Anyone who is into weight lifting wants bigger arms, as they are a most sought out muscle group to develop, and given their high visibility and superficiality, signify male dominance perhaps like no other muscle group. When someone flexes in the mirror, they’re usually flexing their biceps.
Advanced Method #1 Train Them 3 Times A Week
There are many conflicting arguments as to how many times you can train the same muscle group within a weeks time period.
Arms are a relatively small muscle group and they can recover quite quickly than larger muscle groups.
You also need to understand these 4 specialized techniques of muscle hypertrophy when building any particular muscle group.
I’ve put together a free presentation why you MUST use these 4 specialized techniques into your workouts <——-(Click here for the FREE presentation)
One of the most optimal ways to building bigger arms is how frequent you’re allowed to train them. Most beginners who train in the gym do a typical one body-part per week workout.
What they don’t know is that once you train a particular muscle group, protein synthesis begins to decline after 48-72 hours. So for example, if you train biceps on Monday and don’t hit them again until the following Monday, you’ve lost the benefit of keeping protein synthesis elevated within that muscle group.
So how often can you train arms? 3 times a week!
Your next question might be, “Do I train arms every other day or can I do them 3 days in a row?”
Think of training like digging a ditch in your recovery. You dig the ditch when you work out (create fatigue) and then you grow your muscles (re-fill the ditch) when you sleep, rest, and eat.
If you do this right, you will slightly OVERFILL the ditch, leaving you with a little more muscle each time you train.
Well, after several years of hard training, you need a LOT more effort to continue making progress.
The best way to make progress is to periodically OVER-TRAIN a muscle or group of muscles and then allow for crazy recovery to occur.
In other words, the deeper you dig the ditch, the more extra dirt you will be able to put on top when you recover.
To answer your question, you can train arms 3 times in a row using different volume, exercises, sets and rep schemes.
Advanced Method #2 Drop The Weight (2 Second Isometric Contractions)
To build bigger arms you have to “own the weight.” If you are curling with 40 pound dumbbells I can guarantee you are swinging the weight up and down without squeezing at the top for a maximal isometric contraction.
On the concentric portion of the movement (lifting the weight on the way up) you’ll need to squeeze has hard as you can implementing a 2 second pause at the top.
Muscle growth simply requires tension while using the correct loads and THEN being able to squeeze as hard as you can at the top of the movement. Below is an example of using tension through implementing the correct tempo for a bicep curl.
- 3 second concentric (lifting the weight at the top
- Squeezing as hard as you can with a 2 second pause at the top
- 5 second eccentric (lowering of the weight).
As you can see when doing a bicep curl using the tempo above, you would have created 10 seconds of TUT (time under tension).
This is what builds the most amount of muscle.
Advanced Method #3 Stop Counting Reps (Timed Sets)
When it comes to building bigger arms, performance has very little to do with it. Training arms with the proper load for the correct TUT (Time Under Tension) creating metabolic stress, will get you your bigger arms.
Metabolic stress is brought about by several factors, including:
- The lack of oxygen supply in the muscles due to the trapping of blood.
- The build-up of metabolic byproducts such as lactic acid
- The cell swelling or “pump” of the muscles
Metabolic stress is BEST produced when you keep the weight moving with a continuous cadence while squeezing your muscles like they owe you cash. Not cranking out one extra rep than the previous week.
I want you to think about the feeling you get when you know you’re really targeting your muscle – that burning sensation you create and the pump you feel. These are the two mechanisms that fall under metabolic stress.
The best way to optimize metabolic stress for bigger arms is to STOP counting reps. Instead use CTTS (constant tension timed sets) Bicep Specialization programs such as this one are a good example of timing your sets rather than counting reps which in turn will literally FORCE your muscles into rapid growth.
Typical bodybuilding programs recommend 6-8 or 8-12 reps which results in sets that hardly last 20-25 seconds, which is great for muscle strength but not for muscle size. Studies have shown that in order to produce and maximize metabolic stress for bigger arms you need at least 30-40 seconds of TUT (Time Under Tension) using at method called, “constant tension timed sets.”
Time Under Tension has the greatest effect when your biceps are stretched while being activated or flexed. High tension through a full range of motion is very effective at producing metabolic stress due to the prolonged muscle contractions, which leaves no time for blood to escape the muscles and ultimately causes the pump effect. So constant tension and greater TUT are very effective at inducing metabolic stress
Low-rep training alone is not sufficient for maximal gains. You must incorporate “timed sets” of 40 seconds or more in your training.
Focusing on “timed sets” rather than “counting reps” is what produces metabolic stress leading you towards rapid muscle growth.
Exercises like bicep curls, leg extensions, leg curls, rope tricep extensions, the pec dec, shoulder lateral raises are very valuable. When the sets are “timed” with short rest periods and multiple sets, they can produce a skin-splitting pump.
What’s Next?
Enroll in my Shoulder and Arms workout course on Udemy, which is based around the three proven methods in this article.
Here’s a couple of pics I took last month of my results by applying the 3 advanced methods mentioned above:
So, if you’re ready to experience proven, unique and fun Arm and Shoulder techniques, solidified into a tested and proven body transformation course that destroys plateaus, blows away your expectations and bring up your STUBBORN arms and shoulders in the shortest time possible using light weight, then click here to enroll at a LIMTED 50% MEGA discount.
Add Inches To Your Arms and Shoulders In 30 Days. "Blow Up ANY Lagging Body Part & Literally FORCE It Into Rapid Growth Using Light Weights." >>CLICK HEREWho is Tim Ernst?
