Bodybuilding tactics

[quikky]

I find pauses to be useful for targeting the quads during squats. Pausing during an SSB or high bar squat makes it easier to drive with the quads out of the bottom as opposed to bouncing out of the hole with the hips. The anti-hip-drahve, if you will.

I find that to be true even with LBBS to a lesser but material extent.

Did these with HBBS yesterday - the second time that I did HBBS in the last decade or so since my SS brainwashing - and they felt incredible. I may have said this the one other time I tried them in the past few years, but it felt like being 24 again, because HBBS were all that I did pre-brainwashing. The groove felt perfect, and my quads were trashed this morning, which hasn't happened in forever. LBBS obviously never did it, and I always fail front squats via my upper back rounding long before my legs are done. I'm not judging the quality of the session on soreness, but this is a good feeling.

Yeah, I won't confidently proclaim paused HB/SSB squats are the path to quad glory but I can definitely mirror what you have described. I almost never really feel my quads work during LBBS. I mean, I know my quads are obviously working, but I don't really feel strong contractions when squatting. With the paused HB/SSB squats, I feel like 80% of the force is coming from the quads. I feel them contracting hard and driving the weight up. It actually feels pretty damn good and "natural", if that makes sense.

[DCR]

I find pauses to be useful for targeting the quads during squats. Pausing during an SSB or high bar squat makes it easier to drive with the quads out of the bottom as opposed to bouncing out of the hole with the hips. The anti-hip-drahve, if you will.

I find that to be true even with LBBS to a lesser but material extent.

Did these with HBBS yesterday - the second time that I did HBBS in the last decade or so since my SS brainwashing - and they felt incredible. I may have said this the one other time I tried them in the past few years, but it felt like being 24 again, because HBBS were all that I did pre-brainwashing. The groove felt perfect, and my quads were trashed this morning, which hasn't happened in forever. LBBS obviously never did it, and I always fail front squats via my upper back rounding long before my legs are done. I'm not judging the quality of the session on soreness, but this is a good feeling.

Yeah, I won't confidently proclaim paused HB/SSB squats are the path to quad glory but I can definitely mirror what you have described. I almost never really feel my quads work during LBBS. I mean, I know my quads are obviously working, but I don't really feel strong contractions when squatting. With the paused HB/SSB squats, I feel like 80% of the force is coming from the quads. I feel them contracting hard and driving the weight up. It actually feels pretty damn good and "natural", if that makes sense.

It makes perfect sense. In my 20s, I was a really good squatter. Not in terms of max strength (at the time, at a BW always around 160, I never squatted over 295), but I had pretty form, could rep out like crazy, loved the feel of the movement, and had jacked legs. I never needed a leg press or anything else - I was a guy whose legs grew solely from squats. Then I detoured into BW training for a few years, during which my legs shrunk, and when I came back to lifting in my mid-30s, I bought into SS hook, line, and sinker, and for the first time began squatting low bar. I eventually squatted an utterly unimpressive 355, weighing 50 lbs. more, and grew to hate the movement. My legs never really came back and all that it got me was a big ass and a nasty case of anterior pelvic tilt. It never felt right to me. I tinkered with it every fucking session for years, trying to find the cue or whatever that would make it feel "natural" like squats always had when I was younger. A few months ago, after literally years of loathing (and a few lower back injuries), I switched to front squats. Between getting bored with my inability to rep out on them, and seeing your initial post above, I came back to HBBS this week. Legit can't wait to get in tomorrow and do them again. (I am gonna keep some front squatting, though. I really believe that they helped my DL considerably.)

[MarkKO]

Just in respect of quads, I have yet to find an exercise that hits them harder than old school sissy squats.

[DCR]

Just in respect of quads, I have yet to find an exercise that hits them harder than old school sissy squats.

Another one for folks who end up in a situation without stands: deficit deadlifts. You can’t rep them out (unless straps, I guess), but they murdered my quads regardless (during a period in which I was in that situation, but fortunately had access to a bunch of 25 lb plates).

[MarkKO]

Just in respect of quads, I have yet to find an exercise that hits them harder than old school sissy squats.

Another one for folks who end up in a situation without stands: deficit deadlifts. You can’t rep them out (unless straps, I guess), but they murdered my quads regardless (during a period in which I was in that situation, but fortunately had access to a bunch of 25 lb plates).

See, unless we're talking a really big deficit that just doesn't happen for me. What sort of deficit are you talking, over two inches?

[EggMcMuffin]

What kind of black magic do people do to grow big ass arms? It's so common to see people with huge biceps it can't exactly be hard

[DCR]

I see a lot of folks with (what the average person would think of as) big tris, but rarely big bis. Round bis are genetic as far as I understand / can tell. I do think bis are like calves - you need to beat the ever loving fuck out of them, and doing so always gave me elbow AIDS.

[Renascent]

I see a lot of folks with (what the average person would think of as) big tris, but rarely big bis. Round bis are genetic as far as I understand / can tell. I do think bis are like calves - you need to beat the ever loving fuck out of them, and doing so always gave me elbow AIDS.

I tend to think ugly thoughts -- out of jealousy -- about people I see in public with big biceps.

With that said, I have twig arms. They only seem to look bigger (1) after Bench Day™, (2) when I'm well-hydrated, and (3) when I'm carbed up.

Much like heavy-set folks and strong, solid calves, I suspect -- unscientifically -- that extra arm mass, regardless of the soft tissue type, probably helps from the outset if you're trying to get more muscle added to the arms.

And probably light weights and lots of reps, though elbow AIDS is an ever-present risk if you go that route.

[ColonelMoutarde]

What kind of black magic do people do to grow big ass arms? It's so common to see people with huge biceps it can't exactly be hard

Probably a combination of several factors:
- muscle length and genetics: people with say long triceps will naturally have much more massive arms. If you look at high level bodybuilders, pretty much all of them have very good arm genetics.
- fat storage: I have noticed some people just seem to have more fat storage in the arms (I would not advise you to get big fat arms though)
- high volume, focused training: as far as I have seen, a lot of gym rats work mostly their arms and nothing else. If every day is arms day while you work back and legs every 14 days with 4 sets of leg curls and extensions, then all of your recovery capacity is pretty much allocated to arm development. I have seen several people in my gym who bench more than they squat. Endless sets of high reps curls and triceps extension seem to be a staple. We like to make fun of bros, but its undeniable that working your arms all the time tends to give you big arms, while working your arms once to twice a week after big compounds like squats and deadlifts may or may not give you big arms. Now the good thing is that, if you already have big legs, back and chest, you can simply put them on maintenance volume and shift more training volume towards your arms.

[Renascent]

What kind of black magic do people do to grow big ass arms? It's so common to see people with huge biceps it can't exactly be hard

...as far as I have seen, a lot of gym rats work mostly their arms and nothing else. If every day is arms day while you work back and legs every 14 days with 4 sets of leg curls and extensions, then all of your recovery capacity is pretty much allocated to arm development. I have seen several people in my gym who bench more than they squat. Endless sets of high reps curls and triceps extension seem to be a staple. We like to make fun of bros, but its undeniable that working your arms all the time tends to give you big arms...

This succinctly sums up the "ugly" thoughts I (jokingly) referred to...

[ColonelMoutarde]

It reminds me of this wierd trend when some people believed that all you needed to do for big arms was to squat and deadlift. You can't make this up. The fitness industry is hilarious.

[51M0N]

Yeah, tied into the whole myth about squat somehow releasing growth hormones or some BS. Sadly I fell into the whole anti-curl, chins ups for big arms SS crap, which is why arms didn't grow for years.

[Hardartery]

What kind of black magic do people do to grow big ass arms? It's so common to see people with huge biceps it can't exactly be hard

You have to pick the right parents. I think that's important on the equation, lol. Do not spend endless reps and sets at them if you want size. I see all the gym bros doing that, and they are still small. They do get a lot of definition though, which some people confuse with size. You can get jacked arms without getting size - that is what you are mostly going to see amongst the gym bros. Looks nice, and proportional for the most part because they are usually not too big anywhere. I didn't lift at all for probably 5 years and did zero biceps work in the years leading up to that training for Strongman. My arms got down to just over 18" by not lifting at all, they were almost 20" with no biceps work of any kind. That is going to be mostly genetics. The triceps grew with volume, by which I mean I worked them 2-4 times a week with less than 5 sets per exercise(Mostly) and less than 10 reps per set. It's important to use enough weight to pound them during the session, they recover really quickly so you can hit them again quickly. The BBers like to push to failure on the arms, it seems to do a lot for triggering hypertrophy in those muscles and you recover quickly from it unlike from Squats or Deads. I should note, I do not consider my arms to be very aesthetic but they are a size that would be considerd big by most guys. Use elbow sleeves if the elbow tendons get pissy, a little compression and retained warmth does wonders for that.
Just wanted to add that I see the same skinny guys doing the same stuff in the gyms and they look exactly the same over time. Endless reps isn't magic, there needs to be enough stimulus by way of suffcient weight and enough frequency of that stimulus to accomplish something. Getting a little cheaty on the reps sometimes doesn't hurt either, form Nazis are not usually bearing evidence of success. If you need to get a little cheaty to get that weight up and then you do a controlled negative with it you are going to trigger growth, eccentrics matter for growth.

[GeoffBUK]

It reminds me of this wierd trend when some people believed that all you needed to do for big arms was to squat and deadlift. You can't make this up. The fitness industry is hilarious.

That sounds very much like the old hard gainer/brawn approach, get your B/S/D up to 300, 400, 500lbs and you'll have pretty much most of the muscle your likely to get, only then should you try isolation exercises, this approach (along with their volume/frequency/intensity recommendations) was hopeless, although my training is based around trap bar deadlift bench and rows, isolation exercises have been useful and good for variation, besides which I think the idea a hard gainer/ low responder can get to 300/400/500 just by working those lifts is pretty silly

[Hardartery]

It reminds me of this wierd trend when some people believed that all you needed to do for big arms was to squat and deadlift. You can't make this up. The fitness industry is hilarious.

Yeah, that thing. There is a certain benefit derived from compound work and especially lower body compound work in the form of hormone release, but they left out the part about it being beneficial IF it's in addition to the other stuff. I mean, this whole magic bullet quest is annoying and detrimental to people's goals in general. Sure, you can just do Bro work and make some progress, but if you throw in some squats once a week you get a lot more out of the Bro work. We had a guy in the gym in NC where I strained Strongman that had an 830 or 835 shirted bench. He did not do leg work, he did nothing but upper body 3-4 times a week. He was stalled hard at that bench number though, and added in squats once a week to start progressing again. Everybody at some point has to add in something not directly targeting their goal in order to help reach the goal, and it isn't always obvious what that thing needs to be. Then there's always some twit that takes it too far the other way and spreads mountains of misinformation that just detours people into pointless cul-de-sacs of training (Like maybe SS).

[DCR]

Getting a little cheaty on the reps sometimes doesn't hurt either, form Nazis are not usually bearing evidence of success.

This always bears repeating. No one who gives a big shit about form on pulling or curling movements has a jacked back or bis. No one. The only thing I’ll add, though, is you have to keep some semblance of mental connection on the muscles in question. Shit like turning your elbows over on to hoist up DB curls is pointless.

[413x]

Yeah strict form is often overemphasized on isolation exercises. moving your torso to gain a little momentum (and sometimes just to balance, if it's enough weight relative to BW) does not limit how hard you can contract the primary muscle, and the extra fatigue is pretty much negligible most of the time. It's better to focus on forceful contraction than strict form. A little body English can flatten out a strength curve, allow for heavier eccentrics, and let you go past failure. Just make sure you always contracting the target muscle as hard as you can.

Also I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this but nowadays when I think hypertrophy work in regards to exercise selection I'm thinking resistance through a stretched ROM. And for exercises where this is hard to pull off (like a lot of back exercises) I'm more inclined to train to failure and cheat (or even skip) the hardest (shortened) portion, in an effort to make the lengthened portion more difficult.

[GrainsAndGains]

What kind of black magic do people do to grow big ass arms? It's so common to see people with huge biceps it can't exactly be hard

I'm trying 20 sets of bicep curls and 10 sets of tricep pushdowns a week this year. If it doesn't work I can at least be pretty confident that I'm never going to have big arms and invest the training time in something else.

[GrainsAndGains]

Getting a little cheaty on the reps sometimes doesn't hurt either, form Nazis are not usually bearing evidence of success.

This always bears repeating. No one who gives a big shit about form on pulling or curling movements has a jacked back or bis. No one. The only thing I’ll add, though, is you have to keep some semblance of mental connection on the muscles in question. Shit like turning your elbows over on to hoist up DB curls is pointless.

Mike Israetel does and he's got a huge back. He has 10-15 minute videos on doing rows and pullups with good form. Obviously form matters to some extent for hypertrophy, otherwise kipping pullups would be just as good an exercise for muscle growth as strict pullups.

I see strict form as a tool, rather than a straitjacket. Not every movement has to be strict, but if you're not getting the growth you want out of an exercise, maybe take some weight off, slow down the reps, and really focus on making sure you're hitting the muscles you want to be hitting with the exercise by controlling the movement over the full range of motion. I like cheaty barbell rows as an exercise to assist your deadlift and build explosive strength, but for me they honestly kind of suck for hypertrophy and developing mind-muscle connection.

[ColonelMoutarde]

Getting a little cheaty on the reps sometimes doesn't hurt either, form Nazis are not usually bearing evidence of success.

This always bears repeating. No one who gives a big shit about form on pulling or curling movements has a jacked back or bis. No one. The only thing I’ll add, though, is you have to keep some semblance of mental connection on the muscles in question. Shit like turning your elbows over on to hoist up DB curls is pointless.

Is that so ? There are several bodybuilders (with and without cell tech) who use rather strict form: Jeff Alberts, Mike Israetel, etc. I would consider them "jacked".