Do you have a dedicated arm day?

[kadafi2]

I didn't have good arms and I stopped using an arm day. Instead I did 3 sets of bis and tris on each of my 4 weekly training sessions. I train upper/lower and I'd train biceps and triceps first on lower day and last on upper day. On prep that got reduced to 2 sets each session.

So 12 sets each per week with half of that being done fresh. My arms came way up.

Maybe other people are different, but for me at least my daily volume tolerance was not high and it was better to spread out a typical arm day volume across the week. What worked worst for me was the advice of "do 15 sets each rapidfire super high reps supersets". Got 0 facking gains on my arms doing this for years.

"daily volume tolerance" - I really like this phrase; it's thought-provoking. Big thumbs up for you.

so 8 sets a week for biceps and triceps?

i think most people would have better luck with something like moderate to high 8-20 rep work for as many worksets they can recover from every 2-4 days spread over 2-5 exercises pr session depending on what you want, like or just find the most fun way to train. Personally i find going to failure overrated and it fucks me over every time i go there too much and i see better progress stopping with about 1 rep in reserve until the last workset where its to mechanical failure.

my arms are small though, but they have gotten bigger with more volume and less sets to failure compared to lower volume, higher frequency and more sets to failure. But try things out and see how it works for you, we dont all respond as well to the same things.

Exactly, that's all. You can modify it by adding one triceps exercise for three sets on chest day, and one biceps exercise for three sets on back day. But whether that's necessary remains to be seen. It's an experiment; high volume sometimes gave me a boost, but it was short-lived. I remember FST 7 working, but it quickly wore off. And most of my strength, back when I was a natural, was built using low volume and high intensity. And that basically applies to all muscle groups, except maybe legs, where I did quite a few sets for quads to get them bigger. I've always been a guy who needed a lot of recovery.

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

people like to say "smaller muscle groups recover faster / dont respond better to more volume etc." it may be a myth for some body parts, but let me tell you arms can take some mother fucking abuse. Anecdote, for my undergrad I attended a military college. One of the "rules" for freshman "rooks" were that you had to carry your book bag / attache case in your left hand always, so you right would always be free to salute officers. Wasn't a big deal. Anyway, my junior year, we had this freshman on the football team who would put all of his books for all of his classes in his bag and carry them everwhere. He wasnt "training" honestrly, he was just kind of weird like that lol. Anyway one random day in the football locker room I am look at him, and I am like "yo Marc, why are you standing like that?" He says "like what?" Upon further examination, he wasn't standing weird, we discover his entire left bicep, triceps, forearm, front delt, and trap were massively disproportionately over developed compared to his right. At the time we didn't know about him carrying all his books all the time. The dude was essentially just carrying a 40lb dumbbell in his left hand everywhere he went everyday for 4 months. The difference in growth was literally insane.

 

[luki7788]

people like to say "smaller muscle groups recover faster / dont respond better to more volume etc." it may be a myth for some body parts, but let me tell you arms can take some mother fucking abuse. Anecdote, for my undergrad I attended a military college. One of the "rules" for freshman "rooks" were that you had to carry your book bag / attache case in your left hand always, so you right would always be free to salute officers. Wasn't a big deal. Anyway, my junior year, we had this freshman on the football team who would put all of his books for all of his classes in his bag and carry them everwhere. He wasnt "training" honestrly, he was just kind of weird like that lol. Anyway one random day in the football locker room I am look at him, and I am like "yo Marc, why are you standing like that?" He says "like what?" Upon further examination, he wasn't standing weird, we discover his entire left bicep, triceps, forearm, front delt, and trap were massively disproportionately over developed compared to his right. At the time we didn't know about him carrying all his books all the time. The dude was essentially just carrying a 40lb dumbbell in his left hand everywhere he went everyday for 4 months. The difference in growth was literally insane.

Interesting fact: Andrey Smaev does forearm training 7 days a week, and it's very simple: wrist curls using fat grips and a 22kg dumbbell, 15 sets of 1,000 reps on each arm, or 3,000 reps every single day. His forearm circumference is 55cm.

For example for the chest he can do 1,000 reps of push-ups in a single workout. As you can see, it definitely works, lol.

 

[bigzzz]

Currently doing

Chest/tri
Back/bi
Shoulder/traps
Legs

Off days on feel. I did an arm day before but feel like I connect way better doing them after a big bodypart. Armday was boring as fuck and didn't really add anything.

 

[Simon90]

Interesting fact: Andrey Smaev does forearm training 7 days a week, and it's very simple: wrist curls using fat grips and a 22kg dumbbell, 15 sets of 1,000 reps on each arm, or 3,000 reps every single day. His forearm circumference is 55cm.

For example for the chest he can do 1,000 reps of push-ups in a single workout. As you can see, it definitely works, lol.

15 sets of a 1000 reps
55cm forearms wtf!!!!
As someone with shiit forearms, I'm actually going to give this a go!
Although I suspect for 15 sets of 1000 reps I'll just be using the fat grip only... No dumbell lol

 

[Papa Van Smack]

I do. The reason is because its fun. Have fun guys.

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

15 sets of a 1000 reps
55cm forearms wtf!!!!
As someone with shiit forearms, I'm actually going to give this a go!
Although I suspect for 15 sets of 1000 reps I'll just be using the fat grip only... No dumbell lol

just get one of those forearm trainer things Stallone had in Over the Top installed in your car

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

Interesting fact: Andrey Smaev does forearm training 7 days a week, and it's very simple: wrist curls using fat grips and a 22kg dumbbell, 15 sets of 1,000 reps on each arm, or 3,000 reps every single day. His forearm circumference is 55cm.

For example for the chest he can do 1,000 reps of push-ups in a single workout. As you can see, it definitely works, lol.

yeah, there are definitely cases where nature / sport has shown has the stupid volume definitely produces growth...i.e a new mechanic ads inches to his forearm cranking wrenches, simmers with disproportionate lat development, male gymnast with disproportionate biceps, rock climbers have insane backs compared to the rest of their body, and that is in a sport where body weight matters a lot.

Had a guy on our rugby team that just naturally walked on the balls of feet / toes for whatever reason, he was essentially doing a calf raise every step he took his entire life lol. He probably had the most insane set of calves I have ever seen on a guy not named Mike francois.

 

[gains4000]

Interesting fact: Andrey Smaev does forearm training 7 days a week, and it's very simple: wrist curls using fat grips and a 22kg dumbbell, 15 sets of 1,000 reps on each arm, or 3,000 reps every single day. His forearm circumference is 55cm.

For example for the chest he can do 1,000 reps of push-ups in a single workout. As you can see, it definitely works, lol.

Andrey is a freak, he reminds me of illia golem but he has no synthol. He eats like illia golem, just massive amounts of food and not all clean calories. He makes pro bodybuilders look small next to him.

 

[Simon90]

just get one of those forearm trainer things Stallone had in Over the Top installed in your car

Hahaha ffs just had to Google that lol not a bad idea!!

One set on one arm took me just over 15 minutes to complete! So over half an hour for a set on each arm, I had to call it a day after that! Brutal pump though my hand felt like it was locked in place afterwards. I will keep at it but there's no way in hell I have time to do 15 sets of those in a day on top of everything else

 

[Bleed]

Ive done arm days. Ive been doing PPL for a long time now so no more dedicated arm day.

For a long time I didnt see much in the way of improvement for arms with or without an arm day. I have long ass gorilla arms.

I changed the way I do arms and I have benefited greatly.

I used to stick to a 6-12 rep scheme for bis and tris and the results werent impressive. I lightened up the weight, switched to volume, really paid attention to tracking my movements when lifting and it's paid off. OFC I dialed in nutrition and programming so it's not just one thing.

Im a believer in volume training, especially for arms. Truth be told, Ive lightened up the weight and done a lot more volume with less rest time between sets and Ive seen great results.

I did see some real progress doing DC for everything but Im a dumbass and I cant seem to find that spot before my body needs a break. Turns out when I look for the signs its time to layoff, it's already too late and Im flirting with tendonitis of some sort or just aches and pains.

Old school methods seem to work so Ive been applying that mentality everywhere in my life. Some of the best physiques ever were built using the old ways.

Luki mentioned 21000 reps of wrist curls...per arm... for forearms in a week on a dude with impressive forearms. I can believe that. Just old school wrist curls. No 10 exercise selection. Nothing complicated.

TLDR: you dont need an arm day. You just need to train them correctly.

 

[Siggy]

people like to say "smaller muscle groups recover faster / dont respond better to more volume etc." it may be a myth for some body parts, but let me tell you arms can take some mother fucking abuse. Anecdote, for my undergrad I attended a military college. One of the "rules" for freshman "rooks" were that you had to carry your book bag / attache case in your left hand always, so you right would always be free to salute officers. Wasn't a big deal. Anyway, my junior year, we had this freshman on the football team who would put all of his books for all of his classes in his bag and carry them everwhere. He wasnt "training" honestrly, he was just kind of weird like that lol. Anyway one random day in the football locker room I am look at him, and I am like "yo Marc, why are you standing like that?" He says "like what?" Upon further examination, he wasn't standing weird, we discover his entire left bicep, triceps, forearm, front delt, and trap were massively disproportionately over developed compared to his right. At the time we didn't know about him carrying all his books all the time. The dude was essentially just carrying a 40lb dumbbell in his left hand everywhere he went everyday for 4 months. The difference in growth was literally insane.

Yea I found a picture of him dog tags and all.

 

[claymore]

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.

I agree , if arms are a lagging body part for you then I would give them their own day.

 

[warlock]

Yep, to failure. Around 8-20 reps. I train Sat/Sun/Tues/Wednesday, so arms end up getting hit two days in a row both times.

Do you change the exercises each session?

 

[Fa Seeshus]

Because of some weird work schedule stuff I ended up doing 1 exercise (full pyramid and sometimes drop sets) of biceps before legs for a while (it was that or just skip them).

Actually sorta worked. Maybe it was because of the metabolic stimulation of the more exhausting leg work.

Doing the same concept with tris now.

Definitely do them first though.... doing arms after legs would be a compete waste of time.

 

[ZHG89]

Do you change the exercises each session?

I only do 2 different curls and 2 different tricep exercises. Incline curls on the lat pulldown facing away with elbows against the pad and facing away dual handle cable curls. Triceps normal pushdowns and db skullcrushers.

I think it's highly individual though and everyone should experiment with which exercises feel the best for them personally. What makes your bicep work the most without involving all the forearms and delts too much? Pain management is also a consideration; I get a huge pump from spider curls and preacher curls but both aggravate my right side proximal bicep tendon.

 

[cracker backer]

I saw recently Terrence Ruffin doing an "appendages and torso" split. So basically arms and legs 2x per week, and then torso (chest, back, shoulders 2 x per week). Arms before legs if prioritizing arm growth. Seems fun, I'll probably give it a try eventually..... I'd been doing a 4 day split for spring and summer because of being mega busy with my kids sports, and I just switched to a 5 day split now that things have slowed down, so I probably wait a bit because I'm enjoying training more days per week right now

 

[UsmcOldSchoolMuscle]

I’ve really felt it necessary to dedicate a whole day (workout) to arms. Despite this I enjoy hitting an arm day so I typically do give em their own workout.

 

[hawkmoon]

I train arms with legs.
Legs need the attention and take the CNS and systemic resources, arms don't need much but focus and attention in comparison.

The other day is chest back, shoulders, so arms are getting direct or indirect stimulation 3x a week, in every session.

I ran an arm day on one of my "off" days as an experiment in the run up to my last contest and it just made me more fatigued.

My arms suck, but that's genetics in the end.

Edit: I just noticed I'm doing what is mentioned above from Ruffin.

 

[kadafi2]

My arms suck, but that's genetics in the end.

What????? You have no idea how many people, myself included, would love to have biceps as spherical and huge as yours. They show the results of thousands of curls throughout their lives.