not working arms

[teedubgee]

I'm pretty much done dieting for now and plan on maintaining throughout my deployment, but am considering trying something a little different. I'm not going to train arms for two months and rely on compound movements to indirectly work them. Then I'll switch back and see if they grow any. What are your thoughts on doing this?

 

[mcgaret]

Wow, great experiment. I have seen many workouts through the years that only had
compound basic movements for large muscles. Theory that bi's got work when doing
back and tris got work when doing chest. I always wondered but never wanted to
take a chance. I'd suggest to take pictures and measurments at the start of the
compound workouts and again when you start arm exercises again. Thanks for
trying - I get to paranoid I'd loose size. In THEORY you might gain overall size.
It would be great if you kept even a weekly log.

 

[Frenchy12681]

that's a great idea. I haven't trained arms for about 15mo. I moved away from training that way and have been sticking to deadlifts, snatches, clean and press, push presses, weighted pull-ups/dips, overhead squats, etc.... I think you'll be surprised at how strong your arms will be when you go back to those movements! They will grow for sure you'll be recruiting more fast twitch fibers. Glad your serving our country teedub!!! Thank you bro, I was a jarhead.

 

[mcgaret]

that's a great idea. I haven't trained arms for about 15mo. I moved away from training that way and have been sticking to deadlifts, snatches, clean and press, push presses, weighted pull-ups/dips, overhead squats, etc.... I think you'll be surprised at how strong your arms will be when you go back to those movements! They will grow for sure you'll be recruiting more fast twitch fibers. Glad your serving our country teedub!!! Thank you bro, I was a jarhead.

What visiable effect did it have on your arms?? (not directly working them)

 

[jtunderdog]

I was wondering myself. My freaking arms will not grow. I am about to try injecting olive oil. Not really. I have tried heavy, light, lots of sets, few sets, lots of rest, little rest, pretty much anything you can think of except dc which is on the agenda for November when I finish cutting.

 

[dreww]

I was wondering myself. My freaking arms will not grow. I am about to try injecting olive oil. Not really. I have tried heavy, light, lots of sets, few sets, lots of rest, little rest, pretty much anything you can think of except dc which is on the agenda for November when I finish cutting.

mine dont like growing either, pisses me off! Ive always had long legs and arms, Im 6'1" but my arms and legs are probably equivalent to a 6'4"+ mans.

but I saw two of the skinnest guys in the gym today doing biceps for the entire hour and 10 minutes that I was doing chest, shoulder, tris, back, and abs! My arms are still bigger which aint saying much :curse:

 

[jtunderdog]

I have pitiful vascularity too. I have never seen the vein in my bicep even at 8% with almost 17 inch arms. I am 6 ft and my arms (actually just my right) is barely 16 and my right is probably at least a half smaller. I told someone the other day I had been working out about 8 years but it is actually about 11. I started at less than 10 and 135lbs at 6ft. I guess it could be much worse. The good news is the running gave me pretty good calves at 17.5 My wife laughs because I say I want my arms to be as big as my calves.

 

[dreww]

I have pitiful vascularity too. I have never seen the vein in my bicep even at 8% with almost 17 inch arms. I am 6 ft and my arms (actually just my right) is barely 16 and my right is probably at least a half smaller. I told someone the other day I had been working out about 8 years but it is actually about 11. I started at less than 10 and 135lbs at 6ft. I guess it could be much worse. The good news is the running gave me pretty good calves at 17.5 My wife laughs because I say I want my arms to be as big as my calves.

the vascularity thing is funny...I never had good vascularity either. Its gotten better over the years, but this year its been ridiculous. The only thing I can think of is I quit smoking pot. I used to smoke that shit daily, but had to quit for my job. even with my bodyfat increasing since Im bulking, Ive still got mad vasularity. Looks like a freaking roadmap.

 

[Frenchy12681]

What visiable effect did it have on your arms?? (not directly working them)

My arms have done a 180, my bis/tris, were always decent size, but never very defined or vascular even though my forearms are freaky. they have grown an inch and have vascularity. Strength has drastically increased.

 

[teedubgee]

Sweet, thanks for the input everyone.

 

[saudades]

I'm going to be trying the no direct work method myself. Now if I could only get that to happen with my legs...

 

[dreww]

I'm going to be trying the no direct work method myself. Now if I could only get that to happen with my legs...

yea, I hate working legs. Its more like a love/hate thing.

I hate getting under all that weight, but I love moving it.

 

[saudades]

I hear you, bro.

 

[Matt76]

I never used to do any bicep work and always had big arms. However, now that I started working them I have more of a peak

as far as triceps go I used to just do board presses and close grip and it worked fine

 

[saudades]

Now that I think about it, I have only done bicep curls as any direct work, everything else has been indirect. My arms get really pumped up doing rows. I can also see that on the other hand, I have done a lot of direct work for triceps which have lagged behind. I will be cutting down the direct tricep work and concentrate on the compound movements that include triceps like benching, pressing, and close grip. I'm setting a goal here--I had let my biceps come down a bit so I could work on balancing out the arms, letting the triceps catch up. They were down to 18.5" from 19.25" a month ago. I'm already back up to 18.75", and I'm going to go balls out this next three months to see if I can reach back to 19.25-19.5". Considering I'll be doing compound movements, the rest of me should be able to keep up so I don't only have large arms.