What made your arm grow the most?

[pastorjeremylove]

@setst777 Hi, you're me. I'm 184cm, >100kg currently, with around 20-ish of that being BF. With super unresponsive arms.
For me it was a few approaches that yielded the most progress and brought them mostly up to par:

1. doing ungodly FBW splits no sane person would think are a good idea, with sets all over the place to make space for arms, and arms being taken near (or, later in the meso, to) failure every time (3/week) I was in the gym. Bi and tri isolations supersetted, usually at the end of my workout, but once a week in the beginning.
2. A dedicated arm day,
   my week being:
   • Mon: FBW(Push focus + arms iso at the end)
   • Wed:FBW (pull focus, no direct arm work)
   • Fri: Arms + shoulders
   • Sun: FBW (slight legs focus)
3. A 3-day FBW (push, legs, pull focus days) with the "push" day being opened with tricep dips, and the "pull" day being opened with incline db curls.

For clarity - the "X focus" means that part is done at the beginning of the workout, and then shoulders, then the rest.

A few things to note:

• Once you lose %BF, your arms will pop way more. They may not be that small, but your torso/waist may be making them look so.
• Lengthened position is king, and so is cable work. Incline curls, cable curls, overhead triceps work.
• Super slow eccentrics give you more bang per buck (well, per rep) so do that. Explosive concentrics, tho.
• Try out different rep ranges and be absolutely sure you're bringing your arms to failure. For me the burn in my biceps comes at around 8 reps of around 75% of my calculated 1RM, and then I, grunting, wincing, kicking, am able to crank out 6-8 more. It's painful to do, it's probably painful (and awkward) to look at, but that's how it be.
• If after your workout you don't feel like, as dr Mike puts it, "there's something deeply, profoundly wrong with your muscle" (in this case bi/tri), that workout needs more intensity or volume. I usually try adding a set (but stay under 4 due to time constraints) to an isolation exercise for that day.

 

[setst777]

@pastorjeremylove Wow great post. Thank you so much! How much weekly volume are we talking about?

 

[frustratedhusband]

@setst777 As much as you can do without it interfering with your other workouts.
Also do the arm iso work first in your workouts for a month or so and it will probably make a difference. Maybe slower growth on compounds but you wont loose any

 

[pastorjeremylove]

@setst777 My usual FBW setup is 2 "main part" exercises, one "main part arm", with 2-3 sets each.

So for push it'd be, for example, incline DB press, then flat DB flies, then skullcrushers.

I usually start every program with 2 sets each and then add sets as I go week-to-week until I hit my regeneration limit, that's how I set my own volume. Yours will be different, so I can't tell you what to do exactly.

Here's one of my early workout routines when I was testing the waters with FBW+arms, but wasn't sure about the volumes so I kind of overdid it. Still worked, but I slept a ton.

Also a disclaimer - my legs grow from barely anything so I only do maintenance volume for them most of the time, since it's hard af to find pants as is already.

Monday:

1. Seated DB Press 4x8-12
2. Bulgarian Split Squat 4x8-12
3. Arnold DB Press 2x10-14
4. Seated Incline DB Curl 3x8-12
5. Cable OH Tricep Extension 3x8-12
6. SS: DB Lunges 3x8-12
7. SS: Cable Face Pull 3x10-16
8. Cable Crunch 3x10-14

Wednesday:

1. DB Pullover 4x10-14
2. 1Arm DB Row 3x10-14
3. SS1: Flat DB Bench Press 3x8-12
4. SS1: Parallel Grip Lat Pulldown 3x8-12
5. Stiff-Legged DL 4x8-12
6. SS2: Lateral DB Raise 4x8-16
7. SS2: Seated calves 4x10-20

Friday:

1. SS1: DB Spider Curl 3x8-12
2. SS1: Rope Pushdown 3x8-14
3. SS2: Seated incline DB Curl 3x10-14
4. SS2: Cable OH Tricep Extension 3x8-12
5. 1Hand Rope Pushdown 2x10-14
6. Reverse DB curl 3x10-14
7. Reverse Fly 4x10-16
8. Cable Crunch 3x10-14

Sunday:

1. Pull-up 4x6-8
2. Seated Cable Row 4x8-14
3. Egyptian Cable Raises 4x8-14
4. Incline DB Press 3x8-12
5. Cable Crossover 3x10-14
6. Standing Leg Curl Machine 3x10-12
7. Farmer’s Walk 3x1min
8. Standing Calf Raise Machine 3x10-20

Row: 7

Chest: 9

Lat: 7

Shoulders: 14

Bic: 13

Tri: 12

Quad: 7

Ham: 7

 

[sudesh]

@pastorjeremylove How can you do this when Sunday and Monday are both full body

 

[pastorjeremylove]

@sudesh Exercise selection and volume/intensity manipulation.

 

[pharoa]

@setst777 For me lots of reps with low weight work the best.

I usually don't even do any bicep workout in the gym, but rather at home in between what ever i do.

Play one round of some game, then do curls until failure and repeat until i can't do one more rep

 

[mayday_melodies]

@pharoa I’ve actually started doing this. I do PPL but have recently added an arm day at home with some old dumbbells I had from lockdown times. Just been spamming curls, skullcrushers and forearms on a random day while watching YouTube or something. Takes minimal effort. Get a way better workout than when I was doing them at the end of my pull/push days

 

[setst777]

@pharoa Thats actually a great idea tbh

 

[vanderdeken]

@pharoa Im thinking of doing the same. How do you make sure you are overloading with time ?

 

[sharon12]

@setst777 Weighted chins/neutral grip pull-ups.

For curls, ymmv, but I respond better to heavier weight and staying

 

[setst777]

@sharon12 Allright thanks for sharing. I really try my hardest to add a pr as often as i can but many times with the load increasing over time i noticed that i lost my perfect form and have to go back a bit

 

[sharon12]

@setst777 I mean, cheat curls have their place, but I’d go with strict curls if you want to minimize body English as you up the weight.

 

[lancslad91]

@setst777 Skull crusher, drag curls, chin ups with slow negative

 

[dawn16]

@setst777 One thing that really helped me was only sticking to the exercises that i have a great mind muscle connection with.

For example, i have no idea why but i connect REALLY well with dumbell curls but incline curls dont

I connect REALLY Welll with preacher curls but cable
Curls not really

Rope tricep extensions i did not connect with but straight bar cable extensions gave me a sick pump

So instead of trying to incorporate all the variations or exercises people say are GOATED, i only did the ones i personally felt i connected with the best.

My arms grew much faster after that.

I know people say pump/ soreness isnt an indicator of a great work out but anytime i do exercises where the pump and soreness were divine, i had better results.

 

[setst777]

@dawn16 Awesome post, thanks a lot buddy

 

[christianboy123]

@setst777 Beating my shii

 

[megz088]

@setst777 I suggest 4day torso/limbs split, so doing your arms fresh before or between leg exercises 2 times a week, leaving torso(upper) to just chest/back/shoulders. Plus you can add a 5th arm day if you want, it will be a lot of volume and frequency for fresh arms without compromising legs that much

 

[setst777]

@megz088 Thats a really good idea tbh. Thanks man. Gonna give it a good thought

 

[joaa]

@setst777 The last five weeks my arms have really blown up and I think it's due to putting my Bicep work earlier in the pull workout. Instead of four back exercises and then two Bicep exercises I do a back exercise, a Bicep exercise, two more back exercises, then two Bicep exercises.