arms refuse to grow...what do?

[roughneck_jones]

OK I'm 6'1", 205, and I've been lifting serious for going on 3 years. What I started I was 245. I got down to 192 last year then decided to start eating everything so I could put on some good weight. it has worked alright, although I'm back to trying to lose a few pounds and hit 15% bf before I try my first cycle. Here's my deal though: my effing arms won't get any bigger. I'm curling more, benching more, doing more weight all the way around, but I have these long as arms (6'4" wingspan), and I can't get size on them.

I've tried switching routines, I've lofted heavy, I work on getting good squeeze, I've tried finishing with arm stuff every day. They just stay long and thin despite strength gains. Whatcan I do about this?

 

[49ER]

Command those mutha fuckas to grow

 

[Southernfish]

Being tall is tough when your trying to put size on. Even it you do put some size on the length of the muscle makes it look like nothing is happening even though something IS happening.

DO NOT train arms heavy, that wont do anything. At least not right now. Train them lighter with high reps, 12-15, and do you reps slow. Getting a full stretch and a full squeeze. A trick to get a full stretch is to contract your tricep at the bottom of the movement. Doing this ensures you bicep is fully stretched. And when you bring the weight up there should be NO swinging or movement of the elbow OR shoulder. Take BB curls for example, when doing them you will notice that if you standing tall with your shoulders back you will only be able to get the weight about half ways up (forearms parallel to the ground or slightly higher) squeeze the shit out of them at this point, that is fully contracted. You start lifting the BB higher and now your using delts, or lower back to bring the weight up.

You also want to hit you biceps at different points of the strength curve. You want to hit them where they are weakest first (fully stretched, and fully contracted) then hit them in the mid range. The mid range is what most people hit for every single exercise they do. Bb curls, DB curls, hammer curls etc.

Try something like this.

Standing double arm cable curls (pulling behind your head) this hits the bicep at its most contracted state.
Incline DB curls, this hits your biceps at the fully stretched state
BB or DB or concentraion curls, these hit your biceps at midpoint of the strength curve (where you are the strongest).

And dont get stuck in the same routine. Switch it up. There are variations of all these exercises you can do, so do them. The worst thing you can do is the same thing over and over and over again.

Also get some light DBs or a band and do little feeder workouts every night. Do 100 reps of VERY light weight ever night at home to swell that muscle up, and pump blood and oxygen into it. Dont do this to tear them just enough to get a good pump. Bis and tris.

Thats a run down of the biceps Ill post up one for tris when I have some more time later today

 

[NightRaidsONLY]

Train for the pump in the arms. Force as much blood into them as possible and when
Impose the pump, just stop. Cuz your wasting calories if your not
In the pump. Take a look at rich piana. When he was young his arms were the weak link. So we're mine. Schredder is right on point^^^^^.

The day to put the 55# DB's and picked up the 30's and start trInkng for pure pump...PAINFUL pump...my arms really grew quick. So lighten the load, train for the pump, strict form and hit from multiple angles. Don't forget deadlift and pull-ups.

 

[tbonexl]

Eat!

 

[Ziegler]

Reverse curls and close grip bench press are good. Keeping them pumped a lot is good too.when I was younger I used to go into public bathrooms of places and do tricept dips on the toilet everywhere I went and come out all pumped up. And the handicap stalls I would do rows to get a bicept pump. I woas always finding ways to keep my arms pumped up all day.Train light one week train heavy the next week don't train at all eat and sleep for one week then repeat. that week off is when they grow and will eventually see size on cold arms.

 

[Ziegler]

Reverse curls and close grip bench press are good. Keeping them pumped a lot is good too.when I was younger I used to go into public bathrooms of places and do tricept dips on the toilet everywhere I went and come out all pumped up. And the handicap stalls I would do rows to get a bicept pump. I woas always finding ways to keep my arms pumped up all day.Train light one week train heavy the next week don't train at all eat and sleep for one week then repeat. that week off is when they grow and will eventually see size on cold arms.

 

[3J]

try to mix heavy and light reps.. do a reverse pyramid setup with drop set at the end.. it should blast your arms..

the idea is to fatigue them with high weight and then go low weight for reps..

 

[Southernfish]

So for triceps you want to have a similar set up as biceps with regards to hitting all points of the strength curve. Work on the weakest parts first then the strongest parts.

I would do something like this

Dips, with a machine, because with a machine you can keep much more tension on the tris as opposed to the free hanging dips. This will hit your tris at the most contracted state.

Then I would do something over head like a DB extension, this will hit the tris at their most stretched state.

Finish with something in front of the body like a cable pushdown or even skullcrushers.

And when you are doing any sort of cable pushdown, vary your stance in terms of how far away or close you stand to the cable itself. Dont stand in the same spot all the time. With cable pushdown the force is greatest when the cable is at 90° to your forearm. So varying stance will allow you to hit different parts of your tricep.

Try this to finish off your workout sometime.

Take a straight or cambered bar and set it up on a cable. Stand close to the cable like a normal pushdown would look like, now take 2 steps back. Do 10 reps at that distance then take one step forward and do 10 more reps then take another step forward and do another 10 reps. Its somewhat of a drop set without actually dropping weight (i cant remember the name of it). The further you are away from the cable the heavier the weight seems and it gets lighter as you move in.

The main thing is too FEEL the weight and actually work the intended muscle group. You lift too heavy, now youre not doing that, youre working other muscle groups. And make they burn, get such a pump its painful and then keep going. If the arms arent burning theyre not gonna grow. With this type of blood volume method you also stretch your fascia, which is the protective tissue that surrounds your muscle. So pump the shit outta them and stretch it out.

Another awesome exercise is cable kick backs, I love those for finishing off, you can get a really good squeeze if you do them correctly.

And one last thing, with bis AND tri keep your elbows close to your body at ALL times. NEVER let them flare out. You do that, and youve taken tension off the muscle.

 

[roughneck_jones]

Wow. I can't thank you guys enough for the feedback. I'm starting a routine tomorrow based on a combo of some of the principles I learned in the Powerlifting links forum. I plan on using arm work in both my warm ups and then as you guys are saying, I'll fight for that painful pump to finish off....I can't really post before pics because I'm on the rig, well I could get someone to take them for me, anyway, we gonna make this happen. Thanks for the awesome info, this MB has me filling up my screenshot album.

 

[roughneck_jones]

Schredder, bro. I gotta tell you, that on my dynamic bench day yesterday I finished with your suggested arms movements. Blew those fuckers out. haha I could hardly hold my arm up to brush my teeth tonigbt. That's what I'm talking about. Can't wait for max effort bench Friday so I can do it again. I assume that finishing every workout with those lifts I'll risk over training or tendinitis...am I right? The already feel bigger though, and I know yall feel me when I say that feeling is like crack....not that I've ever done crack..anyway

 

[Big Al 89]

Lots of good advice in here... I'm struggling with arm size as well haha. One thing that's been working for me lately though is close grip bench. I go extremely slow on the negative, pause, then on the way up squeezing the tri's like crazy and trying to spread the bar apart. One set takes close to a minute going so slow, but I can really feel the tri's burning.

 

[anzel]

Schredder, bro. I gotta tell you, that on my dynamic bench day yesterday I finished with your suggested arms movements. Blew those fuckers out. haha I could hardly hold my arm up to brush my teeth tonigbt. That's what I'm talking about. Can't wait for max effort bench Friday so I can do it again. I assume that finishing every workout with those lifts I'll risk over training or tendinitis...am I right? The already feel bigger though, and I know yall feel me when I say that feeling is like crack....not that I've ever done crack..anyway

Tendinitis always ends up rearing its ugly head with me. But I think if you pay attention and dont go too heavy you can avoid it. Schredders layout is pretty much low weight high rep volume style so just watch the weight and if you feel tendenitis starting then stop what your doing and rest. Cause if you're like me I dont pay attention to it when it starts happening and I make it worse.

 

[anzel]

Schredder, good point about doing dips on a machine. !

 

[Southernfish]

Schredder, bro. I gotta tell you, that on my dynamic bench day yesterday I finished with your suggested arms movements. Blew those fuckers out. haha I could hardly hold my arm up to brush my teeth tonigbt. That's what I'm talking about. Can't wait for max effort bench Friday so I can do it again. I assume that finishing every workout with those lifts I'll risk over training or tendinitis...am I right? The already feel bigger though, and I know yall feel me when I say that feeling is like crack....not that I've ever done crack..anyway

Excellent! And for those movements, keep a variety of angles as well, free weights, cables, machines, different grips and whatnot. Pretty well every exercises can be done on different platforms.

As far as tendonitis goes. Theres no specific exersice thats going to cause that. What i do believe can irritate it though is gripping the weights TOO HARD. I remember when I used to train biceps heavy id grip the bar so hard that after a few sets i couldnt even hold the bar my wrists and hands were so pumped. Remember the hands are to be used as a hook and the actual bicep or tricep should take the weight. You grip the weight to hard then the forearms wrists and hands do most of the work.

 

[anzel]

Excellent! And for those movements, keep a variety of angles as well, free weights, cables, machines, different grips and whatnot. Pretty well every exercises can be done on different platforms.

As far as tendonitis goes. Theres no specific exersice thats going to cause that. What i do believe can irritate it though is gripping the weights TOO HARD. I remember when I used to train biceps heavy id grip the bar so hard that after a few sets i couldnt even hold the bar my wrists and hands were so pumped. Remember the hands are to be used as a hook and the actual bicep or tricep should take the weight. You grip the weight to hard then the forearms wrists and hands do most of the work.

Damn! Another good point! Thats what I do! See, sometimes its the simple stuff that we overlook...

 

[Southernfish]

Damn! Another good point! Thats what I do! See, sometimes its the simple stuff that we overlook...

Exactly man. Thats also the main reason why guys' backs dont grow. Refusing to use straps and therefore having to use to much grip strength to move weight rather than the actual back muscles

 

[bonexyster]

OK I'm 6'1", 205, and I've been lifting serious for going on 3 years. What I started I was 245. I got down to 192 last year then decided to start eating everything so I could put on some good weight. it has worked alright, although I'm back to trying to lose a few pounds and hit 15% bf before I try my first cycle. Here's my deal though: my effing arms won't get any bigger. I'm curling more, benching more, doing more weight all the way around, but I have these long as arms (6'4" wingspan), and I can't get size on them.

I've tried switching routines, I've lofted heavy, I work on getting good squeeze, I've tried finishing with arm stuff every day. They just stay long and thin despite strength gains. Whatcan I do about this?

I am cursed with knuckle draggers also. I am 5"11 and probably near you in arm length. I constantly swap up my routine every 4 weeks or I pause. I also have to use perfect none cheating form. The short guys can cheat and get constant pressure because of physics we are not so lucky, we have to use form to keep the constant contraction on the muscle. What shredder said about watching your elbows couldn't be any more true. When I learned to perfect form is when I finally learned how to grow my ridiculously long arms.

 

[cybrsage]

You could always use synthol. Use enough and you can be as big as this guy:

View attachment 562159

or this guy:

View attachment 562160

 

[CindBB]

What proteins are you eating? Carbs?