Still doing arm isolations?

"Not everyone can be a pro with mass quanties of drugs and dedication."

You're right, I forgot something. They also need to be genetically gifted. Outside of that, little is needed. You don't need any great degree of training knowledge to grow massive when you're injecting so much test that you could grow from grazing. Hell, the bovine get away with it.

"I can't tell you how many pencil necks I know that are saucin out of their minds."

If they're juicing and still not gaining, that's a dietary issue more than anything. Not to mention that just because someone uses steroids doesn't mean they're on the same level as the pros. Pros use a lot heftier cycles than your average, pencil-necked gym rat.

"Also, compare the arm development of pro bb's vrs. powerlifters, both of which use peformance enhancing drugs. On the whole bb's have much better overall arm development than do powerlifters. If piling on the most weight to compound exercises is best for muscle hypertrophy, than why aren't we all doing powerliting routines revolving around strength?"

Firstly, bodybuilders look similar to powerlifters in the offseason. Make a powerlifter cut down to sub 6% bodyfat and they'll be the same, albeit some minor differences. Notice that powerlifters train with extremely low rep ranges, which is often stimulating the nervous system and not causing enough microtrauma to cause growth. They do assistance work, sure, but their 1-3 rep sets don't do much for mass. Add weight to the compound lifts in respectable rep ranges (4-8) over the course of time, and with proper diet, I bet you'll see an increase in size, regardless.
 
If you would like to believe in your over simplifcation of bodybuilding go ahead. Many people choose to discredit others in order to make up for their own inadequacies.

So let me get this straight: All I need to be a pro is to be genetically, dedicated, have a great diet, and more testosterone than everyone else?

Watch our Ronnie here I come!

This reminds me of fat, ugly women proclaiming they would look like Britney Spears if they had the same people doing their make up as she does.


the hamma

O I forgot in my quest to become Mr. O I'll be sure to leave out the iso's.
;)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]So let me get this straight: All I need to be a pro is to be genetically, dedicated, have a great diet, and more testosterone than everyone else?
Click to expand...

Yep. Get a sponsor, have good genetics, learn to pose, make sure your diet is perfect, and inject away! No good knowledge of training is needed. Look how they train in the first place. Unless, of course, you consider that "good knowledge".
 
I still do arm exercises like curls, close-grips, etc. I find they are most beneficial when I "treat" them as a compound movement and give them the same priority as Squats, Deads and the other large core movements. By priority I mean the same amount of physical and mental effort to improve my performance on the exercise. And it's just fun to pump them up!
 
Just some thoughts.

Leaving out the arm isolation work is ok as long as you add some more compounds than usual to increase overlap. But as long as you pick the right isolation to do (those with best stretch), and you know when to do them, they won't be insignificant, so you can stick to those isolations instead of adding more compounds in case it wipes you out or tires you a lot more.

Regards,
-JV
 
Here's my two cents, even though I agree that isolations are not absolutely necessary all the time, Isolations have certainly built some serious arms!

I have done a routine before that brought my arms from 13 - 15" in about 90 days (pyramiding incline seated d/b curls going light x 30 /medium x 15 /heavy x 6 /medium x 15 /light x 30.

This man also claims to have built some serious arms with isolation routines included in the workout:
 
Here's my two cents, even though I agree that isolations are not absolutely necessary all the time, Isolations have certainly built some serious arms!

I have done a routine before that brought my arms from 13 - 15" in about 90 days (pyramiding incline seated d/b curls going light x 30 /medium x 15 /heavy x 6 /medium x 15 /light x 30.

Larry Scott also claims to have built some serious arms with isolation routines included in the workout, and man he had some serious guns that's for sure
 
I don't do any arm isolations. After reading all this, I prolly will next cycle though
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I just do chins and dips hoping they will hit bi's and tri's hard enuf. I thought about throwing in a set up close grip benches and some curls when i get to the fives.

I do 1 workout of 2 sets 6 days a week and I am afraid if i throw in too many isolations for arms, it will lead to overtraining.
 
b0xm0ns73r,
Just a thought -
You're working out 6 days per week, doing 2 sets of everything plus cardio.  That's a decent amount of volume. If adding 2 sets of arms to your routine is going to throw you into overtraining; you are already right at the edge.  I guess what I'm saying is; unless you are curling 150 for 10 reps and close-gripping 225 for 10; you'll probably be OK.
Bob
 
Hey b0xm0ns73r :)

Don't worry. Check your compounds. If you already have a decent group of compounds in your routine, I doubt adding in some isolations would work. For example, if you are benchpressing something around 200+, chins for a total of 180+, deadlifting 230+, and whatever other compounds you have, do you really think adding dumbbell curls for 40 pounds will give anything more to your muscles? Unless you plan on doing them to give additional metabollic work for your arms, I sincerely doubt they will accomplish anything more than fatigue you more, especially since you work out 6 days a week.

Of course, it's a whole different thing if your routine doesn't have enough overlap from the compounds that your arms aren't getting enough work. If you identify that your case is like that, then it would do you well to add in some useful isolations. Choose those with best stretch, like incline curls and skullcrushers.

Regards,
-JV
 
I'm in agreement with jvroig. The X & Y variables of microtrauma are load and stretch, however, so if your compound movements leave the muscle in a highly contracted state most of the time, you may want to throw something in that would place emphasis on stretch.
 
Chthonian and jvroig gave good advice. Just do them. Compounds hit the arms hard; but heavy curls and dips (chest up) helped my arms over a size plateau.

bob
 
Hey

Here si the man I was talking about, sure he used iso's and plenty of them, but he is definitely old school, so he also used compounds big time.
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Well, just to show that isolations have their place, this whole thread simply proves that isolations can be used but are not the absolute necessity.

I agree with you, I will be happy with 17" for my size, that is a fair pair of pythons, sergio was somthing like 22", those are my thighs for crying out loud.
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You've got 17" arms and 22" thighs? Sounds a bit unproportioned to me, orb. Pullin' 15" gunzzz now with 24" thighs.
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We all got something to work on, huh?
 
No sir

Got me wrong there!

Have 15,5" arms and 22.5" thighs, would like to get to 17" guns and 24" thighs, would then aim to keep them there!
 
Have you seen Sergio's pecs and lats. . . .? My gut feeling is that most of the arm growth is due to the exercises that gave him the bread-rising chest and lats like bat..
 
Honestly speaking, I think (I speak without really knowing Sergio's type of training) that Sergio did some real heavy Deads, Chins and benches, all of which would have put on some serious mass.

I think I remember reading somewhere that he thouroughly enjoyed single arm d/b overhead extensions for triceps, for example.

But isolations where done more for the shape I can agree with that, most of the size would come from the amount of weight those guys moved in one day.
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