I have thin arms with especially weak muscles on the inner side and very big back and 'wing' muscles. I don't do weight training, used to train in karate and capoeira with body weight exercises. I gained all the back muscles after doing many pull-ups (chin-ups) sets everyday.
Now, every exercise I do for arms: push-ups, pull-ups, dips, curls end up almost exclusively affecting my back muscles, that feel the tension. My arms are not trained.
Recently I tried to put myself in a proper push-up position, stressing keeping body straight, keeping distance between hands, checking that biceps and triceps do the work - I found it hard to do a single push-up, whereas I do 50-40-30 set if I do it like usual.
I don't know how to make arms stronger, and all the exercises keep training my back muscles.
Im not really sure what the "inner side" and "wing muscles" are exactly, but ill give the question a shot. If you are doing pullups (especially chinups), then you are definitely training your arms. Im not sure how you could do a chinup without working your biceps.
Im just having a hard time understanding how you can be training your back while doing pushups and dips. Pushups will work your chest, shoulders, and triceps...i wouldnt exactly call them an "arm" exercise. Dips also work the chest, shoulders, and triceps but depending how you do them, will probably force your triceps to do more work. And curls, that is an arm isolation exercise...how is it working your back? You might feel it in your back if you are swinging around or if you are leaning way back when you curl. Keep a good posture while doing curls.
Remember, most people don't start off with very strong arms, so make sure your posture is good and keep doing stuff like bench press or pushups, chinups, dips, rows, etc... Im not really sure how else to answer your question.
Regardless of which muscles may or may not have developed, it sounds like you should start doing anything aside from pullups. Try some pushups and shoulder presses. Even if they are hard and feel like they are working only your back.
How do you usually do pushups if you are able to do sets of 50?
I don't know how to make arms stronger, and all the exercises keep training my back muscles.
This may be one of the rare exceptions that isolation exercises would work best. I am not an expert but I would think that if my arms were my weak spot I would give them extra emphasis while still doing compound exercises to maintain my overall fitness. Maybe add Curls, Tri Extensions, Close Grip Benches and Hammer Curls after doing your normal workout.
__________________ -50# by 4/1/10 2 down 48 to go.
Bench press, dumbell bench press (don't need spotter, better activation of stabilizers) or DB chest press with your back on a stability ball. DB shoulder presses sitting on a stability ball etc...
Either way, you need to add some good upper body pushes to counter balance all that pulling.
Here are my impressions/ observations after reading the original post (I apologise in advance for being forthright to the point of being rude):
1. Invariably, anyone who says they have thin arms but have been physically active usually are:
i) actually well proportioned but have such high expectations of having large arms that they feel inferior about the current measurements of their arms.
ii) Haven't actually lifted heavy weights on compound movements and have been working almost exclusively on bodyweight calisthenics.
iii) Actually do not have backs as wide and thick as they claim to have.
iv) Too much pulling movements and not enough pushing exercises to train the triceps.
2. my next observation is that you might need to re-learn how you perform certain exercises. Years of pattern overload can bring about a situation where almost all of your movements are compensated by the strongest muscles at the expense of the intended muscles being trained. I don't know what you meant by your regular versus a proper pushup but the mere fact that you are struggling indicates you might have some worrying imbalances. Are you able to do a tiger bend push up?
3. You might belong to the camp where arms are your weakest link and in this instance, some bodybuilding tips may be of use. For one, it may be useful for you to learn to contract your arms and hold it there for a few seconds so as to "re-awaken" the nerves that have been "neurologically shut down" from years of using poor or wrong techniques. You should learn to train the mind-muscle link. As an example, instead of thinking to squeeze your shoulder blades together during your chins, envision instead bringing your upper arms towards your forearms. Another idea might be to look at the 3 position of flexions when you train your arms.
Thank you all very much for very informative answers and analysis of my question.
I need to clarify, that I never trained regularly with weights. I weigh 65kg (and would not want to be heavier than 70kg). What I did for the past 2-3 years was karate (push-ups and occasional pull/chin-ups between technique exercises, also some stretching and sparring), capoeira (with a bit of acrobatics, stretching, push-ups during trainings) and random things like doing pull-ups and chin-ups in my backyard, swimming.
I'm posting my questions here, because I think I can trust advises on working with different muscle groups coming from people doing this for many years.
bullandbear, your point 1.ii) is absolutely correct. I would also agree with 2., because I do feel like I should re-learn certain simple things about exercises techniques.
I looked at some pictures with tiger bend push-ups and still not sure how to do it.
By 'wing' muscles I meant lats, thank you BjsAust.
As for other muscle groups, I also have large shoulders and 'upper' chest (sorry for my terminology).
General rule;
biceps don't work during pushing exercises and triceps don't work during pulling exercises. No one ever got big biceps from doing pushups.
Can you find a pic or clip of the pushups you have been doing and the pushup you tried but couldn't do properly.
There are no videos of me exercising, unfortunately.
Another thing I want to say to explain myself better is that I was advised to try diamond push-ups on another forum, with my nose pointing to the palms - that felt good, no noticeable work for my back and my weak triceps finally got some exercise, I couldn't do more than 10 in a row.
Heh, that was my first thought too, especially as a lot of women refer to the flab that hangs off their arms as 'chicken wings'.
How old are you readme? Unless you're really young or fairly short, 65kg is rather light. It tends to suggest that you dont really have that much muscle anywhere (no offence) so your naturally bigger muscles just stand out more.
One thing to remember is that for muscles to grow, you need to feed them. Theres only so much growth you'll see in smaller muscles like biceps/triceps if you're maintaining a very low weight.
Ben,
I am 23. I don't mind gaining 5kg or more of muscles at all. I guess my muscles are not big, since I am not big, just comparatively big back. Height about 178-180cm.
I tried diamond push-ups and at first it was really great for the arms, but today I have tension in my (upper) back again, just in a different place. Maybe I'm doing all the exercises wrong, I don't know.
Your back wont be doing your pushups for you. Thats anatomically impossible. You might get some tension from back muscles stabalising stuff, but the prime muscles that allow you to push yourself away from the ground are your triceps and your pecs.
Bullandbear had some good advice. Try to picture the muscles you're trying to work contracting as you do the exercise. Focus on your triceps contracting to pull your forearm back into a straight position, and your pecs pulling your upper arms foward to point away from your body (yet in towards the chest, picture it in your head, it makes more sense).
Same with the other exercises, think about which muscles they work (and which you want them to work) and focus on them while doing the exercise. For instance for pullups you want to use your biceps to pull your forearms and upper arms together, and your back muscles to pull your upper arms down to your side. Most people like myself tend to naturally use mainly our biceps in this movement, however by concentrating on using the back, we bring it in to do more of the work (and therefore do more pullups than we could otherwise).
Thanks for technique description. I will try to do diamond push-ups right, because it's great how it makes my arms work with every push-up, I like it so far.
Can't train my arms
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