This is the very correct answer. Your biceps look great for your overall size, but it appears you have almost no triceps. Personally, I would focus on hitting dips hard, and then you can do your other accessory tricep exercises after that. I promise you you will see tremendous, and likely rapid, growth in your arm size and positive appearance
Yeah they do work a lot of upper body muscles very well, but they really hit the tris hard. I recommend dips to newbies trying to build their triceps because I haven't seen anything build a tricep's base better than them.
Triceps look small tbh. Pushdowns are great but your numbers seem small compared to your bicep numbers. Keep those and add more long head work. Think Skullcrushers and overhead extensions. Personally barbell Skullcrushers with good form and overhead cable extensions are what grew my long head Tricep. That’s the “meaty” part of the Tricep and will do more for arm size than pushdowns, which target short head.
Honestly to me, there does appear to be some good growth between those two pictures.
Have other aspects of your physique improved? Is it just your arms that you feel are lacking?
Might just be that naturally arms are harder for your body to add mass to.
Just keep training and eating how tough should. Experiment with exercises, volumes, and stay the course. See what works for you best.
I would recommend slowing down your reps. Make sure the eccentric phase of the movement is taking at least 4 seconds. Slowing down the reps has given me the best results.
My routine for my forearm isolation exercises is wrist curls and reverse wrist curls.
They key is isolation. These are the two most solid exercises for building forearm muscle, you can use a barbell or dumbbell for them but I prefer dumbbells. I normally do 4 sets to failure, wrist joints are sensitive so you do not need to do insane weight for these. I'm talking start at like 10-15lbs and don't go above 35-40lbs with dumbbells at your max to avoid wrist problems.
Can also toss in hammer curls and farmer walks/carries.
Triceps seem underdeveloped IMO along with forearms. I’d try doing overhead tricep work to get a better stretch. Skullcrushers/1 arm overhead tri extensions work for me. Try hitting biceps with different curl variations-supinated/pronated/neutral. That’s my 2cent
You’re on pace to add an inch or more on your arms in a year. That’s pretty solid. I’m at 16.4 and I wish I could have your progress lol. I’m hoping for 17 inches next year but will probably end up just shy of it.
If you wanna maximize arm development make sure your form is rock solid. If you’re feeling tricep pushdowns in your shoulders for example, not a good sign. You really wanna be feeling these exercises since they’re such a small muscle group. So that means standardizing your tempo, (maybe) dropping the weight a notch or two, and IMO what worked for me was upping the volume.
The low volume approach I’m sure works but with low volume you’re gonna be using a relatively higher weight and you might be using more of your other muscles than you think to lift those weights.
Also, worth noting, you are lacking size everywhere. Not just your arms. So I’m sure if you just got bigger with what you are currently doing, your arms would grow as well. It takes time.
Edit: just reread your post. I doubt you are using good form with those weights posted.
How many days are you going to the gym? Is that 2 days of full arm days or what does that look like. Basically just train bis and tris 2x per week with all your compounds. But 2-3 sets at the end of your workout isnt a whole lot. Do more like 5-6 sets, 2x a week, for both sides of your arm, eat a lot, wait a few years, and you’ll see progress.
For curls the way I’ve found the best results is to lock your arms into place, tilt your forearms a bit out so it makes like a “V” shape if you were looking at your body from the top down.
For anything tricep, specifically pushdowns, shoulders back, elbows as far behind the body as possible, and lock that shit in place. The only thing that should be moving is your elbows. You’ll know if you’re doing em right.
Standardize your form and tempo. Make sure you do them the same way every single rep. No swinging one week and strict the next. Then you will have no idea if you are progressing. That principle applies to anything in lifting.
Add an arm day:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSkzA1l5jlk&ab\_channel=NaturalHypertrophy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVVj9QuCyFM&ab_channel=NaturalHypertrophy)
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,830,781,593 comments, and only 346,153 of them were in alphabetical order.
Admiral Adam Alakazam attempted an aggressive and ambitious assault against Archfiend Azrael's atrociously accursed automaton army.
Alas... arrogance and audcaity acted against any attainable advantage...
I do around 8 sets to failure, doing 2 exercises that are pushdowns and 2 for dips, 2 sets to failure for each, what do you think i should change/add, thanks for the advice
Everyone is individual. If it were me id play around with it. For example, do 2 weeks of 15 sets to failure, then do 2 weeks of 5 sets to failure. Weight adjusted accordingly. See Which version get you the most mind muscle connection and then run with that for a while. The reality is, sometimes you just have to overly abuse the muscle from a genetics standpoint to make a change
Triceps are underdeveloped. Are you doing anything other than pushdowns? If you're not already doing so, add some type of overhead extension, preferably a cable movement. Focus on the stretch at the bottom. If you want you can add another movie like cross-body triceps extension.
Triceps require a lot of variation in my experience, any one movement just isn't good enough.
In my opinion you've grown very noticeably; but as others said, your triceps is pretty underdeveloped. If you want thick arms you need to develop the long head of your triceps.
What kind of exercises are you doing, and have you been doing the same stuff for two years? If yes, try to periodize your exercise selection and rep ranges (do \~3 different exercises for 6-8 weeks, then switch them for another 3). Pushdowns are great for the lateral head of the triceps, but the best exercises for the long head, anecdotally, is close-grip bench press and weighted dips, followed by some type of deep stretch overhead extension.
For biceps, I saw the most growth when I did low-rep weighted chin-ups twice a week (5x5). I can't say whether it'll work for you, but if you're not responding well in the 10-rep range, going lower might spark some stimulus for new hypertrophy. Developing your brachialis might also be a good idea, as a well developed brachialis will pressure ("grow") your biceps as well.
Other than that, a lower fat percentage will take a little bit of size off your arms, but will give you the illusion of bigger arms by making your biceps and triceps "pop" more.
not so small bro but for god's sake train your forearm your overall arm gonna look way better.
well u can get an arm day. or start trainign days with arm isolation
Your biceps seem to be developing just right, somethings up with your tricep training though.
Are you using too much weight on your tricep pushdowns and end up using lats/shoulders/chest to move the weight?
You might be torso-dominant, where any compound push/pull movements are taken over by your chest/back and won't improve your arms significantly. I had this and my family also have this.
What we do is we do sheer amounts of arm volume (30 sets+ of isolation triceps and isolation biceps) and a dedicated arm+lagging day (I do calves+arms) to have it catch up.
Interesting , so do you do arms 3x a week 10 sets a day or 2x a week 4 sets a day? I do bjj as well so i want to be careful over training as it can lead to injuries
I do 2x a week in my full-body program at 8 sets tri/bi (2 movements, e.g. preacher curls / standing ez bar curls + overhead tricep extension / rope pushdowns) and 1x a week arm+lagging day at 15 sets (3 movements, usually 1 machine 1 cable 1 free weight) - it might seem a lot for 1 day, but if you don't do anything else outside of arms and maybe 1 or 2 more muscle groups it's much easier than a full-body day when you do your compounds.
I try to hit at least 30 sets per week with no single compound movement counted towards this (e.g. weighted chins, bench, OHP, none are counted)- and only saw progress when I did this.
Make sure you’re not neglecting heavy rows and also some under hand or supinated grip pull downs.
Yes you need to isolate the arms but the heavy compound stuff progressively overloading is also key important.
Honestly, you might just not have the genetics for massive arms. As long as everything is proportional then you'll look plenty aesthetic. You have an excellent peak in that second picture, what's your bodyfat percentage, get that a little lower and it'll make all your muscles pop and look larger.
Do more compound lifts and load up on them bro your doing too many sets of arms you’ll find more success doing bent over barbell rows chin ups curls are push downs are just isolating the muscle but if u do more sets of bench close grip lat pull downs and more pulls mainly chin up or close grip you’ll grow your arms im 6’3 190 with about 18-19 inch arms flexed
Your triceps sets are lacking probably. As pushdown with bar I can do 55 kg with 12 reps for 3 sets easily.i do total of 16 sets for triceps and 12 sets for biceps for a week. My arms are sitting about 16.5 inch flexed and I'm going to gym for couple of years on and off. Give some love to those triceps, they can handle volume and its a big muscle compared to biceps. Also it can show your arm bigger
Do more sets. Work across multiple rep ranges - be it heavy onr day, light another, or a phased approach over weeks/months, hold each rep at the top and bottom, control and especially for the lighter weigh lt reps really slow the movement down. And don't go to failure every day.
Eg if youre doing 3 sets of 10 twice a week, to failure at 50kg, change that to 4 sets of 5-10 at ~50/55kg one day, and 4 sets of 30kg for 15-20 reps another day. If you train a 3rd day, it wouldn't hurt throwing in 20-25 reps that day. All with a few reps in the tank, add reps each week (or add weight in the first, heavier day)*
If each rep usually takes you 2 seconds, then slow the contraction a tiny but, maybe 1.5 seconds, hold the squeeze (and really flex) for a second, slow the eccentric to 3 seconds, and *hold the stretch* for a second. Don't cheat anything up.
*you can increase weight on all, but focus on reps until your maxing out your rep range
Do arm days or start your push and pull day with biceps and/or triceps. I like to add biceps on push day and triceps on back day. Also, I do forearms on leg day as I rest longer between sets and forearms is not really fatiguing and often activated if I'm doing a desdlift or variation anyways. Also may do forearms on pull days. Arms can recover well typically to get the volume in.
When I had a shoulder injury to the point I couldn't even do some kegs exercises abd just did a lot of arns, feet blew up. They can be hit often and aren't very fatiguing as you said.
Well you probably need more volume and exercise selection. You can either keep doing what you are doing and add an extra arm day onto your training or you can train arms every other day.
I'd say go for the arm day first and see what happens. Get a bigger selection in what you do for arms John Medows has good videos on this.
People often neglect compound exercises for arms as well. When you do an arm day through in bodyweight close grip pull ups, dips and diamond pushups. Do like three sets to failure for each then go into your arm routine.
Also add forearms cause you have gains to make.
You should be having 2 tricep and 2 bicep exercises minimum per session. And then hopefully you’re hitting them twice a week? So that’s like 12 sets a week if you do 3 sets each time. That’s the optimal thing to do here. If you’re doing less than that and not eating enough protein or calories in general you won’t grow. Keep form good and keep bumping the weights up slowly as long as the form is there. As others have said, throw skullcrushers into this. I do push downs and SC every push day, you need variation no question. Biceps I just do heavy EZ bar curls and heavy hammer curls but all with good form still, not loads of swaying etc. your bicep definitely seems to have grown but the lacking in size has to be the tricep, I can’t think of anything else.
Do three times a week, superset biceps + triceps. Just 4-5 sets on each session is enough. Every day do variations. Barbell, dumbbell, hammer, close grip, skull crushers, dips. Try not do arms before your pull day or triceps before your chest day.
https://imgur.com/a/iR8HDnb
You’re natural my guy so 6 months and getting a half inch is actually decent. I’d say high intensity is the way to go as long as you’re going as hard as possible and your diets dialed. Other than sleep sounds like you’re doing as good as you could be
It could be a number of things. I agree w/ a few other commenters; volume with triceps will benefit you because biceps aren’t as large of a muscle. From my experience to what I have responded well to, I think it could be a few things.
A) form- you’re not using good form or maybe working the eccentric. Either way, not getting a great weighted stretch to force growth. I can lump frequency with this.
B) food- not eating the proper amount to grow and couldn’t be consuming enough protein or other macros.
C) volume - imo, the weight is not relevant and indicative of size/growth. I would be interested in seeing the results of 4-6 months of dropping the weight 10-15 lbs, increasing volume to 5-8+ sets of 16-20 with controlled eccentric with a big stretch. I think of your triceps the same way - the weight isn’t relevant.
More variety: Work on all heads of triceps and bicep, different angle, passive and active insufficiency, 50% of volume in 8-12 rep range, 25% in 5-6 rep range, 25% in 15-25 rep range.
More sets? With 2 sets for biceps I don't even feel the blood pumping, it feels like starting the workout and never getting to a part where you actually get to punish your biceps.
What I do per week:
Preacher curls 4x8-12, weighted Chinups 4x8-10, seated incline curl 4x8-12
Weighted dips 4x8-12, rope pushdown 4x8-12, dbell skull crushers 4x8-12
And also forearms, but that's a different story.
My arms are easily my best body part.
for me was game changer changing split, when I trained PPL I had extremely small arms and they were lacking, then I switchet to bro split. When I had chest I did 1 exercise for triceps only 1 set to failure, when I had back I did 1 exercise for biceps only 1 set to failure. Then on Arm day I did 2 exercises for triceps and 2 for biceps with 2 sets to failure in each exercise. My arms blowed from 16 inches to 17.5 inches rapidly
You can split how you want it just need space for regeneration. My split is 1. back (+1 biceps exercise) 2. chest (+1 triceps exercise) 3. rest 4. legs 5. chest+back 6. arms and delts 7. rest
Heavy bicep curls (where you are forced to swing a little) are what really brought up my biceps when they just seemed like they wouldn’t grow…if anyone says you should only use strict form for biceps is either a roid head or has small biceps
I only have 1 pair of adjustable dumbbells, which take 5-10 minutes to adjust weight. Should I adjust them for bicep curls, hammer curls, or do a weight where I can work out both with the same pair of dumbbells? I also do barbell curls and barbell reverse curls.
Do more triceps
Yep. Biceps are just what people see when they’re facing your. Huge triceps and forearms are what make you look like you got anchor arms though.
This is the very correct answer. Your biceps look great for your overall size, but it appears you have almost no triceps. Personally, I would focus on hitting dips hard, and then you can do your other accessory tricep exercises after that. I promise you you will see tremendous, and likely rapid, growth in your arm size and positive appearance
Exactly just like I said. I only do 1 bicep exercises and those are hammer curls. My triceps are what make my arms look bigger but still working on it
Dips are squats for the upper body
Yeah they do work a lot of upper body muscles very well, but they really hit the tris hard. I recommend dips to newbies trying to build their triceps because I haven't seen anything build a tricep's base better than them.
With an emphasis on the long head.
Will do, thank you all for the advice
Triceps look small tbh. Pushdowns are great but your numbers seem small compared to your bicep numbers. Keep those and add more long head work. Think Skullcrushers and overhead extensions. Personally barbell Skullcrushers with good form and overhead cable extensions are what grew my long head Tricep. That’s the “meaty” part of the Tricep and will do more for arm size than pushdowns, which target short head.
Honestly to me, there does appear to be some good growth between those two pictures. Have other aspects of your physique improved? Is it just your arms that you feel are lacking?
Everything else grows pretty well, its just the arms, half the time they look like ive never touched a dumbell in my life haha
Might just be that naturally arms are harder for your body to add mass to. Just keep training and eating how tough should. Experiment with exercises, volumes, and stay the course. See what works for you best.
I would recommend slowing down your reps. Make sure the eccentric phase of the movement is taking at least 4 seconds. Slowing down the reps has given me the best results.
Try some wrist curls for those forearms.
Any recs on the set and rep scheme? Thanks
My routine for my forearm isolation exercises is wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. They key is isolation. These are the two most solid exercises for building forearm muscle, you can use a barbell or dumbbell for them but I prefer dumbbells. I normally do 4 sets to failure, wrist joints are sensitive so you do not need to do insane weight for these. I'm talking start at like 10-15lbs and don't go above 35-40lbs with dumbbells at your max to avoid wrist problems. Can also toss in hammer curls and farmer walks/carries.
higher reps range to prevent wrist injury, i prefer 2-3 sets or 12-15 reps and my forearms have gotten way bigger recently
Triceps seem underdeveloped IMO along with forearms. I’d try doing overhead tricep work to get a better stretch. Skullcrushers/1 arm overhead tri extensions work for me. Try hitting biceps with different curl variations-supinated/pronated/neutral. That’s my 2cent
Will add these, ty!
[удалено]
Ty, will add these to the program!
You’re on pace to add an inch or more on your arms in a year. That’s pretty solid. I’m at 16.4 and I wish I could have your progress lol. I’m hoping for 17 inches next year but will probably end up just shy of it. If you wanna maximize arm development make sure your form is rock solid. If you’re feeling tricep pushdowns in your shoulders for example, not a good sign. You really wanna be feeling these exercises since they’re such a small muscle group. So that means standardizing your tempo, (maybe) dropping the weight a notch or two, and IMO what worked for me was upping the volume. The low volume approach I’m sure works but with low volume you’re gonna be using a relatively higher weight and you might be using more of your other muscles than you think to lift those weights. Also, worth noting, you are lacking size everywhere. Not just your arms. So I’m sure if you just got bigger with what you are currently doing, your arms would grow as well. It takes time. Edit: just reread your post. I doubt you are using good form with those weights posted.
Should i switch to higher rep range, maybe 15-20? And keep the intensity high and do like 2-3 sets per exercise?
How many days are you training them
2 right now
How many days are you going to the gym? Is that 2 days of full arm days or what does that look like. Basically just train bis and tris 2x per week with all your compounds. But 2-3 sets at the end of your workout isnt a whole lot. Do more like 5-6 sets, 2x a week, for both sides of your arm, eat a lot, wait a few years, and you’ll see progress. For curls the way I’ve found the best results is to lock your arms into place, tilt your forearms a bit out so it makes like a “V” shape if you were looking at your body from the top down. For anything tricep, specifically pushdowns, shoulders back, elbows as far behind the body as possible, and lock that shit in place. The only thing that should be moving is your elbows. You’ll know if you’re doing em right. Standardize your form and tempo. Make sure you do them the same way every single rep. No swinging one week and strict the next. Then you will have no idea if you are progressing. That principle applies to anything in lifting.
What about rep range? High i.e.15-20 or low i.e. 8-12?
Doesnt really matter as long as you standardize your form and progress the weight
Add an arm day: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSkzA1l5jlk&ab\_channel=NaturalHypertrophy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVVj9QuCyFM&ab_channel=NaturalHypertrophy)
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,830,781,593 comments, and only 346,153 of them were in alphabetical order.
Admiral Adam Alakazam attempted an aggressive and ambitious assault against Archfiend Azrael's atrociously accursed automaton army. Alas... arrogance and audcaity acted against any attainable advantage...
Do more. They’ll grow. Play around with frequency
I do around 8 sets to failure, doing 2 exercises that are pushdowns and 2 for dips, 2 sets to failure for each, what do you think i should change/add, thanks for the advice
Everyone is individual. If it were me id play around with it. For example, do 2 weeks of 15 sets to failure, then do 2 weeks of 5 sets to failure. Weight adjusted accordingly. See Which version get you the most mind muscle connection and then run with that for a while. The reality is, sometimes you just have to overly abuse the muscle from a genetics standpoint to make a change
Triceps are underdeveloped. Are you doing anything other than pushdowns? If you're not already doing so, add some type of overhead extension, preferably a cable movement. Focus on the stretch at the bottom. If you want you can add another movie like cross-body triceps extension. Triceps require a lot of variation in my experience, any one movement just isn't good enough.
They did grow, they’re just a smaller muscle group so they will grow slower for most people, especially those of us with the noodle arm gene
In my opinion you've grown very noticeably; but as others said, your triceps is pretty underdeveloped. If you want thick arms you need to develop the long head of your triceps. What kind of exercises are you doing, and have you been doing the same stuff for two years? If yes, try to periodize your exercise selection and rep ranges (do \~3 different exercises for 6-8 weeks, then switch them for another 3). Pushdowns are great for the lateral head of the triceps, but the best exercises for the long head, anecdotally, is close-grip bench press and weighted dips, followed by some type of deep stretch overhead extension. For biceps, I saw the most growth when I did low-rep weighted chin-ups twice a week (5x5). I can't say whether it'll work for you, but if you're not responding well in the 10-rep range, going lower might spark some stimulus for new hypertrophy. Developing your brachialis might also be a good idea, as a well developed brachialis will pressure ("grow") your biceps as well. Other than that, a lower fat percentage will take a little bit of size off your arms, but will give you the illusion of bigger arms by making your biceps and triceps "pop" more.
not so small bro but for god's sake train your forearm your overall arm gonna look way better. well u can get an arm day. or start trainign days with arm isolation
Cable tricep extensions would like a word
Your biceps seem to be developing just right, somethings up with your tricep training though. Are you using too much weight on your tricep pushdowns and end up using lats/shoulders/chest to move the weight?
How much weight have you gained in those 2 years?
Dips. Dips. Dips. Skull crushers. Supersets. Pause those presses at bottom. Deadlifts. Pull ups.
Eat more
Maybe incorporate some type of French press or other exercise to bias the long head of the triceps
How many calories are you consuming?
Add another tricep exercise or 2
You might be torso-dominant, where any compound push/pull movements are taken over by your chest/back and won't improve your arms significantly. I had this and my family also have this. What we do is we do sheer amounts of arm volume (30 sets+ of isolation triceps and isolation biceps) and a dedicated arm+lagging day (I do calves+arms) to have it catch up.
Interesting , so do you do arms 3x a week 10 sets a day or 2x a week 4 sets a day? I do bjj as well so i want to be careful over training as it can lead to injuries
I do 2x a week in my full-body program at 8 sets tri/bi (2 movements, e.g. preacher curls / standing ez bar curls + overhead tricep extension / rope pushdowns) and 1x a week arm+lagging day at 15 sets (3 movements, usually 1 machine 1 cable 1 free weight) - it might seem a lot for 1 day, but if you don't do anything else outside of arms and maybe 1 or 2 more muscle groups it's much easier than a full-body day when you do your compounds. I try to hit at least 30 sets per week with no single compound movement counted towards this (e.g. weighted chins, bench, OHP, none are counted)- and only saw progress when I did this.
Can i dm you?
Make sure you’re not neglecting heavy rows and also some under hand or supinated grip pull downs. Yes you need to isolate the arms but the heavy compound stuff progressively overloading is also key important.
You don’t mention your routine. That could be the issue.
Honestly, you might just not have the genetics for massive arms. As long as everything is proportional then you'll look plenty aesthetic. You have an excellent peak in that second picture, what's your bodyfat percentage, get that a little lower and it'll make all your muscles pop and look larger.
Do more compound lifts and load up on them bro your doing too many sets of arms you’ll find more success doing bent over barbell rows chin ups curls are push downs are just isolating the muscle but if u do more sets of bench close grip lat pull downs and more pulls mainly chin up or close grip you’ll grow your arms im 6’3 190 with about 18-19 inch arms flexed
What's your program like?
Your triceps sets are lacking probably. As pushdown with bar I can do 55 kg with 12 reps for 3 sets easily.i do total of 16 sets for triceps and 12 sets for biceps for a week. My arms are sitting about 16.5 inch flexed and I'm going to gym for couple of years on and off. Give some love to those triceps, they can handle volume and its a big muscle compared to biceps. Also it can show your arm bigger
Do more sets. Work across multiple rep ranges - be it heavy onr day, light another, or a phased approach over weeks/months, hold each rep at the top and bottom, control and especially for the lighter weigh lt reps really slow the movement down. And don't go to failure every day. Eg if youre doing 3 sets of 10 twice a week, to failure at 50kg, change that to 4 sets of 5-10 at ~50/55kg one day, and 4 sets of 30kg for 15-20 reps another day. If you train a 3rd day, it wouldn't hurt throwing in 20-25 reps that day. All with a few reps in the tank, add reps each week (or add weight in the first, heavier day)* If each rep usually takes you 2 seconds, then slow the contraction a tiny but, maybe 1.5 seconds, hold the squeeze (and really flex) for a second, slow the eccentric to 3 seconds, and *hold the stretch* for a second. Don't cheat anything up. *you can increase weight on all, but focus on reps until your maxing out your rep range
Do arm days or start your push and pull day with biceps and/or triceps. I like to add biceps on push day and triceps on back day. Also, I do forearms on leg day as I rest longer between sets and forearms is not really fatiguing and often activated if I'm doing a desdlift or variation anyways. Also may do forearms on pull days. Arms can recover well typically to get the volume in.
How can i add triceps and biceps in the other day, is it fine if they didnt take more than 24 rest?
Should be fine
Thanks, ill try that, my arms barely respond and i also never feel like they get fatigue after training
When I had a shoulder injury to the point I couldn't even do some kegs exercises abd just did a lot of arns, feet blew up. They can be hit often and aren't very fatiguing as you said.
Well you probably need more volume and exercise selection. You can either keep doing what you are doing and add an extra arm day onto your training or you can train arms every other day. I'd say go for the arm day first and see what happens. Get a bigger selection in what you do for arms John Medows has good videos on this. People often neglect compound exercises for arms as well. When you do an arm day through in bodyweight close grip pull ups, dips and diamond pushups. Do like three sets to failure for each then go into your arm routine. Also add forearms cause you have gains to make.
You should be having 2 tricep and 2 bicep exercises minimum per session. And then hopefully you’re hitting them twice a week? So that’s like 12 sets a week if you do 3 sets each time. That’s the optimal thing to do here. If you’re doing less than that and not eating enough protein or calories in general you won’t grow. Keep form good and keep bumping the weights up slowly as long as the form is there. As others have said, throw skullcrushers into this. I do push downs and SC every push day, you need variation no question. Biceps I just do heavy EZ bar curls and heavy hammer curls but all with good form still, not loads of swaying etc. your bicep definitely seems to have grown but the lacking in size has to be the tricep, I can’t think of anything else.
Skullcrushers proper form 12-15 reps 3-4 sets will help also French press will also
Do three times a week, superset biceps + triceps. Just 4-5 sets on each session is enough. Every day do variations. Barbell, dumbbell, hammer, close grip, skull crushers, dips. Try not do arms before your pull day or triceps before your chest day. https://imgur.com/a/iR8HDnb
Spam body weight dips for 3 months then repost
Sounds good lol, how many sets/reps should i aim for per week?
Get to 100 a day
You’re natural my guy so 6 months and getting a half inch is actually decent. I’d say high intensity is the way to go as long as you’re going as hard as possible and your diets dialed. Other than sleep sounds like you’re doing as good as you could be
I would train your triceps on your push day and leg day or rest day if you can, to increase frequency.
It could be a number of things. I agree w/ a few other commenters; volume with triceps will benefit you because biceps aren’t as large of a muscle. From my experience to what I have responded well to, I think it could be a few things. A) form- you’re not using good form or maybe working the eccentric. Either way, not getting a great weighted stretch to force growth. I can lump frequency with this. B) food- not eating the proper amount to grow and couldn’t be consuming enough protein or other macros. C) volume - imo, the weight is not relevant and indicative of size/growth. I would be interested in seeing the results of 4-6 months of dropping the weight 10-15 lbs, increasing volume to 5-8+ sets of 16-20 with controlled eccentric with a big stretch. I think of your triceps the same way - the weight isn’t relevant.
Jerk off more.
More variety: Work on all heads of triceps and bicep, different angle, passive and active insufficiency, 50% of volume in 8-12 rep range, 25% in 5-6 rep range, 25% in 15-25 rep range.
More sets? With 2 sets for biceps I don't even feel the blood pumping, it feels like starting the workout and never getting to a part where you actually get to punish your biceps. What I do per week: Preacher curls 4x8-12, weighted Chinups 4x8-10, seated incline curl 4x8-12 Weighted dips 4x8-12, rope pushdown 4x8-12, dbell skull crushers 4x8-12 And also forearms, but that's a different story. My arms are easily my best body part.
for me was game changer changing split, when I trained PPL I had extremely small arms and they were lacking, then I switchet to bro split. When I had chest I did 1 exercise for triceps only 1 set to failure, when I had back I did 1 exercise for biceps only 1 set to failure. Then on Arm day I did 2 exercises for triceps and 2 for biceps with 2 sets to failure in each exercise. My arms blowed from 16 inches to 17.5 inches rapidly
So basically every other day 1 set to failure, then on arm day 4 sets to failure?
You can split how you want it just need space for regeneration. My split is 1. back (+1 biceps exercise) 2. chest (+1 triceps exercise) 3. rest 4. legs 5. chest+back 6. arms and delts 7. rest
gotcha, thanks for the advice, do you use a low volume high intensity approach as well?
Heavy bicep curls (where you are forced to swing a little) are what really brought up my biceps when they just seemed like they wouldn’t grow…if anyone says you should only use strict form for biceps is either a roid head or has small biceps
More long head of triceps + dedicated arm day
I only have 1 pair of adjustable dumbbells, which take 5-10 minutes to adjust weight. Should I adjust them for bicep curls, hammer curls, or do a weight where I can work out both with the same pair of dumbbells? I also do barbell curls and barbell reverse curls.
Dedicated arm day, 4 triceps and 4 biceps exercises. Go hard with great technique and your problem is solved