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All right, what's up everybody? So I finally did it. Finally doesn't feel like the right word, but to me, it feels like it's been kind of a long time coming in the bigger picture. So I finally have 18-inch arms. Finally got big, thanks to
Basement Bodybuilding shares his journey to achieving 18-inch arms, discussing training methods, mindset, stats, and future goals.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Achieving 18-inch arms is a significant and rewarding milestone but not the end goal.
- Consistent, well-thought-out training methods backed by patience lead to measurable progress.
- Future training decisions should be based on personal goals and motivation, not external pressures.
- Balanced development of all muscle groups is important for overall physique improvement.
- Arm size standards can be misleading; individual progress and context matter most.
What the video covers
- The creator celebrates reaching 18-inch arms after years of training and shares gratitude for the community support.
- He reflects on starting the channel with solid training philosophies before having the physique to back them up.
- Discusses his current peak bulk phase and options for future plans including cutting, recomping, or continuing to bulk.
- Explains the psychological significance of the 18-inch milestone and his intent to pursue 19-inch arms eventually.
- Emphasizes the importance of genuine motivation over external pressure when deciding next steps.
- Mentions plans to improve other muscle groups like legs, delts, and chest during a recomp phase.
- Shares insights on arm training, strength stats, and bodyweight changes relative to arm size.
- Addresses common misconceptions about arm size standards in the fitness industry.
- Highlights the value of progressive overload and proper technique in arm hypertrophy.
- Encourages viewers to focus on consistent training without over-stressing minor imperfections.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Achievement of 18-Inch Arms
- 01:57Channel Origins and Training Philosophy
- 04:09Current Bulk Phase and Future Plans
- 06:00Decision Making: Cut, Bulk, or Recomp
- 07:52Community Feedback and Personal Motivation
- 09:56Arm Training Insights and Industry Standards
- 12:36Strength Stats and Progress Overview
- 17:00Training Tips and Avoiding Common Mistakes
- 23:12Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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anybody for following along with the series on me chasing 18-inch arms. I can't believe just how quickly it happened. I'm going to dive into all the stats and everything, my change in body weight relative to arm size,
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relative to preacher curl strength, J impress strength, etc. But it really just is, it's a cool feeling to be able to accomplish something like that. It really is humbling to see all the positive feedback that I've gotten
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throughout the last, what was it, five, six months that I've been doing the series for. It's incredible, it's humbling, and I'm incredibly grateful for anybody that supports the channel. It really genuinely does mean a lot to me
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because this is not really like a filter or anything. This is exactly who I am, what I do, and what I genuinely love with all my heart. So to see, to see people like you guys be able to kind of relate
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to that and support it, it really does mean a lot. This isn't like a facade or anything. I'm not like a fake daddy. I'm not pretending to be something I'm not. This is genuinely what I nerd out about,
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and it's cool to see other people that are in the same boat that I am. So I have a few notes written down today, really going to be covering anything regarding the series, arm training, my mindset change, my approach to arm
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training, my stats, which is going to be kind of the fun part for you guys. I've got a lot of questions about it too, with like my body weight and that kind of stuff. So the first thing I wanted to say
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was a fear isn't the right word, but I guess a worry that I had when I started the channel was I was going to talk all this talk about my training methods and put out all of this
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information that I genuinely did think and kind of know was good information, as cocky as that might sound. Back when I was much smaller, this is two and a half years ago, my arms weren't even like 16 and 1/12 inches, and I had all these very kind of like concrete, well-thought-out training philosophies, but I didn't have the physique quite yet to back it up. And the purpose of my channel was two things. It was to discuss my methods,
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which of course has to come first since the process takes a long time, which is why I'm making this video two and a half years after starting the channel and why I talked everything first. But the biggest worry I had was being able
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to walk the walk. There's a lot of doubt, even if I'm very confident in my methods. So to take somebody in myself that was what, six, seven years into my training career at that point to say, well, I'm going to achieve all these
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lofty goals and these training methods are truly revolutionary for hypertrophy training. I'm proud to be able to say that the methods that I talked about when I first started the channel and continued to refine over time and obviously speak in probably a much
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better way, getting more comfortable in front of the camera and just getting older and smarter—not that I'm smart—but it is a cool feeling to kind of be on that other side and kind of be proud
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of my younger self when I was 23 and started the channel as just kind of like a passion, a hobby. So I'm, I couldn't be happier with how my personal growth has gone in
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bodybuilding, how the channel's gone, and just how the overall natural community has continued to grow. That's been my biggest priority, is continuing to chip in and help this natural community grow. It's very promising to see. So with
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that being said, thanks to everybody, and road to 19 inches will be happening, and it absolutely will go hard. Road to 18 inches was something that I thought would be kind of like the pinnacle of my bodybuilding career. I thought this would
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be the most enjoyable, the most fun part, and what I'm realizing now is 18 is an arbitrary number. It's a very cool milestone, and psychologically it's very satisfying because it's a whole number. It's comparable to top natural
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bodybuilders throughout history, and it's a very satisfying and rewarding milestone to hit. But with that said, I am not in a plateau. My progress has not stalled out, and I will be hitting 19-inch arms at some point. The one thing that I
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have to decide is when I want to do that. There's a couple different routes that I'm deciding which to go down right now. The one that I'm leaning most towards would be, it's a very logical
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one in my opinion. So obviously I'm mostly peak bulk right now. I wouldn't say I'm like fat or anything, but there's not a whole ton of definition, not a whole ton of vascularity, part of that thanks to my free, free, and cold basement,
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but of course I can't deny I am bulked up. So there's a couple routes I could go down. First one would be cut and show the gains. The second one would be continue the bulk and maybe aim for 18 and a
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quarter, 18 and a half, maybe 19-inch arms in kind of a longer-term scenario. I think the most logical path to go down would be to take the next two to four months and recomp. And you might say, well, what's
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the point of recomping when you're eight years into lifting and you just made a ton of progress? Like there's not that much room to milk out gains in recomp. What I'd say to that is, have you seen my
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legs? I would also say while some people do say my delts are a strong point, I would say my delts are not where they could be. My delts are something that I have grown very well in the past, and I
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don't even think they're at their peak right now. I think they have a lot more room to grow and get bigger. While I don't think they're a weak spot and I don't think they're bad, there's a lot of
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room for growth there, and I would love to spend some extra time before cutting to bring up my legs, to bring up my delts, and continue to throw my arms back, chest, even though I do think those are
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relatively strong points for me. So that's going to most likely be my priority over basically the entire summer. And then once I'm done with that, this will probably be—I can't speak—probably be around September, maybe
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October, maybe late August if I finish things up a little bit sooner, probably mid. I'll be deciding if I am going to go for a cut and reveal the gains because at that point I think I'll have a very solid physique that's well
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rounded, or I might continue the bulk and do a road to 19-inch arm series. So I won't make that decision quite yet, but the recomp gives me time to work on things that I know I want to work on, and
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it buys me time to make a decision on something that I actually want to pursue, not just something I feel pressured to pursue because there's going to be people saying in the comments like, "Oh, you should cut, reveal the gains, like
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we'd love to see you lean," and your body fat percentage is high, you should cut down. But there's also going to be people saying like, "Oh, that was sick, let's do 19-inch arms, let's hit that series now." I'm going to take some time
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to think about what I genuinely want to do because ultimately if I'm doing something that I don't care about, that reflects in the content and it's less inspiring. It has to be something that I genuinely want, and I think decisions
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like that do take time. So I'm going to take some time, and I'm still going to be making progress, and I am going to decide what I'm going to do as far as the channel goes. In the meantime, I might
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still do some type of arm training series. I might do a road to Boulder shoulder series too. I think that would be pretty cool. Back training, I've considered, even though I don't consider my back much of a weak point. It's kind
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of just a strong-ish point, I would say, in my physique. So let's get into some stuff as far as arm training. The first thing I'd want to say is arm size standards in the fitness industry are weird. It's hard to articulate this
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perfectly. It's hard to say it.
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perfectly it's it's hard to say it the way I want to because it's kind of uh it it's not just one concept it's like a bunch of different perspectives that I think all get blurred together in the fitness industry there's a lot of people
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that say like oh 18 in arms that's like the natural limit and that's like the best you can do and it takes forever to get there um I would disagree with that even though I do think it's very
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impressive like I'm definitely proud I'm I'm not going to downplay my arm size like I there's a lot of people that try and downplay stuff to look humble but I think part of that is just uh part of
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the issue with that is you're now making something that is an impressive feat look much easier than it actually is and I think that skews the perception so as much as I just want to say like oh it
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wasn't it's not that hard it's not like I'm going to war or anything like I'm just lifting uh it did take a long time and it did take a lot of thinking a lot of um consistency and obviously a ton of
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effort so it takes a lot of time it takes a lot um but it's not impossible so I do want to get that out of the way I would also say for arm siiz standards you can get bigger than 18-inch arms
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naturally and that that's a fact uh there are people that can get to 19 maybe even 20 inches arms especially if you are a bit on the taller side unfortunately I'm kind of a short King I'm 5' n so I wouldn't say I'm like
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short short but I I think my ultimate like absolute measurement I'm I probably don't have the potential to have the biggest arms you can possibly get naturally but I I think I can get uh over 19 I definitely
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think I can get 19 at arms and I'm going to shoot for 20 so that's my that's my ultimate bodybuilding goal is to have 20 in arms we'll see if that ever happens 19 will happen it's just a matter of
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when so to expand a bit more on arm size standards what I would say is kind kind of a a a quick like summary on how I view arm sizes once you have 15in arms you lift and you look like you lift and
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everybody agrees everybody knows that you lift unless someone has like severe body dysmorphia and they call you like Dy or small or something that's their own perception that isn't uh correct it's very skewed if you have if you have
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eight uh not 18 if you have 15inch arms and you're like relatively lean under like 20 22% body fat you have a lifter's arm you're big um you're not at your potential by any means but that's still an impressive arm 16 that's like a for
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sure intermediate sized arm uh a lot of like the big jacked Naturals when they're super lean have 16inch arms um if you have 16inch arms and you're like bulked up a bit yeah you're you're an intermediate that's a good sized arm and
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you you should definitely be proud of that measurement uh but there of course is still more room to grow if you have 17in arms and you're under 22% body fat the these all kind of apply to that same
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body fat percentage that isn't something you get by accident they're definitely genetic freaks that can kind of get there from doing like chinups and dips and stuff like that that's definitely the exception not the norm uh that's an
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impressive arm and for the vast majority of people that takes very specific training it takes a long time to get to 17 in so that's a huge arm 18 in um you basically have to be like a perfect
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human to achieve obviously I'm kidding but 18 in is like all of what it took to get to 17 and then like hyper specific incredible consistency incredible effort for an extended period of time to get to that point and um yeah I mean you you
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guys saw the whole process I do have one point that I want to talk about a little bit later in this video to kind of counter that counter what I just said in a way so don't think that I'm like some
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super hardcore like live under a rock well I kind of do uh I live basically underground down here um but I do want to kind of talk about like how serious I take the gym but how I can kind of take
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a step back and and enjoy life outside of the gym too because I think the fitness industry gets too extreme at times and I think this is a good time to talk about that so let's dive into what
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you guys have really all been waiting for which is my arm size uh compared to my body weight so when I reached 17in arms it was on October 10th of 2023 this was probably a little bit after I had actually achieved 17in arms
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they were about 17 and and an e uh the the measuring tape uh when I took that picture was a little bit off it was a little bit angled I'm probably just going to put the picture up here so
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they're probably about 17 but I do remember remeasuring and having it perfectly straight uh and it was still the same measurement so my guess is I probably hit 17 like late mid to late September of 2023 and I was 194 lb at that time so
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when I was at 17 at charms I weighed 194 lb when I reached 17.5 in this is halfway through November so it's November 15th of last year I was 196 lb so gained 2 lb and half an inch
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on my arms I think those dates were probably like a little bit skewed and I wasn't measuring my arms uh as much as I am now so it my guess is uh when I hit 17 5 that was just it happened to be a
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good day I probably wasn't quite at 17.5 regularly so I was yeah 196 then that was uh November 15th of last year I reached 17 and 3/4 this year it was March 1st and I was 2011 lb so 2011 lb
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17 and 3/4 arms and then I reached 18 over 18 it was 18.01 uh on June 19th so a few days ago and when I reached 18 in arms I was 23.8 lb so that was uh that was cool to
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hit the heaviest I hit on this bulk was I think the whole process of 17 to 18 in arms I gained 9.8 total pounds so 9.8 lb from 17 in arms to 18 in arms uh over the course of 8 months to go yeah from 17 to
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18 so uh to go from 17.5 which is what I was at when I started this series to 18 it was what was that two so that' be 6.8 lb so I gained ju just under 7 lb to gain
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half an inch on my arm from 17 uh 17 .5 to 18 in so uh let's talk about the strength changes a little bit so this so actually just reminded me of something else which I'll touch on later
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in the video so for preacher curls when I had 17in arms I was doing 90 lb for six reps technique was the same at 18 in arms I'm doing 115 for five so 25 lbs added to my preacher curls granted it is
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one less rep so you could probably say maybe to my six or at Max maybe 22.5 lbs uh and keep in mind these are lifts for the arms so the leverages aren't really going to change these are uh this is an
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isolation lift added fat or added muscle doesn't really change the leverage that much that's just pure brute strength from added size uh Smith JM press also keep in mind these lifts had already been been in my program for a long time
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so these weren't just like me making Noob gains combined with some muscle this is like purely basically from muscle growth uh Smith JM press this is my other staple lift obviously if you've been following the channel when I had 17
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and charms I was doing 170 lb for 10 reps so 170 for 10 it's already fairly strong um but the JM press is a very untapped uh lift potential wise in the fitness industry people treat it like a skull crusher
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when it really is more of a like a press like strength potential wise uh and then for 18in arms I'm doing 24047 so to talk about the strength a little bit here it's I'm not going to say that you have
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to like specialize in strength to get big arms because that's completely misunderstanding my point uh a lot of people like to simplify advice like oh just get strong and you'll end up getting big it gives you the wrong
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incentive and it really while it can almost like simplify in a very easily digestible way if you don't truly understand what that means it's going to put you kind of in the wrong direction which is my experience with ADV voice
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like just get stronger so what I would say is if you aren't getting stronger on these lifts these are isolation type lifts where the arms of the prime mover the leverages aren't really going to change you can't really cheat your Technique
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and all that kind of stuff you probably aren't really getting much bigger and one of the things with adding strength and adding weight to these lifts is you can probably add weight to these lifts before you feel ready to uh and I'm
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going to touch more on like the Mind muscle connection stuff because the counter to to that type of advice is like oh well when I add weight I lose the sensation I lose the Mind muscle connection so I'm just going to stay
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light on these lifts um I'll touch more on that in a second but essentially what I'm trying to say is these lifts will feel hard even with sub maximal weight so for me when I'm using 80 lb on a preacher curl or 180
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lbs on a JM press those are very sub maximal weights but they still feel challenging so what I'm trying to say is you won't know what your maximally challenging weight with your ideal technique is until you go for it so if
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100 lb on a Smith JM press still feels kind of challenging that doesn't mean that you can't do 110 120 130 maybe even 140 so push yourself get outside of your comfort zone if your Technique sucks or you just get way below your desired rep
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range then yeah it's a little bit too heavy but I think a lot of people are afraid to go a little bit heavier on their arm lifts because they're afraid to lose the Mind muscle connection so I might as well touch touch on the Mind
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muscle connection here a lot of the lifts that are good for growth so things that are uh like length and biased and very stable so that's my kind of training Philosophy for exercise selection in general specifically for the arms too on a preacher curl on a
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length and biased lift it's a very low sensation lift you're not going to feel a huge stretch because your bicep isn't stretching that much but you're also not going to feel a huge contraction because there's very little tension there's no
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tension at that end range uh where your bicep is most contracted it's lengthening bias so most tension is going to be at that bottom position here uh but your bicep isn't fully stretched so you're kind of in this weird position
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where you're not feeling a huge stretch you're not feeling a huge squeeze but it's still a very productive length and biased lift and the the biggest uh counter to doing preacher curls that I hear is people don't feel their biceps
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when they're doing them and that's simply because it's a low sensation lift but you have to you have to switch your mindset from looking at feel and sensation and go more towards execution and mechanics so when you take something
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like a preacher curl it places your bicep under extremely high tension Max tension in the lengthen position and that's excellent for growth it's very stable so just because you don't feel your bicep working doesn't mean it's not a productive lift and I would actually
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say there isn't much correlation with feel and growth so that is something that I would encourage you to probably get out of your heads for the most part I'm not saying there's not a time and a place for mind muscle connection but
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it's something I would definitely not keep in a high priority when you're picking your lifts or your arms and if you are going that route just take it with a grain of salt and and proceed with caution not that it's dangerous but
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it's I think it's going to hold you back for Max growth if you're just going either for lifts that um do give a maximal mind muscle connection ref at the most or if you're using lifts um or if you're just using lifts like a pre JM
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press but you're holding back the weight because you're afraid to lose that mind muscle connection the sensation is incredibly overrated and as long as your mechanics of and your setup and your execution is good you're fine and you're
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going to grow so i' I'd suggest everybody just forget about the Mind muscle connection unless you're in a unique circumstance where you have to get more at a less weight uh like working around an injury or something like that so next part I want to touch
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on I hinted at this at the at the beginning of the video balance is Key Lift hard but also enjoy life and this is a philosophy that I've really always taken with my lifting uh I feel like now
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that I'm at a point where I've achieved a goal that I've kind of had for my entire lifting career I feel like I've really gotten there uh and having like a balanced life hasn't been holding me back whatsoever and what I mean by that
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is I'm not afraid to like push a a a gym session back a day if I need to I lift five days a week if I if someone wants to like go out to dinner when I was supposed to lift on Wednesday like I'll
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happily take Wednesday off off and just do that session Thursday do Thursday Friday do Friday Saturday like all good uh if I want to like go out and drink a couple times a week I'll go out and drink I'm totally fine as long as you're
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just like not out of hand and like getting absolutely hammered and you can't lift for the next two days because you're still hung over like obviously that's a bad idea but like i' I've been drinking probably two like two times a
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week not a whole ton but maybe like two to six seven beers once a week and maybe a couple beers like another time a week it obviously varies a lot it's very inconsistent as you can tell in my
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schedule but uh have a balanced life is what I'm trying to say and if you have like even like a bad night of sleep here and there like if it's really bad yeah move your session back but if it's
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you're kind of on the fence about lifting like just go lift and you'll be fine don't stress about these little things there's no need to like our lives are so stressful anyways if something's not perfect don't stress about it's just
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going to make it worse so have balance uh I would also say that the fitness industry likes to say they're balanced but they're really not they are using balance as kind of a mask for uh basically going uh almost
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obsessive with their training and their diet there's a lot of people that are like afraid to have any type of uh non-hole Foods or like any type of junk food or have a sip of alcohol and they they frame this as balance like oh I eat
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healthy and I lift like this is a balanced life it's like no you're being you're being more extreme like a balanced life is doing a lot of healthy stuff like lifting and mostly eating healthy but also not stressing and
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worrying about having a couple beers or having like dessert once a week or something so have a balanced life um I couldn't stress that enough this isn't an excuse to like just go beat unhealthy or anything but remember balance isn't
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just doing one thing it's not just being super healthy and lifting like a robot it's like being able to go between that and actually enjoying your life so a little bit of a rant I would just say I've had a balanced life throughout my
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entire lifting career and it's gotten me here and I've been totally fine so no need to be obsessive no need to stress yourself out over like eating I don't know like having like a high sodium meal late at night because your weigh-in is
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not going to be right the next morning or like having a beer on the weekend like I don't know uh you don't have to be perfect for bodybuilding it's not as hardcore as these influencers try and tell you it is they just want to seem
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tough or use it as a mask to hide their own uh obsessiveness which is ultimately something that I guarantee you not if these guys would wish they had they try and frame it as kind of a virtue um
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another thing I would say so so to get into more more of like the nitty-gritty uh arm training advice don't beat around the bush master your lifts this is the biggest piece of advice I could give to anybody that is a beginner or
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intermediate lifter please hear me out the biggest mistake people make is having it in your head I just tapped the mic that's going to be so loud to remember that when I'm editing so they have it in their head when they put a
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lift in their program or when they put their program oh my uh my camera just stopped recording but what I'm trying to say is the biggest mistake that people make is having it in their head when they make their program or put a lift in
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their program that it's a temporary idea it's a temporary program it's a temporary lift and as soon as they hit a plateau or as soon as they get a little nagging pain it's out the the splits change the programs Chang the lift is
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rotated and that mindset is going to hold you back an incredible amount I would say aside from extreme situations like more serious injuries or nagging pains when you have a program stick to it and this sounds like very basic
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advice but the the amount of people that I coach the amount of people that I see in the gym that as soon as the one little thing goes wrong with a lift like oh oh rotate it just just change it out
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uh preacher curls I didn't add a rep this week we have to change it that mindset is horrible and it will hold you back that might sound extreme but the the difference in approach to somebody that has a preacher curl on the program
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maybe doesn't add a rep for one or two weeks and the in the person that just rotates their lift whenever something doesn't feel quite right or whenever they're a little bit scared to add some weight those are two incredibly
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different outcomes in the mid to long term I promise you that so when I whenever I hit a little Plateau on preacher curls I find ways to get through it whether that's having a lift that complement it really nice to grow
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different regions of the bicep or train a different resistance profile or train my bicep in a different position to complement that lift and get me growth to where I need it or whether I change my volume whether I increase it because
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I need maybe a little more stimulus and I can handle it or when I had to decrease volume because I was getting like some forearm splints keeping the preacher curl in my program and mastering that lift is why I have 18in
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arms it's not from oh I got kind of good at preacher curls now oh it doesn't feel right the progression slowing down I'm worried let me uh let me do cable curls instead and then oh 3 weeks later oh I
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these feel kind of stale the Mind muscle connection is not that great anymore let me switch those to like alternating dumbbell curls like the these are low skill lifts for the most part but having that mindset of always just kind of like
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beating around the bush will keep your arm small I promise you that like there's there are ways that you can get around that sure but I would say the majority of people if it's not specifically that rotating lifts is the
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problem it's your mindset that's the problem if you're afraid to just actually step in with two feet and commit to a specific lift if you're afraid to do that and you're afraid to like test yourself against any Plateau
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you hit you're going to stay small and I I can I can genuinely promise you that um nothing wrong with rotating lift so don't take this the wrong way it's a when when it's an appropriate time to do
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it then that's totally fine uh but if you have that mindset of as soon as something isn't quite right you have to just flip everything over and change it that will keep you small and that will hold you back 100% so do not beat around
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the bush tackle those lifts head on and actually try to become a master at them like preach a curl more than me go for it JM press More Than Me Nobody Does because well some people do uh but the
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the reason why most people don't is because with a lift like arms they're worried about the Mind muscle connection or they're worried about oh I hit a plateau I couldn't add a rep so I have to force Progressive overload to happen
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and I have to change lifts so I can get those new gains again that mindset is going to hold you back I would also say the basics are key and this is something that people say all the time but I would
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also say most people genuinely misunderstand the basics they don't know what they're talking about when they say the basics work when they say just do the basics what people think the basics are for arm training the arms aren't
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even prime Movers On they say weighted chin ups and dips those are not the basics those are basic lifts that have been around forever sure but when you look at the mechanics of how your arms are going to work best if you look at
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like the leverages of your biceps and how your triceps work the basics are preacher curls and Smith JM press those are the best lifts to Train Your Arms I'm not saying there's not other lifts that are just as good but these are
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topnotch lifts and I will always promote them because they are such good lifts they're fundamentally sound they have everything you need for hypertrophy they have stability uh they have a lengthen bias they put your muscle in a pretty
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good stretch and they have a massive range of motion and most importantly the arms are actually the prime movers in both of these lifts I couldn't say enough good things about these lifts these are the true basics for arm
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training these lifts are how I got 18in arms these lifts are what brought me from 16 1/2 to 18in Arms these were the two that were in my program the entire time that took up the vast majority of
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my volume my intention my effort everything like I can't say enough good things about these lifts I would not be where I am without these basic lifts the basics are not weighted chinups and dips the basics are not push downs and
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barbell curls just because oh you can they have overload potential it's like no that doesn't even make sense um the basics are the the things that matter stability generally length and bias the arms of the prime mover sick like that's
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what matters so what I'm doing people might say oh well nobody else really does like Smith JM press as hard as you do or preacher curs as much as you do uh these are the basics but nobody has
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realized that these are actually what the basics are the next thing I'd say is stability is very important I've talked about this a handful of times especially over the course of this road to 18in arm series there gets a there gets to a
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point where doing isolation lifts that are unstable are going to challenge your center of mass so doing something like a standing barbell curl when you have like 135 lbs in front of you that's going to completely change the leverages of the
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lift it's going to have it's going to change how much you have to lean back or forwards uh when you're doing a push down it turns into an ab exercise with they're the limiting factor um these lifts not length and biased not
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very stable they are at first so if you're a beginner early intermediate that's totally fine or they're good as like a secondary lift if you are more advanced or stronger uh that's totally fine but the vast majority of like the
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popular arm lifts you're going to see on social media are not stable um they they just aren't and I I don't think nobody talks about what the basics are for arm training and it drives me nuts and what
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I'm trying to show you is the basics people think it's not the basics because it's not popular they're conflating the two uh so stability is very important this is what Progressive overload potential is so something like a preacher curl the leverages do not
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change because there's arm support and you're seated so I can go as heavy as I want to I can put 500 lb on that thing and the leverages are still exactly the same if I put 500 lb on a barbell I
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would never be able to curl that because I would fall face first into the ground every time I tried to pick that up 500 lb is an extreme example obviously so don't take that literally I hope nobody did but what I'm trying to say is you
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can add weight Forever on a preacher curl you can't add weight Forever on a barbell curl and keep your form the same so when people say oh well it's a barbell it's a basic barbell curl you can just add weight forever no the lift
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changes as time goes on not saying you can't get big biceps with a barbell obviously you can uh but if you have the option for a preacher curl that's going to be the better option You can disagree with that all you want but I think
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there's good logic behind that same with the Smith JM press like the leverages do not change as you add weight with something like a skull crusher or an overhead extension the leverages do change if you're going super heavy on
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those which you'll have to once you have big arms those are going to throw you around in different ways it's going to throw off your center of mass again I'm not saying you can't get big arms with these lifts and they do have their time
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in place absolutely but having added stability takes any obviously internal stabilization that you have to do out of the movement lets you put all of your effort into a lift that you know so well because it doesn't change over time so I
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I couldn't recommend these lifts enough and that's part of the logic behind why I pick these length and bias is also incredibly important uh muscles like the biceps and the triceps never get full range of motion uh or at least not
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maximum tension in in a full range of motion especially the triceps I did an entire video on this that I I wrote a script for and everything but tricep training what most people do close grip bench arms at 90° just like this dips
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get your arms up to 90° and you press down so 90° is all you get a skull crusher you go down here just at 90° maybe a tad pass depending on where your elbows are maybe you go behind the head
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and maybe some lifts you do go beyond 90° like a push down if you push down and then you come up to here you're past 90° but guess what there's barely any tension at the top so the triceps from
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here to here this this entire range of motion and they can even go beyond this but I would have to have weight to push my arm even more that entire range of motion is untrained which is absurd there's good evidence to show that a
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lengthen bias lift is going to be what's best for growing muscle getting a good stretch is excellent for growing muscle as long as it's not at the expense of other important variables like stability and whatnot but think about this the
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popular training methods the most popular lifts the most popular program don't train your triceps Beyond this point this entire portion of the range of motion your triceps are not trained with tension that is enough to grow them it's it's truly insane and that has to
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change like arm training what we think are the basics are just kind they're kind of just the easiest they're just the easy list they're not the actual Basics so I couldn't rant enough about that uh having a lengthened biased a
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lengthened bias I can't speak again today it's incred inly important and this is why I keep talking about it I keep repeating myself and trying to say it in different ways so hopefully it can click with you guys um biceps too any
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standing curl any uh spider curl that people do any table curl that people do um it's always PE people chase the the contraction they chase the squeeze they chase the sensation there's just not much tension at the bottom and when you
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have something like a preacher curl there's maximum tension when the bicep is lengthened I do really think it's a game changer for bicep growth um I don't know I I really don't think it's a coincidence that these are the two lifts
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that I relied on um to go from like intermediate to almost I'd say like Advanced arms that are big uh I already talked about the Mind muscle connection um and that's that's pretty much all I got on the list for today
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so yeah was there anything else I want to talk about I guess not I I kind of feel like I covered everything so yeah I guess I guess with that said I hope you guys had some good takeaways
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from today's video uh I hope you guys are excited to see at some point the road to 19in Arms that's going to be incredibly fun it's going to be incredibly exciting trying to reach a milestone like that which is I think
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it's going to be crazy so that's all I got for today uh if you have any questions or comments obviously let me know in the comments I hope uh this series of the road to 18 and charms was
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helpful I hope this video was helpful I had a ton of fun doing it and I I can't I can't say enough how much I appreciate the support I guess one last thing I could say is when I first started that
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series I was I was doing that for fun and because I knew there were going to be a few people that wanted to see it uh I did not expect it to do as well as it did the videos that I post it can be it
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can be anything they all basically get the same amount of views and what that says to me is like the people that are in this community that follow this channel they you guys like the content that I make because you know it's going
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to it's going to be useful or inspiring or educational or whatever it is um so I I feel like I can kind of I I can't like post anything anything obviously but um the fact that you guys would would watch
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a series like that it really does mean a lot because arm training it can be kind of boring um it it's basically if you watch the series episode after episode you're watching basically the same thing every time with just a little bit more
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strength uh every couple episodes and that's probably not something that would be good on the YouTube algorithm so to see that something that wouldn't really do well according to like the the general algorithm to see that continue to sustain well on the channel and get
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great feedback the whole time it really does mean a lot and it it shows me that you guys genuinely care about uh me in this channel which is I is very humbling uh I would also say just to kind of talk
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about uh my my future plans I might do a road to Boulder shoulders a road to bigger delts or whatever series uh title obviously I don't know yet um I'm I'm definitely going to continue with the full-on training Vlogs where I have this
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mic on and I walk around and obviously do my workout and kind of talk between sets um if you have anything else you want to see or any ideas or anything let me know I'll keep it in mind and that's
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all I got for today so thanks everybody for the support I hope you enjoyed the series I'll see you in the next episode
Topics:18 inch armsarm trainingbodybuilding journeynatural bodybuildinghypertrophy trainingmuscle growthBasement Bodybuildingtraining methodsbulk and cutfitness milestones
