View Full Version : Arm Sequence
Everyone is different and I always find it interesting to see how people train their arms. People sequence their arm training in a variety of ways, whether it is bis first, tris first, bis and tris together, forearms first.
How do ya'll sequence your arm training and what is the reasoning behind it?
I always train biceps and triceps together supersetted because I feel when I do a contraction on an exercise, the antagonist muscle is stretched and since the bis and tris are so small, I get the whole arm pumped and blood flowing in both muscles at the same time. I feel this way gives me the best workout.
Everyone is different and I always find it interesting to see how people train their arms. People sequence their arm training in a variety of ways, whether it is bis first, tris first, bis and tris together, forearms first.
How do ya'll sequence your arm training and what is the reasoning behind it?
I always train biceps and triceps together supersetted because I feel when I do a contraction on an exercise, the antagonist muscle is stretched and since the bis and tris are so small, I get the whole arm pumped and blood flowing in both muscles at the same time. I feel this way gives me the best workout.
Ill go first.
I was taught long ago to do Bi and back together and chest and tris together. So you are doing a push exercise and a pull exercise and not all the same type of exercise. I have used it for a while now and i like but i know others have a different approach to it
moreofme2kill
06-16-10, 4:31 pm
i do biceps first, then tris, then forearms, and finally brachialis. every two weeks ill switch the starting with bis and tris.
snowboardray
06-16-10, 5:13 pm
Ill go first.
I was taught long ago to do Bi and back together and chest and tris together. So you are doing a push exercise and a pull exercise and not all the same type of exercise. I have used it for a while now and i like but i know others have a different approach to it
I actually do the opposite: chest/bi, back/tris. I used to do the same as you Pain.
I do it this way now so that my bi and tris can give maximum effort on their lifts. After chest, my tris would not be at 100% from the pressing. Same for back, bis would be tired. Thats how I do it 90% of the year. The other 10 would be arms on their own day. And I never do more than 6 (every once in awhile 8) sets for biceps or triceps.
My .02
Hey Legacy, I do first Bi's, then Tri's, but i will superset a couple of those exercises. Then I will do forearms. :)
I actually do the opposite: chest/bi, back/tris. I used to do the same as you Pain.
I do it this way now so that my bi and tris can give maximum effort on their lifts. After chest, my tris would not be at 100% from the pressing. Same for back, bis would be tired. Thats how I do it 90% of the year. The other 10 would be arms on their own day. And I never do more than 6 (every once in awhile 8) sets for biceps or triceps.
My .02
Now i dont do all my chest then tris i alternate between.
Ex.
Incline DB
Tri Pushdown
Incline Fly
Tri extenstion
Sorta like that and yeah by the time i get to my one for each i am wore out but i still give 110% to everything and i still manage to finish all my sets. But i have not tried the other method and i may once i start my bulk this fall/winter just to see how it is, cause i am looking at routines and trying to choose one i will like to bulk with.
G Diesel
06-16-10, 5:22 pm
Of late I've paired back with bis and forearms and delts with tris as part of my 4 day split.
On a five day split that has a day just for arms, I'll generally hit bis, tris and then forearms, though I could and have easily switched that around and done tris first. The logic behind forearms last is that if they are done properly, they should kill your grip.
Supersetting and circuit training is also perfect for arms.
Peace, G
LegendKillerJosh
06-16-10, 5:24 pm
Everyone is different and I always find it interesting to see how people train their arms. People sequence their arm training in a variety of ways, whether it is bis first, tris first, bis and tris together, forearms first.
How do ya'll sequence your arm training and what is the reasoning behind it?
I always train biceps and triceps together supersetted because I feel when I do a contraction on an exercise, the antagonist muscle is stretched and since the bis and tris are so small, I get the whole arm pumped and blood flowing in both muscles at the same time. I feel this way gives me the best workout.
If I'm not mistaken stretching a muscle before your set weakens it so I wouldn't recommend supersetting biceps and triceps. And it's hard to schedule an arm-only day without overdoing it. If you want to hit chest one day and give delts and arms each their own day you will be constantly hammering those little arm muscles. I've always just been one to do biceps after back and triceps after bench and let them rest an entire week before hitting them again. Just my opinion.
VANDAL340
06-16-10, 6:19 pm
I train triceps after chest and biceps with shoulders. My main goal right now is to up the weight in bench press and my triceps always weakened this (do to bad regeneration), so I decide hit tric after chest - with skullcrushers and pushdowns (I also do weighted dips for the chest).
biceps with shoulders are not so bad at all. I decided to do close-grip bb curls in heavy 6-reps scheme (my wrists pain is smaller here, and biceps is looking much wider now because of close-grip) and at the end alternating db curls to total failure and pump... that's all, no magic stuff here.
I train forearms in deadlift day.
Good information bros. Arms are something we feel can never be too big lol so I always find it interesting to see how people put their arms in their split and how they train them. Good difference of opinions.
I have a day just for arms and I always switch it up. Sometimes biceps first, sometimes triceps. Or rotate back and forth. Or even superset once a month. I'll pick one exercise of each and nail some drop sets also. Double, triple, doesn't matter.
If you want huge arms make sure you are hitting your compound movements also...I'm talking heavy barbell curls, Close-grip Bench. Skulls on a flat or incline are awesome as well.
Skulls on a flat or incline are awesome as well.
Last week I did overhead extensions on an incline bench and it was a great variation. Took a lot of the torque off the shoulders and elbows and allowed for a deeper stretch, great variation.
The Misfit
06-17-10, 12:23 am
When I was doing the typical bodybuilding routine I was across the spectrum...
Arms on their own day: bicep and tricep exercises alternated. Forearms last.
Arms on their own day: triceps first, bis second, forearms last.
Bis and forearms after back. Tris after shoulders or chest.
Personally I found when doing DC, I yielded better results especially strength wise:
one exercise for triceps after chest and shoulders.
bis and forearms after legs.
Currently on the 5x5 work is only done for triceps in the form of either dips or CGB for 2setsx8, this after bench, squats and bb rows.
styla786
06-17-10, 7:54 am
After reading all the posts let me say that its not about what you do first but its all about how you do it. Not all people do the same but yet they get results.
Last week I did overhead extensions on an incline bench and it was a great variation. Took a lot of the torque off the shoulders and elbows and allowed for a deeper stretch, great variation.
Good work bro. Yeah...my elbows aren't the greatest and barbell flat skulls, as much as I like them, kill the elbows. Doing on an incline takes the stress of the elbows IMO.
Cellardweller
06-18-10, 12:52 am
I usually do chest/tri's and back/bi's. I feel the heavier work of chest and back warm me up for the arm work. I don't usually feel that my arms are tired out for their set. I work my forearms after my bi's. Rarely do I just do arms on their own day.
theharjmann
06-18-10, 5:00 am
The 2 biggest set of muscles in the body are the back and your legs. Therefore once i have trained back/legs, i have no energy to be able to put my all into training another smaller bodypart like arms or abs or calves.
I therefore do biceps after chest since it doesnt take much longer than 30 minutes to get a good chest workout in. And i do triceps after shoulders for the same reason.
Yesterday i did chest and biceps.
For biceps:
3 warm up sets of barbell curls
1 all out trple drop set of barbell curls
1 set of 21s with the barbell
2 sets of seated incline dumbell curls
1 set of dumbell preacher curls.
That was only 5 working sets for biceps. And my biceps are destroyed today.
Bicep training is about feeling the squeeze and contracting.
Three days ago i did shoulders followed by triceps.
For triceps:
3 sets of a Superset of V-bar cable pushdowns and rope pushdowns (12-15 reps for each exercise) to get an awesome pump
2 sets of seated overhead one arm dumbell extensions
2 sets of weighted dips with the last set being a dropset
That was only 7 working sets for triceps. And my triceps were destroyed the next day.
As with biceps, focus on the squeeze, which is the extension part of the movement for triceps. When it comes to tricep training i always add a big compound movement in the workout (either weighted dips or close grip bench press)
If I'm not mistaken stretching a muscle before your set weakens it so I wouldn't recommend supersetting biceps and triceps.
Static stretching a muscle before activity decreases power. Doing something like a dynamic stretch or ballistic stretch doesn't effect power. Which is why when I do an exercise, the antagonist muscle is getting a stretch. For example, when I do a dumbbell curl, the tricep is getting a stretch on the contraction of the bicep curl.
I always vary the way I work out my arms, one week I do bi's and tris cause I love the pump I get from it. And even then I will vary the order in which I do it I can do only bis in the beginning of the workout then tris at the end or i do one bicep exercise then one tricep. I also use the method that someone mentioned earlier where you pair back and tris and bis and chest just because it is a different variation. And some days I find that my tris just don't give 100 percent no matter how hard I push if i have just killed them with presses.
Bi's & tri's have their own day for me, I typically do bi's then tri's. I find my elbows are much warmer when I get to the extension exercises for tri's. Im switiching it up next workout tho.
I find my forearms/grip strength get plenty of development across the split. Especially on back & shoulders, so I don't have to do anything specific for them.
If you want huge arms make sure you are hitting your compound movements also...I'm talking heavy barbell curls, Close-grip Bench. Skulls on a flat or incline are awesome as well.
I want to do heavy barbell curls but i hurt my forearm a couple months ago doing barbell curls and it set me back with biceps and some of my pull lifts. I have been squeezing my biceps hard on other movements. Any suggestions for getting back into barbell curls without hurting my forearm again?
When I do a five day split arms have their own day. I did triceps before biceps for a long time because they are a bigger muscle and also because I wanted to be fresh for compound movements like close grip bench or dips.
Right now I'm doing a four day split with triceps after chest and biceps then forearms after shoulders. Back gets it's own day as well as legs.
If and when I go back to a 5 day split I'd probably do bi's before tri's for awhile. I'm happier with my tricep development over biceps so I'd want to priorize them.
In Flames
07-30-10, 1:47 pm
I always do Triceps before Biceps.
Arm day for me.
Triceps
4 x Rope P-downs Superset w/ EZ P-downs Superset w/ Machine Dips (Basically a Tri-set)
4 x Close Grip Bench Superset Decline EZ Bar Skull-crushers
Biceps
4 x Chin-ups(Reverse Grip) Superset EZ Bar Curls (Slow negative, around 4 seconds)
4 x Incline DB Curls Superset DB Hammers
My Arms are fried for days after this workout. Some weeks just for change/variety I'll Superset one of the Tricep rounds with a Bicep Superset. For example, I'll do the Tri-set Tricep workout immediately into the Chin-ups and EZ Bar Curls Superset. Rest around 60 seconds and repeat it 3 more times, and move onto the next Tricep/Bicep Superset, etc. I'll do this usually every 3rd-4th workout.
prowrestler
07-30-10, 5:53 pm
i do them each 3 times a week now. see how they respond to this new style.
2 workouts are 4 total sets, focusing on pump and form 100%. then they also get an idividual day per with abit more volume and breakdown, heavier day.
I've trained with splits where arms have their own day and splits where bi's are w/ back and tri's are w/ chest. Anytime I train arms, I feel like they're litterally about to rip. I noticed great size increase when I do just arms, but have probably seen more strentgh when pairing arms with either back or chest. I usually do three different excerises for arms (alternating bi'/tri's or after chest/back) and always finish with a set of tripple stops, holding for 10 seconds and each stop. I'm considering pairing chest/bi's and back/tri's, so arms are'nt completely worn out before I start on 'em., and therefor use heavier weights. I let you know how it works out...