Question on working out arms

[BERT]

How do y'all workout arms? Mainly biceps really. Do y'all do them like the bigger muscles like chest and back (5-8 heavy reps)? Or do y'all do 10-12 reps no matter what the weight is? I've always wondered what the best way is to get bigger biceps.

I think I do fine on triceps.

Only think I do remotely heavy on shoulder day is shoulder press. Everything else is pretty light. Well, shrugs I do kinda heavy I guess.

[wishitwasasvt]

Whatever you do, do not think that in order to get big you have to lift big.. Lifting big will kill your joints faster than anything.

I do a lot of supersets and this is one of my bi workouts.

BB curl superset with incline DB curl-4/8
Preacher curl superset with seated DB curl-3/10
High cable curl superset with hammer curl-2/12

This is just what I do. By no means am I telling you this workout will give you big gains, but it will make you feel good if you do it right.

[BERT]

Whatever you do, do not think that in order to get big you have to lift big.. Lifting big will kill your joints faster than anything.

I do a lot of supersets and this is one of my bi workouts.

BB curl superset with incline DB curl-4/8
Preacher curl superset with seated DB curl-3/10
High cable curl superset with hammer curl-2/12

This is just what I do. By no means am I telling you this workout will give you big gains, but it will make you feel good if you do it right.

Yeah I haven't been going real heavy with my bicep workouts. Especially since I had my wrist/forearm issue, which has pretty much gone away thankfully. Sometimes i'll throw in a superset here and there

[Lone Star Performance]

Lift heavy, a few warm up sets of 10, then go to about 4-6 for the last set. I do not do straight bar curl anymore, but anything else goes for me. BTW, work triceps just as hard and heavy to get big arms.

[jdgregory84]

I havent trained arms in nearly a year and they're bigger than they ever have been.

[matts5.0]

heavy compounds.

are you doing arms on their own day or are you doing them with another body part. it kind of depends on your split. if you are doing a push pull type body part split you dont have to go near as heavy, but 75% of your 1 rep max is decent for reps. if you are doing arms by themselves i would go hard and heavy. everyones different, figure out what works for you. i would rather have a big chest and shoulders and a massive back and traps then big bicepts. to each his own i guess.

[BERT]

heavy compounds.

are you doing arms on their own day or are you doing them with another body part. it kind of depends on your split. if you are doing a push pull type body part split you dont have to go near as heavy, but 75% of your 1 rep max is decent for reps. if you are doing arms by themselves i would go hard and heavy. everyones different, figure out what works for you. i would rather have a big chest and shoulders and a massive back and traps then big bicepts. to each his own i guess.

I work them out on there own day, bi's and tri's. Usually I superset the last set of the day and don't go heavy to get a good pump. Don't know why I do this it's just what I do.

It just feels like it takes forever to go up in weight on biceps. Just the past couple of weeks I've been doing 40lb dumbbells on curls on my last set. Usually go 30,35,40 and can usually only do 6-8 reps on my last set.

And maybe they are getting bigger, maybe I just don't notice cause I see them every day. I'll go with that lol

[BERT]

I havent trained arms in nearly a year and they're bigger than they ever have been.

yeah but you do that corssfit shit. So i'm sure in some way you're working your arms out

[samuel642000]

http://youtu.be/JHiKDa4ip_Q

[BERT]

Just spent the past 30ish minutes going through that guys vids. That dude is nuts

[Big A]

I work bi's after back, and tri's after chest, 3 sets of the same rep range that I did for the larger muscle group, working all 3 wrist angles (hammer, reverse, and regular grips). I generally do two isolation movements, 1 arm at a time (dumbells and/or cables), and finish with a barbell.

Shoulders and traps get their own day.

Working arms will generally seem like you are doing much lighter weights, because you are, as you are concentrating on a single smaller muscle, rather than the larger compound movements. The key is to focus on intensity and failure, and those smaller weights will go up, and you'll grow.

Toss the ego to the side, and focus on form. Swinging up a bigger weight won't make you grow faster, and opens you up to injury.

[BERT]

I work bi's after back, and tri's after chest, 3 sets of the same rep range that I did for the larger muscle group, working all 3 wrist angles (hammer, reverse, and regular grips). I generally do two isolation movements, 1 arm at a time (dumbells and/or cables), and finish with a barbell.

Shoulders and traps get their own day.

Working arms will generally seem like you are doing much lighter weights, because you are, as you are concentrating on a single smaller muscle, rather than the larger compound movements. The key is to focus on intensity and failure, and those smaller weights will go up, and you'll grow.

Toss the ego to the side, and focus on form. Swinging up a bigger weight won't make you grow faster, and opens you up to injury.

Back when I was having the pain in my forearms, I dialed the weight way back. I'm just now really starting to get back into "heavy" bi's again and luckily with very little to no pain. That shit got old fast

[Big A]

Back when I was having the pain in my forearms, I dialed the weight way back. I'm just now really starting to get back into "heavy" bi's again and luckily with very little to no pain. That shit got old fast

Yep, my training has definitely "calmed down" as well, yet the gains are still there to be had. I do believe that a little cheating is okay to help break through plateaus and keep motivation up from a mental aspect, but for the most part, mechanically it's absolutely pointless. Failure is failure, as long as you're giving 110%.

In my case at least, I always thought that I was stronger than I really was, or wanted to be, and cheating was a way to artificially inflate the numbers. Serves no purpose in the long-run, other than to bolster the ego.

I do need to make a correction, I do 4 sets of a given exercise when doing 8-10 reps, and drop down to 3 sets for 12+ reps. Some people do more, but then you tread that line of possible over-training, where more work doesn't necessarily lead to more gains. It's good for stamina and burning calories, but can be counter-productive in terms of strength and size.

[BERT]

Yep, my training has definitely "calmed down" as well, yet the gains are still there to be had. I do believe that a little cheating is okay to help break through plateaus and keep motivation up from a mental aspect, but for the most part, mechanically it's absolutely pointless. Failure is failure, as long as you're giving 110%.

In my case at least, I always thought that I was stronger than I really was, or wanted to be, and cheating was a way to artificially inflate the numbers. Serves no purpose in the long-run, other than to bolster the ego.

I do need to make a correction, I do 4 sets of a given exercise when doing 8-10 reps, and drop down to 3 sets for 12+ reps. Some people do more, but then you tread that line of possible over-training, where more work doesn't necessarily lead to more gains. It's good for stamina and burning calories, but can be counter-productive in terms of strength and size.

This is what I've been thinking about lately. I've been going back to heavier weight but I've been trying to still get in 12 reps. Just this week I've concentrated on lowering my reps so I can do more weight on my last set (overall, not just on biceps)

[Big A]

This is what I've been thinking about lately. I've been going back to heavier weight but I've been trying to still get in 12 reps. Just this week I've concentrated on lowering my reps so I can do more weight on my last set (overall, not just on biceps)

You need to change it up, sets of 12 all the time isn't the best for growth in my experience. I've been on a 2 week cycle forever, and it seems to work well. 2 weeks at 12 reps, 2 weeks at 8 reps, 2 weeks at 5 reps, and start over. To get the most out of the 5 rep weeks, you really need a competent spotter. Keep your form good, but go heavy enough that you need the spotter ever so slightly on the last rep. If you don't have a spotter on a given day or week, stick to things like hammer strength or dumbbells, where you don't have to worry about ending up with a bar across your face.