I have thin arms compared to my overall body
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vinit33pratap
Posts: 23 Member
24y/male, 5'6", 62kg.
I have thin and weak arms if you'll look at my overall physique. I lack strength and live a sedentary lifestyle. I have recently started working towards by fitness by simple walking, cycling and yoga. Having thin arms really bothers me about my appearance and lack of physical strength which can be easily experience during pushups and lifting. Dragging a 200cc motorbike is quite a task for my body
I just want to fix this so pls suggest me effective nutrition/exercise regime.
I have thin and weak arms if you'll look at my overall physique. I lack strength and live a sedentary lifestyle. I have recently started working towards by fitness by simple walking, cycling and yoga. Having thin arms really bothers me about my appearance and lack of physical strength which can be easily experience during pushups and lifting. Dragging a 200cc motorbike is quite a task for my body
I just want to fix this so pls suggest me effective nutrition/exercise regime.
2
Replies
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Start a progressive lifting program, and eat at a slight surplus (say 250 cals over maintenance).... This will help add muscle mass, increase your strength and bulk you up a bit!7
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http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1
Start lifting. It will help increase strength and overtime, if you bulk, you can gain size. What are you currently doing really isn't going to help outside of cardiovascular health.2 -
Thanks for quick response.
I should mention here that even though I had pretty good BMI but my body fat was visible(may be it was due to high carbs(~70%) and less protein intake that I got to know once I started logging on myfitnesspal). I lost 2kg by calorie management and I could see that my belly fat is no more visible.
But real concern is my arms are still like I'm a teenager but my other body parts(chest, thighs, legs, shoulder, abdomen etc) are perfectly in shape.
Now my target is:
1) to get arm mass proportional to my body
2) not get those belly fat back
3) Strength.0 -
Do more pushups and add pullups and dips if you can. Just doing pullups, pushups and dips will help to build up your arms, shoulders, chest and back.
I do these plus bench press and overhead press lifts for upper body strength and development. Do these lifts as well if you have access to a gym w/lifting equipment.
Gradually increase the reps and/or weight as you progress. If you remain sedentary and don't want to regain fat, eat at maintenance which should allow you to build muscle w/o increasing fat. If you do it "right", you may even be able to recomp and build muscle while also burning fat.
Good luck!3 -
I'd recommend swimming. It's a great all round workout but really works your arms and shoulders, you can choose to isolate your arms or legs, do different strokes or drills to target different muscles, increase resistance using drag shorts, plus it increases your overall fitness levels and is low impact. Speaking as an ex-swimmer, swimmers shoulders are a thing!2
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1) Start doing resistance training
2) Get your diet in check
You need to experience muscle hypertrophy in order to increase the size of your muscles. Since you have not lifted before you will likely experience DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) it is annoying but it is good, do not let it discourage you, it means you are growing. Your muscles form microscopic tears when you strain them through exercise and when your muscles are repaired they grow.
Macronutrient ratios are important for body composition. You need to eat more protein. From what I have read lately you should strive for .24g/kg of protein within each meal with at least 2.5g of leucine. Try to take in that amount every 3-4 hours you are awake to continually stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
Right after you work out you should take in a fast acting protein like ISO100 and a fast acting carbohydrate like pixy stix. The time-frame is under contention but for a few hours after you work out your muscles are highly insulin sensitive, meaning they are able to absorb nutrients more efficiently, you want to take advantage of this.
6 -
1) Start doing resistance training
2) Get your diet in check
You need to experience muscle hypertrophy in order to increase the size of your muscles. Since you have not lifted before you will likely experience DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) it is annoying but it is good, do not let it discourage you, it means you are growing. Your muscles form microscopic tears when you strain them through exercise and when your muscles are repaired they grow.
Macronutrient ratios are important for body composition. You need to eat more protein. From what I have read lately you should strive for .24g/kg of protein within each meal with at least 2.5g of leucine. Try to take in that amount every 3-4 hours you are awake to continually stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
Right after you work out you should take in a fast acting protein like ISO100 and a fast acting carbohydrate like pixy stix. The time-frame is under contention but for a few hours after you work out your muscles are highly insulin sensitive, meaning they are able to absorb nutrients more efficiently, you want to take advantage of this.
Just to point out, DOMS does not mean you are growing. Its a bit genetic and means you have an active stimulus. And you dont really need to spread protein.3 -
vinit33pratap wrote: »24y/male, 5'6", 62kg.
I have thin and weak arms if you'll look at my overall physique. I lack strength and live a sedentary lifestyle. I have recently started working towards by fitness by simple walking, cycling and yoga. Having thin arms really bothers me about my appearance and lack of physical strength which can be easily experience during pushups and lifting. Dragging a 200cc motorbike is quite a task for my body
I just want to fix this so pls suggest me effective nutrition/exercise regime.
Everyone starts out somewhere. Don't let this get you down.
There are several progressive lifting programs out there, but I recommend Stronglifts 5x5 to beginners. Great easy to use app. Tons of videos stressing form and a solid community. You can't go wrong with this.
You've already found MFP, so nutrition and calorie management are pretty basic. Just follow the guidelines MFP sets for you. No issue with carbs - you need those to build muscle.
Note that this will take time. Months and years, so don't get discouraged with the lack of immediate results. Slow and steady wins this race.3 -
I had the same issue, I still don't have big guns but I'm satisfied with my overall progress, I went from being noodle arms to pretty good arms, I have thin wrists and my whole arm was as thin as my wrist, now my wrist is the same but I developed forearms, biceps and triceps. I will tell you what to change in your workout regimen to help you, diet is a priority but many others replied and their responses are very useful. When I started lifting weights, I was on a classic chest Tri- Back Bi- shoulder-legs split. I quickly developed good pecs but my arms were lacking, only when I isolated every individual groups in their own day, I had bi and tri in their own day and focused on emphasizing the short and long head of the biceps, doing supersets, I was able to see change. Some people would say focus on overall development and then isolate individual muscle groups. I'm not saying this will work for everyone but it worked on me and it might on you. If you need more details about the workout regimen I used, I'd be glad to share. Goodluck5
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I'd suggest a personal trainer to show you some basics for exercise, and YouTube is a good place to find a lot of diet and exercise advice.2
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For arms I've found a lot of volume on triceps was hugely effective to add size, I put an inch on my arms in 18 months simply by starting to focus on more volume on triceps and obviously biceps as well. But triceps are 2/3rds of your arm, so they're actually the most important thing with arms size. Try to eat a lot of protein as well obviously, there are a lot of charts out there to calculate what you need to get in per day.2
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1) Start doing resistance training
2) Get your diet in check
You need to experience muscle hypertrophy in order to increase the size of your muscles. Since you have not lifted before you will likely experience DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) it is annoying but it is good, do not let it discourage you, it means you are growing. Your muscles form microscopic tears when you strain them through exercise and when your muscles are repaired they grow.
Macronutrient ratios are important for body composition. You need to eat more protein. From what I have read lately you should strive for .24g/kg of protein within each meal with at least 2.5g of leucine. Try to take in that amount every 3-4 hours you are awake to continually stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
Right after you work out you should take in a fast acting protein like ISO100 and a fast acting carbohydrate like pixy stix. The time-frame is under contention but for a few hours after you work out your muscles are highly insulin sensitive, meaning they are able to absorb nutrients more efficiently, you want to take advantage of this.
Just to point out, DOMS does not mean you are growing. Its a bit genetic and means you have an active stimulus. And you dont really need to spread protein.
For overall health it is not that important but for body composition protein timing, quality, and volume is important.
With high protein less frequent meal, you supply all amino acids sources, the extra are oxidized for energy or turned to body fat. If you do not eat protein spread out through the day but instead for instance eat it all in one 100g protein steak, only 50g or so (depending on your size) will go toward muscle, the reset is oxidized or turned to fat and you are catabolic the rest of the day
Protein does not have a reserve store of amino acid except in muscle, if you do not have amino acids your body takes it from muscle.
He needs to lead muscle-protein synthesis toward net protein gain. It is a battle of synthesis vs. breakdown.
On the inverse of only eating a meal or two of protein, you should not eat a steady stream of protein through the day. You want to time your amino acids to lower and then raise, it creates protein synthesis more than having a constant stream of amino acids put into your system.
7 -
1) Start doing resistance training
2) Get your diet in check
You need to experience muscle hypertrophy in order to increase the size of your muscles. Since you have not lifted before you will likely experience DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) it is annoying but it is good, do not let it discourage you, it means you are growing. Your muscles form microscopic tears when you strain them through exercise and when your muscles are repaired they grow.
Macronutrient ratios are important for body composition. You need to eat more protein. From what I have read lately you should strive for .24g/kg of protein within each meal with at least 2.5g of leucine. Try to take in that amount every 3-4 hours you are awake to continually stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
Right after you work out you should take in a fast acting protein like ISO100 and a fast acting carbohydrate like pixy stix. The time-frame is under contention but for a few hours after you work out your muscles are highly insulin sensitive, meaning they are able to absorb nutrients more efficiently, you want to take advantage of this.
Just to point out, DOMS does not mean you are growing. Its a bit genetic and means you have an active stimulus. And you dont really need to spread protein.
For overall health it is not that important but for body composition protein timing, quality, and volume is important.
With high protein less frequent meal, you supply all amino acids sources, the extra are oxidized for energy or turned to body fat. If you do not eat protein spread out through the day but instead for instance eat it all in one 100g protein steak, only 50g or so (depending on your size) will go toward muscle, the reset is oxidized or turned to fat and you are catabolic the rest of the day
Protein does not have a reserve store of amino acid except in muscle, if you do not have amino acids your body takes it from muscle.
He needs to lead muscle-protein synthesis toward net protein gain. It is a battle of synthesis vs. breakdown.
On the inverse of only eating a meal or two of protein, you should not eat a steady stream of protein through the day. You want to time your amino acids to lower and then raise, it creates protein synthesis more than having a constant stream of amino acids put into your system.
The importance of meal timing is not exactly conclusive and there is a lot of contradicting evidence to support the need to spread protein throughout the day, even in hypocaloric conditions. In terms of prioritization, timing is not at the top of that. Holding protein/calories constant over the day, you will unlike see improvements going from 2 meals to 7 meals. What is more important, especially for a new person, is a solid progressive overload training program and an intake that supports the goal. If one wants to gain, than a surplus is needed. If one is in a surplus, the amount of time that you are catabolic is minimal, as net energy balance would be favorable.
Additionally, one must consider the digestion times of foods (i.e., egg proteins are ~ 5 hours). So if you have semi regular meals, you will have amino acids in circulation regularly. Considering that your body just doesn't catabolize muscle every time you sleep (since we have fat and glycogen available), then you shouldn't have a need to worry about eating frequently during the day. Heck, look at programs like leangains who utilize IF style eating windows while bulking. You will see equivalent muscle gain rates as those who eat 6x a day.
For reference, below is one of the more current semantic reviews of the literature. A cavet is that it's focused on those in a deficit, so the implications to those bulking would be limited. But if there is little to no impact while cutting, the you can extrapolate that those bulking will have even less of an impact.
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-11-204 -
I appreciate everyone's insightful review of the issue here, while I accept that being a newb I need to understand few jargons you guys mentioned. Getting protein goals for a vegetarian is challenging and I am not sure how good supplements are in long term. Regarding workout, I did some search on YouTube and find that beginner level Bodyweight exercises are suitable for my needs and more importantly my physical capability at current stage. I'll work on these and hope to gradually scale up. These exercises target whole body muscles and don't require me to hit a Gym. While my arms and wrist do not look anaemic but they are for sure girly lol. I'm pretty much positive about my changes, Thanks!0
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By vegetarian, I'm going to assume not vegan and that you're still ok with animal products?
If so, the following have insanely high amounts of protein:
* eggs (esp. egg whites)
* Greek yogurt
* Cottage cheese
* Whey4 -
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Vegetarian and love eggs(including yolk) and have easy access to dairy products you mention except whey. I can rely on these as my exercises are not of high volume currently. One thing I've noticed that my arm shivers and feel losed up rest of the without day. Do I need more specific progressive workouts?0
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vinit33pratap wrote: »Vegetarian and love eggs(including yolk) and have easy access to dairy products you mention except whey. I can rely on these as my exercises are not of high volume currently. One thing I've noticed that my arm shivers and feel losed up rest of the without day. Do I need more specific progressive workouts?
Yes. You want continuous progressive overload, which is why you should probably look at the link I posted for a structured program.5 -
I see a lot of young guys in my gym, they will walk in, pick up a couple of dumb bells, do variations on bicep curls for an hour, then go home. Please don't do this, you wont build the mass you want.
As said above, eat at a slight surplus (use MFP), pick a simple lifting program which focuses on compound lifts and stick to it.4 -
I see a lot of young guys in my gym, they will walk in, pick up a couple of dumb bells, do variations on bicep curls for an hour, then go home. Please don't do this, you wont build the mass you want.
As said above, eat at a slight surplus (use MFP), pick a simple lifting program which focuses on compound lifts and stick to it.
I feel we go to the same gym... but my personal fav is when people do wrist curls in the squat rack... i *kitten* you not.1
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