I was wondering what the community thinks about a change in my arm routine. Here is some background information:

Ht: 5'8" - 170 Lbs - Male 42 years old.

Routine as of a couple weeks ago:

Sunday - Biceps 2 warm up sets - 9 working
Monday - Shoulders 2 Warm up - 12 Working
Tuesday- Back 2 Warm up - 12 Working
Wednesday - Legs 3 Warm up - 10 Working
Thursday - Triceps 2 Warm up - 9 Working
Friday - Off
Saturday - Chest 3 Warm up - 9-12 Working

All sets 6-12 reps depening on how I'm feeling.

What I'm doing now is splitting the Bi's and Tri's days like this:

Sunday and Thursdays - Warm ups as usual: Bi's 6 Sets and Tri's 6 sets.
Still sticking to 6-12 reps.

My goal of course is to stimulate growth again because I seem to be stuck with no growth in the last 6 months. I have found that I can handle more weight with this routine. Is this too much too little ? What do you think ? Any advice would be helpful.

Weights six days a week is probably bit too much. However, without knowing anything about your nutrition we will be stumped for advice. IMO, I would not dedicate a day solely for bi's, and a day just for tri's. If you want to prioritize arms, I would then suggest to drop the workload from your other bodyparts 30-50 percent, and do a specialized routine for a lagging bodypart no longer than 4 weeks.

Here is my typical diet:

6:15am - 2 Whole eggs + 8 whites, a medium apple and 2 TSB of Peanut Butter

9:30am - Protein shake p-40g, c-10g, f-4g
Noon - 6-8oz Chicken breast, whole grain bread or rice.
3:30pm same as 9:30
5:30pm 8oz lean beef, 1 cup brown rice, 1 cup green veggie
8:00pm Creatine Select
9:00pm Post work out shake p-40g. 2 NutriGrain waffles.
10pm Bed

Hope this helps.

Yes, that is not nearly enough calories for 6 day per week, volume oriented weight training routine. It seems that most of your fat intake is at breakfast. I would spread fats out evenly over your meals, except at pre and post workout where you want to keep fats as low as possible. If you want to keep your current routine I would try and increase calories by at least 500 grams, focusing on protein, and making sure your shakes have some extra fat in there. Ultra Size would be perfect with two added tbls of peanut butter or olive oil. I would also look into extra quality supplementation via Ultra 40 liver tabs and mass Amino's. 4-5 tabs per meal. This addition will make a huge difference. Good luck.

David, I've just got to figure out how to get you guys to go back to the No Nonsense issues on our website.

Here's an article that is in line with Aram's suggestion of cutting down from the 6 workouts per week.
http://www.bodybuildingworld.c...3_4/Bigger-Arms.html

We also have arm training routines in the featured articles sections on the left side of the www.bodybuildingworld.com home page.

All of the articles posted on the website are "best of the best", take a look.

Hi David…I am in agreement with Roger in his article http://www.bodybuildingworld.c...3_4/Bigger-Arms.html in regards to arm training. You need to train your arms at least 2 X week. You will not over train if you keep your working sets/reps in the range Roger prescribes here …arm training takes a lot of hard work but your are not stressing your nervous system like you are when training heavy legs or back. Your arms recover quickly and can easily take 2 workouts a week if not more…I suggest 3x if you are looking to stimulate some new growth.

Another thing, remember you want to stimulate different areas in the biceps…the short head (this is the inside portion of the bicep), long head (outer portion of the bicep), and the brachioradialis (muscle that crosses the elbow joint), so I suggest doing 3 different exercises to stimulate all three areas of the biceps.

Short head – incline db curl
Long head – close grip barbell curl
Brachioradialis – db hammer curl

For triceps you have the long head, lateral head, and medium head…I like Rogers prescribed extensions, dips and pushdowns…these exercises hit all three heads of the triceps!

- Jeff Williamson

There was a arm workout article some where on the BEV site that was created by a college football strength coach.

It was very high volume and it was a ladder system that was 10 sets. I did this a few years back and it made my arms grow like no other. Does anyone know where that is at and what it is called?

Try browsing the Body Muscle Journal section of the website located in the yellow bar at the top of the homepage. There is also a section titled Back Issues which has articles all the way back to 1996. If we printed it, you'll be able to find it on the site. You will be able to read a ton of great info during your search as well.

I used this routine for around 6 weeks earlier this year with some good gains. Complete the triset with no rest between exercises and only 2-3 minutes at the end.
Triset 1
Standing barbell curl (3-5 sets x 12,10,8,6,4 reps with ascending weight)
Lying barbell tricep ext (3-5 sets x 15,12,10,8,6 reps ascending weight)
Tricep Pushdown (3-5 sets x 12-15 reps ascending weight)

Triset 2
Seated alternating dumbell curl (3-4 sets x 10,8,6,4 reps ascending weight)
Two-arm overhead tri ext w/ dumbell (3-4 sets x 12-15 reps ascending weight)
Overhead pulley pushes (3-4 sets x 12-15 reps ascending weight)

Triset 3 (Forearms)
Wrist Curl (4x12-15 ascending weight)
Thumbs-up dumbell curl (4x10,8,6,4 reps ascending weight)
Machine Dips (4x12-15 reps ascending weight)

When using this program be sure to cut back intensity on your other body parts. For the first couple of weeks I could barely lift my arms. This program is guaranteed to stimulate growth. Good luck.
If you're not currently using Up-Lift, before attempting this training would be a good time to start.
Casey

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CR,

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm going to try some of your suggestions on doing arms a couple days a week and cutting back on other areas. This weekend I'll take some measurements and post them and will update this thread every couple weeks for 6 weeks with updates. I'll try to get some photos too.

I don't think I'll be able to follow Roger's routine fully because that many sets will probably put me 6 feet under.

I agree with what has been said. You and I are exactly the same age. Arms have always been a problem area for me. I train only 4 days per week. I dedicate the first and freshest day of the week to bis/tris only. I then hit a little "feeder" workout on back day for bi's and chest/should day for tri's. This seems to have worked very well.
One thing though...everyone is different. I tried a lot of "heavy" arm routines over the years. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of payoff. It worked for everything else (back/chest etc), why not arms? It took a shoulder surgery for me to see the light. I couldn't train heavy while rehabbing so it forced me to focus more on angle, intensity techniques like drop-setting, and super-setting, giant-setting as well as just concentrating on the movement. Squeeezzzee the muscle.....

I finally have people in the gym asking me about arms (and not just legs or chest). I was so tickled.....