not using ur shoulders or back... go abit lighter and feel the burn in ur arms.

Mint.

What he said! Focus on form and don't worry too much about weight. Work through a full ROM and try a variety of angles.

[HarryB]

how do u structure the workouts i.e supersetting bis and tris, or all tris first then all bis, or alternating them as you go? have u tryed really high rep days?

your bicep muscle is only about the size or an orange yet people put as much focus onto if not more than they do muscles twice they size.... (stimulate not annihilate)... you would probably know that tricep makes up mmore than half of your arm muscle mass so haveing bigger triceps will make your arms bigger perhaps put more effort into them.... another thing to take into account is your form... its so easy to cheat on arm exercises without even really being aware of it... make sure your not using ur shoulders or back... go abit lighter and feel the burn in ur arms.

Mint.

What he said! Focus on form and don't worry too much about weight. Work through a full ROM and try a variety of angles. More tricep than bicep work and keep in mind they get a lot of ancillary work when training your big bodyparts, so smash them hard then give them time to recover.

[Bobsta]

Agree with Tom and Harry focus on that form.

Drop the volume a bit. For bi's especially do slower reps, single arm preacher curls done slowly with full ROM work real good, flex the biceps continuously as you go through the ROM, at the top keep flexing hard and use your triceps by flexing them also to bring the weight down as you keep flexing your bi's, if that makes any sense.

Also incorporate some reverse curls, almost always people get a growth spurt in their arms when they start strengthening the brachialis. 3 sets of 10-12 should do for reverse curls.

[Bobsta]

Oh and one more thing bro, 17.5" is pretty decent. Normaly passed a certain point of training experience the arms will just grow according to the rest of the body.

The general idea is for every inch on your arms you need to add around 4kg's of muscle to your frame. Not sure how heavy you are at the mo but say you are 95kg's, by the time you hit 105kg you should have 20 inch arms :nod:

[Mrbig]

bobsta

you say 95kg obviously thats lean but how lean??? when I was 101kg relativly lean I wasnt close to 20inch arms Ive also heard the 4kg to 1inch theory just curious I remember you saying your arms were 18inch at 98kg??

pretty sure TWL is around that weight but couldnt he be lighter by dropping bf and still have the same size arms but with better condition??

[thatwaslight]

Cheers fella's.

Bobsta interesting you mention reverse curls I was just reading something by Charles poliquin that backs up what you've said so will give those a go.

I def focus more on my triceps as they are especially stubborn.

20inch arms! I think I'll need some pretty Devine intervention to get there!

[tomsammce]

yes bobsta is right... hammer and reverse curls something i forgot to mention... i always do 3 or 4 sets of hammer curls at end of arm workout.

on the other hand everyone has their fast and slow growing body parts... ur shoulders are pretty mean bro and look like they grow quick as hell maybe ur arms are a little slower.

[Riccardo]

Hey TWL looks like we have similar stats and by the looks of your pic, similar back genetics :pfft: My arms currently are at 18" and ive found that if you want your arms to grow sometimes you have to just stop training them.

it seems counterintuitive but sometimes when you're constantly hammering your arms they just stagnate, give them a rest for a couple weeks and let them get stimulated from pressing, rowing etc. then come back after 2 weeks and smash 'em again.

[samoan_muscle]

Hey TWL looks like we have similar stats and by the looks of your pic, similar back genetics :pfft: My arms currently are at 18" and ive found that if you want your arms to grow sometimes you have to just stop training them.

it seems counterintuitive but sometimes when you're constantly hammering your arms they just stagnate, give them a rest for a couple weeks and let them get stimulated from pressing, rowing etc. then come back after 2 weeks and smash 'em again.

I agree with this....I train arms once sometimes twice a month...

[tomsammce]

Hey TWL looks like we have similar stats and by the looks of your pic, similar back genetics :pfft: My arms currently are at 18" and ive found that if you want your arms to grow sometimes you have to just stop training them.

it seems counterintuitive but sometimes when you're constantly hammering your arms they just stagnate, give them a rest for a couple weeks and let them get stimulated from pressing, rowing etc. then come back after 2 weeks and smash 'em again.

I agree with this....I train arms once sometimes twice a month...

wanna flex off? (maybe homo) lol

[samoan_muscle]

Hey TWL looks like we have similar stats and by the looks of your pic, similar back genetics :pfft: My arms currently are at 18" and ive found that if you want your arms to grow sometimes you have to just stop training them.

it seems counterintuitive but sometimes when you're constantly hammering your arms they just stagnate, give them a rest for a couple weeks and let them get stimulated from pressing, rowing etc. then come back after 2 weeks and smash 'em again.

I agree with this....I train arms once sometimes twice a month...

wanna flex off? (maybe homo) lol

LOL maybe...(but no homo)

[Specter]

I agree with this....I train arms once sometimes twice a month...

wanna flex off? (maybe homo) lol

LOL maybe...(but no homo)

3x flex off..(fuk all homo)

[Riccardo]

x4 (so ho mo)

[Bobsta]

bobsta

you say 95kg obviously thats lean but how lean??? when I was 101kg relativly lean I wasnt close to 20inch arms Ive also heard the 4kg to 1inch theory just curious I remember you saying your arms were 18inch at 98kg??

pretty sure TWL is around that weight but couldnt he be lighter by dropping bf and still have the same size arms but with better condition??

Yea that's it mate, obviously that's not just 4kg of bodyweight but actual muscle gain. Yea and also re my arms 18" at 98 kg, they were also 18 at 88kg on comp day, as I carry bugger all fat on my arms no matter how fat I get, so again it's all about the actual muscle gain rather than just body weight.

[jimjim83]

Hey TWL looks like we have similar stats and by the looks of your pic, similar back genetics :pfft: My arms currently are at 18" and ive found that if you want your arms to grow sometimes you have to just stop training them.

it seems counterintuitive but sometimes when you're constantly hammering your arms they just stagnate, give them a rest for a couple weeks and let them get stimulated from pressing, rowing etc. then come back after 2 weeks and smash 'em again.

I agree with this....I train arms once sometimes twice a month...

Thats terrible advice to grow you stop training, shit like this really shows the standand of advice given on here.

[Dontrunwithknives]

Cheers fella's.

Bobsta interesting you mention reverse curls I was just reading something by Charles poliquin that backs up what you've said so will give those a go.

Mean pump from maxing reverse curls and then superset normal curls :nod:

[samoan_muscle]

Hey TWL looks like we have similar stats and by the looks of your pic, similar back genetics :pfft: My arms currently are at 18" and ive found that if you want your arms to grow sometimes you have to just stop training them.

it seems counterintuitive but sometimes when you're constantly hammering your arms they just stagnate, give them a rest for a couple weeks and let them get stimulated from pressing, rowing etc. then come back after 2 weeks and smash 'em again.

I agree with this....I train arms once sometimes twice a month...

Thats terrible advice to grow you stop training, shit like this really shows the standand of advice given on here.

f*ck off idiot.

Whats the size of your arms...17 inches?

[jimjim83]

I agree with this....I train arms once sometimes twice a month...

Thats terrible advice to grow you stop training, shit like this really shows the standand of advice given on here.

f*ck off idiot.

Whats the size of your arms...17 inches?

hahaha If it works so well why dont you try it with all bodypartss you would be able to do 1 week on and 3 off.

And i guess when training twice a month doesnt work you can just turn to synthol aye Samoan Fail? bhahahaha

Yeah have used it 3-4 years ago but nothing like the protocols you see online however.

Max I've done would 3ml each bicep head twice a week.

Got some significant size gains out of it...

Have been training / eating rather causually for the last 2 years and would say I've lost most of the size that was gained.

My recommendation would be to only use it when you're lean..

[HumanPerformance]

Specialization,

Cut back on the volume,ferquency,and intensity of all other bodyparts. So only perform the bare minimum required to maintain the current size of everthing, which may only mean training these bodyparts once every 10 days or 2 weeks. Train your arms 3 or 4 times a week for 8 weeks or so.

Even if you lose size in other bodyparts during this time they will bounce back quickly once you start training them regularly again.

You want to get all your bodies resources to used on your stubborn bodyparts during this period. If the bodypart is particularly resistant to any further growth you may have to spend a period of time when just train it, and train nothing else. I once spent 3 months just training my legs (3 times a week) many years ago just to bring them up to par with my upper body.

This is the fastest way to bring up a lagging bodypart,believe me I have tried everything under the sun with clients over the years when it comes to bodyparts that wont respond and this is the best approach by far.

[PeterDolan]

Check yo form. I'd say due to the size of your shoulders, they are quite strong and consequently get used more often in your curls or heavy presses more than you realise. My advice, pre exhaustion with a machine movement before moving on to your free weights and just to be conscience of your form, possibly selecting exercises less inclined to allow your shoulders to help.

[Riccardo]

lol jimjim stopping training of a particular body part is a well known technique to promote new growth, a muscle's recuperative capacity can be diminished when you consistently hammer it week in and week out, your arms already get significant stimulation from most rowing movements, chins and pressing movements etc. So cutting back direct arm training allows muscles time to actually grow. You don't grow in the gym you grow when your resting!

This has been given as advice by guys such as Dave Tate and others at eliteFTS as well as many other guys who know what they are talking about.

[jimjim83]

lol jimjim stopping training of a particular body part is a well known technique to promote new growth, a muscle's recuperative capacity can be diminished when you consistently hammer it week in and week out, your arms already get significant stimulation from most rowing movements, chins and pressing movements etc. So cutting back direct arm training allows muscles time to actually grow. You don't grow in the gym you grow when your resting!

This has been given as advice by guys such as Dave Tate and others at eliteFTS as well as many other guys who know what they are talking about.

Hey advice from samoan fail is always good stop training arms and inject synthol. Really shows the training is working, but hes got 24inchers so listen to the expert, right Adam?

[train hard]

my 2 cents 25 to 30 sets is way too much for arms especially on top off the stimulus they are getting from your other upper body workouts 17.5 aint too bad bro especially when you look at where you started you should be able to get the job done with 8 sets each max for bis and tris but this is bodybuilding and unfortunately there is not a single training template that will work best for everyone keep at it and those stubborn bastards should grow. the two best exercises that helped me where cheat curls and close grip benches done heavy 8 to 10 reps to failure