2565: Add 1/2 Inch to Your Arms in 30 Days

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth – Episode 2565: Add 1/2 Inch to Your Arms in 30 Days

Release Date: March 31, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 2565 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth, hosts Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews delve into the ambitious goal of adding half an inch of solid muscle to your arms within a 30-day period. Drawing from over four decades of combined experience in the fitness industry, the hosts dismantle common myths and provide science-backed strategies to achieve noticeable arm growth while maintaining overall health and performance.

Why People Struggle to Gain Arm Size

Sal Di Stefano opens the discussion by addressing the prevalent issue of overtraining. He states:

“People throw everything but the kitchen sink at their arms, but they don't modify the rest of the workout. So they overtrain.” (02:55)

This overemphasis on arm training without adjusting the overall workout regimen leads to systemic fatigue, hindering muscle growth. Adam Schafer adds that balancing volume and intensity across different muscle groups is crucial for targeted arm development.

Strategic Workout Programming

The core of the episode revolves around structuring workouts to maximize arm growth without overtaxing the body. Sal emphasizes:

“You should add volume and frequency to your arm training, but you should take it from other parts of your training.” (03:03)

Key Strategies Discussed:

1. Controlled Volume and Frequency

   • Sal recommends training arms three times a week, performing 10 sets each for biceps and triceps. This concentrated focus allows for sufficient stimulus while preventing overtraining of other muscle groups. (05:28)

2. Compound Exercises for Arms

   • Incorporating compound movements such as close-grip bench presses, dips, and curl grip pull-downs engages multiple muscle groups and promotes overall arm mass.
   • Justin Andrews highlights the effectiveness of these lifts:

     “They're so good, they're so effective at building overall arm mass.” (11:26)

3. Stretch Exercises for Enhanced Hypertrophy

   • Exercises like overhead tricep extensions and incline curls focus on loading muscles in their stretched positions, which research shows can enhance muscle growth. (14:45)

4. Variation in Elbow Positions

   • Adam Schafer shares his experience:

     “Moving the elbow position in those three different main points... ensures you're attacking at least one in the stretched, one in the shortened, and one in the mid-range.” (16:14)

Nutrition and Recovery

No muscle-building plan is complete without addressing diet and rest. Sal underscores the importance of:

• Caloric Surplus: Increasing daily caloric intake by 200-500 calories, depending on gender, to support muscle growth. (20:38)
• Adequate Protein Intake: Ensuring sufficient protein consumption to facilitate muscle repair and growth.
• Quality Sleep: Aiming for at least eight and a half hours of sleep each night to optimize recovery. (20:38)

Adam reinforces these points, noting that overdosing on training without proper nutrition and rest can lead to plateaus.

Trigger Sessions for Enhanced Recovery

An innovative approach discussed is the incorporation of trigger sessions on rest days. These are short, low-intensity sessions aimed at increasing blood flow to the muscles, thereby promoting recovery.

• Sal explains:

  “Getting a pump two or three times a day... amplifies muscle protein synthesis.” (18:05)

• Adam advises keeping these sessions light to avoid additional strain:

  “You're already doing plenty of volume and intensity with the workouts. It doesn't need to be more of that.” (18:53)

Addressing Listener Questions

Towards the end of the episode, the hosts engage with listener inquiries, providing expert insights:

1. What is Considered a Big Arm?

   • Sal discusses the importance of arm definition over mere size:

     “A lean 16-inch arm that's defined is more impressive than a smooth 18-inch arm.” (23:55)

2. Best Rep Range for Arm Training

   • Emphasis is placed on moderate rep ranges (8-15 reps) to balance muscle growth and form integrity:

     “Rep ranges between 8 to 15 are probably best.” (25:10)

3. Value of Cheat Reps

   • The hosts generally advise against cheat reps, advocating for strict form to maximize muscle engagement:

     “I typically advise against them because I don't see value.” (26:31)

4. Importance of the Pump

   • The pump serves as an indicator of effective training and overall muscle health:

     “If you're getting a really good pump, you're probably well hydrated, well fed, well rested, not overtrained.” (27:55)

Conclusion

Mind Pump wraps up the episode by reiterating the balance between focused training, proper nutrition, and adequate recovery. The hosts encourage listeners to implement the discussed strategies diligently to achieve substantial arm growth within a month.

Sal concludes with a motivational note:

“If you can add another quarter inch from adding the trigger sessions or, close to that much. That's how much of a difference the trigger sessions make.” (19:33)

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Key Takeaways

• Balanced Training: Focused arm workouts should be integrated by adjusting overall workout volume to prevent overtraining.
• Compound and Stretch Exercises: Utilize compound movements and exercises that target muscles in stretched positions for optimal growth.
• Nutrition and Rest: Maintain a caloric surplus, prioritize protein intake, and ensure ample sleep to support muscle development.
• Trigger Sessions: Implement light, blood-flow-enhancing sessions on rest days to boost recovery and muscle synthesis.
• Form Over Quantity: Prioritize strict form over the number of reps or the use of cheat reps to maximize muscle engagement and growth.

By adhering to these strategies, listeners can effectively work towards adding half an inch of solid muscle to their arms in just 30 days, all while maintaining overall fitness and health.

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For more insights and expertly programmed training protocols, visit mindpumppodcast.com and mapsfitnessproducts.com. Follow the hosts on Instagram @mindpumpmedia, @mindpumpsal, @mindpumpadam, @mindpumpjustin, and @mindpumpdoug.

Transcript

[Sal Destefano]

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[Sal Destefano]

Pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump Today's episode. Add in half inch to your arm in the next 30 days. You can do it. Just listen to what we say now. This episode is brought to you by a sponsor Element. They make an electrolyte powder. It's the best one on the market. No artificial sweeteners, no sugar, and it has the right amount of sodium to actually make a difference. And it tastes great. It's the only electrolyte powder we work with. Go check them out. By the way, if you go to drinklement.com mindpump you can get a free sample pack with any drink mix purchase. Also, one day left for our sale this month, Maps Performance and Maps performance advanced are 50% off. If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code 3-50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show. Can you add a half an inch of solid muscle to your arms in 30 days? We think so. It's hard, but it's possible. We're going to tell you how in today's episode, but you need to be focused and follow the steps carefully. Let's go.

[Adam Schaefer]

You can teach this?

[Sal Destefano]

I think so.

[Adam Schaefer]

Bigger biceps to teach this.

[Sal Destefano]

I think it is possible, especially if you're in your first few years of training. I think if you're like super advanced, it gets a little bit more difficult. But you can do this. And I did this, I did this as a kid. I remember as a 17 year old kid I made this a goal in 30 days and actually worked. But it has to be very focused.

[Adam Schaefer]

Talk a little bit first before we get into the steps on how to do this and what we would go, how we would go about it. But why do you think people struggle to do this? Like, what do you think? What are some of the greatest challenges or what are the things that keep the young kid who's trying to put an inch on his bicep, why, why does he struggle with that, you think?

[Sal Destefano]

Well, I think one of the big reasons is that people don't consider because they throw everything but the kitchen sink at their arms, but they don't modify the rest of the workout. So they over train.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. And over training a lot of times.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, it's just, they're just overdue. So what ends up happening is they're doing a normal workout plus they're adding everything on top of it to try to get bigger arms. It's actually the first point, the first point of this is that you, you should add volume and frequency to your arm training, but you should take it from other parts, other parts of your training. Other words, you trade volume and frequency for arm training from other areas. So what you don't want to do is take your normal workout, which if you're consistent with your workout, you're probably training or you've probably found a rhythm where you're training with an intensity and a volume that's right around your limit. Most people who are consistent do that. That's what we tend to veer. What you don't want to do then is just add more volume to that because although it may benefit the arms because it's too much total volume, you end up not responding really well. You over train the rest of your body. So you have to take volume away from other parts of the body and then add it to the arms. In other words, the 30 day period is ARM focused. I mean, you still train the rest of your body, but you're not trying to build the rest of your body. You're just trying to build the buys and the tris.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah. I'm reading all of the ones you have on here and it's like, I feel like every one of these points you have six points that you've written down. I can, I can recall when this happened, like in my arm. Arms was like, obviously as a kid that was like the main focus for quite some time. For Me and I remember there were very key moments of, I don't want to say hacks, because it's not a hack. It's like science figured out, like, oh, that makes sense. I can't, I can't just keep piling the volume on and expect my body to respond. I have to find a way to balance that out. And then the other ones that you have down here, I'm like, I, I remember like vividly like when I started doing that and like how much I saw a difference. So, like, I love this as a cool topic for somebody to go apply all of these in the next 30 days and feel confident that if you apply all these strategies, you will see some move, you'll get there. Because I got. I could argue that I made that half inch gain each one of these steps, if that makes sense.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, I think too, when you brought up the overtraining thing, like that was so prevalent for me and my friends because too, we weren't really getting good sleep and we weren't really like eating like all this stuff. Like there's, there's more things we're going to get. Yeah, too. But it all aids in the recovery process of the actual building Part of it was never something you can see. You just think immediately. You just have to keep hammering those arms to death.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, I think so. With volume. So I'm going to speak generally because this is very individual. Okay. So I know this is a general statement, but so long as you control the volume and intensity for the rest of your body, and I'll put it differently, cruise with your training for the rest of your body. Your legs, chest, back delts, like everything else is a cruise for the next 30 days. So you're just kind of training a little bit here and there.

[Adam Schaefer]

And by the way, you won't go backwards in those days.

[Sal Destefano]

You're not going to go backwards. You won't. So that's what I mean by you're still going to work them out. You're just going to cruise with them. So cut the volume way down. And then when it comes to buy and try training, you're doing 10 sets for biceps, 10 sets for triceps, three days a week. You can totally do that so long as the volume is controlled for the rest of your body. So you're going to hit your arms three days a week with 10 sets for both biceps and triceps, but the rest of your body is far less. I mean, you're going to be doing maybe six sets for chest and six sets for back and six sets for legs total for the week. Most of the volume is for arms, and that's what's going to make this happen. If you maintain the current amount of volume that you're training and then you try to add and do 30 sets for buys and tries throughout the whole week, you're not going to gain anything. It's just way too much for your body to overcome. It's too much volume, too much intensity for the entire body. Because we tend to think of volume and frequency and training to be site specific. Like, you know, 15 sets from a biceps, they can handle 15 sets. But there is a whole body systemic effect from training that you often also have to consider. In other words, if you hammer your legs and over train the hell out of your legs to the point you can get to the point where you're. The rest of your body won't respond just because of all the volume you're doing in your legs. Same thing is true for the rest of your body.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, especially when we, okay. When we're talking about trying to progress a smaller muscle that doesn't quite tax the CNS like those other ones do.

[Sal Destefano]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

So if you slam your leg, slam your chest, slam your back, and then all of a sudden you also increase volume on your arms, you're gonna get nowhere right there.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

And we've talked about ad nauseam on this podcast how little of volume you need to maintain the muscle mass. That was the big, the, the, the big misunderstanding for me is I didn't understand that. I didn't.

[Sal Destefano]

You thought you had to keep it going?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes, I had, I had so much fear around not keeping my training volume and intensity up to, in fear that I would go backwards in fear that I would lose all that muscle. And it's crazy how wrong I was and how far, how wide that that spectrum is and how far to the, to the right I was of. Like, like, it's like I thought for most of my training career I needed to be this, this much volume, intensity to keep all that muscle. I, the older I get and the more experience I realize, like, oh my God, I didn't need to do nearly any of that. I could have totally cruised on my, you know, say, legs and chest and back for a month or two and put all that energy and focus on my arms and could have seen my arms rocket.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. So this is true for anybody part.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right?

[Sal Destefano]

We're arms today, but this is true for any body part. There's a big difference between what is necessary to cause Muscle growth and what is necessary to keep muscle growth. Keeping muscle growth. I mean there's lots of studies on this and they vary. But every study done on this shows significantly less volume is required to maintain than there is to build. Some studies show as little as 1/9 the volume. There's others show maybe one third of the volume. So in other words, whatever you're doing now, cut it down and then add it to your arm training and doing 10 sets for buys and 10 sets for tries on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. That's a nice general number. Of course there's individual variants that might be too much for some people and for other people that might be able to do much more. But I found with the people that I've worked with and myself so long as everything else was controlled, that 30 sets total for the, for that month with all the other volume controlled, it really does add muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

And to, to add to this point, if you're listening to this and you're like, wow, that's what I'm already doing that much or 12, then, then you're, you're probably the person who's doing too much on the other things. And what you might see is if you just scale back.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

On some of those other muscle groups for a cup for a month, you will probably see gains in the arms. It's not, you need to, oh, the guys said you need to do this. So I'm, you're already doing that, so I'm going to double it. It's like, well, no, if you're not seeing results in your arms and you're already doing 30 to 40 sets of arms in the week, that, that probably points to, you're either over trained on recovering or under fed or under rest. Like there's something going on there. And the answer is not piling more volume.

[Sal Destefano]

So an easy way to do this is you look at your total sets for the week. Now they're not all equal. This is not perfect. Right. A set of squats is going to hit you differently than a set of curls. But look at your total volume for the week and you trade sets. Is, is generally how you want to look at this. But of course take into consideration some exercises are more taxing than others. Now next up is to do compound exercises for both biceps and triceps. Close grip, bench presses, dips, curl grip, pull downs. I love curl grip pull downs or pull ups if you're really strong. A lot of people don't realize what a great bicep exercise this is.

[Adam Schaefer]

So Good.

[Sal Destefano]

Now it's done differently than you would do like a supinated grip pull down. So a pull down supinated grip, you're sticking your chest out and you're squeezing your shoulders back. You're emphasizing the lats. When you're doing this as a curl, you're kind of rounding forward and you're curling down. You're doing a curl on the way down. It's a compound lift for the biceps and it's very effective at building the biceps. Compound lifts for triceps, I don't think I need to make the case. I think a lot of people know that dips and close grip bench press is a great exercise, but definitely don't skip out on the compound lifts. They're so good, they're so effective at building overall arm mass. When I figured this out as a youngster, I mean it was like close grip bench press, like nothing made my trip. Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Blew my. That's why today I still put that as my go to tricep move for gains. I just, for me, all the different things that I remember implementing here, this was an, I remember this. I remember when I started doing close grip a bench press and I talk about how I like it on incline more than I like it on flat. Just personal preference. I just the, the, the size that I put on my triceps and this is late in my career, I'd already been training for some time, so this isn't like newbie gains coming on, but putting a lot of emphasis on. And again focusing on just getting strong in that lift. Like that was the thought was like, okay, I've implemented this a little bit in my routine here and there, but I've never made an effort, conservative effort, like, can I get strong with this lift? And I just went on a kick for like six months of getting strong with that lift and it was the best. My triceps.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, you mentioned those. You know, the bicep curl version of doing a chin up, now add weight to that, do less reps. You know, also like with, with dips, I do the same thing where you're adding weight and you're just, you're, you're not, you're scaling back your reps. So you're just very strength focused and you're adding load to that and you get the compound benefits as well. So I just think that anybody that's pursuing like getting bigger arms, a lot of times they're just always their go to is more reps. Oh, yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And those two or three lifts you Just because there's a lot of talk and you've seen things in magazines. Like a lot of times people will say, like it's a waste of time doing two or three reps for buys or tries.

[Sal Destefano]

No, not when you're doing a compound.

[Adam Schaefer]

Lift, but when you're doing a compound lift, like so when you think of the close grip bench, you think about dead, dead, I mean dips. When you think about the close grip pull up those, the, the body weight dips or with weighted dips, like, man, those three reps of that bangers for heavy, three laps on that, they work really well. Put mass on your arms, they're great.

[Sal Destefano]

For low reps. And the curl grip, by the way, the curl grip pull ups, most people won't be able to do these. Okay, so you might be able to.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, just body weights.

[Sal Destefano]

You might be able to do supinated grip pull ups and you might be able to rep out 10 of those. But doing them with the technique that I'm saying. And I remember the first time I learned these, I watched or like professional arm wrestlers do pull ups and I noticed their form was way off. I thought it was way off. It was very different. I should say traditional pull up. The way I learned it, the way I always taught it, it's a back exercise. Lead with your chest and you're leading with your chest. You're bringing your scapula down, you're squeezing your lats, you're trying to use your back. You're not, you're actually trying not to use your arms. Especially if you're a bodybuilder, you're trying to use more of your back. And I'd watch these, these arm wrestlers who are all arms, right, because they're arm wrestlers and they would round their shoulders forward and they'd do pull ups like this. And I remember thinking like that is wrong. I thought, oh, yeah, that's because they're, that's because their arms are really strong. Try doing a chin up like that. It's really hard. So I recommend you try a pull down first because you might hurt yourself. It's actually really difficult way of doing a pull up to pull with your biceps that way. But it is a low rep exercise, creates tremendous tension. And compound lifts always lend themselves better to low reps than isolation exercises. Right. So you could do low rep curls and tricep press downs, but they start to look ugly. Form goes out the window. They just don't lend themselves well to low reps. But the compound lifts definitely do compound lifts. Are great for the low reps. Next are to do stretch exercises. And what's cool about this is those of us who've been, you know, in. In the space for as long as we have, we've always noticed that stretch exercises seem to build great muscles in the arms. Right? So, like, overhead tricep extensions, like, that's always a favorite among people who really like to develop their triceps. You know, curls, incline curls that seem to be a favorite among people who want to build their biceps. Well, now we have studies that show that loading a muscle in a stretched position seems to have an additional hypertrophy benefit on top of what you would get from traditional exercise. In other words, loading in the stretch position seems to be more effective. So in your workout, overhead tricep extension, where you focus on the stretch and those incline curls where you're laying back and you're getting a real deep stretch at the bottom and then coming up, those are phenomenal exercises to add.

[Adam Schaefer]

So I'm going to add to this tip, because of all the ones you have on here, it makes the most sense to complements this tip. And that is where I, I found out how important it was to position my elbows in, like, three different positions for both my buys and tries for every workout. And really what that does is by. By moving the elbow position in those three different main points is you're messing with the strength curve. You're messing with making sure that one of those exercises is putting the muscle in the stretch position. And then one. Yeah. When tension is the highest, One's in the lengthened position, one's somewhere in the mid range is what's happening there. And that's all falls into this tip.

[Sal Destefano]

Like incline curl, preacher curl.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

Barbell curl.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

Right. Or overhead tricep extension, close grip, bench press, Tricep push down.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes, exactly. And that was like, game changer for me. I wish I remember where I read it or who told me at first was just like. Because I, at that point, before that point, I was guilty of, you know, doing two or three bicep exercise and tricep exercises with the same elbow position. You know, I'm doing the rope, then I'm doing the push down, then I'm doing reverse. I'm doing, like, these movements. Elbows are all positioned right by my side. Like, doing nothing up in front of me, nothing above my head, like. And that was like, massive game changer. Was just knowing how to do that in every one of my arm workouts is okay. That's the way I would Approach the arms is like, okay, today I need or I need to make sure elbows positioned in the three main positions. And really what it's doing is making sure that I'm attacking at least one in the stretched, one in the shortened, and one in the mid range.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. So, like, a good workout programming would look something like this, right? If you're doing, you're doing a bicep workout, you would do a few sets of the curl grip, pull downs or pull ups. If you're really strong, you would do barbell curls and you do incline curls. Right. You're hitting the bicep from different angles. For triceps, it might look like close grip, bench press, overhead tricep extension, tricep press down, different elbow position. Plus we're including a stretch exercise. Plus we're including the compound lift. Like, that's really, really good. Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

Fire.

[Sal Destefano]

Really good workout programming because the exercises that you combine make a difference, right? The exercises make a difference. There are some that are better than others, and then how you combine them make a difference. So this is the beauty of workout programming. Next up is to include trigger sessions on your off day. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you're doing your arm workouts. Well, here's what you do on Tuesday, here's what you do on Thursday, here's what you do on Saturday, here's what you do on Sunday. You get resistance bands and you give yourself a pump two or three times a day. That's it. Not a workout. Yeah, you just give yourself a pump.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's the key to this tip. The key to this tip is you're already doing plenty of volume and intensity with the workouts. It doesn't, you don't need more of that. This is more facilitating recovery, getting a pump. So the mistake whenever I teach this is then I find out later on the client is like treating extra workout. Yeah, they're like a workout. They're getting. They're. It's burning, they're turn. They're getting even sweat. And it's like they're. They're trying to get. And they think, they're thinking, oh, more is better. But that is not the desired outcome here. The desired outcome is you've already put the work in to grow. This is actually more to facilitate recovery. Pump some blood in there, keep oxygen, blood flow, everything coming in and out of that muscle, and that'll help facilitate recovery, which will then help build and grow. It is not to do damage. It is not to, like, push. And that's the mistake made when you, when you prescribe no, at my peak.

[Sal Destefano]

I would do three of these a day. I do three, you know, eight minute trigger sessions a day. And it literally was, I'm just going to get a little bit of a pump three times a day. And this, when you combine it with good workout programming, it really makes a big difference. And people overlook this. It's cool because we now have data showing just how much this amplifies muscle protein synthesis. We have data to show how it improves health and all that other stuff as well. But do not sleep on the trigger sessions. I'm telling you right now, if you gain another magic. If you could gain a half an inch through just the workout part, you probably can add another quarter inch from adding the trigger sessions or, or close to that much. That's how much of a difference the trigger sessions make. So don't sleep on them.

[Guest Speaker]

It's a bit of an energy boost as well. It's like you do like if, especially if you can spread it out three times a day when you have your normal dips and like all of a sudden now you're, you're pumping blood back and getting contraction out of your muscles. It's just enough to stimulate your body and your body's more alert, everything's working more effectively. You go back to a harder workout, you know, the following day and it's like, you know. Yeah, you don't feel like hammered at all. It's all refreshed.

[Adam Schaefer]

So generic tip to go again, It's a little generic over generalization here, but for most people, this should work Perfect. Which is one exercise, three sets of 15 to 20 reps. Yeah. With the lightest band you can get, like the real light orange one, which is typically the last one. Three sets of one exercise for the muscle group. 15 rep. 15 to 20 reps, that's enough.

[Sal Destefano]

Very short rest period.

[Adam Schaefer]

Very short. Yeah, yeah, very short. In fact, I normally do two or three exercises and I do it kind of like in a little circuit. Bicep curl, overhead extension, lateral raise. And then I go around. I do three rounds of that. Done like you there.

[Sal Destefano]

But make it buy and try. Yeah, that's it.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's it. And then you literally, that's all you're doing. You're not trying to do any more than that. And that, that'll do the. Do the job.

[Sal Destefano]

Next up, eat a lot. Eat in a surplus and sleep a lot. Like if you do everything perfect and you're not eating enough protein, enough calories, and if your sleep is crap, you can forget about all your gains. You'll go backwards. So you put your. Anytime you're trying to build muscle, anytime you're trying to work on a weak body part or see a massive difference, especially in a short period of time, you need to bump your calories. You need to put yourself in a calorie surplus. So for most people, that's adding 2 to 500 more calories a day than you're used to eating. We're only talking about 30 day period here. Yeah, 30 days, that's it. So 200 calories if you're a female, probably 500 calories if you're a male, in addition to what you're currently eating. Hit your target body weight and protein and get eight and a half hours of sleep. That's your target every single night. This is just as important as a workout for building muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

So in my experience, the, the two most common things that are keeping people from seeing the result, the people that want this. Right. The, the guy or the girl. Whoever saw this episode was like, I want to hear that. I'm, I'm interested. The two things that have kept them from being able to do this is either the first one we talked about over training, so too much intensity over volume. And the other one is undereating. And many times it's a combination of both. Many times I've got somebody who's doing all the work because they're trying to grow the arms and they're overdoing the work. And then they're also not consistent with getting enough protein and calories to support what they're doing. It's like the perfect recipe for plateau and not seeing results is you are training too hard, too much, and then on top of that, you're also not feeding what the body needs to recover. Those are the two most common.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And once a week. Here's the last one. Once a week in one of the workouts, do a few sets of blood flow restrictive training. This is, it's intense. Oh, yeah. So what this essentially is, is you'll use it. I like using knee rest for this. You use a knee wrap. You kind of tie it around the top of your arm above your bicep or tricep, tight enough to where you can feel some of the pressure. Then you get really light dumbbells and you do a bunch of reps of curls and a bunch of reps of tricep press down and you do three rounds of that. And what happens is the, the significantly lighter weight, very light. The knee wrap re. It occludes blood outflow so the muscle gets filled with blood, but it can't pump it out. So the pump gets really intense. It stretches the fascia, it sends muscle building signal and it's done with very, very lightweight. This by itself, by the way, is one of the fastest way to add.

[Guest Speaker]

You're living in that burn. Oh, it's everything that the hypertrophy burn provides, it amplifies that.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm pretty sure there is a video floating around where I have incredible hair and, and I'm working with Sal's son in a video. You guys are very handsome. You can probably find, you can probably find the video somewhere if you can add it to this. I think we did a long time ago on exactly how to do this. So if you're not sure how to set it up, I know we've done.

[Sal Destefano]

A video on this, but it'll add size to it. Works real well for calves too, in a very, very short period of time. So. But literally just do it once a week though. Don't get carried away with this. You get carried away with this. You can overdo as well. But one, you know, few sets for buys and tries. At the end of one of your workouts, get a crazy pump, burn, whatever, and then take off the wraps and there you go.

[Listener]

We have a few questions here. The first one is what is considered a big arm.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, you know what?

[Adam Schaefer]

All relatives.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. You know what's funny? So with a, with a man with a lean, you know, 16 inch arm. Right. A lean 16 inch arm that's defined is more, it's, it's definitely looks better. It's more impressive than in a kind of smooth 18 inch arm. Okay. So definition and muscularity make a big difference.

[Adam Schaefer]

Huge difference.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, huge difference. So. So typically in the world of muscle building, like if you get up to 17, 18 inch arms, you got big arms. Right. But more important to that is shape and definition. Like shape and definition is what makes all the difference.

[Adam Schaefer]

The most compliments I got on the size of my arms were when they were at least an inch to 2 inches smaller than what they've been.

[Sal Destefano]

Because you were ripped?

[Adam Schaefer]

Because I was ripped. Yeah, because I was so lean. When you are lean and you have, and your delts are built, you have good delts and you're lean separates that it makes the arm. And let's be honest, at the end of the day, I think most of us that want big arms are chasing that. It's less about the inches. Even though that's the way nobody asks.

[Sal Destefano]

You the tape measure.

[Adam Schaefer]

Nobody cares yeah, Nobody. It's like what they look like. And so I can tell you right now, being lean and having good shoulders adds to having great arms. More so than adding an inch to your soft arm.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Listener]

What is the best rep range for arm training?

[Sal Destefano]

You know, so if you're gonna go lower reps, it's the compound lifts, but the I. The typically, all rep ranges are valuable, but typically rep ranges between 8 to 15 are probably best. Just because a lot of the exercise are isolation. You can do low rep, isolation exercise. Just the form tends to go out the window.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna say that where the gold is at is in the one you don't do.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So that, you know, when Justin made the point about the dips and the pull, like, what's so cool about that is if you heard that and you loaded and done one of those exercises and then three reps of dips or three, like, you're gonna get a huge bankrupt. Now, if you're the type of person that loves to lift heavy and you always train 3 to 5, 6 reps most time, then you're gonna see tremendous value in 15 to 20 reps and superset type stuff. So it really is because again, all references style up. Yeah, whatever. Whatever it is that you lean more towards, try. Try leaning more towards the other direction. And in this short. If we're talking about 30 days. Right. I have 30 days to give you a half an inch to an inch on your arm. What am I doing? Well, if I'm coaching you, I'm gonna ask you, are you the guy who's more likely to do the three reps on the dips, or are you the guy who's more likely to superset point two exercise and then I'm gonna push you in that direction? Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

We didn't even talk about supersets. That's another.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Big one.

[Listener]

Next question is, do cheat reps have any value?

[Sal Destefano]

Not really. I mean, you know, there's arguments for and against it, but I think she. I think there's definitely people who know how to maintain tension, who know how to hit the target muscle properly. And with a cheat rep, there's people who. Who have the skill and this ability. Typically, they're advanced lifters. Bodybuilders can do this really well. But I typically advise against them because I don't see value. There's really no value outside of the fact that you're using more weight. And I think if you use less weight with stricter form, it's Just as valuable.

[Adam Schaefer]

Not only that, Sal, but if you use like this, the theory behind why these have any value whatsoever. If you apply that to the compound list we talked about, you're going to get all that. So, like, I think seeing someone do a cheat rep on strict bi, like where your standard bicep curl is not a good idea. Now if you had to cheat your way up to a pull up because your body weight or the, you know, the 30 pound kettlebell you're pulling up is so heavy, like you're going to get more out of that than you would do in an isolation exercise that you're rocking or swinging. Cheating. Does that make sense?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I just, I don't recommend it. I think the people who can do cheat reps really well are really advanced and they know how to maintain tension. Like, and they, and I think they would get just as much value.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Going strict.

[Adam Schaefer]

I agree. On the value ladder. This is the bottom.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

I wouldn't even. This wasn't in our list for a reason.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Listener]

Next question is, is the pump important?

[Sal Destefano]

Very important. Now it's less important as a muscle building signal. Although there's evidence that shows that the pumpkin might actually trigger some muscle growth itself. It's more valuable though, as a sign that everything is right. Okay, so if you're getting a really.

[Guest Speaker]

Connecting to the muscle.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. If you're getting a really good pump, you're probably well hydrated, well fed, well rested, not overtrained. If you're working out and you can't get a good pump, then it's probably one of those things is off. Right. So it's again, it's less about the pump making the muscle grow. Although again, there's some evidence that shows that it may do that as well. But it's, for me, if I can't get a good pump, it's like, okay, what am I? What's off? Why am I not able to get a good pump?

[Guest Speaker]

Am I hydrated enough? Like, what's happening?

[Sal Destefano]

That's it, 100%. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is mindpumpjustin. I'm @mindpump, distefano and Adam's mindpump.

[Listener]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically, improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, anabolic maps, performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

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