Arms won't grow/stay solid

[blut wump]

I've never been a fan of biceps work. Ok sometimes I've been known to get carried away but generally my biceps get worked about once a month if that. What madcow has described does work. Just concentrate on compound exercises and work lesser muscles if you have the energy, inclination or a direct need.

I remember reading some training article decades ago which was a story about some teenager who went to the local guru to get help with his arm size. The guy said that he'd get to training arms soon enough but first he had to work on his squats. A month later he spoke to the guru again about doing some arm work and was told that he was progressing nicely and now it was time to add deadlift. You get the idea. After a few months the guru said that he could work his arms now if he wanted but he hoped the student need only measure his current arms to realise that he didn't need to.

For someone who works the compound lifts, arm size is more about genetics and overall body mass than how much you blast away at them. I'm a bit on the portly side myself, which inflates my measurement, but I have 18" arms. I reckon I've added about an inch to them over the past year as I've added about 20-25 pounds to my bulk. I don't measure them often so can't be accurate.

 

[Madcow2]

That last part is pretty funny. So are you saying that, atleast THEORETICALLY, a person could do only squats, deads, rows, and presses (I assume you're talking flat bench as opposed to overhead or something else) and get all the arm size thy need? Do you do all of these? What does your routine look like on a weekly basis?
And since I'm asking questions anyway, how DOES someone choke down 4000 calories a day. Weight gainer powder? I literally have to lie down sometimes to keep my stomach from rejecting what I've consumed on a 3000 cal diet! Mind you I'm trying to eat clean which means I have to eat a lot more food to get the actual calories. I mean it sickens me to gag down a whole can of greens and not hardly get any calories from it!

I always use Pendlay as an example because I actually do direct arm work so this corrupts thing even though I've gone through long periods where I haven't. Glenn hasn't done arm work in years other than one-off bets. He's probably squatted 800, cleaned in the mid 400's, snatched north of 350, push pressed over 400 for reps, strict rowed 400 for reps, power shrugged in the 800s. So pretty huge lifts overall but he's not holding records anywhere. Bodyweight got up to 350 or maybe a bit more at his peak. Arm size was 22-23". He could pick up a barbell at random and strict curl 225 for reps. I'm sure if he trained his arms for a period they would be bigger and more aesthetic (he'd probably curl a lot more fairly quickly too) but it is incredibly doubtful that his arms suffered at all in long-term gains as a result of years upon years of total negligence. Granted he could puff them up a bit with some isolation work and add a bit of short-term size but the long term gains in arm mass are completely from compound lifts. So that's why I say it doesn't really matter what one does for direct work because anything can get you some quick short-term gains but for long-term progress, direct arm work doesn't matter. Train them for years or neglect them for years and hit them a bit for 2 months and you'll likely find the same arm size.

EDIT - for diet, I don't know what to tell you. If you want to eat clean but don't get enough calories you can't get bigger. It can be an intersection but need not be. If you opt for "dirty" or more calorically dense foods (no need to be a total slob) you'll get more calories for the same consumption in volume. Basically, if you can't get enough calories but you still want to get bigger - you have to sit down and decide what it is that you want most.

 

[blut wump]

I wouldn't be surprised if that 225 is a pretty consevative estimate. I last did BB curls after I'd finished the 5x5 in early March and did around 150 for non-cheat reps.

 

[ScottK345]

hey wallcrawler sorry if it seemed like I was ripping on you. I didn't mean any offense.

 

[wallcrawler]

hey wallcrawler sorry if it seemed like I was ripping on you. I didn't mean any offense.

Dude, you in no way ripped on me. One of the guys kinda laughed at what I said about figuring your daily caloric intake multiplying your weight by 14.5. He said multiply it instead by 18 or 20. He actually offered an alternative that he saw as the correct one. That was cool. Others on here however flamed things that I said but didn't actually offer any helpful advice of their own.
I don't really give a shit what anyone says about the advice I give, but I think they should at least be able to offer some alternative for the poster who asked for help in the first place like madcow, dfi, blut wump, booey and a couple of the others did. I actually learned a lot from them in this thread.
ANYONE could spend weeks going thru all the threads and ripping apart people's suggestions with little half-sentence comments like "...it's the supplements...right.." without actually offering any helpful suggestion of their own. I came to this sight to look for advice in certain areas and have gotten WAY more than I expected. I try to pay it back by helping anyone who asks for it as best as I can. Seems like you and most of the others on here do as well.

 

[JKurz1]

So what do you guys find to be the best ARM routine, if you were going to do one.....

 

[YoungIntricateMuscle]

I used to do 10 sets a day in a week for biceps for four weeks. Then I did some research and read that 4 sets a week is enough for biceps because if you are long and skinny your body needs more rest. So I tried and the past two weeks doing only 4 sets a week my bicep grow a centimeter. Your arms will not grow if the rest of the body is lacking mass and not exercised. The most important thing is the nutrition part. If you aint getting a gram of protein for every pound you weigh then no matter what technique you use they won't grow. You may already know this, but just reinforming. So try 4 sets a week and maybe a warmupset, workout your other muscles, and eat alot. You should not have any problem gaining mass.

 

[collateral]

Hey
I read an interesting theory a few years ago regarding the hard-to-grow arms. Those individuals who practiced earlier certain martial arts (eg. karate) could have their FASCIA (? - the thing wraps your muscle around) became so thick that it is not letting the arm muscle to grow easily (the fascia is getting very strong due to the fact of the controlled hits).
To help on this you should make streching excersise after each rep.
/I tried this several times and did help a bit

Does anyone heard this theory before?