Prioritizing BodyParts (extreme)

Alek · Mar 2, 2009

So basically I've pretty much reached my BB goals in terms of just about every muscle group EXCEPT arms. In other words, my arms are only half of the progress I want, with every other bodypart over-shooting the mark

(my personal mark, not looking for competitions any time soon)

So... For those of you who have experience in prioritizing body-parts. Does this sound good... Exercising just the arms regularily, and (this is the important bit), only exercising the other body-parts to failure once per two weeks.

Mind you, I don't need (or even want) the other bodyparts to grow. I'm just asking if once per 2 weeks is enough to preserve what I have (heck, I'd even sacrifice up to 20% of those muscle groups).

Thanks.

Designbuilt · Mar 2, 2009

Hi Alek,

What kind of workout were you doing to begin with? It could be that you were overtraining the arms. Some people, see more gains in the arms, believe it or not, from not training them directly.

What they do is focus mainly on Rows, Pullups and shoulder width bench presses, to work the arms; some even cut out direct arm work all together.

What kind of arm development do you have? Short muscles, or long? Is there a gap between the biceps and forearm when you flex the biceps?

How about the triceps, is there a big gap between the triceps muscle and elbow?

I myself have a hard time with arms as well, they are probably my hardest bodypart to grow, but they have come up a lot since I started training.

But what I've learned is that arms are usually being overtrained.
Personally I keep my sets low, about 4 per muslce of the arm.

Alek · Mar 2, 2009

Thanks for the super-detailed answer man. Really appreciate it.

Thanks for taking the time!

I do want to add first that, my focus is on "what do I do to preserve" the other bodyparts as I'm focuing on the arms. It's not that they're not growing, they are, and I'm somewhat pleased with the speed they're growing at.

It's not my arms that are slow, its the rest of my body that is too fast

I mean, sure I wouldn't mind speeding them up, but I am not too displeased with current rate of growth of the arms, its just that the rate is different from the rest of body.

Muscle Length ----> Medium-to-Long. When double-biceps pose... (small gap) Not exactly starting from the elbow, but the gap is minimal. When flexing like a fist absolutely no gap, so starts right from the elbow. Goes right up to shoulder.

Triceps is just long, no way to create a gap on any pose. From elbow to shoulder.

Training style----> I've used just about everything. Volume, HIT, HST, power-lifting styles... Direct and indirect. The Rate is always different for the arms.

Its that no matter how fast I get the arms to grow, the rest just speeds ahead

Right now I am on HST, its giving me the best results with arms (and everything really). So I am wondering if (while doing HST on the arms), once per two weeks is enough for the other bodyparts?