My Arms....?

[Big O]

Well I'm a 47 yr. old X-master power-lifter with my best total of 1865 ..I turned BB because of all the health and joint problems....I can grow my legs close to 30 and everything else I can get to grow...except my arms....everything is in check.....

I've been cycling since 1981....when finaject and bolasterone were plenty...those were the days...fina in the 50 ml for $65..

My left is 18 and my right is 17 1/2 +.......my last 3 cycles were without orals...went up to 1 .5 grams of test e with to many sides with that dose...900 eq and 600 eq ....I'm doing 750 test c and 400 deca with naps hitting the front door any day now.....I tend to do heavier cycles than most...I also bridge with test at 250-500...

I'm doing preachers when my left elbow isnt killing me and my bulker for my tri's is close grip benches....My bench is resonable...315...8-10 haven't gone heavier because of my left elbow will hurt for 2 weeks if i do...

I'm thinking chemicaly for my arms....My source said site inject prop...Haven't used tren...because of the deca...I'm thinking maybe get off the deca and use affluetop and add tren a instead...because it seems the deca is not effective for me anymore....
Any suggestions from the hard gainers...?

 

[botrx]

If you've been cycling since 1981, and "bridging" with 250-500mg of test, you've baisclly never been off cycle. Give everything a rest, and if you want to bridge, there are better options than test. Your joints will feel better, and your receptors will be rejuvenated.

 

[needtogetaas]

If you've been cycling since 1981, and "bridging" with 250-500mg of test, you've baisclly never been off cycle. Give everything a rest, and if you want to bridge, there are better options than test. Your joints will feel better, and your receptors will be rejuvenated.

ya some well needed time of would be good for you friend.

might want to lay off the deca for a good long time to.

 

[TheRide]

Bump - Some of the old timers... chime in on your expertise.

 

[mlong23]

you are an ex-powerlifter who only benches 315 for 8-10 reps. You have never been truly off cycle. What does your workout routine look like? Do you only do preachers and close grip presses for arms?

You are not providing a lot of info to get helped.

 

[timtim]

spot injections dont work. its a myth. get some synthol or esicelene (sp?) to stretch the fascia and induce growth.

 

[theprofessor]

you listed preachers and close grip.. but what else are you doing for arms? you may be overtraining them... it isn't going to be some "magical" exersise you're missing... and it should'nt take much more than a couple exersises... make sure you're getting the best of each rep range...
post up your diet as well...

 

[mlong23]

you listed preachers and close grip.. but what else are you doing for arms? you may be overtraining them... it isn't going to be some "magical" exersise you're missing... and it should'nt take much more than a couple exersises... make sure you're getting the best of each rep range...
post up your diet as well...

Overtraining... he may be undertraining. Preachers and close grip are great exercises, but lets hope thats not all he is doing.

 

[theprofessor]

Overtraining... he may be undertraining. Preachers and close grip are great exercises, but lets hope thats not all he is doing.

that could easily be the scenario just as well... i'm just waiting for him to post up what he does and how often... my guess is it's probably more than just the preachers and close grips... because he said they were his "bulker" exersises for arms... implying he does more...
...we need more info bro... post up so we can help you...

 

[jacshelb]

Overtraining... he may be undertraining. Preachers and close grip are great exercises, but lets hope thats not all he is doing.

True. Also, let's consider that overtraining the rest of the body will also impact the arms negatively. Gotta have full neural recuperation to grow. But, as an ex-powerlifter, he probably does a lot of heavy weight low sets reps, maybe?

I struggle to build my arms as well. I've found a couple exercise variations that are key for me to use. For tris: moderately close grip bench. This means, with hands 18-24 inches apart. For me, this is moderately close grip as I'm 6'2", so it's different for everyone, I just know that I can't use any kind of decent weight and go "true" close grip or my elbows and shoulders kill me. So, maybe this would be a good compromise, you get to use more weight and save some elbow and shoulder strain. I also do close grip press downs on a straight bar, elbows tucked tight, hands just on either side of the connector. This really stresses the inner head. For outer head I do a modified overhead rope extension (coming off the upper attatchment). Again, I use the straight bar with hands in a close together grip and face away from the stack. I lean forward so that the cable makes a 45 degree angle from the rack. Hard to explain. But, basically, you have to bend over and press toward the ground somewhat, let your elbows go completely out to the side and the bar travel back behind your head during the eccentric phase, you can feel it work on the outer head if you get in the right position, use about half your normal press down weight. It's these little things that have made the difference for me. My tris still aren't huge, but they are growing now.

For Bis I do underhand grip/ shoulder width pull ups with 45 lbs strapped to my waist. Of course this works the lats, but believe me the bis get it too. Then it's straight bar curls with strict form followed by hammer curls. With the hammer curls I don't have a thumbs up grip but turn my thumbs slightly in toward my body so instead of being perpendicular to the floor they are at a 70 degree angle or so. Also, I bring the weight up so my hand ends up just outside the shoulder area. It's a little bit of a strange movement but I find that it more fully works the brachialis and outer head.

Again, basically, I have sucky arms. But from that I've had to find little tricks to work them all that much harder. Good luck!


Jacob

 

[theprofessor]

True. Also, let's consider that overtraining the rest of the body will also impact the arms negatively. Gotta have full neural recuperation to grow. But, as an ex-powerlifter, he probably does a lot of heavy weight low sets reps, maybe?

I struggle to build my arms as well. I've found a couple exercise variations that are key for me to use. For tris: moderately close grip bench. This means, with hands 18-24 inches apart. For me, this is moderately close grip as I'm 6'2", so it's different for everyone, I just know that I can't use any kind of decent weight and go "true" close grip or my elbows and shoulders kill me. So, maybe this would be a good compromise, you get to use more weight and save some elbow and shoulder strain. I also do close grip press downs on a straight bar, elbows tucked tight, hands just on either side of the connector. This really stresses the inner head. For outer head I do a modified overhead rope extension (coming off the upper attatchment). Again, I use the straight bar with hands in a close together grip and face away from the stack. I lean forward so that the cable makes a 45 degree angle from the rack. Hard to explain. But, basically, you have to bend over and press toward the ground somewhat, let your elbows go completely out to the side and the bar travel back behind your head during the eccentric phase, you can feel it work on the outer head if you get in the right position, use about half your normal press down weight. It's these little things that have made the difference for me. My tris still aren't huge, but they are growing now.

For Bis I do underhand grip/ shoulder width pull ups with 45 lbs strapped to my waist. Of course this works the lats, but believe me the bis get it too. Then it's straight bar curls with strict form followed by hammer curls. With the hammer curls I don't have a thumbs up grip but turn my thumbs slightly in toward my body so instead of being perpendicular to the floor they are at a 70 degree angle or so. Also, I bring the weight up so my hand ends up just outside the shoulder area. It's a little bit of a strange movement but I find that it more fully works the brachialis and outer head.

Again, basically, I have sucky arms. But from that I've had to find little tricks to work them all that much harder. Good luck!


Jacob

i agree with what you say about the overtraning...
...but i don't think the exersise you do matters that much... considering you're going 110% and using at least somewhat decent form...
...it's almost never some "magic" exersise you are missing... its some other piece of the puzzle... diet, rest, major form issues...

 

[Fajitas]

You have to experiment and find what works best for you. Everbody responds differently....I wouldn't recommend site injecting with prop in the bi's...extremely painful (depending on the prop) and incapacitating.

 

[chazk]

You trained so long with squats deads and presses.But you have never trained like a body builder By sculpting and peaking the biceps.

The bi's have two heads to get that peak you have to use dumbells .Standing alternate dumbells are good way to your side and you come up twist the hand till your pinky is higher then your thumb.Then sqeez the bicep that the only way you will full contract it and use it to its full range of motion.Arnold did them concentration style bent half way over one hand dangling out infront other on the hip slowly curling the dumbells twisting it untill full contraction.To get the peaks to pop up.

Not that ez curls and barbells are bad .They just dont allow total contraction your gonna have to hit the arms at many diff directions. here are a few examples just for bi ceps

straight bar (close mid and wide grips)
ez curl bar (close mid and wide)
alternating dumbell (standing curls)
alternating dumbells seated (on a benck inclined to 75+ /- degrees)
Hammer curls ( hands to the sides no twisting)
cable curls( standing on the cable doing curls above you head)
one armed concentraion curls (seated on a bench )
arnold curls ( standing one armed curls leaning over really twisting)
preacher curls (aka scott curls.ez bar,straight ,one handed dumbells)
reverse curls( mostly forarm but muscle attachments run under the lower bicep on the humorus to help with lower bicep development)

thats just biceps the tricep list is even longer with all the diff ropes ,diff angles,diff machines,freeweights dumbells barbells,dips ,presses tricpes are almost endless.


with all the diff hand grips you can use, number of reps and sets,diff cable angles,diff bicep machines.Ofcoarse all the diff excerises are not gonna be what you want to do. but at diff times your gonna have to pick and choose diff grips , diff angles and diff reps and work out tempos 3-1-2,2-1-2,3-0-3 and so one

your prob gonna get bored ,but unlike power lifters out to set records .most body builders could give a rats ass and stay in the 8-12 rep range with 3-4 excercises for the bicpes .One heavy w/straight bar varied grips, second a eazy curl bar varied grips, 3 some kind of a concentraion curl varied angles and grips, then hammers vared angles.

I really think personally your not peaking them by twisting the biceps with one handed concentraion curls.just becuase you never mentioned concentration curls.But vary your work outs and mix match things untill you find out what works for you.

 

[jagerbombme]

what about time off and get on some gh maybe to try to heal some of this stuff. also glucosamine

 

[Big O]

I did take some time off...I had my knee redone in Feb,VAsectomoy in Feb and my gall bladder removed later in the month....glu/chondritin is a waste of time for me..

Your absolutely right....I'm not working them enough with quality sets it seems....
I work bi's 0nce a week...standing and preachers...I have tennis elbow thats why i'm doing 400deca e/w....
Skull crushers and close grips for the tri's....

 

[get456]

First and ALWAYS most important is diet. If you truly want to make a difference you have to EAT like you want to make a difference. As you said in your first post, it seems everything else comes pretty easy to you so I would guess you can be a bit lazy with other parts, plus all those are muscle groups are what you are used to ya know. But when you start hitting things that dont get as much use and arent as used to being trained (ie- bis/tris speficically) it can be a bit more difficult. Furthermore... if you are fat, obviously the improvements you do make are not going to be noticable.

The routine I read ages ago that did great things for my biceps was as follows:

Warm up (I use a barbell pyramid up to my max for 5-6 reps, total of 4 sets)

That gives a great pump and gets me fucking juiced up to do the best part

--this is done on the preacher bench
Grab 2 dumbells- heaviest one that u can do 8 hammer curls comfortably with, next one that you can get 6-8 regular curls with
Next grab a ez curl bar and put on enough weight where u can get 6-8 reverse curl reps

These are all done as drop sets... I usually only give myself about 10-15 seconds in between only to make sure i have enough energy to do it. Also, because one arm is lacking START with that arm each time... make sure you are fucking KILLING that arm.

That workout was by far the best I ever did for my bis... Loved it and noticed major increases in appearance/size of the muscle.


Also, I have tried lots of different combinations and it seems for me, my arms feel and look the best if i do bis/tris on the same day. Right now I dont do the workout described above 100% (i do part of it) but after every set of bis I do a tri exercise. that also works well for me. And my split surrounding arms is --- shoulders-arms-off-legs

so they have lots of time to recover and killing them doesnt jepordize growth of other body parts like shoulders/back/chest

just my .02ml

 

[Big O]

I do back and bi's...chest by itself and shoulder's and tri's together....I'll be back under the bar soon....real soon....

I think its a mental thing for me too...My best and favorite lft is by far the squat...The least favorite is doing bi's....by what I've read from you guys is that i'm not doing enough....I have to admit I even look at a squat bar my legs blow up...when i do bi's my heart and head are not into like it should be.....It's obviously the power mentality..

I want to personally thank all of you guys.....I'm an old dinosaur plain and simple...but I'm learning from the youg guns.....

 

[jacshelb]

i agree with what you say about the overtraning...
...but i don't think the exersise you do matters that much... considering you're going 110% and using at least somewhat decent form...
...it's almost never some "magic" exersise you are missing... its some other piece of the puzzle... diet, rest, major form issues...

You're right, there are no magic exercises. I was just trying to relate that a person has to tailor make their workout to fit his/her individual structure. What works for a stockier friend of mine will have me taking extra glucosamine. And, what works for me may not hit the muscle well at all for someone else. I'm basically just saying to experiment with the fine details to find what works for you. And yeah, you are totally right about the diet, rest etc. Most people never really give this enough consideration.


Jacob