Weightlifting advice? - Chest SO much bigger than arms.

runninggart2004? ThatAverageRunner? Anybody???? I really want my arms to grow like my chests do.

I know a Santa Rena doctor that will extract all of your breast milk and inject it into your bibiceps .

Shoot me an e-mail !

RejectJogger wrote:

runninggart2004? ThatAverageRunner? Anybody???? I really want my arms to grow like my chests do.

Benching is rarely a massive chest building exercise. Usually more tricep dominant. Are you benching super wide? Either way, you could move the bench to more of a paused close grip, or even use boards/spoto press/floor press to take the bottom, chest dominant part out and emphasize tricep.

Bigger arms? For biceps I'd say heavy weighted pull ups, BB Rows, heavy farmers walks, deadlift. Those are going to be your big boy mass gainers. For triceps I'd say close grip bench, dips, overhead press.

And don't forget the king...eat! If you don't get that caloric surplus and drive weight up it's unlikely you're going to gain much, if any, mass.

Enjoy it though, most guys struggle far, far more with building chest than arms.

LM wrote:

RejectJogger wrote:

runninggart2004? ThatAverageRunner? Anybody???? I really want my arms to grow like my chests do.

Benching is rarely a massive chest building exercise. Usually more tricep dominant. Are you benching super wide? Either way, you could move the bench to more of a paused close grip, or even use boards/spoto press/floor press to take the bottom, chest dominant part out and emphasize tricep.

Bigger arms? For biceps I'd say heavy weighted pull ups, BB Rows, heavy farmers walks, deadlift. Those are going to be your big boy mass gainers. For triceps I'd say close grip bench, dips, overhead press.

And don't forget the king...eat! If you don't get that caloric surplus and drive weight up it's unlikely you're going to gain much, if any, mass.

Enjoy it though, most guys struggle far, far more with building chest than arms.

According to studies, bench is more of an Anterior Deltoid exercise, then pectoralis, then tricep....

No direct arm work?

Barbell Curl

Scott Curl

Incline DB Curl

3-4 sets of 10

Also try strip sets up and down the rack.

Triceps:

Skull crushers

Rope pushdown

Overhead extension

Close grip bench

Sets of 10 are ok but triceps respond best to heavier work (sets of 4-6)

Also genetics. You probably have wide set clavicles, thus making your chest look bigger than it is.

Alan

Also pectoralis recruitment in the bench depends on type of bench and even % 1RM used. Arms flared, bar down closer to neck, means more pec. Arms tucked at 45, bar to nipple line, means more even distribution but still mostly anterior delt.

Alan

RejectJogger wrote:

My arms are skinny af. I always had just a MASSIVE chest. Now since ive started benching and weightlifting it just WONT STOP growing. Arms get bigger but my chest looks fucking sick. Should I stop benching and doing so many pushups and dips? Just work on bicep curls and arms excercises till they catch up? Because it is just....wierd.

Lm - I bench so im thumb length from the middle marking. Arch my back and squeeze my as i do it. Maybe a 45 degree angle. Then bench the to nipps and back up. Some bb guy told me thats the proper way. I started at 95lbs. as max i can do 125lbs. for reps now. Its been only like 4 weeks and ive been doing calisthenics and weightroom once a week. My max pullup is just one and i cant do anymore. Ill add in the things u said as well. Thanks,man.

Runninggart2004 - Oh man. Ive got some research to do. I dont even know what those are. MY routine is usually just 5x5 bench @115 ,6,5,4 deadlift @155lbs. and 5x5 squats @125-135lbs. Lots of dumbell curls to exhaustion @25-30lbs. I do lots of pushups(sometimes 200 a day, and i do them weighted) and they go like 25x8 w/1 min break. Lits of dips. 30x 7 w/1 min rest. Ill add those in too, right about the chest bones too. My ribs are fu**cking wide and i have a small torso so its all kinds of weird lol.

If you've only been lifting for 4 weeks, I wouldn't worry about looks/proportions yet, I'd focus on just getting STRONG for the next 6 months. Focus on improving your bench, dead, squat and pull ups for the next 6 months and then re-evaluate. It's much more important to build a solid overall base injury free before you tinker around too much with isolation exercises, over focus in one area etc, just for looks when instead you can much better prepare yourself to make those improvements in the relatively near future. You'll probably be pretty happy with your gains if you add another 50% weight to your big lifts and get up to 15-20 chin-ups, and then have a solid base to start putting more focus on specific parts. I'd be very weary of over-use injuries with all those pushups and curls to exhaution added to your routine you've only been doing for 4 weeks! The injury would come up very fast and then could linger for a year or really set you back.

It's not so different from running. Would you recommend a distance runner to jump into doing high volume of very specific speed work after just 4 weeks of running to improve his mile time, or would you recommend he build up his endurance base injury free for 6 months first?

Ah I see...4 weeks.

What’s your overall goal? General fitness. Lifting to better your running. Get big and strong?

Alan

Small hip width, wide clavicles, is what leads to that big tapered appearance. Golden age bodybuilders had like 50in chests and 30in waists.

Alan

Fair point about anterior delt, that is a huge component of bench. Do still feel it's, generally, not the best developer of chest overall. If your goal is a big chest, bench might play a role but I don't think it should be a core exercise.

Honestly no, I do very little direct arm work. Perhaps a burnout set of rope pushdowns or something but that's it. I've yet to do a curl. It's worked quite well for me, I think the decent bench volume + dips hits triceps plenty hard, and rows, weighted chins, and farmer's walks do everything I need for bicep.

I could see some value in direct arm work once you have big arms and are really trying to BB for aesthetics, but for general strength and just having bigger arms...I'm not sure it's that critical, especially early on.

Sounds like a fairly traditional powerlifting style bench. Good way to bench for shoulder health and moving the most weight. Progress is good for 4 weeks, sounds like you're following a 3x5/5x5 type program with the big three and linear progression as the core of your program, which works pretty well for many people at the start.

Is deadlift/squat low because you're taking time focusing on technique?

Rather than lots of dips I might suggest doing them weighted, for a heavier amount and progressing the weight. Row your face off, it's a great builder for back and biceps as well as for your deadlift. It's almost impossible to row too much. Not to mention that if anything you want your posterior chain to be stronger than your chest/anterior side. We already spend lots of time hunched over or forward, and getting your chest stronger than your back will only further emphasize these problems. You should be able to row very close to what you can bench.

Farmer's Walk is really underrated. Between that and deadlift it absolutely blew up my traps and biceps, is good for grip strength, and also a fantastic core strengthening exercise in additional to being highly functional. If I could only do one exercise in the gym, I'd be highly tempted to pick these.

If you’re going for asthetics then doing direct arm work is beneficial. If not then there’s no need. You want big biceps? Curl. Other exercises may be beneficial such as rows and pull-ups. While the biceps are not involved directly in the farmers carry or deadlift, they are in a static contraction.

Alan

Ever use battling ropes? You get a nice pump in your arms

RejectJogger wrote:

I always had just a MASSIVE chest.d.

Hey, look! Mr Chest is posting again!

Runningart2004 wrote:

Runningart2004 wrote:

Ah I see...4 weeks.

What’s your overall goal? General fitness. Lifting to better your running. Get big and strong?

Alan

Small hip width, wide clavicles, is what leads to that big tapered appearance. Golden age bodybuilders had like 50in chests and 30in waists.

Alan

I want both. I've always felt weak, I don't want to anymore. Lol, its 4 weeks but I also went from barely hanging on a pull up bar to doing one full pull up and I couldn't suat 115lbs. at first now i can do reps 135 on a good day. Thanks guys, I'm really focusing. Worst thing is, it's hard to gain muscle when you also bumped from 25 to 60mpw in a matter of two months lol.

Used to be a runner - So far I've been careful not doing too much and focusing but I can't help it. For once I can actually DO more than 10 pushups and I'm doing reps of 20 weighted. I'll be really bored some days and just CRANK out a hard calisthenics routine. Lifting is a lot of fun.

LM - I cant eat too much. I run 40-60mpw(from 25mpw in the past two months) and eat plant based so its not diet but I put on weight really easy. If I just concentrate on lifting for a couple months and eat a whole bunch I'll get really big. Yes, I focus on form a lot!

Thanks guys, I'm looking to add onto a new program I want to follow. Its by a guy named alphadestiny

http://outalpha.com/the-out-alpha-novice-program/

and ill add on the specific arm work you guys suggested. I want to look like lopez lomong in a year from now! lol!

So you want to be a better runner or you want to get bigger?

If you want to get bigger, surely do the specific arm lifts and dedicate more time to specific muscle groups (curls, dips, tricep pull downs, skull crushers etc...)

But if you want to be a good runner while getting stronger/not looking too scrawny, then stick with the bigger compound lifts (bench, incline bench, overhand pull ups, different variations of squats and deadlifts, and specific core work). Those all will hit basically every muscle group in the body but won't specifically target your arms ascetically. So it depends what you want.

You can kinda have both, but at a certain point you're going to need to pick one:

Lifting to be a stronger, better runner.

or

Lifting to look good.

Also, less weight and higher reps for 'looking good', and lower reps (6 or less reps per set) and heavier weight for strength without much weight gain, generally speaking.

For now I want the 800m look. The lean ripped physique. I mean guys like alan webb and taoufik, not arnold or anything.