Possible to gain mass without HEAVY compound lifts

[The_Eviscerator]

yet I would not consider them strong or muscled, they have no back or legs or shoulders.

You have just described about 98% of the physiques I see in the gym... All arms, no back, no shoulders, no legs and certainly no calves.

There are lots of guys who have bigger or as big arms as me... Mine only measure a hair over 18" (maybe close to 19 pumped), but I pride myself on a complete physique... My back used to be a big weakness in my chain and now I think it is one of my best attributes. Most guys I see have no back development and then you quickly realize why when you see their routine consists of cable pull downs and cable rows.

 

[Lord_Suston]

so true and yet so sad Eviscerator.

Becoming. I have over the last year gained about 20-25 of lb while sheeding some fat to boot doing the big lifts. My lifts keep going up and not the big three either, I mean all my lifts. my friends keep asking for the secret and I tell them I even trained a few but they quit or don't belive it

 

[harman_2005]

I have a friend like that, who just does chest and biceps. He won't even train triceps, just bis. He'll come in to the gym one day, do flat bench, incline, bench, and decline bench. The next day, he'll do curls. Third day he takes off. His shoulders kinda droop over now, making him look like a hunchback. His back so weak that he bent over to pick up the handle for the cable machine to do his low pulley curls, and hurt his lower back for 2 weeks.

 

[The_Eviscerator]

His back so weak that he bent over to pick up the handle for the cable machine to do his low pulley curls, and hurt his lower back for 2 weeks.

 

[louden_swain]

I have a friend like that, who just does chest and biceps. He won't even train triceps, just bis. He'll come in to the gym one day, do flat bench, incline, bench, and decline bench. The next day, he'll do curls. Third day he takes off. His shoulders kinda droop over now, making him look like a hunchback. His back so weak that he bent over to pick up the handle for the cable machine to do his low pulley curls, and hurt his lower back for 2 weeks.

I think these type of people flood all gyms.

 

[JollyRogers]

lol@fufu

 

[anabolicmd]

oh Ive noticed this, i even posted about it last week. The big juicers in my gym train daily, but Ive NEVER seen them do a squat, deadlift or even a bench. Im sure they must do them, but 90% of the time, its some isolation excercise with too much weight and very short range of motion, but many, many pump inducing reps. I dont get it.

 

[coolcolj]

I saw this post from Glenn Pendlay that fits in here

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this is a common observation... but the intensity you use while training doesnt change the muscle "shape", however, people who do heavy, multijoint exercises like deadlifts, squats, rows, etc, build the muscles that make you seem thick, like the abdominal muscles, the spinal erectors and the middle and upper back, the glutes, hamstrings, etc. people who do mostly isolation exercises and dont go heavy enough to really challenge the bodies core or the stabilizer muscles usually have bigger arms, chest, quads, but lack the development in the other muscles in the body.

in my mind, the way to tell if a guy has trained hard is to look at their spinal erectors. its impossible to do the "big" exercises for years without developing big, strong erectors.

i know this may be a little different than most people, but i think guys who have big pecs and arms, but have NO spinal erectors, no abdominal hypertrophy, big quads but flat hamstrings, wide shoulders but no traps, etc, just look stupid. i just plain dont like that look. a big pair of legs ought to have a lot of adductor mass, big hamstrings, etc. a wide back ought to have big traps and big erectors. it just doesnt look right if you dont have complete development

 

[PolishHammer1977]

barbell

 

[louden_swain]

Here is my latest routine:

Legs - leg extensions, lying leg curls, cable squats (I look like an ass, but I make it work)
back - stiff arm pull-downs, single arm cable rows
chest - cable crossovers and machine presses
delts - two handed cable pressed (performed in cable crossover station), cable laterals
triceps - cable press-downs (super light)
biceps - cable curls (two handed)
forearms - cable wrist curls

This has put on 50lbs of lean mass. Squats and deads. . who needs um?