Want to increase my arm size in 6 weeks - any tips?

[Elliot B.]

I am a skinny bloke (6'3'', 10st 10) and want to make my arms as large as possible in six weeks. I am happy to go to the gym everyday if need be.

Do you have any tips? (e.g. what to eat, when to eat, exercises etc.)

[Coldgunner]

Check rappehs thread in 'the forum'?

But yeah, I'd head to the gym and do some weights, although I was told not to do weights on consecutive days.

[YouAgain87]

I'd love to be bigger. I'm 21 and 5'7 weighing in at a measly 8.5st. Wanna increase that a bit so I look healthy and not like a food deprived anorexic.

[Elliot B.]

Check rappehs thread in 'the forum'?

But yeah, I'd head to the gym and do some weights, although I was told not to do weights on consecutive days.

?

And I know what you mean, but I'm willing to do whatever is necessary. I need the self confidence, and fast :(

[XerXis]

push-ups every day. The big advantage of push-ups: they exercise almost every muscle group of your body

[Knife Party]

?

And I know what you mean, but I'm willing to do whatever is necessary. I need the self confidence, and fast :(

up your calorie intake -> pasta, nuts etc + protein shakes -> start off with simply getting fit, then start working out

[matthewmarley]

I have been taking progain for a few months now and it work really well.

Two shakes a day gives you 1000 calories and go to the gym a few times a week.

[Elliot B.]

I've tried tuna, it makes me heave. Any other ideas?

[matthewmarley]

Eat lots of pasta,chicken,fish

[tiddlie]

Protein shakes, Creatine Ethyl Esther, L Glutamine, and plenty of press ups / arm curls will work. 6-8 reps until fail will build.

[shakey_snake]

Make sure you are working your triceps and hamstrings just as much as you are your biceps and quads.

[spacer]

<rant>

Like many have said, up your protein and calorie intake. You can work out 6 ways from Sunday all you want, but if your muscles have no energy or protein to rebuild themselves, you won't notice a difference. Here are some general tips for you, I hope they help.

As for exercises, the general rule of thumb is: heavy weight, low reps = mass building; moderate weight, high reps = toning, endurance. Some studies have come out recently that discredit this rule, but I've been using it for almost ten years now and it works pretty well for me.

You want to always give your muscles 2 days in between workouts to give them a chance to rebuild and recoop. And you can do more than one muscle group on the same day to make your workouts more varied and efficient. For instance, I usually do biceps and shoulders on Mondays and Thursdays; chest and back on Tuesdays and Fridays; Legs on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

I also have "heavy" and "light" days each week. "Heavy"/"Light" refer to the mass/endurance rule I mentioned above. So, week 1 I'll do a "heavy" workout on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays; then "light" workouts the rest of the week. And week 2 will be the opposite.

You also want to constantly "confuse" your muscles by doing different exercises, in different orders, on different days. If you do the same routine over and over again, your muscles will literally grow accustomed to it and you'll plateau. Even simply changing the order of the same exercises will go a long way to increase results.

Form is also way more important than the amount of weight you do. If you concentrate on form, I guarantee you will see way better resutls faster than you would if you do as much weight or as many reps as you can. Which leads me to my last point...

The most important, and consequently the hardest, thing anyone must do when going to the gym is to get over yourself. Use the weight that is right for your current level or strength. Don't worry about how the guy next to you is benching 400 pounds. Too many times I've seen people new to the gym I go to try to impress or fit in or whatever, and put way too much weight on their machine. They end up doing awkward reps and doing a poor set. Not to mention they could seriously hurt themselves.

So good luck.

</rant>

[Rix]

I don't know how much bigger your going to get in 6 weeks

Maybe slightly more defined

Do as others have said and work your biceps & triceps

Work your shoulders also as nice round shoulders make arms look bigger

Any reason in particular you want just your arms bigger?

I'd recomend you go the the gym 4 times a week and focus on all your big excercises, Bench, squats, rows, military press & deadlift

[Elliot B.]

I don't know how much bigger your going to get in 6 weeks

Maybe slightly more defined

Do as others have said and work your biceps & triceps

Work your shoulders also as nice round shoulders make arms look bigger

Any reason in particular you want just your arms bigger?

I'd recomend you go the the gym 4 times a week and focus on all your big excercises, Bench, squats, rows, military press & deadlift

I'd need to a visual difference to give me confidence first.

[Rix]

Liqour is confidence in a bottle.

But seriously

More chance of seeing visual difference if your working all your body rarther than isolating your arms.

[Elliot B.]

As recommended above, how about:

Biceps and shoulders on Mondays and Thursdays

Chest and back on Tuesdays and Fridays

Legs on Wednesdays and Saturday

[SMELTN]

^ lmao

[Elliot B.]

^ lmao

?

[Rix]

As recommended above, how about:

Biceps and shoulders on Mondays and Thursdays

Chest and back on Tuesdays and Fridays

Legs on Wednesdays and Saturday

Well your neglecting triceps

Your biceps also get worked when you do back, so they may still be sore when you attempt to do back the next day

Have a look around on bodybuilding websites, they'll offer a routine more suited to a new guy

Personally, i began with:

Back & Biceps

Chest & Triceps

Legs & Shoulders

With a day between each, and then repeat.?

[Yorak]

If you're just starting to lift weights, you don't need to section off your workouts via muscle groups. Stick to lifting every other day, and on the days you aren't lifting, do cardio. Yes, cardio helps build muscle as well and keep you toned. I shouldn't talk, because I'm too lazy for cardio, but I never miss a lifting day. Start with some bench presses laying flat. By the way, the rule is, lift as much weight as you can that you are able to do 3 sets of 8 of them. So if you can bench 120lbs. 8 times, rest about 1 minute, another 8, rest, 8, then that's the weight you want. Never downscale weights. If anything, add on weight. Don't do 140lbs, 130lbs, 100lbs. Unless you are just beginning and learning your limits. But yeah, then do some dumbbell curls, like 25-35lbs on each arm about 12 times total, going left, right, left, right. Then try a few pushups. Key is to stay firm, don't rise your butt in the air, keep your body straight and level, and bring yourself down until your chest touches or almost touches the ground. Do 8-12 of those. You'll want to save your inclined press for last, at least I do, because it really tires me out. Put your bench at about a 45 degree angle and basically you'll "bench". But line the barbell up with your nipples. Sounds stupid but that is how you truly work your upper chest. Then do some shrugs...try holding a 35-45lbs dumbbell in each arm, letting it lay to the side, and shrug your shoulders in a circular motion. Do that about 16-24 times. Next if you want to work your legs, just use a leg press on a heavy amount of weight. To work your back, do some rowing. That will also target many other muscles. For abs, do crunches, do captains chair, etc.

Most importantly: Do not hurt yourself! Do not be afraid to start at a low weight. Some people have the genetics to lift heavy weight like a nut. I sure as hell did not. I had to work my way up to where I am at now and I am still nothing special. But I have improved immensely, and continue to do so. If you have time to do cardio on your off days, that is great. It will help with the fat to muscle conversion even in your other workouts. Good luck.

P.S. - Wow, I should truly seperate the above into paragraphs. Lolz.

[nmesisca]

masturbate 10 times per day = big arm!

:D

[capr]

do most of the things yorak said... and remember you aren't going to see a whole lot of difference in 6 weeks... you will certainly feel and be stronger but you won't see it as much because the muscles you have are just getting stronger and you aren't actually building more muscles for a while.

I am going to write assuming that you are going to do everything Yorak said... this is just additions it's not complete.

how many pushups can you do? if you can do more than 15-20 make sure you do them every day. you are strong enough where your pushups will only tune your muscles and won't actually be tearing tissue so you won't be "working out" every day. keep the heavy weights for every other day.

find a workout partner and do some negative lifting, these really did wonders for my muscle volume but didn't get me that much stronger... with negatives you basically find your max on any particular exercise and you add 5-10lbs to it then you lower the weight by yourself and have someone else help you push it up... lowering the weight should be done at a very slow steady pace, don't let it just drop.... after the weight is lowered your partner helps you bring it back up, this is more of a thrust than a push. you dont want to be pushing that much at all your partner should help a lot. do about 5-8 of these 3 sets. if you are doing more reps then increase the weight.

remember for muscle gaining you never want to do more than 5-8 reps.

eating habbits... you HAVE to change these or else you will max out at around week 4 and stop getting stronger. you NEED to eat a LOT when you are doing intense workouts... eat more than 3 meals a day and try to snack in between. you must eat a lot of proteins and forget about shakes and bars they are great but they are usually too much in one dose and your body just stores the protein as fat when it can't use it.

this past semester Spring 2008 I biked about 13 miles to my uni and 13 miles back. while i was there i went to the gym every other day and did a full upper body workout including core exercises... for that life style i was eating over 5000 calories a day and still felt weak some times and went to bed early. the point is when you workout a lot your muscles burn up energy like it's free gas at the pump. you want to make sure there are plenty of calories for your body to burn up so that it never burns your muscles as a source of calories. people often underestimate this step and don't eat enough because they are trying to lose weight at the same time and it just doesn't workout.... if you need any tips on exercises feel free to PM me and ask. I have been doing this stuff for years and know my way around a gym.

good luck, and give up on the 6 weeks. if you make it 16 we can talk...

[Napalm Frog]

I end up doing exercises where I believe there is a sort of "synergy" between exercises. For example, a lot of lat exercises utilise the biceps to an extent, or many chest exercises (benching) also uses the triceps. Below is the schedule I follow:

Day 1: Biceps, then back

Day 2: Chest, then triceps

Day 3: Abs, then legs

I also throw in shoulders and other various exercises here and there to spice things up, as well as adding some cardio before and/or after (before to get warmed up, or after to get blood flowing and reduce soreness).

The reason I do the muscle groups daily in that order is because some exercises, such as dumbbell flys for the chest have the most impact if the triceps are still fresh. If you have tired that muscle group out, you won't be reaching maximum potential.

Also, do make sure that you have plenty of protein. I personally don't go overboard, because I am not really that obsessed about bulking up (plus at 5' 6", any bigger and I'll start looking like a mini freak, lol). I typically have protein for breakfast found in oatmeal (some actually have a really decent content), lunch in the form of peanut butter, then right after the workout I have some hemp seed followed by a glass of soy milk. Then a short time after, I have a heavy protein dinner. I prefer to stay away from the protein crap one buys at body building stores because if I am making my body look good, I might as well feel good by reducing chemical crap. I am also vegan, but that has in no way stunted anything. In fact, I gained 10 pounds in the past 2 months alone (this dramatic increase happened right when I shifted from using machines to going to free weights).

One last thing, make sure you have lots of water. The muscles will hold a large portion of the water, so if you are dehydrated, they won't be at a maximum size potential, if that makes sense. Plus, water will help flush out crap, etc.

[gnuman]

masturbate 10 times per day = big arm!

:D

I was looking at the thread to see if someone added that response and if not I was going to. Damn you!

Masturbate with weights on your wrists it will be even better!

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

push-ups every day. The big advantage of push-ups: they exercise almost every muscle group of your body

umm... no, not everyday. your muscles need time to heal, and thus, grow larger.

push-ups work your chest, shoulders and triceps... and maybe your abs b/c of stabilization... but definitely not "almost every muscle group"