Lean Bodies Consulting

Another day, another workout …

I had planned on pushing it today, but given that this was my second workout after a near two-week break, I backed off a little (at least on the squatting).

Barbell Curls
Worked up to 110 x 7 + 3 + 2

Reverse Curls
Worked up to 70 x 12

Calf Press in Leg Press (5/15/1 tempo)
Worked up to 295 x 11

Single-Leg Leg Curls
Worked up to 70 x 8 + 4 + 3

Front Squats
Warmed up to 275

Full Squats
Worked up to 305×5

At this point, I was to do 190×20, but I was running out of gas, so instead I did 3 mini sets with short rest intervals
190×10 + 190×5 + 190×5

Same thing right? LOL

As some of you know, I detest training arms. That probably stems from the fact that even at my strongest my arms have never been very strong. So, I might have a little bias against arms, since mine don’t seem to cooperate with my plans. However, I’ve been training them regularly for the last few months as you might have noticed. I do some kind of direct arm work, whether for biceps or triceps, every workout.

I used to be in the camp that said that direct arm training is pointless, due to the bombing they receive from all the heavy pushing and pulling work that gets done - assuming you’re doing heavy pushing and pulling work that is. Now while I am not as black and white as I once was, I still think it is somewhat overrated, at least in the context of how most people traditionally train arms - with just as much volume as they give their back or legs.

To summarize my thoughts on direct arm training at this point, I would say that if you’re eating in a caloric surplus (NOT dieting) and your goals are dedicated to musclebuilding, then direct arm training has merits, and you should probably be doing at least some. Note that some, does not mean a lot. A couple sets here and there will supplement the indirect work they’re already receiving very nicely. The exception to this would be if you’re relatively advanced and you’re trying to specialize on your arms. In such a case, you can and should hit them with greater volume (more sets x reps ) and more frequency (more sessions/week). However, remember you’ll have to reduce the other work your arms get when specializing, which means you’ll reduce the volume on your pushing and pulling (ie. chest, shoulders and back work).

Now that said, I still believe that when you’re dieting and training for fat loss, that direct arm training is overrated and arguably counterproductive, if not at the very least a waste of time. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to improve a bodypart while eating at a deficit and trying to lose fat. 9 times out of 10 it’s simply not going to happen.

Training for fat loss is all about maintaining and protecting your current muscle mass. It’s not a time to be trying to bring something up. What you have going into your diet is generally what you want to hold onto when you come out of your diet. If you’re able to do that, you’ve done a good job. Given the goals of training during a diet, biceps and triceps get more than enough stimulation to ’stay there’ if your program has you doing some heavy benching, overhead pressing, chin ups, rowing, etc. Also keep in mind that our ability to recover from training is reduced on lowered calories; we have less resources dedicated to recovery. We simply can’t handle the same kind of training volume when we’re dieting.

What do you think doing a bunch of extra arm work is going to do for you? What benefit will it have? We already know that you’re not going to be able to make dramatic improvements to the size of your arms while dieting and the compound work serves as enough of a stimulus to maintain current arm size. So what’s the benefit? I can’t think of any really. But what might the cost be? Extra volume, albeit far from CNS-intensive volume, but extra volume nonetheless. And we already know that recovery is at a rising premium the leaner and leaner you get. Perhaps a lot of direct arm training will impair your performance on your bigger, compound exercises? You never know.

Psychology! That’s the benefit to direct arm training while dieting. People love training arms, getting a pump, seeing the vascularity, etc. I’ll buy that. If that’s you, and you must do some direct arm training, keep it to a minimum. I’ll meet you half way. You want to do a lot, I want you to do none, so we’ll compromise and say 1-2 direct sets.

Related posts:

1. Training Log
2. Monday’s Training
3. Direct Flights & Vegas

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Training Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.