Gain mass in arms - Tips?

[TiAg335i]

Anybody have tips for gaining mass in the arms?

I've been working out for around 8 months now, but haven't seen a significant improvement in the size of my arms. I'm trying to eat a lot too.

I used to take True Mass but now I am on ON Whey.

[SUB-ZERO]

Use both hands....

[The_AMG_Hunter]

Shoot up

[Spec 1]

Free weights are key.

The down motion will build bigger muscles than the up motion. Release slowly and count 3-4 seconds till extension. Make sure you're doing the full range of motion or you're robbing yourself of gains.

Dumbbells, 1 arm at a time, bicep curls off your knee. 12 reps each set, 4 sets. Should struggle on the last 2 reps of 1st set. Do rows for triceps. Several different excercises for each is key. Don't forget Deltoids as those make the arm look bigger.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/ for range of excercises

[50shadesofhockenheim]

I'm 16 160 lbs 5'9". You have to do heavy weight to get bigger and get more mass. Do you bench press? If yes, then whats your max and how much do you rep?

[wwjbd24]

6 - 8 reps of heavy weight + eat like an animal

[Memphis1]

don't do isolation exercises until you're big enough to isolate anything...

do heavy bench presses, heavy lat pulldows, heavy bent-over rows, overhead squats, deadlifts, cleans, jerks. once you get the mass, you can start with curls of all types and triceps extensions of various types. same thing for your legs, heavy squats, heavy leg presses, once you have size start doing curls and extensions.

keep it simple, once you're experienced enough start sculpting. and obviously some guys are genetically predetermine to grow no matter what they do so be careful with the exercises or regimens they might provide.

[BMW86]

Originally Posted by wwjbd24

6 - 8 reps of heavy weight + eat like an animal

+ 1

Less reps and heavy weight. After you get some size do a weight were you can squeeze out around 10-12 reps to cut them up.

[bma]

Originally Posted by wwjbd24

6 - 8 reps of heavy weight + eat like an animal

Personally I don't agree with this. 6-8 reps is not enough to properly work your biceps. Plus, if he has only been working out 8 months, he will probably only end up cheating and using his back to swing up too much weight.

Straight bar curls are the best bicep mass exercise. One of my favs is '21's ', where you do 7 reps performing the bottom portion of a curl, 7 with the upper portion, and then 7 with the full range of motion, like this:

http://www.ehow.com/video_2359330_ex...bbell-21s.html

As for triceps, dips are a great mass exercise, and I also love pushdowns and reverse pushdowns. I find supersetting with triceps give me the best workout.

PS. Keep with the weight gainer if you wanna gain mass. Tru mass in vanilla is tastes fantastic

[ben14142001]

I love one exercise that people often overlook: Pullups. I really don't like lat pulldowns and there have been many studies that have shown pull-ups to be one of the best upper body workouts that you can do. If you are a light guy, like yourself, you should have no problem pounding out tons of pull-ups. I started out just doing 4-5 sets until exhaustion, until I started adding weight. Biceps are a secondary muscle for pullups, with lats being the primary target, so you should do some sort of bicep exercise after you are done. I really noticed a difference in arm size once I started doing weighted pullups.
In the same respect, as others mentioned, your arms will get bigger as you do other lifts, such as bench, which involve your triceps.

[BMW86]

Originally Posted by bma

Personally I don't agree with this. 6-8 reps is not enough to properly work your biceps. Plus, if he has only been working out 8 months, he will probably only end up cheating and using his back to swing up too much weight.

Straight bar curls are the best bicep mass exercise. One of my favs is '21's ', where you do 7 reps performing the bottom portion of a curl, 7 with the upper portion, and then 7 with the full range of motion, like this:

http://www.ehow.com/video_2359330_ex...bbell-21s.html

As for triceps, dips are a great mass exercise, and I also love pushdowns and reverse pushdowns. I find supersetting with triceps give me the best workout.

PS. Keep with the weight gainer if you wanna gain mass. Tru mass in vanilla is tastes fantastic

I think 21's are great and I usually do them as my last exercise for any workout if I'm going to do them. You can barely lift your arms afterwards but I think it focuses more on cutting up your arms.

I do agree that 6 reps is not enough, I've never it myself, it's always 8 reps minimum. I still think if you are going primarily for mass it's better to lift heavy weights - 8 reps x 3 sets x 3 exercises. I usually increase the weight with each set where I can.

[gonzo]

I got the idea from on here. Great results.

For biceps. Close grip chin ups (palms facing you). Against a wall, slow barbell curls. I do both until I am literally spitting a little trying to get the last rep up. Not particularly advising you to do that though.

The chin ups are working great for me! Try them OP. My arms are really long and these are hard but definitely work.

As many know and have said your triceps make up a huge part of arm mass. Hit them too. I like a dumbbell in each hand going from all the way above my head to behind head. I think my twitch muscles are fired up more with these than one heavy bell with both hands under it.


Stick with it and you will succeed.

[AMERICUS]

Okay, I agree with what everyone else is saying, DON'T do isolation movements (or do minimal iso movements), and focus on compound big lifts (ie. squats, cleans, thrusters) and body weight exercises (ie pullups (lots), dips, pushups, air squats). Your arms will grow.

As for arm specific movements, you have to realize there are three heads in your arm (2 tricep, 1 bicep). If you want to increase size, your best bet is lifting triceps as there is twice the muslce tissue. There are a million tricep workouts (skull crushers, pulldowns (use different attachments, hand positions (over and under grip)), close-grip bench, dips, etc) out there and I would suggest rotating through a number of them to hit the complete triceps.

For biceps, if you want to develop that bulge (the head), the best lift is preacher curl. This hyperextension really works the underlying muscle fibers and increases size FAST. If you have a lifting partner, try towel curls and go until you can't lift the towel. As someone said, 21's are a good closing burnout.

Shoulders are a huge complex muscle, not just a lever like the bicep and tricep. Again, search online for exercises, but remember to work the posterior, anterior and side deltoids.

I would still suggest sticking to big compound lifts and pick one area to "touch up" at the end of the workout. Big lifts will produce more testosterone which will help you grow rather than focusing on small isolation movements.

[Couch]

Originally Posted by BMW328_

I'm 16 160 lbs 5'9". You have to do heavy weight to get bigger and get more mass. Do you bench press? If yes, then whats your max and how much do you rep?

No. You don't have to do heavy to get bigger.

Mixing up your routines and weight is key. Preacher curls work good for me when i focus on my bi's. Make sure you hit all heads of the bicep.

Just keep at it. Work them in on compound days. Even do a few weeks of a monday/friday bi workout.

Remember though, bigger tri's give the appearance of larger arms.

[Memphis1]

Originally Posted by AMERICUS

As for arm specific movements, you have to realize there are three heads in your arm (2 tricep, 1 bicep).

just a correction...

triceps have three (3) heads and biceps have two (2). the "peak" is one of the heads clearly separating from the other.

[emac08]

Originally Posted by memphis2012

don't do isolation exercises until you're big enough to isolate anything...

do heavy bench presses, heavy lat pulldows, heavy bent-over rows, overhead squats, deadlifts, cleans, jerks. once you get the mass, you can start with curls of all types and triceps extensions of various types. same thing for your legs, heavy squats, heavy leg presses, once you have size start doing curls and extensions.

keep it simple, once you're experienced enough start sculpting. and obviously some guys are genetically predetermine to grow no matter what they do so be careful with the exercises or regimens they might provide.

@ avatar lol

[Bobby_Light]

Vince Gironda Drag Curl.

[leocdmg]

well something that worked for me to gain size was actualy not focusing on those specific muscle groups. I am not a trainer I am just giving you what worked for me.
As Im sure you probably know contrary to every movie youve seen or pose people do in the gym, 2/3 of your arm size is actually your triceps.

1. Focus on heavy lifts such as the bench press (close grip). Primary muscles used are the pectorals but it puts great stress on the tris. This way you actually put more force on the tris to work than just tri excersises alone.
2. Same for you Bis focus on heavy rows ( t-bar row) this also allows for you to lift much more weight than bis alone. Remeber to squeeze at the top and get that blood flowing.
3. At this point you arms are quite tired but not to failure yet because they had help from the bigger muscle groups. Super set isolation moves (i.e. rope pull down to rope curl) no rest in between.

Im positive this will work If this does not get you past your plateau Ill give you a dollar.
Good Luck post results with watever you do.

[ducati955]

trainer and bb here...... for 16 yrs....

train right, concentrate the muscle, dont through weight around... U do benefit from some cheat sets though
compound ex, build your arms more than anything else. eat right..

straight bar and pull ups are top notch........

[audiprotein]

you gotta be working on your whole body. Legs too!
Try switching your bi/tri program. Try working on them with different muscles, for example: chest/bi or chest/tri , back/ bi or back/tri.
And, you gotta stress your muscles, so change your regular excercises, there are tons of them.

[jimmyeatsworld]

I would try different excercises, angles, machines vs free, rep ranges, etc so your body doesn't adapt to one exercise.

I would also mix my chest day and tricep day so that in theory you are working them somewhat twice a week. Same goes for back and biceps.

[XiaoDeeDeee]

Great advice here, but I personally think it is 55% genetics, 20% diet, and 15% effort.

For example, I've been doing cardio for about a year now and I'm still a heavy set build but smaller. For the past month I've also been on a general 1800 calorie diet and basically nothing has changed.

Yet, I decided to switch it up and add some weights in only twice a week and in five days, I've instantly gained muscle mass. OFC I know that muscle mass is easiest the gain in the beginning before the plateau sets in, but again if your body is the type which does not gain muscle, there is only so much you can do.

I'm not saying to wave the white flag but rather, set realistic and safe expectations. I mean I've worked and dedicated my ass off to cardio for 1 hour 30 minutes, 5 days a week. Then in one week after two 30 minute minute sessions of weight lifting, I get instant results in muscle mass whereas I barely get any from the cardio after a year?

Unfair man :/ ... I guess just know your body type and how to make it the best it can possibly be relative to your goals and be happy with it.