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Originally Posted by 0311
During my first run through with Bill Starr's 5x5 I had 18 1/4 roughly. During the training cycle, I did 2 sets of barbell curls a week. My indirect arm work consisted of JS Rows twice a week (5x5) and weighted pullups (5x5). Those heavy pulling exercises combined with all the compound pressing I was doing jammed my biceps up to 19's. After every workout, my arms were toast.
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Bingo! While I do some direct arm work (currently doing Lyle McDonald's generic bulking routine) near the end of my upper body workouts, I believe that heavy pulling exercises work well enough for bi's, while heavy pressing works well for tri's. I've never seen anybody who can row, do pull-ups, bench, etc. (throw in any multitude of compound/multi-joint exercises) with loads of weight and still have small arms. Lyle even notes that he threw in a couple of arm exercises in the routine for the "OCD bodybuilder" who HAS to do some arm work. Like I said, being somewhat OCD I do in fact throw in one exercise for bi's, one for tri's at the end of my upper body workouts.
I've gotten the greatest hypertrophy gains while focusing on the big, multi-joint, compound movements (and at the dinner table of course). Strength goes up as well but make no mistake, I am more focused on the esthetic aspect of gaining muscle and size for the look.