Plateau with Biceps

[NBS 4life]

Hey everyone I can see some good gains at the moment on my whole body except for my biceps and my calfs

I have tried increasing frequency the weight and tried all of the progressive overload techniques with no success i am currently working my biceps 3 times/ week doing hammer curls, barbell curls and preacher curls.

Ant help would be much appreciated and the same goes with the calfs.

Cheers
NBS 4life

[armorforsleep]

3x week maybe too much. try lowering to 2 times a week

post what u do for bicep workout and calf workout

[Gooseneck]

I agree. You're probably overtraining and stunting your gains. Cut it back to 2 if not 1 day a week for biceps and make sure your diet is on que.

[Firehawk]

What he listed in his first post is already 3 times what I do and i only do it ONCE a week lol.

What do you do for back NBS? Usually back workouts hit the biceps already pretty good.

[NBS 4life]

Thanx 4 the advice.
How hard shall i train my arms when i am training them?

All i do on my calves is a standing and seated calf raise 2 time a week.

For my back i do
1) LAT PULL DOWN
2) UNILATERAL ROW
3) BENT OVER DUMBELL ROW

any more advice would be much appreciated.

[Firehawk]

Post your entire workout routine man. Maybe some of us can help you out.

[Jaster]

You gotta work your legs!!!!
Now go do some squats or you wont grow!!!

[Khaine]

I gained a stunning whole inch on my arms this month (that's in 3 weeks actually) from EZ bar curls, hammer curls and pronated bb curls twice a week, 3 sets of 8-10 reps on each....... I was afraid I'd overtrain with that, but so far, no sign of it, only gains.....

But yea, 3 times a week will more likely than not be too much..... Do legs on one of those bicep days instead.....

Also, make sure you eat enough...... If you're caloric intake is too low, the effects of overtraining will be all the more obvious.....

[Vas85]

I would probably first of all take off 1 whole week of training your biceps directly, and then hit them with a once a week bicep routine (to test and see how it feels) doing each set close to failure / or reaching failure. Becuase remember the bicep is only 1/3rd of your arm, 2/3rds are tricep, emphasising too much time on a muscle that can get built nicely by back/leg work i believe just requires once a week training the biceps specifically.

[NBS 4life]

Trust me i do plenty of squats leg extensions etc my upper legs are great its the calfs that are bugging me.

The rest of my body is coming along nicely my triceps have good definition and size its just my biceps and calves that have reached plateau.

[armorforsleep]

you need to be more specific. how many sets of calf raises are you doing, and how many reps per set are you going for?

[Jaster]

Originally Posted by NBS 4life

Trust me i do plenty of squats

USE MORE WEIGHT
: : :

[Firehawk]

Originally Posted by Khaine

I gained a stunning whole inch on my arms this month (that's in 3 weeks actually) from EZ bar curls, hammer curls and pronated bb curls twice a week, 3 sets of 8-10 reps on each....... I was afraid I'd overtrain with that, but so far, no sign of it, only gains.....

But yea, 3 times a week will more likely than not be too much..... Do legs on one of those bicep days instead.....

Also, make sure you eat enough...... If you're caloric intake is too low, the effects of overtraining will be all the more obvious.....

You put 1 inch of MUSCLE on your arms with training BICEPS in a month? Come on man. Give me your secret. Your the first I've heard do that!

[Khaine]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

You put 1 inch of MUSCLE on your arms with training BICEPS in a month? Come on man. Give me your secret. Your the first I've heard do that!

ahahahhaha I doubt it was all muscle tho.... Cus I gained about 11 pounds since christmas.... And obviously my triceps has been hit harder than before as well..... But yea, a full inch in one month..... VERY visible.....

Either way, what I've been doing is basically working all the heads of each of the two muscles..... As in, I haven't done exclusively curls or skullcrushers, but rather changed it up a lot and done a variety of exercises to fill out as much of the muscles as possible..... A typical session would go something like this tho (twice a week)...:

For bis:
EZ Bar curls 8-10x3
Hammer curls 8-10x3
Pronated BB curls 8-10x3 (I think the latter two did a lot of the job)

For tris:
One-handed Supinated wire pulldowns 8-10x3
Skullcrushers 8-10x3
Seated dips with weights 15-20x3 (If you focus this one on your tris rather than chest, you should definitely feel a whole new burn)

Something like this..... And then I'd switch it up the next time by for example doing pronated curls with dumbbells or two-handed cable pulldowns (elbows in!!!) so as to get all dimensions of the muscle trained......

Let it be known tho, my arms WERE incredibly puny at 13 inches and had never really been hit like this before, so in light of that, I wouldn't say it was all that surprising...... This whole new program I started has worked wonders so far tho.... Got visible change in my entire body..... Very cool.....

[dolfanf150]

Make sure you work your forearms with wrist curls. This has allowed me to do more weight on my bicep curls.