Arms

[Catog333]

I'm 31. 6'2, 183lbs (around 82kg). I've been weight training for around 15 years, now. I'm hoping to get some advice from anyone in here.

I have skinny arms. I've weighed over 200lbs (100kg) & always had skinny arms. I have a big chest & back, big ass & legs, but skinny arms.

I've done 5x5 training (Rippetoe), German volume training, HIIT, & many more. I'm getting to the point where I just want to get bigger arms, now.

I've seen people say, if you want bigger arms...just train arms. I always thought that was BS because like a lot of strength training coaches (Mark Rippetoe) say: "you need to get strong in the basic lifts to get bigger arms." "Don't do sit ups if you want a 6 pack, work on your diet & do squats." etc.

Anyone had long skinny arms, even with training for many years & gaining weight & muscle mass? Anyone got any advice for me? Should I just start focusing more on arms, do more sets & more exercises per week & drop some other sets or exercises for legs or chest/back?

Thanks for any info/advice.

PS, I bought some blood restriction bands & I was intending to start using them when training arms.

[air2fakie]

What are your lifts and can you post a pic? Lifting simplified into 15 years of training or body weight doesn't necessarily mean anything. Hard to give advice without something solid to go off of or see what your bodyframe is.

I wouldn't bother with the BFR bands, that's not going to create muscle growth if whatever you were doing with traditional resistance wasn't.

[Catog333]

What are your lifts and can you post a pic? Lifting simplified into 15 years of training or body weight doesn't necessarily mean anything. Hard to give advice without something solid to go off of or see what your bodyframe is.

I wouldn't bother with the BFR bands, that's not going to create muscle growth if whatever you were doing with traditional resistance wasn't.

I've posted a bunch in my gallery.

They're pictures from over the years.

I've been as low as 170 lbs (77 kg) to as high as 220 lbs (100 kg).

[air2fakie]

I've posted a bunch in my gallery.

They're pictures from over the years.

I've been as low as 170 lbs (77 kg) to as high as 220 lbs (100 kg).

Your arms look proportionate to your body in those pics, in some cases larger than the rest of your physique. You look like you haven't trained for progression over the 15 years (especially in periods where you've gained weight), as you look like your lifts would be pretty low in all the pics.

You look like you train American Ninja Warrior more than weightlifting (not an insult, just what it looks like).

[Camarija]

Follow this program exactly as written, read it all

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=159678631

Follow this nutrition

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=173439001

Good luck

[paulinkansas]

In a typical week I do 4 sets of direct bicep work and 6 sets of direct tricep work. But I'm a skinny little 60 year old woman with wimpy arms as you can see in my picture.

[Catog333]

In a typical week I do 4 sets of direct bicep work and 6 sets of direct tricep work. But I'm a skinny little 60 year old woman with wimpy arms as you can see in my picture.

Lol, do you think you would have different results if you didn't train them directly, e.g. You did bent over rows, pull ups, chin ups for biceps & dips, bench etc for tri.

My point is, if you didn't train them as directly do you think you would have less or lower arms development?

[Catog333]

Your arms look proportionate to your body in those pics, in some cases larger than the rest of your physique. You look like you haven't trained for progression over the 15 years (especially in periods where you've gained weight), as you look like your lifts would be pretty low in all the pics.

You look like you train American Ninja Warrior more than weightlifting (not an insult, just what it looks like).

I'm unsure what you mean by this:

"You look like you haven't trained for progression over the 15 years (especially in periods where you've gained weight)".

I did progressive overload, if that's what you mean. And strength wise, my max squat when I was doing progressive overload was 120 kg (260 lbs) ass to grass (it nearly broke me in half lol). I think this was pretty good for a tall skinny guy like me, especially the depth.

I'm European btw, if my conversions aren't exact. But no offense taken at anything anyone says here. I'm appreciative of any advice or feedback.

I should add that I play soccer for 2 hours on a Sunday night & do Muay Thai for an hour every Thursday evening.

[StephenCGreen]

I saw your pictures. I would suggest to be careful not to compare yourself to what other people look like. We are all unique. But, if you want the appearance of bigger arms, I would suggest to focus on gaining a lot more weight and stimulating your triceps and upper back.

So, include compound and isolation exercises for triceps.

For your biceps exercises, I would suggest compound exercises that include your upper back rather than isolating your biceps; that is, until you first get the triceps appearance you want, then go more balanced after that.

For me, to gain the appearance of bigger arms, I had to work at eating to gain a lot more weight, such as up to 215 lbs.—and I’m only 6 ft. compared to you—and I had to do a lot more push exercises and general arm volume. I did—and sometimes still do—25 sets, including 5 supersets, on each of 3 days a week; that’s 75 sets a week. The trick was about 50 sets compound in rep range 6 to 8, and 25 sets isolation in rep range 8 to 12, all push sets, keeping the tension in the uncomfortable zone. On top of that I wanted rowing and pulling to provide some balance.

When my triceps begin to experience fatigue, I like to switch from skullcrushers to pullovers to mitigate any long term problems, then get back to skullcrushers after enough healing.

And when I took caffeine and enough salt before working out, boom! I enjoyed the temporary blowup too.

So far, I’ve always seen the beginning of results after 2 weeks, and others start to comment on the results after 4 weeks. I deload and go back to my usual more balanced lifting and recovery after 6 weeks, since I do not want to permanently invest so much of my time and energy to just my arms. But it is fun for a while, but maybe not as much fun as soccer.

[air2fakie]

I'm unsure what you mean by this:

"You look like you haven't trained for progression over the 15 years (especially in periods where you've gained weight)".

I did progressive overload, if that's what you mean. And strength wise, my max squat when I was doing progressive overload was 120 kg (260 lbs) ass to grass (it nearly broke me in half lol). I think this was pretty good for a tall skinny guy like me, especially the depth.

I'm European btw, if my conversions aren't exact. But no offense taken at anything anyone says here. I'm appreciative of any advice or feedback.

I should add that I play soccer for 2 hours on a Sunday night & do Muay Thai for an hour every Thursday evening.

You said it yourself, you're a "tall skinny guy". Your arms look proportionate to the rest of your muscular development, which isn't really a weightlifter's build. That's just my perspective though, if you feel the rest of your body is muscular and it's just your arms that are skinny, it's your body so train how you feel focuses on what you want to address.

[jademonkey]

I'm 31. 6'2, 183lbs (around 82kg). I've been weight training for around 15 years, now. I'm hoping to get some advice from anyone in here.

I have skinny arms. I've weighed over 200lbs (100kg) & always had skinny arms. I have a big chest & back, big ass & legs, but skinny arms.

I've done 5x5 training (Rippetoe), German volume training, HIIT, & many more. I'm getting to the point where I just want to get bigger arms, now.

I've seen people say, if you want bigger arms...just train arms. I always thought that was BS because like a lot of strength training coaches (Mark Rippetoe) say: "you need to get strong in the basic lifts to get bigger arms." "Don't do sit ups if you want a 6 pack, work on your diet & do squats." etc.

Anyone had long skinny arms, even with training for many years & gaining weight & muscle mass? Anyone got any advice for me? Should I just start focusing more on arms, do more sets & more exercises per week & drop some other sets or exercises for legs or chest/back?

Thanks for any info/advice.

PS, I bought some blood restriction bands & I was intending to start using them when training arms.

A few random thoughts from a guy only weight training for a few years (but with an active full life).

- The whole "you need to get strong in the basic lifts to get bigger arms" stuff is, IMO, directed more toward beginner and early intermediate. Focus on the basic lifts for a while is "enough" for most people, will also grow arms. But I think it's BS to say they will grow arms optimally.
- I am 5'-9" and ~177 currently cutting, tend to think my arms ain't much. But people OFTEN comment on my arms. I look in the mirror I'm like, "meh", then I go meet up with a friend of a friend or something and they're like "DAMN AARON YOUR ARMS!" Still, it's happened more often since I started adding dedicated arm work at the end of every sesh.

So just from my personal experience, focus on what you want to grow does indeed work, even for small arm muscles after years of lifting.

I focused on strength and general muscle mass for a while. More recently, I'm like OK my legs and glutes are pretty big for my size now, but arms, chest, shoulders could use a bit more work. And hey, as long as legs are proportional, upper body is what's really more impressive to the general population. So I'm now starting with bench press every workout, hitting shoulders directly at least once every workout, and adding arm isolations at the end of every workout.

EDIT:
After reading other comments, I think it would be more beneficial for YOU to add lean mass all over. 183 at 6'-2" isn't all that much mass unless you are quite lean at that weight, as evidenced by a 260 lb max squat. I don't think there's any harm in adding arm work tho.

[paulinkansas]

Lol, do you think you would have different results if you didn't train them directly, e.g. You did bent over rows, pull ups, chin ups for biceps & dips, bench etc for tri.

My point is, if you didn't train them as directly do you think you would have less or lower arms development?

If I did not train them directly, my arms would be smaller. I'd estimate that 40% of my arm work comes as assistance movements for chest/shoulders/back exercises. 60% of my arm work comes from direct training. This is just an estimate based upon fatigue after performing 2-3 sets.