As it is now, I go to the gym 4-5 times per week for about an hour. I work my biceps and triceps on alternating days to give the muscles time to recover and to grow. I eat lowfat foods and lots of protein and amino acids. I've been doing this regularly for about 7 months and have only gained a small amount of extra muscle. Any thoughts?
Answer:
Every magazine I've ever read says to give your triceps more attention than your biceps. The triceps are a larger muscle by nature, so building them makes your arms bigger faster. The best way to get big is high weight/low rep. There are a million opinions and they all say somethin a little different. What has worked for me in the past is finding a weight I can manage for 6-8 reps (any more than 8 reps and you're usually toning). The key is to really be struggling with that last rep. Then do the other arm. Should be enough rest that you can do the same reps the second time. I usually have to drop 1 rep for the 3rd set. There are a few other things I've heard that make a lot of sense to me and have worked in my own routine.1. Stay away from machines. My highschool weight lifting coach told me the difference between using machines and free weights is like trying to push a car in park rather than in neutral. Plus you'll be building the stabilizer muscles that will help your overall strength in turn helping you to lift heavier weight faster. 2. Do your reps slower. Obviously your muscle is larger when it is contracting, and the longer you can keep the contraction the bigger you'll get. Also, go slower on the way back down. This is another technique that will help build the stabilizer muscles for strength. 3. Switch it up. Don't follow the same routine all the time. If your routine isn't varied from time to time your muscles will learn shortcuts and ways to cheat so they aren't working so hard. Also, consider talking to a personal trainer. Sure it can be a little expensive, but you don't have to have a trainer EVERY time you go to the gym. Most I have priced are 25-50 a session. Most people feel like they need a trainer for the motivation, but if you've been going to the gym for 7 months I don't see that as your shortcoming.Good luck and be careful!
You could be an ectomorph, meaning you have a hard time gaining weight. Basically just pound food every chance you get it's the only real way.
it seems like you havent been lifting heavy weights, The only thing i would be able to suggest is to lift heavier weights, till your arms hurt.
Do fewer reps with a lot of weight instead of doing a lot of reps with a smaller amount of weight. And eat a huge amount of protein. I recommend buying protein powder
You seem to be doing most of the things right. But probably you are not using suffeciently heavy weights. Key to growing muscles is to use as heavy weights as possible, and strive to increase the weight as you go ahead. I would suggest that you select weight such that you can do a maximum of 7 to 8 repetitions for an exercise. And your muscles should fuly exert to do these repetitions. In couple of weeks, when your muscles will adapt and grow to this weight, then increase your weight. In this way keep increasing your weight to a level where you are doing a maximum of 7-8 repetions and expending your full effort to do it.
At the same time, make sure that you are having enough proteins in your food. I think this should do the trick for you.
In reality, muscles require at a minimum of 48 hours to recover, especially if the lift was intense enough. Most advanced bodybuilders and powerlifters will not work out a particular muscle group more than twice a week. I hope you're also working out other muscle groups besides just biceps and triceps. The primary exercises should be compound movements, such as bench press, deadlifts and squats. Isolation movements like curls or tricep extensions should only be done to supplement the primary lifts. Compound movements are what's responsible for the most muscle growth by far. You should be doing 4-8 reps per exercise to failure, 2-3 sets each using heavy weights. Practice good form as this will help prevent injury as well as optimize the lift.Remember that exercise only provides the stimulus for muscle growth, it's the diet that ultimately determines the size of the muscle. If you aren't growing then likely you aren't getting enough calories for muscles to build. A good starting point is to multiply your bodyweight by 25 and that's how many calories per day at a minimum you should be getting - likely you'll need even more than that. Also, your diet should consist of 40-50% complex carbs, 30-40% lean proteins and 20% good fats spread out over 5-6+ meals per day. If you aren't growing after a few weeks of this, increase your daily caloric intake by 10% each week until you start to see growth, and stop there (don't want to gain bodyfat). Even if you're a hardgainer you'll still see gains.
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