My amazing lack of arm development. WTF?

[Spokeonawheel]

So....lifted natty for a long time. Most recently probably a good 7 year stretch. With a couple breaks of a year once and a few months at another time. So....consistent training. At 190 lbs my arms were 16.5". Not bad and I would say a standout feature of my physique.

After 2 years of enhanced lifting and currently on my 4th cycle, my arms have reached an astounding 16.75"!

Im not sure irony always translates in text form.

My shoulders, chest, back, legs.....fuck, even my neck have made tremendous gains over the last couple years, but I just havent added much mass to my arms. I've made some progress with triceps. They are definitely stronger. My biceps are kind of a weak point and just havent made a lot of gains there.

Im 6' and have long arms. They are not ruining my physique or freakishly lagging behind the rest of my body, but bigger arms really adds to a physique imo.

Anyone else had this problem? Maybe I should try to make room for a dedicated arm day (fuck that's tough with the kids and the time I have for the gym)? Training bis with back currently and tris with chest.

I'm trying to choose what tactic to employ and force some growth and stick to it for the next year or so and see if I can make some progress.

What say you?

 

[johntt44]

Do you have any weights at home? Go out in the garage and do some sets on a day off?

 

[Spokeonawheel]

@johntt44 that's a fucking excellent idea. Maybe what they need is volume and I have not been giving them that. Thank you.

 

[johntt44]

Try it out! I worked out in my garage for about a year. Live in Fl. It's too hot in summertime. I go to La fitness now but still use the garage gym if I dont want to drive. I've got a commercial powerlifting bench, 700+lbs olympic weights, a rack with chin up station. Dip station a pulldown machine and another cable set.

 

[Oregongearhead]

Do you have any weights at home? Go out in the garage and do some sets on a day off?

....and eat more protein. Be consistent and you"ll grow

 

[Eman]

I have been on a program where I can include an upper and lower muscle group to improve upon.

For the upper, if I chose chest, I would have two days with a primary chest movement like competition bench and maybe close grip or spoto. Then, every other day I would include at least one chest movement like flys, dumbbell press, etc. Essentially, you train the lagging body part every day at the gym, even on a lower body focused day. You do this for 4-8 weeks (depending on how much you feel you're lagging) and then switch the focus elsewhere. In addition, the volume undulates so the first 4 week cycle you can focus on a 12-15 rep range and then the next you'd move into 8-12 rep range at about 9rpe.

The other thing to keep in mind is that triceps are often overlooked for how much of a role they play in arm appearance. You may want to make sure you're including enough tricep volume too.

 

[koolio]

Are you stronger now with curls and tricep extensions?...I have always found that strength and size go hand in hand...when I was curling and doing tricep extensions with 95 for 3x10 my arms were a certain size...they increased over an inch when I started doing curls with 115 and tricep extensions with 135...

 

[Spokeonawheel]

I will up the volume and switch up rep ranges as eman suggested.

As to gaining strength. My triceps are definitely stronger and have actually grown a good deal. Its the bicep that seems more lacking. I may have exaggerated the lack of growth a little. Biceps......i was curling 50 lb dumbbells natural for 6 to 8 reps. Pretty similar now. I've gone as high as 60 lb dumbbells in each hand for 8 somewhat sloppy reps, but im.not sure heavy is the answer. (My elbow, tennis elbow maybe, is kind of fucked and heavy curls just aren't happening till that issue gets better)

Weirdly enough I feel like my mind-muscle connection is just not that good for biceps. They would seem an easy muscle for this and if I'm just flexing its great, but i start squeezing some weight and i just dont "feel" it that well.

I have lately been trying to go lighter and really focus on the contraction.

 

[g-protein]

I'm in the same boat. My delts, back, chest and legs keep growing, but I have not been able to add any size to my arms over the last few years despite trying everything from low to high volume, focusing on technique and mind and muscle connection, progressive overload aka getting stronger, trying extremely high frequency (2x a day 7 days a week...), low frequency, upping the dose, you name it. I'm eager to hear what others are going to suggest you.

 

[cfreetenor]

Bus and tris are smaller muscle groups that recover very quickly so they respond better to frequency.

Ie no matter what you do to them within reason they’ll be back to 100% in 48 hours or so. At which point there’s no reason for them to grow further if you don’t train them.

Think of it like running a marathon every week (grueling and more than enough stimulus) vs running 2 miles once a week (all of the adaptations pretty much evaporate and it just sucks every time and you get only marginally better). That’s equivalent to training big groups and small groups with the same frequency.

Train them 3-4 times a week and use the extra slots to add a bit more volume.

 

[cfreetenor]

I'm in the same boat. My delts, back, chest and legs keep growing, but I have not been able to add any size to my arms over the last few years despite trying everything from low to high volume, focusing on technique and mind and muscle connection, progressive overload aka getting stronger, trying extremely high frequency (2x a day 7 days a week...), low frequency, upping the dose, you name it. I'm eager to hear what others are going to suggest you.

Try just adding 50 close grip chin ups (sets of 6+) to the days you don’t train arms directly and 2 high rep burnout sets after you bench, change to close grip and adjust weight for 15+ reps.

How long did you stick with each different strategy?

 

[Logan44551]

I will up the volume and switch up rep ranges as eman suggested.

As to gaining strength. My triceps are definitely stronger and have actually grown a good deal. Its the bicep that seems more lacking. I may have exaggerated the lack of growth a little. Biceps......i was curling 50 lb dumbbells natural for 6 to 8 reps. Pretty similar now. I've gone as high as 60 lb dumbbells in each hand for 8 somewhat sloppy reps, but im.not sure heavy is the answer. (My elbow, tennis elbow maybe, is kind of fucked and heavy curls just aren't happening till that issue gets better)

Weirdly enough I feel like my mind-muscle connection is just not that good for biceps. They would seem an easy muscle for this and if I'm just flexing its great, but i start squeezing some weight and i just dont "feel" it that well.

I have lately been trying to go lighter and really focus on the contraction.

Google John Meadows Thanos arm workout. It's a pretty good arm workout

 

[AlwaysHungry]

I would do 3 exercises for each muscle superset 2-3 times a week.
Personally I e found my arms grow with heavy weights and then some super sets. If they're still lagging try to spot inject nandrolone

 

[Spokeonawheel]

Thanks for advices guys. And I definitely dig john meadows.

As for how long I've stuck with a strategy. I've been generally going heavy and low volume for the last few years. (Joints permitting).

I havent felt soreness in my biceps in a couple years probably. I know it is not necessarily an indication of growth but I induce soreness in legs back chest and triceps essentially every week. Shoulders get a sore feeling very rarely but biceps- never.

 

[Test_Subject]

Weighted chinups and weighted, upright dips. Do both twice a week and your arms will grow.

 

[Longevity]

One body part per session. Intense, short workouts. Read my post in the Bodybuilding forum under the "quad soreness" thread. You will hate me at first but will thank me later. Or maybe you will just hate me!!!

 

[LeoTC]

Arms can just be a bitch like that. I hate training them directly, but I've started hammering my triceps. Get crazy lightweight volume working overnights - couple thousand reps both nights. Lol.

Just got to work the volume in, super sets are king here.

On the heavy end I'll do 200-250lbs on the plate loaded dip machine for 3x15.

Then a medium load with overhead dumbbell extensions between 70-120 3x10-20 depending on the days working weight.

Then I'll hit 4x Vbar push downs between 132-156lbs.

Then burn out with another round on the dip machine 100-150 4x25 superset with rope push downs between 72-108lbs 4x25.

My sleeves are tighter, my triceps wider, and I've been hitting like this for all of two months or so. Twice a week by the way.

Haven't measured, but I've probably put an inch or a bit more on.

 

[Soloshino]

Lean against a wall and have your legs at a 45 degree angle. While you dumbbell curl, keep your entire back, head, and elbows pinned to the wall. This will really isolate your biceps. I think that a lot of people do not properly isolate their biceps during curls which is why you see people doing 150 lb barbell curls using their shoulders and swinging their backs. It's so easy to cheat on bicep curls that unless I deliberately try to isolate them, it's extremely hard to keep the tension on them the whole time. Try it out.

 

[Jankauskas]

Have you by chance been doing a push/pull/legs split? How long do you usually rest between sets??

 

[Mac11wildcat]

So....lifted natty for a long time. Most recently probably a good 7 year stretch. With a couple breaks of a year once and a few months at another time. So....consistent training. At 190 lbs my arms were 16.5". Not bad and I would say a standout feature of my physique.

After 2 years of enhanced lifting and currently on my 4th cycle, my arms have reached an astounding 16.75"!

Im not sure irony always translates in text form.

My shoulders, chest, back, legs.....fuck, even my neck have made tremendous gains over the last couple years, but I just havent added much mass to my arms. I've made some progress with triceps. They are definitely stronger. My biceps are kind of a weak point and just havent made a lot of gains there.

Im 6' and have long arms. They are not ruining my physique or freakishly lagging behind the rest of my body, but bigger arms really adds to a physique imo.

Anyone else had this problem? Maybe I should try to make room for a dedicated arm day (fuck that's tough with the kids and the time I have for the gym)? Training bis with back currently and tris with chest.

I'm trying to choose what tactic to employ and force some growth and stick to it for the next year or so and see if I can make some progress.

What say you?

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