Upper, Lower, Arms, Off, Push, Pull, Off. Arm specialization program?

[Ahmed8]

Hello,

Without further details, I just want to hear your take on my new program. I'm trying to bring up my arms so I'm giving them their own day and still work them twice a week.

- Friday : Upper
Bent-Over BB Rows 4x6-8
Incline Bench Press 4x6-8
Wide Upright Rows 3x8-12
Flat DB Bench Press 3x8-12
Lat Pull Downs 3x8-12
Cable Lateral Raises 3x8-12

- Saturday : Lower
Front Squats 4x6-8
Good Moarnings 4x6-8
Seated Leg Extensions 3x8-12
Laying Leg Curls 3x8-12
Seated Calf Raises 3x8-12
Calf Raises 3x8-12

- Sunday : Arms
Standing BB Curls 4x6-8
Close Grip Bench Press 4x6-8
Incline DB Curls 3x8-12
Skullcrushers 3x8-12
EZ Preacher Curls 3x8-12
Cable Kickbacks 3x8-12

- Monday : Off
Walking or Basketball

- Tuesday : Push
Bench Press 4x6-8
Overhead Press 4x6-8
Incline DB Bench Press 3x8-12
DB Lateral Raises 3x8-12
Pec Dec Flys 3x8-12
Rope Push Downs 3x8-12

- Wednesday : Pull
Deadlifts 4x6-8
T-Bar Rows 4x6-8
1-Arm Machine High Rows 3x8-12
Wide Grip Seated Rows 3x8-12
Face Pulls 3x8-12
DB Curls 3x8-12

- Thursday : Off
Walking or Basketball

Please, give me your feedback. Thanks in advance!

Doses,

[ODoyle99]

..didn't wanna bump your original thread?
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=156630383

Don't spam man, just bump your thread instead of making a new one on a daily basis.


Anyway:
Want to know why your arms are small? Because you are small. Your arms aren't lagging, they are just small...proportionately small.
You want to bulk up (including arms) then get on a beginner program written by someone more intelligent than either you or I and who has taken into account that arms get hit secondarily with all upper body lifts, has taken into account progression, rep ranges for strength, and who knows that for your arms to get bigger you just need to get (all around) bigger.

^Not judgemental or meant to be rude, just honest

[Ahmed8]

..didn't wanna bump your original thread?
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=156630383

Don't spam man, just bump your thread instead of making a new one on a daily basis.


Anyway:
Want to know why your arms are small? Because you are small. Your arms aren't lagging, they are just small...proportionately small.
You want to bulk up (including arms) then get on a beginner program written by someone more intelligent than either you or I and who has taken into account that arms get hit secondarily with all upper body lifts, has taken into account progression, rep ranges for strength, and who knows that for your arms to get bigger you just need to get (all around) bigger.

^Not judgemental or meant to be rude, just honest

That's makes sense but doesn't apply to me because in the past 3 months I'v gained 12lb all over my body and people noticed that I got thicker and wider except for my arms that doesn't seems grew that much (0.25'' or 0.50'' at most). Anyway, with this routine my goal to grow 1'' on my arms for the next 4 months and I know that sounds so optimistic but I will try progress on arm movements as much as possible and I will be in a 500 kcal surplus and we'll see where that going to get me.

[ODoyle99]

That's makes sense but doesn't apply to me because in the past 3 months I'v gained 12lb all over my body and people noticed that I got thicker and wider except for my arms that doesn't seems grew that much (0.25'' or 0.50'' at most). Anyway, with this routine my goal to grow 1'' on my arms for the next 4 months and I know that sounds so optimistic but I will try progress on arm movements as much as possible and I will be in a 500 kcal surplus and we'll see where that going to get me.

I know that feeling man, trust me. Not that long ago I was looking at what to do for arms too but powered through gaining strength on basic compounds. Once you get your numbers up and start putting on mass everywhere, your arms start getting thick (and you turn heads when everyone is curling in the squat rack and your maxing on deads). Keep up with basic beginner routines with that surplus and you'll grow quick.

Something else: To gain an inch on your arms you'll need to add about 15 pounds of mass throughout your body. In 4 months, that's about a pound a week. A pound of muscle a week is not possible. That's not optimistic, it's flat impossible unless your on gear. I know your impatient right now, but think ahead a year from now. Train and eat right (that means don't have a day to directly hit arms and three others of indirectly hitting them) and in a year people will wonder how you got there.


A note of the word "beginner": Don't be ashamed of the title! A "beginner" routine just means that it has the most aggressive progression of any other routine out there. Your capacity to recover and hit the same muscle again and again is unmatched by other levels of lifters and you need to take advantage of it to grow your entire body (remember, 1 inch on arms = 15 pounds of mass everywhere). People stay on beginner routines as long as they possibly can because that's when your gains will be the best. Move on to intermediate and splits when you can no longer keep up. For now, do a full body routine

[Ahmed8]

I know that feeling man, trust me. Not that long ago I was looking at what to do for arms too but powered through gaining strength on basic compounds. Once you get your numbers up and start putting on mass everywhere, your arms start getting thick (and you turn heads when everyone is curling in the squat rack and your maxing on deads). Keep up with basic beginner routines with that surplus and you'll grow quick.

Something else: To gain an inch on your arms you'll need to add about 15 pounds of mass throughout your body. In 4 months, that's about a pound a week. A pound of muscle a week is not possible. That's not optimistic, it's flat impossible unless your on gear. I know your impatient right now, but think ahead a year from now. Train and eat right (that means don't have a day to directly hit arms and three others of indirectly hitting them) and in a year people will wonder how you got there.


A note of the word "beginner": Don't be ashamed of the title! A "beginner" routine just means that it has the most aggressive progression of any other routine out there. Your capacity to recover and hit the same muscle again and again is unmatched by other levels of lifters and you need to take advantage of it to grow your entire body (remember, 1 inch on arms = 15 pounds of mass everywhere). People stay on beginner routines as long as they possibly can because that's when your gains will be the best. Move on to intermediate and splits when you can no longer keep up. For now, do a full body routine

I do appreciate your feedback but I won't apply anything you said. Putting limits to the growth of your arms is BS. Man, I used to do full body workout for almost a year but honestly whenever I'm done from the first exercise (either squats or deads) I don't perform the rest of the exercises in full energy and that limit my upper body hypertrophy. Yes, I gained a lot of weights but most of it went to my legs. However, after I switched to Push, Pull, Legs, Off, Push, Pull, Off I saq great gains on my upper body and that's only in 3 months!!!!!!! damn man I wasted so much time doing useless FBW that only give you strength and legs size (I can deadlift 405lb, squat 275lb and bench 185lb) I was planning to continue doing FBW until I get to 4,3,2 plates which basically going to take me 3 months more (15lb a month on squats and bench) but I said fu*k FBW I want to get bigger not stronger.

[ODoyle99]

1.) The human body will only allow for a certain amount of asymmetry. If you think there's no such limit on arm growth then hit arms directly three times a week and everything else once (or hell, every other week!) and see what happens. Spoiler alert: you won't grow. Hate to break it to you but there is such a limit to the growth of your arms. It's been said by much smarter people, and I'm sure you'll come to find that out soon enough if you continue with the plan you've laid out

2.) What you've been doing is pretty bad man (same issue with the proposed plan here). Hitting lower body once a week, and upper 4 times? At least keep it even. Upper/Lower split if you must do a split. Then you can add isolations at the end of upper days. That'll prevent you from hitting arms four times a week...

3.) The reason your size exploded is because you were on a strength routine and then you were still hitting your upper body with beginner-esque frequency but you were doing it in (I'm assuming) higher rep ranges oriented toward size. There are beginner routines geared toward size (all pros, ICF 5x5) or upper/lower splits geared toward size. Strongly suggest going for an upper/lower that'll put size on you (because yes, you actually do need to gain size everywhere to keep arms growing. They'll grow disproportionately for a little while but that'll come to a grinding halt)

[Jhemre]

Want to know why your arms are small? Because you are small. Your arms aren't lagging, they are just small...

This

[Ahmed8]

1.) The human body will only allow for a certain amount of asymmetry. If you think there's no such limit on arm growth then hit arms directly three times a week and everything else once (or hell, every other week!) and see what happens. Spoiler alert: you won't grow. Hate to break it to you but there is such a limit to the growth of your arms. It's been said by much smarter people, and I'm sure you'll come to find that out soon enough if you continue with the plan you've laid out

2.) What you've been doing is pretty bad man (same issue with the proposed plan here). Hitting lower body once a week, and upper 4 times? At least keep it even. Upper/Lower split if you must do a split. Then you can add isolations at the end of upper days. That'll prevent you from hitting arms four times a week...

3.) The reason your size exploded is because you were on a strength routine and then you were still hitting your upper body with beginner-esque frequency but you were doing it in (I'm assuming) higher rep ranges oriented toward size. There are beginner routines geared toward size (all pros, ICF 5x5) or upper/lower splits geared toward size. Strongly suggest going for an upper/lower that'll put size on you (because yes, you actually do need to gain size everywhere to keep arms growing. They'll grow disproportionately for a little while but that'll come to a grinding halt)

One of my friend just started lifting and he is only doing arms and chest every other day after 3 months he got significantly bigger than ever (even bigger than me but with some he got more fat %) and please don't tell me if he was training his whole body he would be even bigger. What about those who had big upper body but chicken legs? and even if they're hit them hard they just won't grow you know why? It's because when they first started they didn't train their legs at all and only doing upper body. As an evidence, my little story when I first started was that I wasted my noob gains by training only my legs (I was doing VJB to increase my vertical jump and I was doing legs 3 times a week) for the first 2 or 3 months maybe and now I struggle to put size on my arms. Based on this personal experience, we can conclude that any individual can determine where MOST of his noob gains will be basically by focusing on one or two muscles which going to be better than working the entire body if someone wants a particular muscle to be kinda proportionally bigger than the others.

P.S. : Do you think transferring from The Ohio State University to Texas A&M would be a smart move as a Chemical Engineering major?

[stitch123]

Well it sounds like you know everything already.

Why don't you run the split you've come up with and report back to us how it went.

[Ahmed8]

Well it sounds like you know everything already.

Why don't you run the split you've come up with and report back to us how it went.

I will start this next Friday and I will keep a daily workout log. Stay tuned my friends!

[gaz1980]

One of my friend just started lifting and he is only doing arms and chest every other day after 3 months he got significantly bigger than ever (even bigger than me but with some he got more fat %) and please don't tell me if he was training his whole body he would be even bigger.

Some people are just lucky. I have lots of friends with bigger arms than me, that have never been to the gym, and weigh the same, or less.

Genes.

[Ahmed8]

Some people are just lucky. I have lots of friends with bigger arms than me, that have never been to the gym, and weigh the same, or less.

Genes.

Yeah that's a factor but we shouldn't say "it's genetics period", you feel me?

[ODoyle99]

lol your friend is an idiot and his progress will stagnate quickly.

Also, it seems like you don't really know what "noob gains" are. You're a beginner until you're approximately benching 1.5x bodyweight and squatting 2x bodyweight. You have "noob gains" until then, meaning your muscles have never had a reason to grow before and now that they do they don't really have a problem doing it. People with big upper bodies and chicken legs can get noob gains on their legs..

Anyways, not sure why you asked for help if you were going with your split anyway. Have fun with that

[Ahmed8]

lol your friend is an idiot and his progress will stagnate quickly.

Also, it seems like you don't really know what "noob gains" are. You're a beginner until you're approximately benching 1.5x bodyweight and squatting 2x bodyweight. You have "noob gains" until then, meaning your muscles have never had a reason to grow before and now that they do they don't really have a problem doing it. People with big upper bodies and chicken legs can get noob gains on their legs..

Anyways, not sure why you asked for help if you were going with your split anyway. Have fun with that

Thanks anyway. I really appreciate your feedback

[nickdavid]

get on a strength program, eat more and your arms will get bigger

nuff with this 2 day arms shizz

[gaz1980]

Yeah that's a factor but we shouldn't say "it's genetics period", you feel me?

No - just that he's starting from a more difficult point - doesn't make it unachievable of course