.gif "IP Gear")
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2002
- Messages
- 7,223
First I need a short intro about myself to put this post in perspective. My frame is relatively small as indicated by my wrist circumference of only 6-1/8". My heritage : mother was born in Japan, both of father's parents were born in England. My genetics "appear" to be dominated by the Asian side 
. So - in other words, I consider myself a "hardgainer" - not to the extent of a Stevie Erckle but have always had to work and eat smart to put any muscle on.
I started "regularly" working out with weights in 1978 primarily to increase my strength for cross-country motorcycle (off-road) racing. Over time, I started spending more time in the gym and was showing the results. In the mid 80's, I switched my priority from racing to bodybuilding. The first year or two in this bodybuilding period was natural. Then I went over to the dark side.
I was fortunate to have a mentor/trainer/friend (I use that long description because he never charged me anything - said that I was the "only" person that did "everything" they were told) who was a protoge of Bill Pearl and a former Mr "state." He engrained some principles that were passed down to him that I'm sharing here.
Workouts are early morning. Testosterone is highest at this time-of-day (as evidenced by the morning woody ). Bill Pearl does this to this day, my friend does it, and I do it. Unless you are genetically gifted, doing all those "specialized" arm exercises like curls, extensions, pushdowns will not develop large arms. Doing HEAVY compound movements will give you size to your arms. Those "specialized" arm exercises only refine the arms. He never said don't do arm exercises or you can get away with less - just that mass is put on by the heavy compound movements.
I use to do deadlilfts once a week. Everyone in the gym would comment on my impeccable form. But - my lower back would ache from workout to workout. It would only start to feel OK then it would be time to do deads again. I switched to HEAVY bent-over-rows (barbell) as my back staple/compound movement. After reading on this board a while back, I've also started to do rack deadlifts and these really don't bother my lower back. homonunculus' keen observation about what exercises I did was spot on
Years ago I worked with a state champion (held records in several weight divisions) in bench press. He taught me a technique that emphasizes triceps and lats. Without going into detail, I incorporated this elbows-in style, lowering bar to lower chest as this really forces you to use more triceps (and also puts far less stress on shoulders!).
Forget what you saw in my recent pictures. On gear, the largest my arms ever got was 17-1/8". My BF was not high but they were rather smooth. I've NEVER HAD nor HAVE a real biceps "peak." At this point my arms were primarily triceps, which really made my biceps look that much smaller. Shoulder development also made biceps look smaller (funny how one can turn things around )
OK - now here's how I broke the barrier. After reading and exchanging e-mails with Big A, I got a couple bottles of Syntherol. It was a bit disappointing for me. I would not say that I'm a "Non-Responder" but I didn't get a lot of size. It really seemed to improve the bicep's shape. I also started converting over to mainly ester-free gear and put it ALL in my biceps. I jumped up to 3ml per site in less than 2 weeks. From what I've read, most guys arms would be ready to explode by doing this - not xcel's. In fact, I was doing 3ml in each head, two times ED - plus the gear shot made 9 pokes in the biceps ED. Now this is how I responded. I am definately not suggesting this is what you should do!
I've tried to read everthing I could about people's experiences with SEO. I know this is contrary to what Big A describes but here's how and why I inject the way I do. You can look at your arm and there is an inner and outer head. I would divide each head into three sections - middle, lower and upper. Each injection was rotated around these sites. I always buried a one-inch 25g pin for all injections. My reason is that you want to force the muscle up. By going shallow, like 0.5-inch you tend to create a lump rather than force the muscle up. I read an extensive post about how one bro would never use anything shorter than a 1.5-inch pin for SEO
I've done weekly "maintainance" SEO shots up until a couple of months ago. Total time period of SEO use was about 10 months. But biceps have been the most pain-free injections (other than glutes but they're much easier to reach ). I was pretty estatic when the "split" developed during my dropping body fat.
xcel
. So - in other words, I consider myself a "hardgainer" - not to the extent of a Stevie Erckle but have always had to work and eat smart to put any muscle on.I started "regularly" working out with weights in 1978 primarily to increase my strength for cross-country motorcycle (off-road) racing. Over time, I started spending more time in the gym and was showing the results. In the mid 80's, I switched my priority from racing to bodybuilding. The first year or two in this bodybuilding period was natural. Then I went over to the dark side.
I was fortunate to have a mentor/trainer/friend (I use that long description because he never charged me anything - said that I was the "only" person that did "everything" they were told) who was a protoge of Bill Pearl and a former Mr "state." He engrained some principles that were passed down to him that I'm sharing here.
Workouts are early morning. Testosterone is highest at this time-of-day (as evidenced by the morning woody
). Bill Pearl does this to this day, my friend does it, and I do it. Unless you are genetically gifted, doing all those "specialized" arm exercises like curls, extensions, pushdowns will not develop large arms. Doing HEAVY compound movements will give you size to your arms. Those "specialized" arm exercises only refine the arms. He never said don't do arm exercises or you can get away with less - just that mass is put on by the heavy compound movements.I use to do deadlilfts once a week. Everyone in the gym would comment on my impeccable form. But - my lower back would ache from workout to workout. It would only start to feel OK then it would be time to do deads again. I switched to HEAVY bent-over-rows (barbell) as my back staple/compound movement. After reading on this board a while back, I've also started to do rack deadlifts and these really don't bother my lower back. homonunculus' keen observation about what exercises I did was spot on
Years ago I worked with a state champion (held records in several weight divisions) in bench press. He taught me a technique that emphasizes triceps and lats. Without going into detail, I incorporated this elbows-in style, lowering bar to lower chest as this really forces you to use more triceps (and also puts far less stress on shoulders!).
Forget what you saw in my recent pictures. On gear, the largest my arms ever got was 17-1/8". My BF was not high but they were rather smooth. I've NEVER HAD nor HAVE a real biceps "peak." At this point my arms were primarily triceps, which really made my biceps look that much smaller. Shoulder development also made biceps look smaller (funny how one can turn things around
)OK - now here's how I broke the barrier. After reading and exchanging e-mails with Big A, I got a couple bottles of Syntherol. It was a bit disappointing for me. I would not say that I'm a "Non-Responder" but I didn't get a lot of size. It really seemed to improve the bicep's shape. I also started converting over to mainly ester-free gear and put it ALL in my biceps. I jumped up to 3ml per site in less than 2 weeks. From what I've read, most guys arms would be ready to explode by doing this - not xcel's. In fact, I was doing 3ml in each head, two times ED - plus the gear shot made 9 pokes in the biceps ED. Now this is how I responded. I am definately not suggesting this is what you should do!
I've tried to read everthing I could about people's experiences with SEO. I know this is contrary to what Big A describes but here's how and why I inject the way I do. You can look at your arm and there is an inner and outer head. I would divide each head into three sections - middle, lower and upper. Each injection was rotated around these sites. I always buried a one-inch 25g pin for all injections. My reason is that you want to force the muscle up. By going shallow, like 0.5-inch you tend to create a lump rather than force the muscle up. I read an extensive post about how one bro would never use anything shorter than a 1.5-inch pin for SEO
I've done weekly "maintainance" SEO shots up until a couple of months ago. Total time period of SEO use was about 10 months. But biceps have been the most pain-free injections (other than glutes but they're much easier to reach
). I was pretty estatic when the "split" developed during my dropping body fat.xcel
