thowing curls in at the end of strength sessions, where to draw the line, but also see progress.

Sup guys.

I dont post on these training forums too much these days, only made a single post here but been a long time subscriber over at rosstraining.net for a while now. I love the site and have a couple of Rosses books but the forum is not always the most helpful for people like me who need pointing in the right direction sometimes.I have a question I asked there but feel I would probably be better off trying to get my answers here.

So im just gonna copy and paste the message but basically. I understand that heads clash subject of bicep curls. I have seen other threads and come to the conclusion that they are perfectly fine to do as long as you dont over do it. I am 5'10 and weight around 70kg, my arms are 12" unflexed.. pretty poor. At the very least I want to add an inch to them, if this means I need to put some size back on (i.e. bulk up about 10 -13ibs) then thats fine, but I know when my weight was in the 160's my arms were still only just over 12". Doesnt matter how many chinups I can do. I feel they need direct work.

I feel some guys here might be a little more open minded about this.

Either way I just want these questions answering so I know where to limit myself in regards to arm training. Thanks in advance.

If training mma 4 times a week and doing shadowboxing and heavybag work at home 5 times a week (mornings), engaging in 2 strength workouts but thinking of upping it to 3 which is a big part of why I wanna ask about this. I generally have always had weak biceps, I am pretty torso dominant too, and I basically want bigger and stronger arms. I have read it can help with mma in the clinch. At the same time I dont want it detracting from shadowboxing and heavybag work whether because of development or recovery. I dont want them to detract from more important work skill work, I dont want them slowing punches down either, basically. However I also realise they can help a little in clinching/wrestling.

So the questions I have about this ill bullet point to make this quick.

1 - If performing 3 strength workouts a week would it be better to just do curls at the end of 2 strength workouts or is doing it at the end of all 3 ok.

2 - "THREE" sets or "FOUR" sets?.. to see gains but also for it not to be an issue recovery wise. Also if a finisher is included in the routine then should the curls be done first before the finisher. This one might sound silly but im just asking because I know athletes generally say if you gotta do curls do them at the very end, and technically the finisher is more important (i.e. carries or farmers walks, pushups etc)

3 - "REPS" how many reps? is 12 reps (hypertrophy range) going to cause problems with punch speed or cause unnecessary bulk that will hinder athletic performance, is the low rep strength range (5-6) silly for curls when using dumbells?.. I honestly havent got a clue what to do from an athletic/ not bodybuilder perspective, although I realise there can be some crossover. I havent trained biceps in isolation since I was like 14 years old. So I dont have a clue what im doing. 12 reps might be good for bicep endurance after all right?..

4 - "Tempo" (something that is very rarely discussed here) I dont pay attention to it during my strength workouts but perhaps doing so when finishing with curls I can get better results (like I said my biceps are a really weak area compared to other areas). I have thought about the idea of using 1 second positive 3 seconds negative, again is this gonna cause excess soreness or hinder punch speed or power, I think information is conflicting as technique should be number one anyway in regards to that.

 

Nothing wrong with adding curls after your workouts. Whether or not the mass will slow you down, well it most likely wont at all, so just keep it in the hypetrophy range if that's what you want to build. The upperbody and upper extremities usually takes a little more volume to improve as well, but it depends on the person.

You're fine. Try it out. As long as it's a few sets of curls after your strength sessions it's highly unlikely that it will impede your recovery in any meaningful way. You could start at the low end with 3 sets the first few times and then work up to 4, if you want.

Yes, tempo is an awesome way to manipulate your training. Definitely do it with a controlled eccentric.

See how you respond. We are all individuals.

 

If you're not curling every sesh dyel?

 

I got elbow tendonitis because I never curled while doing so much overhand pulling work. Now I have to make sure I do multiple high rep sets every workout.