beating arm genetics

[tonyperkis]

I'm 5'11, 205 lbs, and my arms are lagging. I'm the only guy I know who can deadlift 550 and still have 14 inch arms. I'm aware that there are hundreds of threads on this topic, but they tend to have feedback provided by guys blessed with good muscle insertion points. are there any former skinny guys here who defeated bad arm genetics and built some cannons? How did you do it?

 

[tri-terror]

Simple fact is that you are not going to have 20, or hell even 18 inch arms at a body weight of 200. Your arms are not behind, your whole body is.

 

[Jizzmo]

youll never have the best arms if they are lagging after years of training. everyone has their weak points depending on bone structure, insertions etc. you should just learn to deal with it i'd say. cant change your shape unless you stop working out everything else, which most probably wont.

 

[borderbound]

im not dissing him but try to find a pic of pro wrestler triple H without elbow pads on

my point is although he brought them to a respectable point they have always lagged

 

[matt1164]

Try some syntherol or a seo

 

[9muscle9]

Train them with a shitload of volume when training your arms on there own seperate day, and always train triceps first.

slow down the movements and squeeze at the contraction for at least 2 seconds and dont use shite form!

Stick to dumbells and occasionally machines+cables

after 2 years of this method your arms arent growing at all, do site injections they might help stretch the facia a little? and if they still arent growing use syntherol

 

[Animalattack]

I had skinny arms and started working with a Pro BB (many years ago) who helped me train and thought me a few things, oh well like PINTOWIN and my friend said train (my arms at the time bi's and tri's) were lagging, but train them on separate days and really focus on that muscle group, but as most here have told you, you have to eat to grow them. Try individual work out days fo each bi's and tri's and treat them like you would workout your back or chest.

AA

 

[Petergozinya]

Simple fact is that you are not going to have 20, or hell even 18 inch arms at a body weight of 200. Your arms are not behind, your whole body is.

I think he wanted advise not to be put down.

 

[ajdos]

I found by almost overtraining them for a period then following that period with a time where I didnt do any direct arm work, only used arms with my compound exercises with shoulders, back and arms, really gave them a spurn of growth.
Each period being around 3 weeks for me, play around with it and see if it works for you.

 

[Pitbullmike007]

try high dosing hmp, up the cals , keep a log,, would luv to see results..

 

[smokeybair]

I think he wanted advise not to be put down.

I know it sounds harsh but it's true! I have the same issue with lagging arms compared to everything else. 240lbs with 17" arms. I have come to grips with the fact that I have long lanky arms and i will never have 20" or probably even 18" guns. I was driving myself nuts trying everything to get a bigger arm. Now I have finally accepted the fact and its ok. I'm not saying don't try just don't obsess about it like I was, because you can't change the way God put you together!

 

[tenny]

it can be done.......i had very bad biceps years ago....flat, long, small.
they looked like shit, especially because my triceps were pretty decent.
so it made my bis look even smaller, then add in my height 5'11.
arms sucked...

until i started training (like a bodybulider) not like a powerlifter..
i did so much volume, til i felt my bis were gonna pop....
and i did arms (as a session)....always bis first...

i trained bis 3 times a week....
once with tris, then again with back, then a small intense session
after legs...for years i did this....high volume, med, weight, lots
of super sets, drop sets, giant sets.....and ALL exercises....
dumbells, barbells, cables, all the machines, every angle..

i would do 20 sets for biceps.
very rarely doing anything really heavy.
ex..
4 sets of alternating dumbell curls
20s for 15
30s for 12
40s for 10
50s for as many as possible
4 sets of rope hammers on low pulley
i like to drop set these
100 for 10
70 for 10 to 12
50 for 15 to 20
4 complete sets, with 30 second rest between sets
4 sets barbell curls....
4 sets of 25 reps done quickly, with a 10 second rest between sets
i would normally just use the 45pound bar for these
if i did these first in the workout???...then you may be able to handle more.
4 or 5 sets of any machine, and reverse grip curls (free weight or cable)
(super set)
keeping the weight the same..
find a weight you can do a good 12 to 15 reps with good explosive form
on the machine....then jump right to the reverse grips witha weight
that you can do 10 to 15 reps.....
do this with absolutely NO rest at all, for 4 to 5 reps...

ehhh, but what do i know

 

[aminofreak]

Simple fact is that you are not going to have 20, or hell even 18 inch arms at a body weight of 200. Your arms are not behind, your whole body is.

1 had 18" arms at 190lbs... Just sayin

 

[magnus82]

I have my best response to lagging parts by adding more volume. I do a 2 way split and switched bis to chest/shoulder night and tris to leg/back night. This alone has brought up both my tris and bis. Also dont break your wrist at the top of the movements and try to keep your hands from going over your elbows (think drag curls). This will give you a light rest if you do instead of keeping constant tension.

 

[jaltb4k]

1 had 18" arms at 190lbs... Just sayin

and how tall are ya?

 

[jaltb4k]

it can be done.......i had very bad biceps years ago....flat, long, small.
they looked like shit, especially because my triceps were pretty decent.
so it made my bis look even smaller, then add in my height 5'11.
arms sucked...

until i started training (like a bodybulider) not like a powerlifter..
i did so much volume, til i felt my bis were gonna pop....
and i did arms (as a session)....always bis first...

i trained bis 3 times a week....
once with tris, then again with back, then a small intense session
after legs...for years i did this....high volume, med, weight, lots
of super sets, drop sets, giant sets.....and ALL exercises....
dumbells, barbells, cables, all the machines, every angle..

i would do 20 sets for biceps.
very rarely doing anything really heavy.
ex..
4 sets of alternating dumbell curls
20s for 15
30s for 12
40s for 10
50s for as many as possible
4 sets of rope hammers on low pulley
i like to drop set these
100 for 10
70 for 10 to 12
50 for 15 to 20
4 complete sets, with 30 second rest between sets
4 sets barbell curls....
4 sets of 25 reps done quickly, with a 10 second rest between sets
i would normally just use the 45pound bar for these
if i did these first in the workout???...then you may be able to handle more.
4 or 5 sets of any machine, and reverse grip curls (free weight or cable)
(super set)
keeping the weight the same..
find a weight you can do a good 12 to 15 reps with good explosive form
on the machine....then jump right to the reverse grips witha weight
that you can do 10 to 15 reps.....
do this with absolutely NO rest at all, for 4 to 5 reps...

ehhh, but what do i know

very good advice. my arms grew substantialy when i quit lifting heavy with arms and concentrated on volume.

 

[saps]

I'm 5'11, 205 lbs, and my arms are lagging. I'm the only guy I know who can deadlift 550 and still have 14 inch arms. I'm aware that there are hundreds of threads on this topic, but they tend to have feedback provided by guys blessed with good muscle insertion points. are there any former skinny guys here who defeated bad arm genetics and built some cannons? How did you do it?

until i started training (like a bodybulider) not like a powerlifter..
i did so much volume, til i felt my bis were gonna pop....
and i did arms (as a session)....always bis first...

I thought I had bad arm genetics, still kinda do. As I'm one of the few who's calves are bigger than arms. I was a PL for years and had decent tricep strength. 515 bench but never got the arms much past 18". Why? I never trained them directly. As a PL I thought I was getting plenty of tri work from pressing and to an extent I almost was. But bi work was an after thought.

These days since changing it up and doing more volume in general and direct arm work specifically my arms are responding. Despite weighing 30lbs less than my PL days my arms are about a half inch bigger.

Sounds obviously but chins, rows, bench and dips will only take your arms so far. They must be hit some of the time with direct relatively isolated work on their own day. Now I'm not like Tenny with 3x a week but if you have a chest and back day they are getting some work and a separate pure arm day gives you that second boost for the week.

 

[tri-terror]

I think he wanted advise not to be put down.

In what way was this a put down? Dude is 5'10" and weighs just over 200lbs:lightbulb:
14" does seem a little small even for that weight but we know nothing else about this guy. The advice I would give to him is stop worrying directly about arms and improve his big lifts(squat, bench, rows etc) in terms of weight AND reps by training like a bodybuilder and getting from where he is right now lets say squat of 315x8 and bench of 275x6(totally made up, I have no idea), and get them up to 415x15 and 365x12 over time while eating his way up the scale. His arms WILL grow. At that point he can better assess where his arms are and go from there.

We all want huge guns, me included, but I just don't see it happening for a taller guy and a bodyweight of 200lbs. The guy above that said he had 18's at 190 is either a mutant and/or 5'4" or something.

I will say this though, you can certainly examine your arm training and find ways to tweak it and it will help. For example, biceps and triceps recover fast and can be trained 3 times a week for a lot of people. So set up your split so they get hammered that often and find the amount of volume that you can recover from in a a day or two.

I like the chest/back, legs, arms/delts split. If you do three one one off you are hitting arms 4 times a week. Indirectly twice and directly twice.

 

[SL1CED]

Simple fact is that you are not going to have 20, or hell even 18 inch arms at a body weight of 200. Your arms are not behind, your whole body is.

14 inch arms at 205 is lagging, unless he's at a high body fat where overall muscle is lagging. But if he's in decent shape, 14inch arms at 205 is lagging. 14inch arms I had at about 185-190 and in good shape and my arm genetics suck. Either a) he is fat and overall muscularity is down or b) he's got shit genetics. He has some strong lifts, well deadlifts for what we know. It's a case of bad genes.

Same boat you are in OP, 15ish inch arms at 205-6 shredded. Arms like scary stringy next delts. Trying some SEO now, so far half way in and they are up 1.25 inches around primarily triceps.

 

[tri-terror]

Also, exercise selection is a big deal with arms if they are not great responders. I would tweak my exercises before just upping volume. I had a big problem getting my biceps to respond doing standard barbell and dumbell curls. My front delts would get more of a workout than my biceps.

I found that barbell drag curls hit my biceps WAY more than any other exercise I'd ever done. I also started focusing on DB and rope hammer curls as my first exercise. Most people are really strong on these and it's a great way to get warmed up. Try doing you're alternating DB curls with your thumb under the handle, like a false grip kind of. Dont supinate, just lower the db down and keep your palms facing forward. Lean a bit to the side you are curling to isolate that bicep and really squeeze the shit out of it at the top and lower it under control.
Concentration curls Arnold style where you bend over at the waist and let your working arm dangle let's you really hit just that bicep.