4 ARM DAY Mistakes I Wish I Fixed Earlier (SLOWING Your Gains!)

What's up everyone? Jeremy here. And today I want to share with you four of the biggest arm day mistakes that I see people make all the time, which really are killing the gains that they could be making. In fact, back in the day, as you can see here, when my arms had literally no chance whatsoever of filling up my sleeves, these were the exact mistakes that I was personally making and really do wish that I fixed earlier because it just would have helped me speed up my arm growth to where they're at now. But to prevent you from doing the same in this video, I'll go through each of these mistakes and I'll show you what to do instead so you can apply it right away to your next arm day or just your arm training in general. So the first mistake is just not varying your arm angles enough when you train them. For example, like what a lot of other people do is back in the day, pretty much all of my biceps exercises were some form of variation of curls where my elbows were held by my sides, and then for triceps, it was mostly a mix of some form of triceps extensions, again with the elbows just by my sides. But what you have to realize, and something I've explained in my past videos, is that the biceps and the triceps are composed of multiple heads, which can each be selectively emphasized based on how you orient your arm angle when you train them. So by incorporating exercises that mix up your arm angles during your arm day, you'll be better able to activate and develop the biceps and tricep muscles as a whole, as you'll be ensuring that each head gets the required attention. Just to further back up this point, a recent 2019 paper actually compared performing a biceps workout with all nine sets done with a traditional biceps curl with the elbows by the sides, versus a biceps workout where three sets of the curls were done at the different arm angles shown here, with all other workout variables held identical. And what they found was that the varied arm angle group was able to achieve the same amount of volume as the control group, but their biceps experienced significantly higher overall activation from the session. And although it wasn't tested here, this increase in workout activation of the biceps would likely lead to faster growth over time. So to apply this, what I'd recommend is for your next arm day, or just for your arm routine in general, for your biceps, you want to pick one curl where your elbows are held behind your body, one curl where your elbows are held by your sides, and then one curl where your elbows are held in front of your body and then for your triceps, similarly, you want to pick one exercise where your elbows are held overhead, one exercise where your elbows are held by your sides, and then one pressing movement, for example. So by structuring your exercises this way, you're going to be able to hit your arm muscles a lot more effectively, and it just ensures that each head is emphasized appropriately. So the next arm day mistake that's killing your gains has to do with your exercise order. And what most people do, and what I used to do as well, is I do all my biceps exercises first and then I'd follow up with my triceps exercises after. But given that research has consistently shown that lifters get better gains than the muscles that are trained early on in their workout, we can see how this can become a problem over time. And that's exactly what happened to me. My biceps really started to overpower my triceps in comparison, simply because I put all my effort into the biceps training in the beginning of the workout. And then I'd start to slack a little on the triceps training since I'd be a little more fatigued, which was obviously detrimental for my arm growth given that the triceps make up such a big portion of the arm. So unless you actually do want to prioritize your biceps more than your triceps or vice versa, what I suggest is for more balanced development of both muscles over time, simply alternate between the muscles that you start with every week. Or instead you can even perform your biceps and triceps exercises in a super set fashion. But just first make sure that you know how to actually properly apply supersets before doing so, which is something I've actually covered in a past video and ill leave the link to that in the description box down below to help you out. Next is the all too common mistake of sacrificing your form for weight. Because using a weight that you can't control and have to use momentum to move like I'm doing here, just does more harm than good. Not only does it shift tension and essentially gains away from the arms and onto other muscle groups like the upper traps that take over, but also week after week you're not going to be able to tell if your biceps have actually gotten stronger and bigger or if you've actually gotten more sloppy with your forearm. So instead, put the ego aside and worry less about how heavy you're lifting and more so about actually using and fatiguing the biceps and triceps, which is best accomplished with proper form. And don't think that by lightening the weight, you're not going to build muscles effectively, because that simply is not true. I mean, one 2016 study, for example, had subjects perform unilateral bicep curls on one side of their arms with with literally no weight for four sets of 23 times a week. And just had them focus on contracting the biceps as hard as possible throughout a full range of motion. After six weeks, they measured the growth in the arm and then had them do the other arm for six weeks, but this time with a weight that was equivalent to 70% of their 1 rep max and a rep range of 812 reps. And it turned out that both arms experienced the same amount of biceps growth. Now, keep in mind that these were untrained subjects, and I'm by no means recommending to start curling with no weight in the gym and getting all sorts of weird looks. But I just want to emphasize that we know that for muscle growth, what's more important than the weight you lift is actually activating the target muscle and placing it under sufficient tension during your sets. And that is always most effectively accomplished by using a weight that you can control. And the last mistake has to do with your rest times between your sets. I remember back in the day during my arm days, all I cared about was a pump. So I do a set of curls and rest for maybe a minute tops before going into another set. And this is what I thought was best because I get the biggest pump on my arms and it really felt like it was working. But we now know that this actually isn't the best approach. For example, There was a 2016 systematic review done on rest periods, and I'll pop up the results to that on screen, which actually showed that on average, resting at least over a minute between sets led to almost 40% greater muscle growth when compared to resting just under a minute. More specifically, though, a couple recent studies actually indicate that for single joint exercises like the ones you'd mainly be doing on your arm day, you want to aim for roughly two minutes of rest between sets, as this seems to be the sweet spot to maximize your workout volume, your muscle growth and your strength. So I'd aim for that. But another option is to incorporate antagonistic super sets for your arm days that'll just allow you to get that two minute rest period in a more time efficient manner. And again, the video where I show how to properly do that will be linked down below. So, guys, I hope this video was useful for you and I hope it actually helped you realize a few of the mistakes that you may have been making, just like I was back in the day. And for a step by step program that applies the science and helps you avoid crucial mistakes like these before they even happen, so you can build muscle and add size as quickly as possible, just like Kevin over here did in nine months. And simply head on over to builtwithscience.com and take the starting point quiz to discover what program is best for you. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this one. Please don't forget to show your support by giving the video a like leaving a comment down below as to what you'd like to see me cover next, subscribing to the channel and turning on notifications for the channel as well as this all really does help me out. Thank you so much everyone. Hope you enjoyed this one. I'll see you next time.