How many of you don't train arms?

[UFC22]

I've heard quite a few people say that they dont train arms. On back day the biceps are somewhat stressed so that takes care of that and on chest day you take care of tris with your chest workout.
ANy of you follow that procedure right now and how is it working?

 

[casualbb]

i do 1 set of biceps when i workout (3 times a week)

If i'm tired from back i'll skip the biceps

 

[musketeer]

I've lost a little shape but not really any size - at the safe time I'm getting much stronger faster and I don't really care because when I'm ready, I can just do a few sets and my arms will be better than ever.

 

[AEKDB]

I do curls about once every 2-3 months. Usually this is when the squat rack is being used for pullups or barbell curls and I don't want to stand around doing nothing while people finish.

My workout includes lots of cleans, deads, rows, weighted dips, bench, etc. Because my arms are very proportional to my back, chest, and shoulders I do not get very many complements on them. But a lot of people comment on how thick I am.

 

[rgjujitsu]

I haven't done curls in over 2 years.

 

[DZLS]

i think it's a different type of lifter that does work bi's / tris separately...

the ones that are more of a bodybuilder, will do more of the isolation exercises, like myself...

 

[Madcow2]

Direct biceps work just doesn't do a whole lot for long term growth. It makes the biceps look nice but if you didn't do them for a year and came back and put in a solid few months, they'd be exactly where they would have if you did.

So there's a lot of people in this forum who've tried not doing them and either grown their arms, had them stay the same, or in some cases had them shrink a bit for a period and then build back as their lifts increased (usually because their biceps or triceps overshadowed their primary muscles in rows or benches which ain't exactly something good). The overwhelming thing is though, that most found their arms eventually come back bigger and that they weren't really losing anything or having their arms attrophy to nothing leaving an irreparable deficit. Just some basic work to bring them back up and maximize the base.

So there's nothing wrong with direct training - go ahead, a lot of people like it, but it shouldn't interfere in any way with the big lifts because this is really where that growth is going to come from. And if they are a weakpoint to a compound lift, then certainly train them. It just depends on your goals, if you like having a nice pump in your arms and feeling that you've worked them, do it up.

 

[blut wump]

It's working well for me, I recently passed 3 plates on bench which I'd been chasing for a while, pretty much since I started benching, really.

I vary my grip on bench and do occasionally work triceps more directly with JM Press or overhead BB triceps extensions but not often. Biceps get worked every two or three months or so for a couple of weeks. I think they were last directly worked in August and I have no plans to hit them again this year. I did happen to measure my arms last week and they're still the usual 18" but I'm quite portly so who knows what that's worth.

Obviously, if I were into some sport which required biceps power then I'd put more into them but the last time I thought of doing some biceps curls I had just finished my last set of deads. I reckoned that if I had energy for curls then I must have energy for another set of deads. That put a dampener on any more errant thoughts.

 

[BlondBomber]

Direct arm is necessary for a lifter to optimize his potential for building the muscles of the arms.
Modern powerlifters almost exclusively train arms directly performing core exercises in their bench training:
-board presses
-pin presses
-floor presses
-JM presses
-close-grip bench presses
Anyone that would quesition the validity of this has obviously never trained in a modern PL-style. The shortened range of motion and close-grip most commonly utilized on the exercises listed cause the triceps to be recruited more so than the chest or delts.
Monster benchers also perform rolling DB extensions, skullcrushers (though not of late because of the pressure exerted on the elbows) and pushdowns.
Also, though a lot of biceps training is not normally performed, hammer curls are very popular with powerlifters.

With respect to bodybuilding, there is no question that direct arm training is necessary. The number of exercises, reps and sets is always questionable.

Someone who can somewhat built arms from other exercises is only limiting their true potential to have truely muscular and admirable guns.

 

[blut wump]

Bear in mind that many modern powerlifters rely heavily on their shirt to get the weight away from their chest and so triceps become the limiting factor in completing a rep. As such, triceps training becomes imperative. For raw benchers, this is less pertinent.