Cant gain any mass on my arms, driving me mad!

Ive been bulking for about 6 months almost. Im gaining mass everywhere except my arms it seems.
Strength wise my TRICEPS are increasing and have gained a little mass on them, but my biceps are hell.
I have no bicep peak, strength wise i just cant go up at all. Ive tried the following:
 
EZ bar curls
DB curls
Preacher curls
Negatives
21's
Hammer curls
 
My current routine is:
 
Concentration curls 3x10
preacher curls 5x5
Negatives 3x8
 
Im trying 5x5 on preacher to try and get my strength up a bit and hope mass comes with it.
My form is perfect, i figured form may be an issue ages ago so i made it all perfect and still no difference.
Im gaining mass everywhere, though it isnt as visible as it could be cause my bf% is highish, but not too high.
So what can i do? When i do pull ups and things which involve the biceps as a secondary muscle, i can feel the biceps burn out quickly so my back doesnt get as good of a workout as it could do, in exercises like pull ups.
Is it just genetics or is there anything else i can try?
The main problem is its hard to try loads of different exercises cause i would have to do them for at least 3 months before i can see any difference anyway, so it could end up taking like a year before i find an exercise that works for me.

Think you thinking to much, get all you major lifts heavy and you biceps will follow!! I have never seen a bloke who lifts heavy that has small arms.

You also seem to be doing to much for such a small muscle, try doing just a few sets of ez/bb/db curls to failer no more.

Finally about bicep peak some people have it some dont so you might just have to accept that.

As above. Ensure your eating enough to grow, concentrate on your compounds and finish off each upper body session with just one isolation exercise.

I.e. I occasionally do:

BB Bench
DB Bench
Upper Back work

Then 3x12 BB Curls.


No need to overcomplicate things. If diet is in check, the intensity in the weight room is there, and your getting enough rest... vwola. All you need.

Journal

I would train Bi's with back (back first), and finish off with something like;

2 x standing DB curls 5 - 7 reps (as heavy as poss)

2 x EZ bar /Preacher curls 5 - 7 reps (as heavy as poss)

You really dont need a lot of volume for arms IMO as they get worked in so many other exercises, and it certainly wont hurt to train them like above if only for 2 months to try it out.

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Skullcrusher


I would train Bi's with back (back first), and finish off with something like;

2 x standing DB curls 5 - 7 reps (as heavy as poss)

2 x EZ bar /Preacher curls 5 - 7 reps (as heavy as poss)

You really dont need a lot of volume for arms IMO as they get worked in so many other exercises, and it certainly wont hurt to train them like above if only for 2 months to try it out.

that sounds like a good plan.

chris e


Think you thinking to much, get all you major lifts heavy and you biceps will follow!! I have never seen a bloke who lifts heavy that has small arms.

You also seem to be doing to much for such a small muscle, try doing just a few sets of ez/bb/db curls to failer no more.

Finally about bicep peak some people have it some dont so you might just have to accept that.

 
Amen to that.
 
You ask about growing your arms but then only list isolation exercises.  Do you do any compound work?  If not then there's your answer.

 

Thanks for the replies. As far as compounds, ones i think work the biceps are:

pull ups
deadlifts
bent over rows

Chest excerises as far as i know mainly work triceps.
I always find my biceps feel burnt out really soon though. Like after one set of curls they feel really tight. I dont get this with any other muscle.

I only do the following excercises

squat
bench
skull crushers
military press
rows

I have 17 inch arms and don't bother with isolation excercises. Not really needed imo

WWW.MUSCLETALK.CO.UK 

I've always found that arms respond better to more frequent training but with less volume. Therefore I schedule my routines around 1 direct workout for the arms a week and one used with other body parts e.g.

Chest  & Arms (direct)
Back (bi's indirect) and shoulders (tri's indirect)

I have 3 days rest between these workouts

Exercises on the arm day revolve more around stretching and contracting than lift heavy weights. The heavy work in done on the other compounds ( benches, dips, rows, shoulder press etc). So

Bi's
Seated Incline DB curls (stretch)
Concentration DB Curls ( contract)

Tri's
Seated french press (stretch)
Kickbacks ( contract)

All for 3 sets of 10 reps. 

I trained when younger for about 4 years and kept logs of exercises and progress. This is what I concluded about arms and works fine for me.   I also change routine to chest/back, shoulders/arms. Same principle just different order of direct/indirect exercises.

When I hit a wall I do some centuries with dumbells.  Get a weight that is about a 1/4 of your max and do 100 reps. If you stop at 70, give yourself 30 seconds rest, if you stop at 80, only 20 seconds and so on.

I do this with hammer curls or sometimes bicep curls.

Also, another 1 I learned was called 'magic 21's'

This is where you get a weight that is 2/3rds your heaviest then do bicep curls but like this:
From the bottom to half way for 7 reps
Half way to the top for 7 reps
Full curls for 7 reps with no rest.

Those are usually enough to shock my arms at the end of a workout if I feel they haven't had enough.

With those exercises as well as normal routines I saw an increase to 16.75" at the lowest body fat I've been and all natural, no compounds or supplements. I'm naturally muscular anyway but without those exercises I was peaking at 16.5" at a higher body fat.

I would say, lift heavy twice a week with plenty of rest, that's all that is needed. No reason to over train them as this will hinder your results, IME

Squat

Wayne Cowdrey


Squat

squats make the arms bigger?

boom

and cure cancer


x2 for higher frequency, I do better with a similar routine

#1 shoulder/tri
#2 leg/calf
#3 chest/bi
#4 back/calf

calves for me are like arms, the higher frequency is ey

orange86

Wayne Cowdrey


Squat

squats make the arms bigger?

They certainly help!
 
Haven't you heard the saying "if you want big arms you gotta squat"?
 
This issue has been debated to death several times on MT.
 

I wouldn't do this for long periods but as a nice arm routine to promote growth try a 4 - 6 week routine supersetting biceps with Triceps.

Tricep pushdowns supersetted with standing barbell curls 3 x 10 of each

then

Close grip bench press supersetted with barbell preacher curls 3 x 10 again

then

Seated barbell french press supersetted with seated incline dumbell curls 3 x 10

Make sure diet and rest is good

also, remember bicep shape is genetic, arnold and ronnie have amazing peaks, levrone never really had a peak but his biceps were massive.

also, for most people you need to gain quite a lot of weight to put size on your arms, probably 5-10kg depending on your genetics to get an inch on your arms.  is you  arent getting bigger everywhere you arent going to gain much on your biceps.

My arms annoy the crap out of me, but only because they are so long!!!

lad I train with has arms 2/3 the length of mine, and they look huge, even though we are of very similar ability.

S777


My arms annoy the crap out of me, but only because they are so long!!!

lad I train with has arms 2/3 the length of mine, and they look huge, even though we are of very similar ability.

Yep genetics is a killer sometimes, my twin brother has bigger biceps than me and he has never been to a gym in his life. Although on second thought that could just be because he's much leaner than me and so his biceps just look bigger...hmm

Regarding the OP: I'm only still in my first year of training and my arms aren't exactly huge, but I think you will find that putting less emphasis on isolation work for your arms and focusing on compounds will help, a guy I train with has 17" arms and has never done a bicep curl in his life, just Chin Ups, Deadlifts and Power Cleans plus an excellent diet have given him outstanding biceps.

JOURNAL
 
"I went on to lift 128 kg for 1 rep with extremely poor form but I was lucky enough to survive" - Rob Reynolds

Train to failure and beyond, those last couple of reps which your busting a gut to push out are the ones which will be making you grow!

As said in an earlier post you dont need a lot of volume when training arms, 2 exercises, 2 sets is usually fine for me.

Make sure you control the weight through muscle power and not let momentum take control. Nice n slow n controlled and get a good sqeeze with every rep!

"Get big or die trying"

try chin ups and aim for higher rep ranges, maybe your body will respond better to different exercises and higher rep ranges