Proportions

[Chemo]

Whats everyones opinions of controlling your proportions.

Id like to get some mass on just the tris n bi's, I have a reasonably deep chest, and my shoulders seem to develop well. Is it worth trying to fight my "genetics" and whats the best strategy to do this?

More work on the arms? less on the arms?

Changing my workouts to involve less chest and more arms?

[tinytraps]

Train everything hard and let the rest take care of itself. Oh and do more squats. Lots more squats.

[PeterDolan]

I think I understand your question but let me clarify..

You arms are lagging behind your upper body and you want to know how you should go about bringing them up to match your chest/shoulders?

Jot down your current split, exercises, rep ranges, intensity and usual diet for the day of and after training arms

[Chemo]

Exactly PD. I have a naturally deep chest, tris are ok but overall the arms are lacking the bulk.

My old split. I had been using this up to 3 weeks ago.

M Legs

T Pressing movements

W Rest

T Back and Bis

F Shoulders, Traps Calves

S Bis N Tris

S rest

My new split

M bench and bis

T Legs

W Abs and Cardio/Rest

T Back and Tris

F Shoulders, Traps Calves

S Speed training, Cleans, Ballistics

S Rest

Diet, roughly the same everyday, with snacks of broccolli and pb and veg around the clock.

M1 - 2 scoops of oats, 1-2 fruit, 2 scoops of whey. Coffee & Water

M2 - Whey, half water and milk

M3 - 280g tuna/chicken (30g p) with veg or rice

M4 - 280g tuna/chicken (30g p) with veg or rice or whey

M5 - Pre workout. Oats n whey / rice and meat / supps

Intra workout - some sort of bcaa's, just got some true protien custom mix, taste like arse... tough months ahead lol

Post workout - Shake 2 scoops of whey, milk and water, oats and glucose

Intra Cardio Martial arts BCAA mix/with glucose

M7 Meat n veg or if its quite late cottage cheese and splenda.

[tomsammce]

dedicate a day to arms. this will help. use correct form with reasonable weight.

heres a secret... a bicep curl is a bicep exercise. not a shoulder and lower back exercise.

(lol)

[Mrbig]

its just the way you are bro (genetics) some body parts will respond better than others if it was easy we would all be huge and have perfect physiques

just train the whole body hard and heavy and let the genetics do the rest

oh or synthol hahaha

[Creatine]

Whats everyones opinions of controlling your proportions.

imo, worry bout it when you're big enough for lagging bodyparts to become immediately apparent at first glance, providing you train your whole body.

If a 50kg guy were to tell me he's going to do extra calf and chest work because they're lagging, i would say "dude, your whole body is lagging!"

My training philosophy is to get as big/strong as i can as fast as i can.

Proper exercise selection, change in volume and/or intensity if bodyparts arent responding can help prevent bodyparts from lagging too much.

As they say, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

[Bobsta]

If you're goal is to improve the apearance of your body or physique competitions, absolutely always train to improve your proportions and overall balance. Thats the whole point of bodybuilding, building a better physique! To aimlessly just train to get as big as possible is definitly not the way to go, unless you're just working towards being a power/strength athlete (or just love taking up a lot of space :pfft: ) and not worried about bodybuilding.

To let your genetics take care of everything takes the whole art of bodybuilding out of the equation and you can potentialy miss out on having a great looking physique because you just believed you're stuck with what was handed to you genetically.

I do agree with creatine in the regards that you need to build a good base first but once you've got some overall size start to work towards creating that master piece. And yes you can definitly create a more balanced body by being smart about your training :nod:

[thatwaslight]

Agree 100% with you bobsta if you train your whole body aimlessly and have a lagging bodypart you will just end up a bigger version with the same problem.

For me i have lagging triceps and i wish i had put more emphasis on them earlier on in the piece as now i'm 30kg heavier which is great but i still have lagging triceps.... as bobsta said train smart and get the most out of your physique :nod:

[musclenz]

Train legs & back heavy & with good form & intensity & the rest of your lagging body parts have to grow to keep up :grin:

[Chemo]

Ah fk genetics, been battling that my whole life. So I guess the general consensus is that its not worth the time ?

Any harm in removing bench for close grip for a while?

[tomsammce]

Ah fk genetics, been battling that my whole life. So I guess the general consensus is that its not worth the time ?

Any harm in removing bench for close grip for a while?

close grip bech press is one of the best mass builders for triceps. what exercises are u even doing?

[lightscribe]

Co-signing Tom. Your training your strong points first, and hitting your lagging arms after??? once your already significantly fatigued??? Easy fix bro... Smash a arms only day. Hit Bi's or Tri's first, depending on which has the best development, an what part responds the easiest...

[Creatine]

Agree with you guys in some respects. I believe exercise selection and technique are big factors in laggin bodyparts.

For example, I did bodybulding style bench press(wide grip,elbows flared to the side and bar coming down to middle to upper chest) when i first started lifting and my chest grew alright but my tris didnt respond well. At that time lying and overhead tri extensions were the only "mass builders" i was using for tris, the rest being cable movements.

To make a long story short, my triceps have improved alot since then from changing to PL style bench, adding closegrip for tris, locking out in all pressing movements. This with just from tweaks to technique and exercise selection without adding extra work or puting more emphasis on them during the week.

If your bi's are lagging, experiment with supinated pullups and rows in your back workout or change the order of exercises in your bi workout like dorian does with his pre exhaust due to overpowering shoulders, etc..

My point is, trying to get as big as you can, as fast as you can and building proportion arent mutually exclusive. Its just about experimenting with different exercises and techniques and find the ones that fit your body, levers etc.

[PeterDolan]

Intensity is relative too. You'll need to start adding negatives/forced reps/rest pause. You need your split to work around your goals like Tom and Dan said. I'll put this as a template and others say what they think

M - Chest & Ant/Med Delts

T - Back & Calves

W - Rest

T - Bi's & Tri's

F - Quads & Hams & Claves

S - Rest

S - Rest

Exercise selection is huge so tell us what you usually do

[Chemo]

Ah ok ok ok . Looks like I have to revise my split again, possibly add an arms day or start the workout with bis and tris on the split mentioned above.

Any opinions on rep range? lately ive been hitting the 10-12 range for the isolated movements, and when i do the compound stuff, i stick to the lower reps, sometimes even down to threes. In Hopes to stimulate the muscle twice a week and in slightly different ways.

"locking out in all pressing movements." Cheers will try keep technique in mind. Gotta try slowing the down motion as well.

Tom:

For tris I do press movements on tues. all 6-8ish reps heavy compound stuff

bench, incline, military/overhead press.

and on thurs (back day) I come back and hit tris with isolated movements, like press downs, tri extensions, skull crushers, cable kickbacks rope pull downs. etc

Thats my latest split though, up until recently it was a press day, chest and tris, and then id come back another day for bis and tris, both splits hitting the arms at leas twice.

Cheers for the input

[vracula]

close grip benchpress and dips put mass on my triceps,they are so tired after those 2 excerscises that I hardly ever do skull crushers,I know some people say that tricep kickbacks dont add mass but I have had good results with it and it burns my triceps to no end.Rope cable pushdowns also are part of my tricep routine I had read somewhere that it provides more activation to the tricep then using a bar.The key is form in my opinion..Another trick I have learnt is to grip what ever your doing really tight it activates alot of your arm muscles ,right from your forearms to your shoulders just try making a nice white knuckle fist right now youll know what Im talking about (think I got it off tnation.com).I have had no trouble getting mass on my arms.

but god help me trying to get mass on my fckin calves :evil:

also for biceps I start of with a set of 21's ,picture this curl halfway 7 times (bottom half of your rep range) ,curl halfway (top half of the rep range) 7 times and the 7 more curls full rep range. so that adds to 21 reps. pick a nice light weight and feel the burn.

I honestly think that bicep and triceps dont need more than 3 excerscises a session ,although working them twice a week would def help.

[tomsammce]

For tris I do press movements on tues. all 6-8ish reps heavy compound stuff

bench, incline, military/overhead press

these are shoulder and chest exercises not really tricep, even though your triceps are beign recruited.. when i do a bench or shoulder press i dont think of my tris being worked.

close grip bench, skull crush, overhead db press (two hand on db behind neck), cable pushdowns (lean over the bar and put head on either side of cable push down heavy, ok to cheat abit on this). these are the so called mass builders for tricep. tho the cable exercises can add just as much mass to them as well. just go lighter on cables and really feel it in ur tricep. if u are feeling it in ur shoulders u not doing right. sort ur stance out and get that mind/muscle connection going... feel the burn!

[tomsammce]

u on cycle too right? well site ur triceps (i not really a believer of site injections but it cant hurt if you think your trying everything else). they really easy to do and dont feel any where near as strange as doing your biceps, nop big vein to watch out for either.

[Chemo]

Na not on cycle bro. So its a good idea with this new split to focus some lighter weight on the isolation movements and hit the 8-12 range?

Looks like I have to add arms day back in for sure.

and yeah 21s are a bitch

[startinfromscratch]

Na not on cycle bro.

theres your problem!

[Chemo]

Lol, so I've been told.

[lightscribe]

Yea bro.. Arms only day. + keeping switching it up with some good intensity techniques. ie Negatives, Rest pause, Drops sets ect... Allow a few weeks to start seeing results assuming ur diet is on point. You should get a pretty intense arm pump if ur hitting it hard and correct. \:D/

Also, have your say maybe, 3 stable exercises you do every time, then throw something new an random in each work out.

IMO Incline seated DB curls and seated consideration curls are the best. Get a mad squeeze on both to avoid shoulder an momentum doing the work. Also make sure to utilise the negative. Always focus on Contraction/positive, Static = (squeeze/hold) an negative... Don't neglect any of these on your reps and ur guns will thank you. :nod:

[thatwaslight]

u on cycle too right? well site ur triceps (i not really a believer of site injections but it cant hurt if you think your trying everything else). they really easy to do and dont feel any where near as strange as doing your biceps, nop big vein to watch out for either.

what head do you inject into bro?

My laterals are really lagging but im scared there isnt enough mass to inj into LOL

[tomsammce]

u on cycle too right? well site ur triceps (i not really a believer of site injections but it cant hurt if you think your trying everything else). they really easy to do and dont feel any where near as strange as doing your biceps, nop big vein to watch out for either.

what head do you inject into bro?

My laterals are really lagging but im scared there isnt enough mass to inj into LOL

i dnt really like to give how to's in detail over net bro as u cant really explain properly, but unless ur laterals are smaller than the pin then u shouldnt have problem lol. if unsure just start on 1/4 of a ml each time and work up.