"Ask the Coach" is the column in which Wolfgang Unsöld answers your questions. The book of the same name was published by Riva Verlag and Available right here on Amazon.
Question: I have rather skinny spaghetti arms. Even though I do a lot of arm exercises, my arms aren't really growing. What are your top tips for bigger arms? Philip S
WU: If you want to have bigger arms, not only the variation through different exercises is important to train all four elbow-flexing and both elbow-extending muscles and to eliminate weak points. First and foremost, you need to get stronger overall—especially stronger for higher reps!
If you can currently do 45 lb curls with 30 lbs per side for 6 reps at 4010 tempo, you should train to do 45 lb curls with 50 lbs per side for 6 reps at 4010 tempo. Your arms will grow in the process and be thicker than before, I guarantee that. Sounds easy and it is - simple, but not easy . The same goes for the elbow extensors, of course, especially the triceps. If you can do 6 rep dips with 70 pounds of extra weight when it's currently only 6 reps with 10 pounds of extra weight, your arms will be bigger. Also easy, but not easy.
As far as exercise selection goes, certain exercises work better for getting bigger arms than others. For example, no one has gotten strong with KH tricep kickbacks. There are differences between elbow flexors and elbow extensors due to anatomy, recruitment, and overload that can be used to select the best exercises. The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this ATC article.
I explain these differences in detail in my new ebook Improve your Arms . The book gives the reader all the information they need to take their knowledge of anatomy, exercise selection and training of the arms to the next level. The programs it contains are designed to get significantly stronger for repetitions in a total of 6 phases in the most effective exercises for the arm muscles and thus achieve maximum gains in strength and muscle mass in your arms.
Click here for the pre-release of " Improve your Arms ".
Good luck with your arm workout!
Image: A collage of the shoot with WBFF Pro Daniel Harder for the "Improve your Arms" ebook to be released September 4, 2017.