My amazing lack of arm development. WTF?

Good suggestions guys. More frequency seems to be a tactic that has been successful for many of you in the past.

The last couple weeks have been a shitshow of injury, illness, and too much fucking work. But the plan going forward is more volume and I believe having some dumbbells at home is going to be the method for me. As my time is just limited. Between kids, the GF and work...... well shits just tricky.

I absolutely appreciate all the responses.
 
@janauskas

I've been running a dedicated shoulder day, back and bis, chest and tris, legs. Usually I've only been able to hit 4 days a week in the gym just because life is too busy. This week I'll get to the gym 5 times but only because I hit 2 a days on monday, wed, and thurs morning.

I did used to run a dedicated arm day a couple years ago when I was putting on. Natty size going from 165 to 195 in the span of about 4 years. I was running a bb split and only training arms once a week.
 
I hit chest and tris monday morning ing, shoulders mon night. Wed morning will b possibly arms, wed night legs, thurs morning will b back.

To explain the 2 a days.

This shit is not optimal for rest but it is what I have this week as I am essentially managing the restaurant in lieu of the usual GM whom just had her bebby.

If I had it my way I'd just train and eat and look pretty.
 
Also @Jankauskas usual rest time between sets is about 60 seconds. Sometimes 90 for heavier shoulders chest or back but I've been keeping it moving and focusing more on hypertrophy and BB lifting instead of mixing in some 5 x 5s and other PL type training Inused to incorporate.
 
@janauskas

I've been running a dedicated shoulder day, back and bis, chest and tris, legs. Usually I've only been able to hit 4 days a week in the gym just because life is too busy. This week I'll get to the gym 5 times but only because I hit 2 a days on monday, wed, and thurs morning.

I did used to run a dedicated arm day a couple years ago when I was putting on. Natty size going from 165 to 195 in the span of about 4 years. I was running a bb split and only training arms once a week.
The way I do it is as follows:

Pull day: back/rear delts/biceps
Push day: chest/side delts/triceps
Legs: quads/hams/glutes/calves
Rest
Arms and a bit of front delts
Pull
Push
Rest

I used to buy into the bullshit for some time that for small muscle groups you barely needed to rest, but according to some research I believe I saw in brad schoenfds IG page, stating that you should rest as long as it is required for you to feel completely ready for the next set, I now sometimes take upwards of 2 minutes between arm sets.

Back when I started lifting I used to take very long rest breaks, and I had a better arm development ratio in proportion to the rest of my body than I had recently.

So it’s just a little something for you to try, if you are doing very short breaks, I think it’s working well for me, and sometimes it’s the small things that make a difference.
 
Also @Jankauskas usual rest time between sets is about 60 seconds. Sometimes 90 for heavier shoulders chest or back but I've been keeping it moving and focusing more on hypertrophy and BB lifting instead of mixing in some 5 x 5s and other PL type training Inused to incorporate.
You might find this study interesting (obviously, take every study with a grain of salt). I'm not sure what you're volume is but according to this, bicep and tricep thickness grew best with a weekly volume of 30 and 27 sets to failure respectively. The difference between 30 sets as opposed to 10 was pretty astonishing, too.
Strength remained largely unchanged.

It was a six-month study and the participants were all military personnel so nobody was "untrained" in the full sense of the word.

New science on the optimal training volume: extreme training for extreme gains?
 
My arms have never been big either bi's particularly. I train for strength but I do pendalay rows and they build my biceps pretty well and thats with low volume. Ive also heard from different sources that barbell rows can add increase bicep size
 
You might find this study interesting (obviously, take every study with a grain of salt). I'm not sure what you're volume is but according to this, bicep and tricep thickness grew best with a weekly volume of 30 and 27 sets to failure respectively. The difference between 30 sets as opposed to 10 was pretty astonishing, too.
Strength remained largely unchanged.

It was a six-month study and the participants were all military personnel so nobody was "untrained" in the full sense of the word.

New science on the optimal training volume: extreme training for extreme gains?
That’s very interesting but I feel like if I did something of the sort I would have to undergo multiple surgeries on my forearm/elbow tendons
 
Arms. Every. Day.

I’m serious. 3 sets each of pump work for bis and tris every single day. I then did heavy tris in push days and bis on pull dyas with a dedicated arm day mixed in
What kind of rep ranges would you recommend for the pump work? 15-20? Would you go to failure on these sets?
 
As an update I am now the proud owner of several sets of dumbbells for the home. 20s to 40s. Didnt figure I'd go superheavy.

This will make frequency of training easier. Now I can do curls while I watch Paw Patrol.
 
I am not even convinced your arms are "small?!"

What are the measurements of your forearm? And calf too? I know calf sounds stupid but having your upper arms as large as your calves are previous symmetry markers.
 
This was about 3 years ago natty at 185 lbs bodyweight. I think this looked pretty good.
The rest of my body has grown a lot since then and the ratios are just not the same.
 

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Current measurements with a pump...
Upper arm 18"
Forearm 14"
Calves 17"

So maybe a little better than I thought measurement wise. Will b training arms 3 to 4 days this week. Lighting not great on pic for details but good enough I think.20191007_115453.jpg
 
Current measurements with a pump...
Upper arm 18"
Forearm 14"
Calves 17"

So maybe a little better than I thought measurement wise.
Yeah you don't have me convinced that your arms are small :p


I would consider my arms my weakness, my shoulders and traps tend to dwarf my arms. We respond differently to growth in diff muscle groups, get your calves up first before worrying about your arms.
My arms are 16"
Forearms 13.5"
Calves 16"
 
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@Jankauskas

I'll get the gf to do it tonight. Then I'll just use this post for future reference.
From the picture you took I can tell you have a strong forearm muscle, and That your triceps seem to be short.

That would explain your complaint about having “small” arms even though they are 18 inch, since the shorter the muscle bellies, the higher the peak is while contracted, and the forearm makes it look smaller because at the bottom part of your upper arm you don’t have that long muscle belly.
 
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