Most men and a few girls after they start training out at a health and fitness center, start thinking they want to establish muscular arms. The truth is usually that many iron lifters out there possess a extremely bad understanding of the best way to appropriately train their arms for maximum gains.
It's no secret that every serious lifter out there really want an impressive pair of strong, muscular arms. Who wouldn't be happy with tall, peaking biceps sitting on top of rock-hard, horse-shoe-shaped triceps? Think Ronnie Coleman's twin peaked bicep. Who wouldn't love to have a pair of ripped, well-developed guns forcefully bursting through the sleeves of their shirt? Ok so while developing muscular arms is usually at the top of many peoples' agenda in the gym. Usually, the majority of lifters out there have a very poor understanding of how to properly train their arms for maximum gains.
There are three basic truths, when you want to effectively stimulate arm growth:
One) The biceps and triceps are little muscle groups.
2) The biceps receive heavy stimulation during all basic pulling movements for the back.
3) The triceps obtain stimulation throughout all the fundamental pressing movements with the upper body and shoulders.
Okay, just what exactly do these 3 points explain to us about arm training? The main point to suit your needs is this: For optimum gains in muscle mass and energy, the biceps and triceps call for only a very small volume of immediate stimulation! So why is it that every time I enter the gym I see the same dumb arse people, week in and week out, slaving away on infinite sets of bicep dumbbell curls and tricep extensions?
You have to understand that the biceps and triceps receive a very large amount of stimulation from all of your chest and back training. In fact, a lot of the time when you reach muscular failure on a chest or back movement, it is actually your biceps or triceps that give out first! Add this to the fact that your biceps and triceps are already small muscle groups to begin with and it should be quite clear that direct arm training is kind of a minor importance.
Remember, your muscles do not grow in the gym. The work that you accomplish as you train with weights is merely the "spark" that sets the wheels of the muscle growth process into motion. The real magic takes place out of the gym while you are resting and eating, as this is the time when your body will actually be synthesizing new muscle tissue. Because of this, it is vital that you do not overtrain your muscles. You must always make sure to provide them with sufficient recovery time if you want to see impressive results. Over training can actually make your muscles smaller and weaker.
If you are planning to build your arms, you should stop focusing on a overload of arm movements. Forget about doing infinite sets of concentration curls and tricep push downs. Strong, muscular arms are mostly a product of major upper body and back training. When you can take this basic truth of the matter and start concentrating on building up the muscle measurement and toughness in the key muscles, you'll prevent yourself from overtraining your arms and may as a result get bigger overall gains in bicep and tricep development
OK, I'm not saying that no direct arm training is necessary, just not very much. Here is a sample arm routine that you can use as a part of your program:
Barbell Curls - 2 sets of 5-7 reps
Standing Dumbbell Curls - one set of 5-7 reps
Close-Grip Bench Press - 2 sets of 5-7 reps
Standing Cable Pushdowns - 1 set of 5-7 reps
Take all sets to failure and target progressing each individual week by a little more weight or executing an extra rep or 2. If you can include this way of training into your arm routine, you are going to accomplish arm size beyond nearly anything you previously assumed achievable or even the results you have been getting.
It's no secret that every serious lifter out there really want an impressive pair of strong, muscular arms. Who wouldn't be happy with tall, peaking biceps sitting on top of rock-hard, horse-shoe-shaped triceps? Think Ronnie Coleman's twin peaked bicep. Who wouldn't love to have a pair of ripped, well-developed guns forcefully bursting through the sleeves of their shirt? Ok so while developing muscular arms is usually at the top of many peoples' agenda in the gym. Usually, the majority of lifters out there have a very poor understanding of how to properly train their arms for maximum gains.
There are three basic truths, when you want to effectively stimulate arm growth:
One) The biceps and triceps are little muscle groups.
2) The biceps receive heavy stimulation during all basic pulling movements for the back.
3) The triceps obtain stimulation throughout all the fundamental pressing movements with the upper body and shoulders.
Okay, just what exactly do these 3 points explain to us about arm training? The main point to suit your needs is this: For optimum gains in muscle mass and energy, the biceps and triceps call for only a very small volume of immediate stimulation! So why is it that every time I enter the gym I see the same dumb arse people, week in and week out, slaving away on infinite sets of bicep dumbbell curls and tricep extensions?
You have to understand that the biceps and triceps receive a very large amount of stimulation from all of your chest and back training. In fact, a lot of the time when you reach muscular failure on a chest or back movement, it is actually your biceps or triceps that give out first! Add this to the fact that your biceps and triceps are already small muscle groups to begin with and it should be quite clear that direct arm training is kind of a minor importance.
Remember, your muscles do not grow in the gym. The work that you accomplish as you train with weights is merely the "spark" that sets the wheels of the muscle growth process into motion. The real magic takes place out of the gym while you are resting and eating, as this is the time when your body will actually be synthesizing new muscle tissue. Because of this, it is vital that you do not overtrain your muscles. You must always make sure to provide them with sufficient recovery time if you want to see impressive results. Over training can actually make your muscles smaller and weaker.
If you are planning to build your arms, you should stop focusing on a overload of arm movements. Forget about doing infinite sets of concentration curls and tricep push downs. Strong, muscular arms are mostly a product of major upper body and back training. When you can take this basic truth of the matter and start concentrating on building up the muscle measurement and toughness in the key muscles, you'll prevent yourself from overtraining your arms and may as a result get bigger overall gains in bicep and tricep development
OK, I'm not saying that no direct arm training is necessary, just not very much. Here is a sample arm routine that you can use as a part of your program:
Barbell Curls - 2 sets of 5-7 reps
Standing Dumbbell Curls - one set of 5-7 reps
Close-Grip Bench Press - 2 sets of 5-7 reps
Standing Cable Pushdowns - 1 set of 5-7 reps
Take all sets to failure and target progressing each individual week by a little more weight or executing an extra rep or 2. If you can include this way of training into your arm routine, you are going to accomplish arm size beyond nearly anything you previously assumed achievable or even the results you have been getting.
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