What made your arm grow the most?

@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 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
 
@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
 
@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
 
@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
 
@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
 
@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 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 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.
 
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