I don't know of any books dedicated to arm workouts. Theres only so much you can do with curls and extentions. What exactly is the issue and what exactly is your goal?
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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins
I’ve no idea if you are just starting out or if you have hit a plateau with your arms and are looking for suggestion on how to past it.
If I assume your just starting out then I would advise against any kind of specific targeting of muscle groups. Just focus on the compound exercises such as bench press, shoulder press, rows and then triceps and bicep curls . Also squats and leg work are very important for building the upper body. Although not many people realize this, in fact the leg muscles are so huge and put such an effort on the body when they are worked that they can in fact increase your testosterone levels.
A little more detail on your background would help us suggest the best options for you.
Ok, well, here is the deal. I actually am now at a weight that I am happy with 5'8, 160. Now, I want to start a new routine so to speak and maintain this weight but get cut. I feel like my workouts are always the same.
ex: 2 days a week-chest and triceps: bench,decline bench,tricep extensions,flys (hasnt changed yet)
2 days a week-biceps and back: dumbbells(never know when to go heavier and what I should be able to do in rep #'s),21's ez bar curls
I usually do these two routines for 3 sets per exercise and I guess I dont know what weight I should be pushing myself to do and what sort of exercises to do, to keep things spiced up. I want to build strength so I can increase the weights. Currently I can do 20lb dumbbells for 3 sets of 12. As for bench, I can usually do 3 sets of 145 at 12 reps.
As for squats, for some reason I cant seem to do these, without looking like a fool doing so.
I enjoy working out, but, dont want to get discourage and in this rut. Any input would be great.
Thank you and btw, I am a male incase that matters!!
The first mistake I can see in this workout is you say you usually do X amount of weight with X amount of sets and reps. Remember why muscles grow. They grow because of adaptation to overload and stress. So the word usual should not be in your workouts, you should always be looking to increase either the weight or the rep range in every training session you do. Muscles grow because they need to adapt to increases stress, keep the stress the same and they will not adapt. Building muscle naturally; is all about progressive resistance and it’s all about increasing strength. If you’re not lifting more weight or more reps in every session why would you expect your muscles to be growing? They are not there for show, more muscle means more strength and more strength means more muscles, if your not gaining in strength you won’t gain muscle. That doesn’t mean I advise doing only strength training workouts of 1 to 2 reps, but keep within the 6 to 10 rep range.
As for what weight to use, that’s easy, if you’ve been training for a while any weight where you can do 6 reps to failure with “ good form”. Start with that weight and then when you can do 10 reps with the same weight. Increase the weight so your back at 6 reps and just keep going. Aim for total failure in every set you do and always look at increasing strength in every session. IF you find that your weaker than your last session or the same, it means you haven’t rested enough and need to have longer rest periods. You may find that you only need to train your muscle groups once a week. Just keep a close eye on your workouts aim for giving eveything you have in every set and increase your rest periods, you'd be surpised what effect that will have.
