Thread: More or less direct work for lagging muscles

Does there seem to be a correlation between having a fast growing chest/back and slow growing biceps/triceps. After reading a few “what is your easiest/hardest muscles to grow”, it seems that there are a lot of people that fit into the category of fast growing chest/back and slow growing biceps/triceps. I guess it makes sense if your chest/back muscles are doing the most work then the arms will lag behind in growth.

To even complicate things more, I fall into the category of chest/triceps easy to grow, back biceps slow to grow. And yes, I give equal time, weight, etc. to my back/biceps…

My question is a general one…has anyone tried increasing direct work for a lagging body part while reducing compound movements that incorporate the lagging body part? For example…increasing biceps specific work while decreasing rows, deadlifts, etc.

If so, what were the results…not that mine would be the same necessarily.

Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by Built

Try pairing smaller lagging muscles with heavy leg workouts - particularly for unassisted (male) athletes, the heavy leg work will stimulate more testosterone production post-workout, and that testosterone is systemic - so train arms when you're still fresh, then train legs (the arm work will NOT wear you out for squats), then go home and eat (and fuck. In his book "Natural Hormonal Enhancement", Rob Faigin quips you can tell you're anabolic by your sex drive)

Another thing to look at is the rep ranges you're using. I have found through trial and error that I need more high-rep than low-rep work for quad development, but the opposite is true for hams. I train squats in 8-20 rep sets most of the time, with heavy triples and 5-rep work maybe once every three or four weeks. My shoulders seem to like 8-12 rep work - with NO heavy triples or five rep sets, ever. Likewise, lats - whether chins, t-bars or pulldowns, my lats grow best on a steady diet of 8-12 rep sets. But my hams do fine with 5-8 rep work, with the occasional set of 15-rep SHELC and of course, sprinting. I've known a great many males whose pecs do best when dumbbell and incline work in 8-12 rep sets makes up the majority of their training, with episodic low-rep heavy work in much the same way that I train quads - low-rep heavy work every few weeks, perhaps every second or third week unless you've got RC issues at which point you'll just have to train according to how your body lets you.

My biceps grow well with no concentration work. But they've grown better with dedicated bicep work twice a week, particularly when I train tris in antagonist pairs - but I always train a lower body lift on days when I train arms.

Remember, nothing grows without food. Eat up!

ditto to all of the above....personally I think a lot of people don't vary their rep ranges and training loads enough nor do most stretch. stretching and building big muscles go hand in hand. the more relaxed a muscle is at rest the more force that muscle can generate throughout the entire range of motion. heavy eccentric training is optimum for hypertrophy but the muscles lose the ability to generate enough force during the concentric phase. stretching helps to make the concentric portion of the lift more conducive for hypertrophy because of the increased ability to generate more force through the entire ROM.