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

[LiqHead]

Call Jose Canseco. :)

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

<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>

The most sensible and correct post ive seen on fitness on Neowin yet. Thank you (Y)

to elaborate further, it's not about how much weight you can do but whether or not youre doing the exercise correctly. 80% of the people i see at the gym are doing exercises wrong. They'll shift their bodies and cheat to get that massive weight up.

a good example is biceps exercises... i consistently see people pulling their elbows forward when doing biceps curls. your elbows need to stay stationary. if you cant do this, then you're using too much weight. biceps pull straight up just like any other muscle... you need to concentrate on pulling your arm UP instead of in a semi-circle/curve.

my point is: keep the amount of weight down until you can do the exercise 100% correct. while doing the exercise, you need to concentrate on what your target muscle is actually doing... not the motion of the weight you're lifting. 80% brain, 20% weight.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

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

not bad, but i have to disagree w/ Day 1. Back exercises are very strenuous and, sadly, require a lot of your biceps. if you did that combination, i'd suggest you flip them... do back first, then kill your biceps.

my rotation is:

1. chest

2. back

3. shoulders/traps

4. biceps/triceps

Then i throw in abs and legs on various days

[+Mystic MVC]

So guys is there really something to actually switching up your workout (the order)? I know it seems like common sense but I haven't thougth about it for these last 2 and a half months of lifting twice a week.

[revvo]

Well for starters, you gotta eat right. Right is, lots of proteins.

Working your arms everyday is not smart, unless you alternate the muscles, like the biceps on day1 and triceps day2, forearms day2, etc.

Heavy is the only way. I usually do my exercises in 4 sets of 8-8-8-6 repetitions. Its a rule of thumb, if you can lift a weight 8 times but you feel you can do more, it's not heavy enough. For example for the biceps, I'll do the zottman curls with 25lbs dumbbells, then 30 for the next 2 sets and 35 for the last where I'm maxed out. Same thing with the preacher curl, and so on.

Different patterns are effective too. I know some who like to do more sets, and it's done in a pyramid fashion, start with low, then raise the weight til you're at your near max, then come back down to what you started.

If you also happen to do chin ups, try weighted chin ups. They do wonders for biceps and forearms.. These with weighted pull ups are among my fav exercises :D