Do you have a dedicated arm day?

[Josefein421]

PPL has been all the rage lately and I have seen a few more prominent coaches mention how they feel this has impaired arm growth in people. I was told my arms and shoulders need to come up compared to my legs and back. However I know it is from powerlifting all those years both making my legs and back major focuses but also there was weeks straight I did zero bicep work or maybe 3 sets of curls just to keep my bicep tendons healthy.

I have been doing upper/lower 4 days total a week. The other day the media guy asked if he could film some content for the gym and if I'd so some stuff. Nothing crazy but I forgot how cool pumped arms feel. Not saying pump equates to growth but just wondering if more people think they benefit from an arm specific day or if they get more from the frequency associated with PPL, Upper/Lower or some other split that divides bis and tris.

 

[Simon90]

I do an arm day. I never used too and my arms are my worst body part.

They have improved a lot since giving them their own day

 

[alfresco]

Yes.

Torso on Monday.
Arms on Wednesday
Legs on Friday.

 

[PissedPajamas]

Have you ever noticed the smallest people are the ones saying you don’t need an arm day? It’s either the labcoat lifters who weigh a sopping 150lbs or the 260lbs freaks who were born looking like Geodude from Pokemon.

For the normal gym goer who needs to bring up arms, an arm day is probably a good idea.

 

[Siggy]

I have never had an arm day. I put pulls/compounds before arms and yea my arms seem to be lagging behind the rest of my physique. I dont mind this because I am prioritizing my back/compounds and I already have decent arms(I always had decent arms, even as a natural). Later down the line in a very long cycle, I will start putting my arms before the the pulls and this seems to help a bit (but I have never tried putting triceps before compound push. It really affects my push poundages).

In addition it may just be my perception that my arms arent very good. When I started juicing, it seems all of the other muscles on my torso including shoulders, pecs, back delts, etc came up to match my arms. Of course your arms will look smaller if everything else got bigger.

Who knows, this will be my longest cycle ever, it will be a multiyear cycle and I am trying to get to my biggest ever, so maybe when I am nearly as advanced /when my muscles get as mature as many of you on this board, maybe then I will actually need to add an arm day.

 

[beast405]

So yeah, I don’t have a day dedicated strictly to arms anymore. I used to, but over time I’ve noticed I actually grow better when I don’t isolate a whole day just for them.

Granted—I’ll be real—arms are still my worst body part. Not trying to act like I’ve got it all figured out. But for whatever reason, hitting them with higher frequency throughout the week, usually at the end of other training days , seems to be doing more for me than having one big “arm day.”

Curious if anyone else noticed the same. Or if I’m just built weird.

 

[luki7788]

I only do arms days when, for example, I need more regeneration, and for me, arms day is not something that burdens my CNS and I can burn quite a lot of extra calories on it.

 

[gains4000]

Nothing better than arm day!

 

[buck]

I do upper lower split. Half of my upper days are geared towards arms and shoulders with just a few high rep set for back and chest. So they kind of get there own day every 6 days.

 

[Flocci]

some periods i stick to a PPL with arms at the end but ive mostly been having a seperate arm day lately. I also like combining delts and arms.

I find that PPL leaves your arms underworked so thats why ive been splitting it up and giving even more direct attention to arms. I think most people with average arm genetics need it. Not everyone is a nick walker lol.

I might add some arms to chest as well.

 

[MackCoach]

Right now I’m real big on negative reps training.

I go heavy on drag curls, then hit hammer curls, then 1 arm at a time DB preacher curls slower reps then when tapped out I’ll use the free arm to bring the weight up then I’ll do slow negative reps until there is zero left in that bicep.

After a nice variety of standard tricep exercises I then go to 1 arm at a time tricep cable push downs. Emphasis on heavy weight and slow fight on the negative then push the weight back down with both hands. I’ll go until there is zero left in the triceps.

Mack

 

[pistonpump]

No dedicated arm day in my PPL, but I will do one every once in awhile when my days get thrown off and I'm in there an extra day or something. But I still do 3 excercises for tris on push and still do 2-4 for bicep on pull. Arms are pretty good just need more tricep drop in the FDB

 

[Reno911]

It all comes down to genetics. Some do some don't.

 

[Sectør]

I’ll sometimes do an arm day, but I don’t really have it programmed in

Just do a basic leg/push/pull with higher volume, but I always need some other day in between legs and back day because legs and back are always the most fatiguing for me.

So usually I’ll do:
-Legs
Push
Pull
Off
Repeat

But if my split gets out of wack and starts with a push or a pull day after a rest day I’ll usually do:
Push
Pull
X <—arm pump day in between back/legs
Legs


Kind of like luki touched on if you need a less fatiguing recovery day, arms can make a good plug in day, but honestly I find training arms boring as hell

 

[Fleezy]

I do P/L/P and train arms on both upper body days

they've gotten noticeably bigger and fuller since i upped the frequency

 

[southernmucle214]

I do pull and push twice a week so hitting arms twice per week has been much better. Even when I deviate from PPL I hit shoudlers with arms. A full day dedicated to arms seems like a waste for me.

 

[control]

Definitely. When you train biceps and triceps together, they get pumped and push against each other, which stretches out the fascia and facilitates growth.

(That’s ^ just something I remember hearing back in the day, lol)

 

[Inkniron87]

Yeah for the most part a day dedicated to them. Easier day on the cns side to, that helps with the amount of volume I’ve been doing

 

[d4ve]

I have for a couple of years now, and it's definitely paid off.

I can see the argument for higher frequency, but it often seems not to pan out, unless you're still having an arm day AND hitting triceps with chest / shoulders and biceps with back.

My thinking is that protein synthesis is only elevated for so long after you train a muscle, and your body as a whole can only synthesize so much new tissue in a given time frame. So if you're only ever training biceps and triceps with much larger muscle groups, you're basically "spreading the gains" over more tissue.

In other words, muscle growth is stimulated locally but is rate-limited systemically. I don't have research to back that up, but I feel like it's true.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

If you dont have good arms, you need an arm day. It's that simple.