Ok, actually been reading a few articles for myself and sniffing around the last few weeks and have come to the conclusion that I may benefit from a single day of just arms for growth in that general area. Such an idea doesn't fit with my current regime but I will be looking to change it up in about a month or so when I expect strength gains to slow and am thinking about doing something more like Jake the Muss and training most days of the week on a split.

So I was thinking something like this,
Mon - Back(Upper)+Sholuders + Calves
Tues - Chest + Abs
Weds - Quads
Thurs - Hams + Lower Back + Calves + Abs
Fri - Arms
Sat - Off/cardio + Abs
Sun Off/cardio

Arms day would be some sick "mega arms" type thing from t-nation or similar. There would be no other arm isolation work through the week.

Any tips here? I expect it's not to some people's taste, but is there anything inherently wong with such a proposal?

Cheers guys

Only thing id not like about it, is it looks in trying to keep arms a day at least away from upper back and chest, its put shoulders and chest together, but i guess with smart exercise choices and hitting the front delts on chest day only it would be fine.

Do you train at home mate?

Cheers Marks, I do train at home. I did think of Shoulders wih chest as an after thought, being similar muscle groups and all I guess that makes more sense. Still kind of new at making up my own stuff so cheers for the heads up there. I've mainly like the idea of keeping arms away from chest n back so you can get more out of the isolation and with them being small (and mine really are), I believe (from reading) that it's best to not keep hammering them day after day. I have made meagre gains in the isolation, but much better in the compound lifts. But no size, which is not a huge matter as i like to gage my pogress by the figures but I'd like to see the fruits of my labour in the mirror as well as numbers on paper...

I always used to train arms by themselves and it was the one session I could afford to miss if I was busy at home or work, so I think it's a good idea.

Cheers Simon, I try not to miss any sessions, rather just knock it back a day and enjoy the extra rest. Seems to do me better in the long run as this has happened a copule of times recently and (as would be expected) the recovery has been far superior and I've managed to keep bettering myself. But par of the reason to change in a couple of months, is to keep session lengths down a bit.

sounds good but quads on wed, hams on thurs is no good if you are heavy squattin for quads...I would fing my hams cooked from that too much to work them the next day.

I fancy a full day for arms myself

Looks fine to me, I noticed the best gains when arms were away from other movements.

I would suggest you take every isolation arm movement to failure

Rab wrote:sounds good but quads on wed, hams on thurs is no good if you are heavy squattin for quads...I would fing my hams cooked from that too much to work them the next day.

I fancy a full day for arms myself

I second that

simon m wrote:I always used to train arms by themselves and it was the one session I could afford to miss if I was busy at home or work, so I think it's a good idea.

Second that

Your idea of hitting the arms on one day is good especially if you need to concentrate on this area, planning the arm day on the friday is also a good move so you can have 2 full days off for recovery during the wkend. Your rest of the workout during the week split could do with some alterations in my opinion but if its working go with it but recovery could be a issue depends on how you train.

The arm workout day needs to be very intense and demanding, a combination on isolation/compound movements need to be implemented and forcused around intense failure

I did an arms day for 2 months a few months ago, i found it much better for my arms than doing chest/bis + back/tris.

They are quite often neglected because they are typically trained last, fair enough they get a fair bit of work through compounds but personally I don't think it's enough.

Cheers for chiming in guys, took on board your comments and come up with this:

Mon - Back(Upper) + Calves
Tues - Chest + Shoulders + Abs
Weds - Quads + Calves
Thurs - Arms + Abs
Fri - Hams + Lower Back + Calves
Sat - Off/cardio + Abs
Sun Off/cardio

No major changs really, only to seperate Quads from Hams by switching arms day to thursday and putting shoulders with chest rather than back.

I really like the look of that split.

Bumped

upright wrote:Cheers for chiming in guys, took on board your comments and come up with this:

Mon - Back(Upper) + Calves
Tues - Chest + Shoulders + Abs
Weds - Quads + Calves
Thurs - Arms + Abs
Fri - Hams + Lower Back + Calves
Sat - Off/cardio + Abs
Sun Off/cardio

No major changs really, only to seperate Quads from Hams by switching arms day to thursday and putting shoulders with chest rather than back.

I would put all back together, all quads/legs together and split the chest and shoulder. I couldnt train chest and delts together in then same workout, its far to long and couldnt be intense for the second muscle group. Just my 2 cents

Cheers Rab and Marcus.

Would consider the all back and all legs together option, I have a physical job though and annhialating my back in one day and then legs on another could really be destructive. Will certainly use that as one in the bag though if I find awkward points with the schedule or struggle with shoulders, as I agree, I'd likely not get best results from shoulders after hammering my chest. But something I might think of is switching shoulders/chest round first n second place in that session on an every other week basis. Hammering my shoulders before chest would emphasize my chest more in pressing would it not.

Have a couple of months left on my current deal so will be selecting exercises and posting up for moe advice later.

Glad to know the idea in principle is sound though, cheers again one and all

marcus300 wrote:

upright wrote:Cheers for chiming in guys, took on board your comments and come up with this:

Mon - Back(Upper) + Calves
Tues - Chest + Shoulders + Abs
Weds - Quads + Calves
Thurs - Arms + Abs
Fri - Hams + Lower Back + Calves
Sat - Off/cardio + Abs
Sun Off/cardio

No major changs really, only to seperate Quads from Hams by switching arms day to thursday and putting shoulders with chest rather than back.

I would put all back together, all quads/legs together and split the chest and shoulder. I couldnt train chest and delts together in then same workout, its far to long and couldnt be intense for the second muscle group. Just my 2 cents

I agree with Marcus,split chest and delts up a try to do all leg movemnts on one day/sesh. looks good though other than that

So I've been doing arms isolation on fridays as so

3*10
Preacher DB Curls
CGBP
Barbell Curls
Over Head double Arm Tricep DB extensions
Chins
Dips

failure
pump set of curls
pump set of push downs

Got any thoughts on better moves? Also, have read a few articls that suggest hat 5*5 is a waste of time on isolation moves, I just thought it may help with any sticking points as the lower reps at higher wight would help with the CNS and improve muscl memory at that weight allowing an increase at the higher rep range... your thoughts?

This is what I do:

All Pyramid Sets

Biceps

Incline DB Curls 2/3 Sets of 8-10 reps

Hammer Curls (Ultra Heavy) 2/3 sets of rest/pause hammer curls

2/3 sets of dumb bell preacher curls 8-12 reps

Triceps

3 sets of triceps rope pulldowns 10-15reps

Triceps Elbows Flared Heavy Pressdowns

3/4 sets 10-15 reps

Overhead cable rope extensions 3/4 sets of 10-15 reps

Comment

I got the biceps idea from the Mark Dugdale/Dorien Yates DVD. Basically isolate bicpes, then overload witha little cheat move, the preachers to finish just give a skin busting pump.

The triceps, just works for me and follows what Lee Priest does and protects joints as well.

Cheers Simon, like the look of the biceps best of all there. Will definately try the pyramid sets this week for a mix up. Do you do all biceps and then Triceps then? or do you go between? I tend to do a set of Bis, rest 30s set of Tris, rest 90s repeat...

upright wrote:Cheers Simon, like the look of the biceps best of all there. Will definately try the pyramid sets this week for a mix up. Do you do all biceps and then Triceps then? or do you go between? I tend to do a set of Bis, rest 30s set of Tris, rest 90s repeat...

I used to alternate, but I prefer straight sets at the moment. No doubt I'll mix up and superset biceps & triceps in the future.

simon m wrote:I used to alternate, but I prefer straight sets at the moment. No doubt I'll mix up and superset biceps & triceps in the future.

I imagine the pumps from strsiaght sets are petty awesome - might have a look at that too. Cheers mate