Like what the thread title is, would like an honest, no-holds-barred opinion on my arm genetics. Are they total shit, average, good? My opinion:
1) Insertions too high. I have the highest muscle insertions of anyone I know
2) Small arms but still look ok because of even smaller joints.
3) I think I have a decent bicep peak?
Here's the link to the image, somehow couldn't insert the pic: **broken link removed**. Magnify the image by clicking on it otherwise it looks really stretched
While everybody is busy blowing you off, bragging about themselves, being totally evasive in attempting
to answer a simple, sincere, well-meaning question, I am happy to share with you what little I know, which
is not much and largely in the form of opinions.
I too was in your shoes once upon a time and I would have appreciated somebody, literally anybody,
explaining a few simple things to me. Instead I wasted a ton of money and time pursuing things that
had little to no effect on changing the shape or increasing the muscular size of my arm.
I will not be talking about site injections, SEO, implants, anabolic steroids, growth hormones or insulin,
your mom or your dad, how well you recover, your muscle fiber type, your metabolism, how willing
you are to work hard, how gullible you are, how smart you are, your willingness to experiment, how
dedicated you are or about a hundred other things that immediately come to mind.
Genetics are where you end up, not where you start. (That is an original quote.) Nobody knows what
your genetic potential is until it is tested. But if you are looking for a simple way to determine how
good your biceps potential is for size is to flex your biceps. If you have a long biceps muscle you may
only get one finger between their biceps and you forearm. Someone with a medium long biceps might get
two fingers in there. And if you can get three fingers your between my flexed biceps and forearm then
your potential for muscular size is relatively poor.
The size of your arm (any muscle really) is largely determined by your genetics. And in this case I will be
referring only to your muscle attachments, i.e. where your muscle attaches to your bones. How long
your muscle is will determine its eventual size. All things considered, longer = bigger, shorter = smaller.
That is not to say that a short biceps muscle will not look good, it can and does on the right people. In
some cases it actually looks better than long biceps muscle.
Sergio Oliva had extremely long biceps muscle. And they inserted very low on his arm and as a consequence
of that he did not have much of a ‘peak’ and nothing would have given him a peak. The ‘appearance’ of
his arm was genetically determined and not subject to change. On the other hand, Albert Beckles had
one of the best biceps peak. He also had a noticeable gap between his forearm and biceps and this gap
was not subject to change. He could have done, and probably did, do ‘preacher curls’ ‘till the cows come
home in an effort to lengthen his biceps muscle. And it did not work. Just as Sergio could have done a
‘peaking’ exercise from now until the end of time with little if any effect on the peak of his biceps.
Years ago, one of my training partners could easily but three fingers between flexed biceps and forearm
but because his arm was extremely lean and vascular, his arms looked fantastic. Forget what they measured,
when he flexed them ‘things’ happened. And it got you attention. So it isn’t always about size, it’s about
how you look.
Another training partner of mine was a professional baseball pitcher destined for the ‘show’ until a torn
biceps ended his career. After having his biceps reattached (not lower but higher on his arm) it all but
ruined the shape and size of his arm. He could not do barbell curls because one end of the bar would end
up on the floor and the other up near his shoulder, such was the imbalance. His biceps looked small
and was small, looked like shit and always would look like shit regardless of what kind of exercise he did
for them. He was not happy about that. But he more than made up for it in another department that I
won’t go into.
In closing, all this is not intended to say that if you have a large gap between flexed biceps and forearm
you are incapable of having a big arm. That is simply not true. But your arm could and would be much bigger
if the gap was smaller. So you are thinking logically when it comes to your potential size. Not many people
think the as logically as you.
Keep training and stay lean. Do not fall into the trap of gaining size in your arms at the expense of additional
body fat. If you live long enough, you will regret it. Size and weight are not everything, it is how you look.
The foto below (courtesy of Inge Cook) compares a professional bodybuilders flexed arm with that of a
‘normal’ person. Like they say on the London Underground . . . mind the gap.
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