This is a two month journal I did to document my size gains from arm training.
Things You Will Notice
- My diet contains a lot of the same foods each week. Once you find healthy foods it makes sense you include them often.
- There are ‘bad’ foods. I eat pizza. I eat curry. I eat ice lollies. I do these things in moderation.
- I only drink water or milk. I avoid ALL fruit juices and soft drinks.
- I don’t eat THAT much protein. At 74kg I averaged 125 grams of protein per day.
- My workouts are consistent. Sometimes work gets in the way, sometimes friends get in the way. I completed every workout I set out to do over the 60 days.
- I don’t like cardio. This was not a fat loss program, it was an arm building program. For the same reason there wasn’t a high volume of leg work.
- I don’t have a six pack. Focus on the size of my biceps and triceps in the videos, not my body fat percentage.
- I didn’t gain weight. This shows me that ~2100 calories is my maintenance, and if I wanted to gain muscle I could eat 10-20 grams of extra protein and 30-40 grams of extra carbs each workout day.
- My results aren’t groundbreaking. I wanted an honest account of results, no photoshop, no using lighting or not flexing properly to make it look like it’s really easy to gain size.
- My diet isn’t that great. Some days are 15 hours in the office with only Tesco to buy from and no time to prep, so I rely on convenience food to get by.
Nutritional Summary
Over the 60 days my macro’s fluctuated, but if I group it by workout day and take an average it looks very consistent.
9 Chest Days, Averaging: Protein 134 Carbs 220 Fat 83 Calories 2157
9 Back Days, Averaging: Protein 116 Carbs 224 Fat 76 Calories 2050
9 Bicep Days, Averaging: Protein 126 Carbs 216 Fat 81 Calories 2096
8 Squat Days, Averaging: Protein 121 Carbs 228 Fat 75 Calories 2069
4 Cardio Days, Averaging: Protein 103 Carbs 196 Fat 90 Calories 2003
21 Rest Days, Averaging: Protein 117 Carbs 152 Fat 89 Calories 1876
Progress Video: Day One
I’m not too defined here, but at the same time I do have some muscle so i’m not starting as a complete beginner.
If you want a simple breakdown of each session then visit this page.
Progress Video: Day Thirty One
I would say my arms look a tiny bit thicker and i’m looking leaner despite taking creatine after ever session. I tried to get the lighting the same but that’s making it hard to get an exact comparison.
I weigh almost exactly the same, but I reckon my body fat is down and muscle mass up. As you can see from my diet i’m trying to carb cycle (higher carb weight days, low carb rest days), I’m not super-strict but I have staples like peanut butter, eggs, oats, chicken that feature heavily. If I wanted to increase my mass the first thing i’d do would be to increase carbs around my workouts.
Progress Video: Day Sixty One
Over the sixty days I put on half an inch to my upper arms. I felt like my upper chest filled out a bit and particularly noticed my triceps were thicker.
This was all on a calorie maintenance phase. I actually lost 1kg throughout the two months. You can get “bigger” arms if you have a higher body fat, as that layer of fat will push the tape measure that bit further. If you compare to the first video I think you’ll agree my arms have greater definition as well as size.
Points To Consider
- If you bring intensity to every workout, and structure it to increase the volume on the body part you want to hit, you should see results.
- You don’t have to eat 200 grams of Protein a day to gain muscle. The supplement industry is trying to convince you to buy their product, so will exaggerate your needs.
I hope you find something useful from this, best of luck with your own training!
