Freaky Sized Arms....

[UA_Iron]

Just something I dont have. I am sure this issue has been addressed before but does anyone else feel like their arms lack in size next to their torso?

Clearly I need more mass to my triceps, I currently do close grip bench press, seated tricep dumbbell tricep extensions, and cable pushdowns. I do all these with heavy weights and can lift quite a bit but the muscular development should be greater IMO. Should I add in weighted dips to my tricep routine?

 

[from zero]

I've recently noticed growth after doing tris with shoulders.

Your exercise selection seems fine. Maybe you should change your program around a bit?

 

[majutsu]

I totally hear ya! I had this problem for a while. My chest and back were much bigger than my arms, kinda like Mike Katz, and it looked silly. Turns out prioritizing my tris helped little too. It wasn't until I tried some powerlifting the problem corrected. It turns out I was benching wrong all these years, also why stuck 270-315 I believe. I was lowering the bar to my nipple line or slightly lower, with my elbows slightly out instead of straight down. Powerlifting bench keep arms straight under wrists, elbows down, bar lowers to upper abs. My chest got smaller, my tris exploded, and my bench went up in weeks. At first, your weight will drop drastically until you get used to it and your tris catch up. But when they do, your bench will go up 50lbs or more. If you are already benching right, then I can't help you, and you just need more tri prioritization. But 90%+ of people who've been working out for 5 years or more still bench wrong. (I just made that number up, it's not a study or anything.) This also predisposes you to rotator cuff problems, pec tears, and shoulder pain on and off. So it is good to fix bench problems for your health as well as your arms. Most people try to treat bench as a chest excercise, when a proper bench emphasizes tris, shoulder, and lats more in that order. So your tris are getting short-changed of one of the most effective mass builders there is and your chest is getting over-worked in order to rotate and injure your shoulders. . . Hope this helps, if not sorry, I'm learning too always.

 

[2x4]

majutsu,


Could you post a link to a pic or something that would show the correct form you speak of, I'd like to compare it to my benching

 

[Toozee]

My arms didn't really seem to grow until I gave them a day of their own. (bi's and tri's together).

 

[UA_Iron]

Thanks for all the insight guys.

I recently changed up my routine to a 6 day split

Day 1: Chest + biceps
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: shoulders +triceps
Day 4: off
Day 5: Back + Traps
Day 6: off

I love working triceps with shoulders, I used to work them on chest day and it didnt seem like they got much priority.

I think I am at a point where it will take some time to see some nice growth. I feel like the muscle is nicely developed it just needs to be bigger!

Majutsu, I am also interested in a pic or video of the powerlifting bench form. It seems like I am stuck at 275 for bench.

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

UA Iron-- heres some advice thats goes for most iso work-- you will develop bigger arms by doing squats, benches, rows, deads, and dips...NOT by doing a specialized arm routines... you will put on about 1" to your arms for every 10-12 lbs of LBM.

think about it- Do your muscles get more benefit out of a 300lb deadlift, or arm curling 45 lbs?

 

[UA_Iron]

I do squat, I do bench, I do pullups, I do rows. But still in comarison to my chest and back I think my arms are smaller than they should be.
Do you think adding deadlifts will put significant size on my arms? I know it will put size on my back, glutes, legs, probably forearms too.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

My arms get more from curls, not deadlifts. Sorry MsBerverly, but I don't buy into that completely.

 

[Scotsman]

Deads, Heavy rows and compound presses will add size to your arms faster than anything else. All iso movements like curls do is allow for cell volumization during workout, ie. your arms swell up while being used but aren't much bigger in the interim. I do curls about four sets a week if I feel like doing them, most of my bi work comes from rows and deads. Tri work comes from bench and close grip as well as shoulder work. I do some overhead presses at the end of the shoulder day but that's about it. Just from doing deads and rows/ closegrip, heavy bench my arms went from 18"-21" in about a year and a half.

Cheers,
Scotsman