1) LESS VOLUME! 

 

Small muscles require less volume, and recover faster. Basic logic says, 
a smaller muscle has less overall total volume of muscle fibres. It takes 
LESS overall stimulus to fatigue these muscles and less overall training
volume to exhaust glycogen stores (stored muscle energy).

 

2) HEAVY WEIGHTS (WITH PERFECT FORM) 

 

Heavy weights are going to fatigue a greater overall percentage of muscle
fibres in a shorter amount of time (aka less sets). Heavy weights also have
the added benefit of stimulating "high threshold motor units".

These are the muscle fibres that require a lot more stimulus to grow and
respond, but also the fibres that are more likely to be responsible for
muscle hypertrophy or GROWTH!

3) ARMS RECEIVE A LOT OF STIMULUS ON A REGULAR BASIS

Arms receive a lot of stimulus on a regular basis. For most people, this tends
to occur in the middle of the range of motion where the muscles are strongest.

In order to get the arms to grow and respond, it is necessary to subject them
to a different type of stimulus. One of the best ways to improve arm
development is to subject them to more tension and continuous tension at
the extremes of the range of motion (a.k.a, when a muscle is fully lengthened

4) YOU MUST ENGAGE THE TARGET MUSCLE FIRST IN ANY MOVEMENT

The FIRST muscle to engage in ANY movement must be the muscle you are
trying to target. If you are working your biceps, to most effectively stimulate
the bicep, it must be the muscle to initiate the movement. As mentioned, muscles
are weakest at those extremes and that makes it LEAST likely to contract.

This is where your conscious intent and control is vital! The best way to ensure
this is happening is to CONTRACT its antagonist muscle. This will ensure a
fully lengthened working muscle and make it much more likely that it will initiate
the movement (provided you're using proper control).

 

e.g. when working your bicep, to fully stretch your bicep at the bottom of the
range, it is necessary to contract your triceps before initiating the movement of
contracting your bicep again.The opposite is true when training triceps.

Contract your biceps at the top of the range when a tricep is fully
stretched(forearm touches biceps).