Working Arms Twice A Week ?

[Scars]

Right now my routine is as follows:

Mon: Chest/Triceps
Wed: Biceps/Back
Fri: Shoulders/Legs

I was reading this article: http://jimmysmithtraining.com/six-pack-diet/13-tricks-for-bigger-arms-how-to-get-bigger-arms and this guy went on to say he trains his arms twice a week. I just picked the gym up again after a long hiatus, and going on week 3. Perhaps I'm just impatient, but I am extremely unhappy with my arms, and always have been. You could consider me an ectomorph, and was always the tall skinny athletic guy in HS. Lucky for me I was blessed with very strong legs, and was always doing sports that involved heavy running (mostly soccer). Anyways, I'm thinking about following this guy's advice and working my arms twice. I also want to focus on my chest as well.

I'm thinking about adding an extra day, maybe sat where one week I do biceps again, then the next week I do tris etc.. so it basically looks like this.

-Week 1
Mon: Chest/Triceps
Wed: Biceps/Back
Fri: Shoulders/Legs
Sat: Biceps

-Week 2
Mon: Chest/Triceps
Wed: Biceps/Back
Fri: Shoulders/Legs
Sat: Triceps

-Week 3
Mon: Chest/Triceps
Wed: Biceps/Back
Fri: Shoulders/Legs
Sat: Chest

..This way I can focus on the areas that I feel I'm lacking. What do you all think about this? I would add cardio to Saturday as well, but right now I'm trying to bulk.

-Scars

 

[Jair213]

Week 3
Keep chest and shoulder day atleast one day apart so you could atleast let them recover a bit as you use shoulders when benching.

all in all it looks like a good routine.. I do arms twice a week it looks something like this.

Monday - Chest/Triceps
Tuesday - Back/Biceps
Wednesda - Legs
Thursday - Shoulders/Abs
Friday Off.
Saturday - I go back on Saturday to specifically only do Biceps and Triceps, this is were I hit them with super sets. I do a 1 hour secession though. As it shouldn't take me long to work this muscles out.

 

[DanZy]

Which lifts are you doing?

 

[Purefilth]

You're doing roughly the same as me mate. 3 weeks won't make a difference, I'm 3 months in, and forming up well. I have a decent frame to start though.

Patience and consistent wortouts will pay off.

 

[Purefilth]

Also, triceps account for about 70% of the upper arm. Bash them HARD. They recover real fast.

 

[TheStig]

I don't think there's anything wrong with hitting arms twice a week. I mean you use your arms for virtually every lift you will ever do (excluding leg press and leg machines). I notice when I do isolation exercises intended to target the biceps and triceps, it never really adds a whole lot of size...just more definition.

Here are a couple threads from The Vault section of the health and fitness forums that explain how to get bigger arms:

Squat for big arms
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=78783

So you want big arms??
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=82422

The logic in these threads is as follows: by upping your weight on bigger lifts that target bigger muscle groups, your arms will naturally grow and get bigger to keep up with all the weight you're moving around on big lifts.

In my experience, making gains on the bench press will give me massively bigger triceps than doing tricep isolation exercises. Also, I wholeheartedly agree with Espi on the pullups/chinups thing. Those exercises will definitely blast your biceps like nothing else.

One more thing...make your arm lifts into dropsets. In case you don't know what those are, I'll explain with an example. When I curl I always do barbell drop sets. This is how it goes for me:
1. I go up to a bench press bench, and put a 10 and two 5s on each side of the bar (bench bar), which equals 95 lbs.
2. Do a set of 10
3. Take a 5 off of each side, and do another set of 10 (85 lbs)
4. Take the second 5 off of each side, 10 more reps (65 lbs)
5. Take the 10s off and do your last 10 reps with the bar (45 lbs)

All of this should be done with no rest whatsoever in between sets; treat it as one long set. It just shreds your arms. I usually do 2 sets of dropsets for curls. You can format any lift into dropsets.

Oh yeah, diamond pushups and close grip bench press are great for triceps too.

 

[Purefilth]

Those are some great threads you revived. Anybody who's into fitness on this board should read them.

Just did, Wholeheartedly agree with them.

 

[speed dawg]

Back when I was doing full on workouts, I would usually do a 3 day split:

Monday: Chest and Legs
Wednesday: Back, Shoulders and Abs
Friday: Bis, Tris and Calves

Nowadays, if I were to get back into lifting heavy, I'd probably workout twice a week during the week then have a weekend session. First day would likely still revolve around squats, chest press and a direct bicep exercise. Second day would be deadlifts, shoulder press and a direct tricep exercise. On the weekend I'd probably hit more forearms and calves. Probably would do some core work every day, or on other days when I run sprints or walk. I don't do stupid jogging anymore, pointless in my opinion.

So technically I would work the arms 3 times, just a different angle each time. I wouldn't blast them 3 times per week though. Basically break it down into ancillary, direct and grip.

 

[TheStig]

Yessir...I find that skullcrushers, heavy, with 100% perfect form, will really harden and thicken those tri's. I like to lower the bar ALL the way down to the top part of my forehead to get a really great range of motion.

Also, dips...those are really effective for tri's..

And don't forget close-grip bench press for tri's.

Yup skullcrushers over pushdowns all day long, they can effectively hit each of the three heads of the triceps depending on how far above or below your head you do them (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz73VdbpIPs). Dips are awesome for your chest too.

And yeah I definitely agree that those 2 threads I brought up should be mandatory reading for anyone wanting bigger arms. That's not to say isolation exercises are useless....I still find them great for getting hardness and definition...just not a whole lot of raw size.

 

[speed dawg]

Dips are awesome for your chest too.

Dips are the upper body squat, followed closely by pull-ups. I used to do them instead of bench press half the time. Now that I only do body-weight exercises, dips always take the place of push-ups, if I have somewhere to do them.

 

[lusy786]

nice effort.. exercise make a man healthy and fit so hands exercise is may be cause of relex of your body,,,,,,,,,,,,,,...........