Workout Advice regarding Arms

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slowgrower

New Member
Quick background: I'm a long time lurker of HST. I enjoy the workout routines and it doesn't leave me incredibly drained when I leave the gym. I've veered off and tried some things (Scrawny2Brawny, DC, other crap I've made up) but I always seem to come back to HST. I also enjoy the total body aspect of it. I've put on about 15 pounds or so the last year due to HST and increasing my intake of food. I am also looking to put on another 10-15 pounds here in the next couple of months with another cycle.

My question is about workout creation and my arms.

As my body grows and my shoulders widen and I become more defined, my arms seem small compared to the rest of me. I remember reading an article Arthur Jones wrote about most people either having big arms/small body, or small arms/big body, and that very few had both.

I guess my questions are:
1. Is it genetics?
1b. If it is genetics, can I fix it?
2. Is it exercise selection?
3. Am I not eating enough?

Is it something I can fix with exercise specialization? Meaning, on my next cycle, if I only do bench, row, and squat, then focus on arms, is that a solution?

This is something I'd like to address and given the huge amount of knowledge on these forums, I would hope someone has some ideas and suggestions.

Thanks.
 
10-15lbs of extra bodyweight would see you adding up to an inch on your arms. However, if you want to do this in just a few months you would likely be adding a fair bit of fat too. If you were new to all this then it might be more lean mass but you ain't. Why do you want to add the extra weight so quickly? If you shot for 5-8 lbs I think that would be far more reasonable.

Genetics are bound to play a part. Look at the difference in arm sizes of the pros. They are all on juice and yet they don't all have arms like Ronnie (but you can bet they want them).

To make a better judgement it would be helpful to have some stats, eg. overall bodyweight, bf level, chest, waist, thighs, calves, upper arms. How have your arms changed whilst training so far? Have you added about an inch to your upper arm size in the last year to go along with your 15lbs increased bodyweight? How have your dips and chins been progressing? These two exercises alone will add size to your arms.

If you are still gaining you are eating enough. However, if you are becoming 'more definied' that would indicate that you could eat more although it depends on your b/f levels right now. You don't ordinarily become more defined while bulking!  
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Good idea Fausto. The calculator is a useful guide but bear in mind that a lot of guys have surpassed it's predictions and naturally too.
 
I'm 6'0" tall, 175 lbs, and about 10% body fat.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is about exercise selection. Do I continue doing what I've been doing, which has been something along the lines of:

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Incline DB
Pulldown
Deadlift
Dip
Row
Leg Curl
Standing BB Curl</div>

...or do I focus less on the compound exercises and do more isolations for my arms? I know I've read somewhere on this site (probably in the FAQ) about how some guys just do Squat, Bench, Row and then focus more on certain body parts.

I guess I'm asking if anyone has anecdotal evidence based on either training methodology within HST.

I'm trying not to turn this thread into just another &quot;Hey approve my workout plan&quot;  
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Alot of it is genetic, no doubt. Me, I get big triceps, but my biceps lag.

Having said that, why not just throw in some arm iso's and give that a shot?

I used them on my first cycle, and got good results. This cycle, I am going to eliminate the iso's, and see what happens.

Nothing is set in stone for HST (well, thats NOT true, but other than the basic principles).
 
Try this routine

You can superset the paired exercises if you want, i do

dips
rows

close grip chinups
military press- push press later on in the cycle (credit liege)

squat
SDLD
 
changes in the routine will only do so much. at 175lbs you should have a good amount of weight to put on naturally, easily another 25-30lbs. the rule of thumb is 1&quot; on your arms for every 10lbs of lean body mass. if you reach your max potential you are looking at another 2.5 to 3&quot; on the arms. would that suffice for your goals?


EAT EAT &amp; EAT....just don't get too greedy with how fast you do it or you will put on fat. 1-2lbs a week is what i find works good.
 
You're pretty lean. I think that JWBond is correct.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Incline DB
Pulldown
Deadlift
Dip
Row
Leg Curl
Standing BB Curl</div>

I don't have a dip station, but those who do dips report that they can affect chest more or triceps, depending on technique. Incline db for me is more upper pec and shoulder intensive than triceps.

So maybe adding some skull crushers would be good.

Close grip chins (supinated) like style suggests will recruit biceps more than wide grip pulldowns. You can use pulldowns or chins, just noting that close, supinated grip will use the biceps more.
 
Yup, at 175lbs and at 6ft tall you have plenty of eating to do!
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I would stick with the compounds squat, deads, rows, chins, bench, dips, shoulder press until you are at least at 200lbs.
 
I meant to add that if you find that your arms are still lagging at that point then you could focus on them a bit more with some isos on off days. This will boost frequency but you will probably have to keep the volume low so as not to hamper your progress.
 
<div>
(jwbond @ Sep. 07 2006,16:22)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"> if you reach your max potential you are looking at another 2.5 to 3&quot; on the arms.  would that suffice for your goals?</div>
Well, my concern is that I'll have a big chest, big back, with small arms instead of everything in proportion. I've seen guys like this in the gym and asked myself &quot;Did they do too much direct arm work or not enough?&quot;

My long term goal is 200 pounds, which is pretty attainable, considering my father went from 165 to 245 over 4 years. He worked out every other day in college and would have food eating contests with his football buddies.
 
keep in mind everyone has a body part that doesnt keep pace or they think doesnt keep pace. obviously those that dont share your trouble with bis will tell you to just do close grip chins and your fine. for most that is true but not all.

like you my bis do not respond as well as other body parts. ive never seen 1&quot; on my arms with 10lbs gained. more like 1/2&quot; if im lucky and tris happen to be a strong point for me. either way here is my 2 cents.

try close grip chins as they are still one of the best bi exer. out there. if you feel more is needed then add 1 iso exer following chins and your bis should be cooked.

dont neglect the tris (dips) as they make up more then 1/2 of the &quot;arm size&quot; battle.

realize its going to take time for any lagging bodypart to not bother you with its slow pace. probably a couple cycles.

i never had decent traps. i spent a year with an additional  trap exer in every w/o despite the fact most recommend basic compounds cover traps just fine. well now i have traps and they are beginning to move past decent and are slowly becoming one of my more impressive body parts.

the point is once youve identified a weakness you may need extra work to address it just realise it will take a bit of time to see the results
 
I've never seen the problem with arm isos, I do arm isos (bicep curls and tricep extension) in the 1st week of each rep range when the weights for other bodyparts are easy, and in the 2nd week just stick to major compounds (cause the workout gets harder). I get a good pump in my arms just after workout, which is a mental boost, and I believe they are keeping pace with the rest of my body because I'm hitting them directly every 2nd week. My shoulders (lateral delts) are lagging so I'm doing 1 set of military press on off days. So you might do your arm isos on off days too (2-3x per week).

I agree though one of my mates has huge arms and he hardly does arm isos, just lots of chins ups and dips. Remember you've got to load the muscle to get it to grow.
 
I don't think my arms would have ever grown a bit without iso's. But each of us is different: I share the bicep lag that tradnyx has. I treat my arms the same as a major bodypart. Same for traps. I grew them (finally) by bulking and going super heavy, but I've heard of people doing highrep work for them with success. You just have to try yourself and see how you respond.
 
I don't think you are large enough yet to know if your arms are lagging or not. Get to 200 lbs and I think you'll find that your arms are looking just fine. Tweaking your routine would be a good idea though. I would add a set of curls and something for triceps to the end of your workouts if you really think you need it.
 
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(slowgrower @ Sep. 07 2006,03:40)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I guess my questions are:
1. Is it genetics?
1b. If it is genetics, can I fix it?
2. Is it exercise selection?
3. Am I not eating enough?</div>
You provided zero information about your body. My guess is that your arms are in proportion to the rest of your body, and you're a guy who thinks his body is bigger than it actually is Maybe I'm wrong, provide measurements.

I think you are wise in sticking to HST. I like DC stuff too, but, in my opinion, no one should do DC but steroid users/professional bodybuilders. It's just too intense for guys who aren't doing this for a living. The reason I like HST and DC so much is that they both focus on getting stronger. 5x5 and other programs do that too, but HST is my favorite. Get stronger using a progressive system (especially on the compound lifts)and the size will come, just be patient. Being able to do 20 more lbs/5 more reps on pullups is going to take your bis farther than 20 extra lbs on bicep curls done in the squat rack. Also, remember that tris make up mroe than 60% (something like that) of the arm, so a strong shoulder press or cgbp will beef up your arms too.

3. Am I not eating enough? Uh, no...I assume you are eating 5 cals per day and you should really eat more than that. POST YOUR CALORIES. If you don't know, you're not taking this seriously.
 
Thank you all for your anecdotal evidence, replies, and advice. I will continue to use HST as my primary workout mechanism.

Based on other searches via google, other bulletin boards are posing and answering the same question. Overall, the general response is &quot;Find out what works best for you&quot; but it seems the majority of the replies indicate that some iso arm work is optimal for size and development as long as compounds are still the majority of the workout routine.

Therefore, I've decided to make the arm work take a higher priority in my workout routine, other than tacked on the end as an afterthought. In addition, I'm going to switch to close-grip chins instead of supinated pulldowns. In addition, I'm gonna experiment with an A/B workout scheme this time, just so I can hit a lot more exercises.

Again, thanks. You guys never fail the newbies
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I still wouldn't do arm isos before compounds like deads, rows, bench or chins. You will compromise the compound lift by burning up your arms beforehand.
 
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