Better for arm growth to train arms on the same day as squats?

Question

I've read that squats and deadlifts promote overall muscle growth in the body. Does this mean that if I want to increase growth faster in, say, my arms, I should exercise my arms on the same day as I do one of these heavy compound lifts?

I am currently on the following three day split, and I wonder if I would benefit more from exercising my arms and chest on the same day as I do squats or deadlifts. I am not actually interested in leg growth, as I have relatively large legs already.

1. chest and arms (this includes bench press)
2. legs and abs (this includes squats)
3. shoulders and back (this includes deadlifts)

To be clear, I am interested in muscle growth, not necessarily strength.

Answer 1

Some thought/comments/recommendations:

1. doing squats and dead lifts on back to back days will not get you the muscle growth you seek. In essence you are working many of the same muscles two days in a row. My suggestion is swap day 1 and day 2 and make day 4 an off day which I assume it is already.

2. squat and dead lift do promote overall muscle growth, but not in the way i think you understand it. squats and DL's strengthen your core and the overall foundation of your muscle skeletal system which is required as you build secondary muscles. whether you do arms on the same day as your legs is really not the point. however, one could argue in favor of doing arms on leg day, but because your arms will not be pre-fatigued from doing other primary muscle exercises. then someone else will argue pre-fatiguing yields better results.

3. abs 1x per 3 days is not enough...every workout!

4. change splits every 4-6 weeks....inevitably you will need to do arms with other upper body parts, but as long as you keep rotating and mixing it up the growth and results will continue.

An Example: 1. Chest - Shoulders

1. Back - Bi's (No Deadlifts)

2. Legs - Tri's (Squats)

Great bi busters - 21's - get a medium/light weight barbell and do standing curls - 7 reps that go from bottom to halfway point then without rest or putting dumbbell down do 7 reps from top to the halfway down point then without rest or putting dumbbell down do 7 full range reps! I usually do 3-5 sets of these and call it a day!

Another fav is get three sets of dumbbells 10-15-20 and do super sets - 1x10 w/10lb then without rest 1x10 w/15lb - then without rest 1x10 w/20lb - I usually do 3-5 sets of these and call it a day!

On last recommendation for overall arm size...DIPS, DIPS and more DIPS!

Answer 2

There is no reason not to do them on the same day. The key is to not overdo the load. In short no more than 5 sets of 5 reps on squats and 1 set of 5 reps on the deadlift. BTW, deadlift is probably the best exercise to improve your grip.

My background is strength training, so my answer may not exactly be what you are looking for. Essentially for strength gains squats and deadlifts are excellent exercises. My program alternates two full body workouts with a day of rest in between. Squats are done every session. The upper body swaps between bench press and overhead press. The other exercise swaps between barbell rows and deadlifts (both get the back muscles).

Incorporating squats and deadlifts into a split routine is very tricky precisely because they hit so many areas on your body.

• Squats and deadlifts get your glutes, hamstrings, and core
• Squats also get your adductors and quads
• Deadlifts also get your forearms, grip, lats (great back exercise), and to a lesser degree your quads.

You have to factor in recovery time, which really depends on how much volume you are doing, and your ability to recover. A beginner recovers pretty quickly, but that is because they can't get the same volume as a very strong intermediate lifter (someone who can squat 1.5x body weight to full parallel).

Lastly, you have to make sure you do these lifts correctly or you will get injured. If you do half squats or anything less than the full range of motion (ROM) you are setting yourself up for injury at a later point. If you don't perform the steps of the deadlift correctly you can injure your back. Yet, they are very powerful lifts. Even if it's not your goal, you won't be able to help getting stronger doing these lifts.

Your program can work as long as you have a full day of rest between each workout. Other than your forearms, neither lift works the arms appreciably.

NOTE: regarding the question of them stimulating arm growth, I don't think that they do. Your muscles respond to stress that you put on them, and neither lift stresses the arms that much.