Having to overtrain certain muscles because everyone else is doing it...

Mr. Loverman

Hanley wrote: »

How is that any better than not training your arms so they're small and weak, and you're physique is unbalanced?

I never said you should have weak arms. Please don't go down the straw man route.

brianthebard

Hanley wrote: »

This.

And training biceps will stop sore elbows. I train my arms because I want them to be bigger. If you don't want to have you illusions shattered, then I REALLY train them to protect my elbows.

I've found I can get at least another week or two out of training before deloading pretty much as a result of curls. without curls my elbows will be ****ed within 3 weeks.

If you're rowing and your biceps take over, you're rowing wrong.

If your biceps take over anyway, do more isolated lat work. Get your lats to a comparable strength level and win all around.

Simples.

This is the other problem with training arms through compound lifts, if you're getting arm gains from them you're doing them wrong, and if you're hitting your back from rows/pullups you're not getting arm gains. Its lose/lose.

Lantus

I think the general consensus is that there is nothing wrong with working isolation on the arms. I agree with that, I work my biceps and triceps once every 5 to 6 days, seems allright.

But, if your feeling pressured to work a specific area more than would be the norm for you or that you feel like you were being dissproportionate then thats not great. At the end of the day you need a plan and muscle growth is a slow process, you can't just decide on the tuesday you want bigger arms and expect them on the Sunday when it's taken 2 years to get the legs you want.

At the end of the day what drives you to the gym is personal to you. Write it down and make it a goal to achieve. If it's bigger arms then incorporate into your program gradually and in a controlled manner. But just do it for the right reasons.

What a crazy post, it's the pS3 vs 360 argument all over..

itsallaboutheL

Lantus wrote: »

I think too many men fall into the trap of working the upper body, in particular the chest and biceps (guns...) to look the biz and neglect almost everything else.

I have never had to wait for the leg press, hack squat or leg raise machines in my gym for example.

I have a pile of shirts beside me here, and well... i was wondering if you would do the ironing?

d'Oracle

Lantus wrote: »

What a crazy post, it's the pS3 vs 360 argument all over..

Hang on, What?

d'Oracle

brianthebard wrote: »

I've found I can get at least another week or two out of training before deloading pretty much as a result of curls. without curls my elbows will be ****ed within 3 weeks.

In my limited experience, the introduction of curls is probably the only thing keeping me squatting and benching.

kevpants

Where I'm coming from is that I get about 3 hours in the week where I can train. If I spend 20 of those 180 minutes doing curls I'd be a fool.

Transform

kevpants wrote: »

Where I'm coming from is that I get about 3 hours in the week where I can train. If I spend 20 of those 180 minutes doing curls I'd be a fool.

agreed - some is fine, lots is just wasted time but hey everyone should get in training they enjoy so knock yourself out when it comes to biceps work.

rubadub

COH wrote: »

For example, I'm not saying people should curl instead of deadlift, I'm just saying you can effectively do both.

Agreed. But if I had spent my time doing curls rather than say chinups it might not have been as useful for my goals. Personally I am not that big into lifting, I did it to help losing fat, get stronger and look OK once the fat was lost. So after I lost a fair bit of fat I cut training time down, maybe only 2x20min sessions a week, I stuck to the likes of deadlifts, chinups, dips, lightish squats, military press, pushups -sticking to more compound exercises as I saw them as the best use of my short time.