Who can explain this to me

Tough Old Man · Nov 23, 2009

I have a buddy of mine who is 32 yrs old..He's a biker and did a few yrs in the prison..He lifted weight whille doing time and now has been out and using a gym close to him for the past 5 yrs...He lifts 5 days on and 2 days off religously never missing..

He has owned a Mailroom / Post Office since out and I have known him this amount of time..He's 6' and weigh about 225lbs. His genetics suck but he's built pretty good except for biceps..As far as he's concern he has never been able to grow a peak on his bicep and 6 months ago last time i saw him in a short sleeve short he has no bicep but is all triceps..

So last week I walk in to his business and he's bent over doing concentration curls..I said to him did you stop using the gym and he replied no and said that about 6 months ago he decided when there are no customers, he would do concentration curls all day long everyday on top of lifting prior to opening up his business..

I was amazed to see he now has at least a good 1.5-2" peak and this guy is natural..I said to him what the hell how can they be growing like that doing so many reps everyday..He couldn't exlplain it but said my bi's are my best bodypart ..Ok so who can explain this to me how this can be happening..I would think this would over train the biceps.

dgarr21 · Nov 23, 2009

Human bodies our a wonderful thing. I do not know how this is possible but then again i don't put to much on what people SAY is true when it comes to the human body. It usually seems to surprise use. We tend to say, must be genetics to explain stuff we "know" to be true but when proven wrong.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, it's not what you don't know that can come back to bite you; it's what you know for sure that ain't true.

dabeast75 · Nov 23, 2009

my 02 cents

tough old man, my guess is that if someone was to spend 6 months doing nothing else but concentration curls on a daily basis, i dont think your biceps could do anything BUT grow. Sure, the first few days/weeks your arms will probably be sore as hell and feel like crap. Probably have a hard time lifting a Q-tip. But after that point, i would think your body learns to adapt to the constant tearing and will start to regenerate itself quicker. I dont know how long you can do this before your muscle adapts itself to the point where you reach a training plateau and stop growing, but my guess is you can put on some very decent size before that time comes.

Read an article about a guy who spent several hours a day karate chopping at the front steel fenders of trains (think of Karate Kid, wax on/wax off, Mr Miagi kind of shit). After a few years of doing this he was able to chop wood and stone into pieces, and even more "fine tuned" things like smacking the lids off of closed beer bottles. Absolutely crazy. But i guess articles like this one (and many others) prove that if you just focus on one thing your body eventually adapts.

Tough Old Man · Nov 23, 2009

dabeast75 said:
tough old man, my guess is that if someone was to spend 6 months doing nothing else but concentration curls on a daily basis, i dont think your biceps could do anything BUT grow. Sure, the first few days/weeks your arms will probably be sore as hell and feel like crap. Probably have a hard time lifting a Q-tip. But after that point, i would think your body learns to adapt to the constant tearing and will start to regenerate itself quicker. I dont know how long you can do this before your muscle adapts itself to the point where you reach a training plateau and stop growing, but my guess is you can put on some very decent size before that time comes.

Read an article about a guy who spent several hours a day karate chopping at the front steel fenders of trains (think of Karate Kid, wax on/wax off, Mr Miagi kind of shit). After a few years of doing this he was able to chop wood and stone into pieces, and even more "fine tuned" things like smacking the lids off of closed beer bottles. Absolutely crazy. But i guess articles like this one (and many others) prove that if you just focus on one thing your body eventually adapts.

Did you miss where I said he trains in a gym 5 days a week before opening his business up... He trains all body those days including arms..The concentration curls are just something he does at work when no one is there because of boredom

KROD · Nov 23, 2009

I know you already started doing cc curls all day long..havent you?

Tough Old Man · Nov 23, 2009

KROD said:
I know you already started doing cc curls all day long..havent you?

Doing them as we speak..I want bi's like yours.

doug1 · Nov 24, 2009

Tough Old Man said:
Doing them as we speak..I want bi's like yours.

heck yeah, you've been doing everything under the sun to make your arms bigger, this may be the answer!

B~RAD · Nov 24, 2009

you know, my biceps dwarf my triceps and I train them 1 set to failure once per week, if that. When I was young and in grade school, my mom got me a pair of 5-10lb dumbells and when I would watch tv, I would just sit on the couch and curl the entire time. strange

dgarr21 · Nov 24, 2009

Friend of mine couldnt get his chest to grow as fast as his back and legs so he did push ups everyday. Nothing extreme just 100-150 a day but it was everyday for two months. Man he had some nice size to them when he finally stopped this i was thinking of doing this. I mean people in the military do this during PT

jalsmiley · Nov 24, 2009

i will take a stab at explaining...he is different then you , and you are different then me, etc etc etc what i do to grow mine different then what you do and what he does! ha

BiggJuicy · Nov 24, 2009

I am not saying this is 100% fact but think of how SEO's work. Stretching the fascia, over and over consistently over time until the fascia is so stretched out that you can push your muscles through a plateau. If he isn't going all out with massive weights then he is just pumping away flushing blood into the muscle over and over again almost every day, several times throughout the day, which is obviously going to stretch the fascia consistently over time until his bi's can break through the plateau. There is literature somewhere to back this up but I don't remember where I got it. I have a selective memory

I don't know if I am bold enough to try it though.

Tough Old Man · Nov 24, 2009

BiggJuicy said:
I am not saying this is 100% fact but think of how SEO's work. Stretching the fascia, over and over consistently over time until the fascia is so stretched out that you can push your muscles through a plateau. If he isn't going all out with massive weights then he is just pumping away flushing blood into the muscle over and over again almost every day, several times throughout the day, which is obviously going to stretch the fascia consistently over time until his bi's can break through the plateau. There is literature somewhere to back this up but I don't remember where I got it. I have a selective memory

I don't know if I am bold enough to try it though.

Come on reach down grab two and go for it..LOL

repmks · Nov 24, 2009

my arms dont grow and i have tried everything. why the hell not ill give it a shot.

i hope you did'nt fabricate this story.

loganb_football · Nov 24, 2009

I think I've shared this story before but I'll do it again just in case. A person I've known since junior high did nothing but push ups with 3 sets to failure, 3-4 times a week, and play soccer. This guy had a chest like you wouldn't believe. He still works out to this day (now 28) but more with weights and even still from those years of push ups his chest is still pretty crazy. He also held a push up record in high school of 430 something. Now he couldn't bench but 185 I believe, but all the girls just wanted to touch his chest...

hellraiser27 · Nov 25, 2009

Arnold proved that you can go beyond by concetrated on certain body parts.
Arnold had no calves and lost the contest because of it.
Arnold started working on his calves everyday.
Arnold never lost another contest.

lil amy · Nov 25, 2009

A girlfriend of mine goes to the gym 3 times a week and always works her legs and nothing else. Her legs are unbelievable! I though she would be overtraining them, but I guess not. Sounds like your buddy who does his curls everyday or Arnold working his calves everyday.

doug1 · Nov 25, 2009

now all we gotta do is muster the energy to train the whole body every day enough to stimulate the muscles and not turn into a zombie within a few weeks or get thrown out of the gym for being there too long.

dabeast75 · Nov 25, 2009

no bro, didnt miss that.

Tough Old Man said:
Did you miss where I said he trains in a gym 5 days a week before opening his business up... He trains all body those days including arms..The concentration curls are just something he does at work when no one is there because of boredom

And the fact that he already trains 5 days a week doesn't really change what I wrote. If you train one body part more than others it seems only logical (if the genetics and then the training is right) that the muscle will grow. You asked for theories? Thats mine. Peace.