Arms stuck at 17"

[neilio]

I need some suggestions. I've read and read on this site, and tried different things, but for some reason my arms are stuck at their current size (17 inches). They’ve been around 16 ¾ to 17 inches for well over a year now. I'm thinking some of you guys can help me come up with something, or tell me what I could be doing wrong. Here's my stats, diet, workout, etc:

5'11", 205 lbs, around 13-14% bodyfat (not measured in a while)

I get in anywhere from 205 to 250 grams of protein a day. I do not eat perfectly clean (as you can tell from my bodyfat), but I make sure carb intake doesn’t get out of control and I take in healthy fats (flax, mct). I take in a meal with plenty of protein every 3 hours.

I supplement with creatine and glutamine peptides.

My workout schedule:

Monday morning: Chest
Monday evening: Back, Traps, rear delts

Tuesday morning: quads
Tuesday evening: hams, calves

Thursday morning: biceps, forearms
Thursday evenings: triceps, front & side delts

I’ll list only my bicep, forearm and tricep routines for now. They change periodically, but they are currently:

4 sets of standing bb curls increase weight each set (reps: 10,8,6,4)
3 sets of db preacher curls, one arm at a time (reps: 6-8)
3 sets of incline curls (reps: 8-12)

3 sets of reverse incline curls (focus on forearms) (reps: 8-12)
4 sets of behind the back wrist curls with barbell (reps: 8-12)

4 sets of close grip bb bench press (reps: 6-8)
3 sets of skullcrushers (reps: 8-10)
3 sets of pressdowns (reps: 8-10)


I take a one minute break between each set, except sometimes on leg day I must go longer between sets for squats. My form is extremely strict on all movements.

Overtraining has crossed my mind as a problem with my biceps, but I don’t feel that I get a good enough pump unless I do this much volume. What do you guys think? I’ll list the rest of my workout if you need to take a look at it as well. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[mad_monkey59]

Have you tried any shocking techniques... such as stripsets, partner assisted reps? Make sure that you are making the most of the negative part of the lift.

A good plataeu buster for my was 21s on the preacher bench with a barbell... taking 5 seconds for the negative. I had a partner who forced me through the the positive part of the lift for the last through reps.

The only other thing really is sleep... make sure you get at least 8 hours a night.

 

[neilio]

I have tried 21's with db in the past, but never the kind you mentioned. I did three sets of them after bb curls. Do you suggest doing them every week for a while, or just once ever so many workouts? How many sets of them did you do, and what did the rest of your workout look like when doing them?

I get at least 8 hours of sleep every single night, even weekends, so should be no problem there.

 

[H_T_]

2 things you need to do:add hammer curls and train the long head of your triceps. Hammers will hit the braichii muscle under the bicep, therefore, when it grows, it will raise the rest of your biceps. Training the long head of your triceps ,which is the biggest, is the most important in reaching size and strength of the muscle. I do a lot of french pressing and overhead extensions for this. Also, there is an excercise i do that i got from an article from Larry Scott, to do it you need a hi-pulley and a flat bench. Attach a cambered or V-bar to the pulley and kneel down like you're going to do cable crunches. Next, lean forward and put your elbows on the bench and begin the exercise by extending your arms. Don't confuse this with the bicep/tricep nautilus combo, people tell me it's the same thing but i feel totally different when i do them. Scott had a routine where he claimed you could add an inch to your arm measurement in six weeks by doing close grip bp's and supersetting them with the exercise i just described to you.

 

[mad_monkey59]

I have tried 21's with db in the past, but never the kind you mentioned. I did three sets of them after bb curls. Do you suggest doing them every week for a while, or just once ever so many workouts? How many sets of them did you do, and what did the rest of your workout look like when doing them?

I get at least 8 hours of sleep every single night, even weekends, so should be no problem there.

Three sets is more then enough, they take alot out of you... Do the 21s on the preacher every week, but i'd recommend that you leave the negs and the partner assists for every other week, because if you use too much you may overtrain.

My bicep workout at the time was:

Standing Barbell Curl 4x6-after w/u
Close Grip Standing Barbell Curl 3x8
Preacher 21s (with the shocks every other week) 2x21s

Great pump, I literally had cables emerging from my arms, I was waiting for the muscle to burst through my skin. I did them last because they take ALOT out of you.

Also an important thing to remember is that your triceps account for just under 2 thirds of your arm (60% i think). A great mass builder is weighted dips. And making sure you attack the rear head of the tricep (the one that runs down the back of your arm).

My Tricep Routine: (same day as bi's)

Weighted Dips: 4x6 after w/u
(every other week I continued the set by dropping the weight after failure)

Laying Tricep Extension, with DBs: 3x8
(DBs are held in the same supination as a hammer curl, this helps to isolate the rear head)

Cable Rope Pressdown: 3x8
Bringing the rope out at the sides, taking 3-4secs on the negative.

I hope this helps, be patient and good luck bro.

 

[halfaclue]

I need some suggestions. I've read and read on this site, and tried different things, but for some reason my arms are stuck at their current size (17 inches). They’ve been around 16 ¾ to 17 inches for well over a year now. I'm thinking some of you guys can help me come up with something, or tell me what I could be doing wrong. Here's my stats, diet, workout, etc:

5'11", 205 lbs, around 13-14% bodyfat (not measured in a while)

I get in anywhere from 205 to 250 grams of protein a day. I do not eat perfectly clean (as you can tell from my bodyfat), but I make sure carb intake doesn’t get out of control and I take in healthy fats (flax, mct). I take in a meal with plenty of protein every 3 hours.

I supplement with creatine and glutamine peptides.

My workout schedule:

Monday morning: Chest
Monday evening: Back, Traps, rear delts

Tuesday morning: quads
Tuesday evening: hams, calves

Thursday morning: biceps, forearms
Thursday evenings: triceps, front & side delts

I’ll list only my bicep, forearm and tricep routines for now. They change periodically, but they are currently:

4 sets of standing bb curls increase weight each set (reps: 10,8,6,4)
3 sets of db preacher curls, one arm at a time (reps: 6-8)
3 sets of incline curls (reps: 8-12)

3 sets of reverse incline curls (focus on forearms) (reps: 8-12)
4 sets of behind the back wrist curls with barbell (reps: 8-12)

4 sets of close grip bb bench press (reps: 6-8)
3 sets of skullcrushers (reps: 8-10)
3 sets of pressdowns (reps: 8-10)


I take a one minute break between each set, except sometimes on leg day I must go longer between sets for squats. My form is extremely strict on all movements.

Overtraining has crossed my mind as a problem with my biceps, but I don’t feel that I get a good enough pump unless I do this much volume. What do you guys think? I’ll list the rest of my workout if you need to take a look at it as well. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Simple solution..get your protein over 300mg everyday and your arms will grow. My diet was always my weakest point, I could train and supplement no problem but I slacked on my diet. I'm 6' and use to have 17inch arms for 4 years. When i brought my protein up over 300g and most of the time over 350 my arms grew. now i try to get close to 400 but i use to many shakes so I am looking at eating every 2 hours in order to get more protein via food.

 

[french tickler]

do it to failure... do two full sets to failure... i find doing that specificly on biceps day especially in mass phase, that it pumps the shit out of your biceps and is an excelelnt way to finish a full bicep exercise... i've put on almost 2 inchs on my arms in 6 months...

maybe something to look into...

just a suggestion

 

[Goldprospector]

Also, you may want to try some Pulse reps. You can either make the whole set of pulse reps or do it on the last to reps (when you reach failure) These may also be called X-reps but I have not read up on the X-reps by Steve Holeman yet. When you are doing curls or extensions or whatever...when you are in the negative phase of the lift pump or pulse the weight all the way through the negative...These are a wicked shock routine, they have helped me alot, on all lifts.

 

[halfaclue]

Also, you may want to try some Pulse reps. You can either make the whole set of pulse reps or do it on the last to reps (when you reach failure) These may also be called X-reps but I have not read up on the X-reps by Steve Holeman yet. When you are doing curls or extensions or whatever...when you are in the negative phase of the lift pump or pulse the weight all the way through the negative...These are a wicked shock routine, they have helped me alot, on all lifts.

no offense bro but aren't you concerned with injury? If you are curling 135lbs and you "pulsate" the weight on the way down you could rip a muscle or tendon.

 

[neilio]

Thanks for the suggestions. Lots of things for me to try out.

I know I need to up my protein intake if I want to grow, but unfortunately I have IBS, and it seems when I go much over 250 grams of protein a day, it acts up severely. That's the only reason I'm not taking in any more than I do right now. I will have to experiment with what types of proteins cause me problems and which ones do not and go from there I guess.

I think I will start with adding some weighted dips to my triceps workout, and maybe dropping the close-grip presses for a while. Also I like the sound of the pulse rep thing on biceps, and some 21's on the preacher bench. I used to do hammer curls regularly, but haven't for quite a while. I might put them back into the mix soon and see what happens.