best way to improve arms and shoulders?

Pate

Pate

Pate

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I know that I'm probably going to some flak for this, but in fairness I identify it as a major weakness.

Basically, I've been following a particular routine (would link to it, but I'm on a pos phone with very limited capabilities), but would like to change.

The reason is that at my current height of 6'3", I have a very very small frame, which gives a real impression of lankiness and scrawniness. I mean look at my other thread to see how thin my arms are.

So along with continuing to improve my posture (thanks again Icecold!!!), I would like a routine that would promote shoulder growth, forearm growth and especially bicep/tricep growth. (Iirc my upper arm is nearly te same size as my lower arm)

Any recommendations?
 
There's no special fix mate. You could TRY and squeeze an arms day in over a weekend, but these things take time. My arms have only reached a "reasonable" size after what, two years of training? And that's mainly with your classic chest/tri's and back/bi's combo.
 
Damn, didn't want to hear that haha. Still, I reckon it's still worth focusing on. Any exercises in particular? My stats below for mokery. :p :(

wrist: 6.5"
forearm: 10.5"
upper arm: 12"
neck: 14.something"
calf: 13"
Upper leg: 20"
chest (under armpits) 38.5"
Shoulder to shoulder: 20"
 
You're just generally skinny, your arms aren't particularly far behind your other measurements. So don't just work on arms and shoulders, work on everything.
 
Pate said:
I know that I'm probably going to some flak for this, but in fairness I identify it as a major weakness.

Basically, I've been following a particular routine (would link to it, but I'm on a pos phone with very limited capabilities), but would like to change.

The reason is that at my current height of 6'3", I have a very very small frame, which gives a real impression of lankiness and scrawniness. I mean look at my other thread to see how thin my arms are.

So along with continuing to improve my posture (thanks again Icecold!!!), I would like a routine that would promote shoulder growth, forearm growth and especially bicep/tricep growth. (Iirc my upper arm is nearly te same size as my lower arm)

Any recommendations?
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Eat big, lift big, sleep long.

I haven't read your existing advice request thread so can't comment on specifics (and apologies if I'm restating), but big compound lifts and lots of good quality, balanced food do work wonders. It takes time, it will hurt and it requires sacrifices, but you will look and feel awesome at the end of it.

One of the things I'll be commenting on in my "first to 90kgs" thread is the importance of rest: whilst it may appear counterintuitive, letting your body recover (both muscles and nerves) is critically important to ramping up the weight. I'm on an approximate 5 weeks on/1 week off routine which led to big increases in weights all round.

So hit both the gym - and the kitchen - hard. Or harder, depending on what you're currently doing.

From my specific experience, my favourite back'n'shoudlers work includes:

- barbell rows;
- weighted chinups/pullups;
- deadlifts;
- front squats;
- power cleans (love the traps!);
- barbell roll-outs

Love it.
 
mrthingyx, I've just brought Powerclean-to-Pushpress in to my shoulder workout. Great on the traps and really punishes those delts just a little bit more after OHP =)
 
Forearms are hard to grow. And if you want bigger/better shoulders and arms, Chins, BORs, push press, power cleans are all you should need.
 
Upper arms are mostly about triceps; two thirds of the muscle there. A good isolation exercise for triceps is the french press (skullcrusher). But don't forget stuff like dips or whatever.

Pullups/chinups - good compound movements there.

Military press was always a good one for shoulders, also bent over rows (back snaps ;) ) for upper back/shoulders.

Depends on what you find works for you. Don't neglect balance in your shoulder exercises - eg if you do all bench press and no other, you'll have strong chest and front shoulder muscles, but your side and rear shoulder muscles will be weak and you could have problems with your shoulder joint being pulled unevenly by the muscles surrounding it. Don't go too heavy too soon either; knacker your shoulder and you've just given yourself a problem for the long term.
Scooby has some useful advice on shoulder workouts (youtube).

Just a thought.
 
Can't believe no one has suggested these!!!

Bicep Curls!

In all seriousness, I think everyone has covered everything here...You will generally have to get bigger everywhere else mate, to pack on some serious size you will need to eat more, and rest. Granted, you could isolate your arms with Tricep work and bicep work, but you may as well add a whole exercise in to do that.
 
Yer, isolation exercises are ok, but I'd use them as an addendum to a good compound movement. Should have mentioned that before.
 
Delvis said:
Can't believe no one has suggested these!!!

Bicep Curls!

In all seriousness, I think everyone has covered everything here...You will generally have to get bigger everywhere else mate, to pack on some serious size you will need to eat more, and rest. Granted, you could isolate your arms with Tricep work and bicep work, but you may as well add a whole exercise in to do that.
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I was really happy that nobody had mentioned them!

Don't do them! If you really want to, make sure they take up no more than 5% of your gym time.

Do lots of rowing and pulling movements, and then lots of pushing exercises. Tricep isolation is ok, but isn't necessary either.

If you want a new routine just let me know :)
 
Ice is spot on. For example tonight I did deadlifts, seated cable rows, wide grip pulls, chin ups then when my biceps were pretty much fried I did a few quick sets of barbell curls which took about 4-5minutes.
 
icecold said:
I was really happy that nobody had mentioned them!

Don't do them! If you really want to, make sure they take up no more than 5% of your gym time.
Click to expand...

I was joking :p

Mind you, I'ma bit of a bicep monkey at the moment. Can;t do much else :o
 
icecold said:
Just do more sets of the things you can do.
Click to expand...

Yep, got a plan in action currently :)

Need to ask you in a diff thread about what exercises you think (for the back) will have the least impact on my lower back if that makes sense...I'll try post it later in the ratz thread or something
 
Thank you everyone, some fantastic advice here. I'm going to ditch my current routine and will try and figure out something which helps the shoulders best, followed by triceps/biceps, with an afterthought on forearms.

Tis a shame I couldn't be more like my dad, his forearms are twice the size of mine. :(


icecold said:
I was really happy that nobody had mentioned them!

Don't do them! If you really want to, make sure they take up no more than 5% of your gym time.

Do lots of rowing and pulling movements, and then lots of pushing exercises. Tricep isolation is ok, but isn't necessary either.

If you want a new routine just let me know :)
Click to expand...

If you could dude, I'd really appreciate it.

When you say rowing and pulling, are you referring to a rowing machine? (Sorry if it's a retarded answer) I do the rowing machine occasionally (absolutely KNACKERS me out at the top setting on a concept 2 rower) but it really knackers me out quickly (I can only do 500m batches before having to pause briefly. :( )
 
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