Fitness advice

[AntonioM]

Dear all,

 

I am experiencing a dilemma in regards to my fitness journey.

I have been working out for years now, in the past year I have been particularly consistent with 5 workouts a week.

I have a very slim frame, thin bones, long tendons so short muscle bellies when it comes to biceps, calves.

I am 1.79m and I weigh 73kg with about 13-15% body fat and I reached a stage where my arms are just not growing anymore, I barely saw any progress in the last years, they are about 35cm flexed. I have been trying everything, I have been on a caloric surplus in several buking seasons but nothing.

I just started to think that my genetic might not be ideal for me to continue aiming for a better physique even though I truly want to get bigger arms.

I was considering to either change sport and go back to muay thai or boxe or trying steroids. Starting with something mild like testosterone.

I am 25 years old and I know about the risks. What do you advise?

I accept any kind of comments and criticisms. Many thanks in advance

[AlexRich]

I would avoid steroids, I can’t see anything good coming from that. I’ve put on some additional muscle recently due to eating a larger proportion of protein than I used to ... chicken, fish and some meat, together with eggs. That combined with heavier weights should do the trick.

 

I also stumbled on some You Tube videos by an English guy who promotes Cross Fit on his channel, he has a good relationship with some of the top competitors in that sport. It looks to me that if you are looking to develop larger muscles you’d do well to look into this particular sport.

 

 

 

 

[AntonioM]

Thank you very much for the reply. I do not know if it might be the case, I worked out my tdee and tracked my calories on MyFitnessPal. What I experience is with the amount of calories I eat I see progress on any other muscle district other than "small" muscles like biceps and calves. I reached a stage where I literally cannot train chest and back otherwise with my arms being skinny, my body will look uneven. That is why I am questioning if I can make any further progress.

 

Though I will probably consider crossfit as well as alternative

[Airalee]

5 minutes ago, AntonioM said:

Thank you very much for the reply. I do not know if it might be the case, I worked out my tdee and tracked my calories on MyFitnessPal. What I experience is with the amount of calories I eat I see progress on any other muscle district other than "small" muscles like biceps and calves. I reached a stage where I literally cannot train chest and back otherwise with my arms being skinny, my body will look uneven. That is why I am questioning if I can make any further progress.

 

Though I will probably consider crossfit as well as alternative

Calves are a tough one for many people.  I found that what helped me even more than calf raises was walking on a treadmill at the highest incline focusing on the calves with a little “spring” in my step.  For biceps, how many reps are you doing?  If you’re doing 3 sets of 10 reps, up the weight to where you can only do half the reps and rest longer between workouts on those muscle groups.  For chest and back, lower the weights and do more reps so you don’t add more bulk.  When your biceps catch up, the rest of you will be cut.

 

+1 on avoiding steroids and instead up the protein a bit.  I always liked myoplex shakes years ago but any whey protein shake is sufficient.

[AlexRich]

5 minutes ago, AntonioM said:

Thank you very much for the reply. I do not know if it might be the case, I worked out my tdee and tracked my calories on MyFitnessPal. What I experience is with the amount of calories I eat I see progress on any other muscle district other than "small" muscles like biceps and calves. I reached a stage where I literally cannot train chest and back otherwise with my arms being skinny, my body will look uneven. That is why I am questioning if I can make any further progress.

 

Though I will probably consider crossfit as well as alternative

I don’t have your problem as I’ve never had any problem putting on muscle, but to be honest that is not a look that I like so I try not to use heavy weights ... I just want to be physically fit and healthy.

 

if you want to develop biceps and arm strength you need to do more work in that area and progressively increase the weight that you are pushing. There are a lot of good videos on you tube were bodybuilding experts (champions) explain how to ... one guy I saw was called Lee Priest, an Australian bodybuilder. He offers advice and seems to know what he I saw talking about. There are many others.

[AlexRich]

 

[CharlieBri]

15 hours ago, AlexRich said:

I would avoid steroids, I can’t see anything good coming from that. I’ve put on some additional muscle recently due to eating a larger proportion of protein than I used to ... chicken, fish and some meat, together with eggs. That combined with heavier weights should do the trick.

 

I also stumbled on some You Tube videos by an English guy who promotes Cross Fit on his channel, he has a good relationship with some of the top competitors in that sport. It looks to me that if you are looking to develop larger muscles you’d do well to look into this particular sport.

 

 

 

 

Switch to anaerobic type exercises if your not doing them already. More natural and supplement proteins will help, especially if consumed within 20-30 minutes of completing your workout. And yes, heavier weights, less reps per set may help you bulk up a bit. Good luck

[thecyclist]

I always thought for bulking up the optimum was sets of 8 to 12 reps, while for maximum strength 3 to 8.A couple of minutes between sets and working the same muscle not more frequently than every other day(2 day rest period is probably better) to give the muscles time to grow. 

[dotpoom]

And again!

[Tony125]

https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19534758/blood-flow-restriction-to-build-muscle/

 

 

 

i would not use Testosterone at your age unles you have been tested for low testosterone . You could try testosterone boosters that help your body produce more testosterone. Try using Creatine and Whey Protien prefer Protein Isolate that will build muscle but has low calories so you don't put on weight

[Inepto Cracy]

Long and short answer, pull ups, press ups, push ups and wan***.

That will help your biceps.

If you have a slight muscle frame, dont judge yourself against other folk. You are you and that is glorious.

Thank you for being you.

[RJRS1301]

2 minutes ago, Inepto Cracy said:

Long and short answer, pull ups, press ups, push ups and wan***.

That will help your biceps.

If you have a slight muscle frame, dont judge yourself against other folk. You are you and that is glorious.

Thank you for being you.

Hope the Op is also doing plenty of stretches along with his workout.

Comparing your frame and muscle mass with others is unwise, we all have different metabolisms.

Protein, regular feeding, rest.

I would strongly advise again steroids, especially anything which does not come from a pharma, as you have no idea what it contains.

 

[Jonnapat]

Genetics certainly play a part. My body type is similar to yours and I had the same problem. 

Gradually increasing weight on the dumbells should help the biceps, always making sure that you carry out the procedures correctly. 

[MadMuhammad]

Diet is super important for any muscle gain. 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight at a minimum. Restful sleep and consistent, quality training. 

As suggested above, look up some of the more recognised trainers and suggested diets on YouTube and Google, there's a huge amount of info out there. No one can really give you advice over the internet without knowing your body type, training program and intensity, diet etc.

Don't forget your triceps!!

Remember just stay committed and consistent and train smarter with the right information, not neccessarily harder.

 

This a pic of my twigs at the peak pf my powers. Around 18 months in the making 

[ToddinChonburi]

Preacher curls with strait bar or curl bar.

[pookondee]

Ironically, it could be that you are working out to much.

You need rest and recovery time for results.

If working biceps every day, you most likely will have great physical strength in them, but probably never show much size growth. 

A strange concept to get your mind around i know, but i eventually found it to be true in my case.

 

Another few tips ive learned for biceps:

 

-dont stick with the same tired routine day after day.

Mix it up with as many varied exercises as you can find.

You really want to "shock" the biceps with new creative exercises, otherwise they will just get used to the same old thing.

 

-try Bicep Hammers.

 

-Reduce weight a little sometimes and concentrate more on flawless technique.

 

-"Bicep 21s"

are a great example of how the right exercise with less weight can actually get you a lot more burn for your buck.

 

 

 

 

 

[Tropposurfer]

Like me you sound like you have an ectomorphic body shape.

Gaining bulky (rounded, bulging) muscles isn't easy for guys like us. We are genetically designed for longer endurance sports - although I used to punch kick and sprint pretty fast for a 191 cm guy).

For mesomorphs gaining muscle bulk is much easier!  I used Musashi amino acids for some years every day with short periods of rest for the body from these, along with carbs, and protein rich diet to gain muscle bulk, I drank protein drinks too. (I was younger then so I could afford rice bread, potatoes no problem cause my metabolism was fast, a semi-professional fighter so worked out very hard six days a week, had far less fat than you do).

Problem with ectomorphs is that as soon as we slow the resistance loads we lift and our workout rate, drop off the aminos and protein intake the muscle size also drops off and returns to its homeostatic level.

[kevin612]

young people are slim, that s normal. You will gain weight when you are aging up.

[NoshowJones]

4 hours ago, Inepto Cracy said:

Long and short answer, pull ups, press ups, push ups and wan***.

That will help your biceps.

If you have a slight muscle frame, dont judge yourself against other folk. You are you and that is glorious.

Thank you for being you.

I would never want to be overmuscled like Stallone or Arnie, I have never been a strong guy, most guys would have beat me at arm wrestling, but speed and running was a different story.

At 6ft tall and around 76 ks, I am happy with that.

[DaRoadrunner]

On 9/18/2019 at 1:07 AM, AntonioM said:

I am 1.79m and I weigh 73kg with about 13-15% body fat

Think you've got problems? I am 1.88m and only 66kg / 13% body fat.... but then, I am a Roadrunner and can go like a rocket! We are all built differently. Fast metabolism has a lot to do with it, if you are this type you burn protein up faster than you can eat it. The upside is I can eat anything I like and never get fat!

 

As for the body fat part, as I am bird brained, I suspect that's the 13% between my ears.

 

I must try to eat more, but unfortunately my favourite food, pu$$y, is non-fattening.

[pacovl46]

Everyone who works out will eventually hit the ceiling in terms of growth. That’s natural and there’s nothing you can do to avoid this. That’s the reason why Schwarzenegger back in his days used steroids during the cut down phase right before competition when they slowed down the calorie intake massively to get rid of the fat. In that phase without steroids he would have lost about 4 centimeters in circumference for every muscle group which would have taken him 4 years of hard training without the steroids to get it back. Hence,  once you’ve reached your limit you will gain about 1 cm in circumference per year, and that’s with training hard several hours a day six times a week. Obviously steroids is NOT the way to go due to the nowadays pretty obvious consequences their usage has.

 

According to Arnold the fastest way to gain muscles naturally is to use the right weight. You need to find a weight for each muscle group that’s so heavy that you can lift it only once, then subtract 10 percent and now you should be able to do 8 to 12 reps for your upper body and 12 to 15 for your lower body. He usually did 5 sets.

 

Essentially you need to “break down” your muscle tissue and during the repair your muscles will grow. You can achieve that by taking the right weight, doing reps to failure, doing weightlifting exercises or shortening the breaks between each set for example. Doing the same exercises all the time doesn’t help either because the body gets used to it, so, mix it up. There’s tons of different exercises for each muscle group. I recommend buying Arnold’s bodybuilding bible.

 

What’s also extremely important is to NOT overtrain because your muscles don’t grow in the gym, they grow at home during the resting phase. If you trained your biceps every day for example they’ll never get the time to repair and grow. Therefore it’s important to train different muscle groups on different days. Lastly nutrition plays a huge part as well, if you train hard and want growth you need to eat accordingly.

[eezergood]

On 9/22/2019 at 2:11 PM, pookondee said:

Ironically, it could be that you are working out to much.

You need rest and recovery time for results.

If working biceps every day, you most likely will have great physical strength in them, but probably never show much size growth. 

A strange concept to get your mind around i know, but i eventually found it to be true in my case.

 

Another few tips ive learned for biceps:

 

-dont stick with the same tired routine day after day.

Mix it up with as many varied exercises as you can find.

You really want to "shock" the biceps with new creative exercises, otherwise they will just get used to the same old thing.

 

-try Bicep Hammers.

 

-Reduce weight a little sometimes and concentrate more on flawless technique.

 

-"Bicep 21s"

are a great example of how the right exercise with less weight can actually get you a lot more burn for your buck.

 

 

 

 

 

EXACTLY!!! the body adapts to stimulus, I suggest taking a de-loading phase or even a break. Look at the hypertrophy coach online, a great resourse. Also diet, you should consume about 180-200 g protein daily.