Stop ruining your gains! Lee Priest reveals the brutal mistake you're making in your arm training too!

Lee Priest, an IFBB Pro League legend, is still known today for having some of the best arms in bodybuilding history. Although he wasn't one of the top competitors, he was able to fight his way to the very top, beating icons like Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman. Jay Cutler himself even called Priest's form from his prime years one of the best of all time.

In his peak form, he reached an incredible arm circumference of 61 cm (24 inches) at an out-of-competition weight of around 130 kg (285 pounds). Now, the Australian phenom shares his tips on how to train arms properly, how to maximize their growth and most importantly - how to prevent unnecessary fatigue and injury.

Arms deserve their own training

In a recent video, Priest revealed that the key to his huge arms was the fact that he dedicated a separate training day to them during the week. According to him, it's a fundamental mistake to train triceps or biceps the day before a heavy workout for large muscle areas like the back or chest.

"I train my arms alone. I would never do a heavy triceps workout the day before I'm supposed to train my chest or shoulders, because you lose a lot of the compressive power that way. Likewise, I wouldn't include a massive biceps workout the day before a back workout. I always leave the big muscles first and save the arms for later," Priestexplains .

Spacing out your workouts as injury prevention

Priest strongly cautions against starting the week with an arm workout if you plan to train upper body on the following days. This is because tired and strained arms pose a huge risk of injury if you subsequently try to lift heavy weights with them for complex chest or back exercises.

If for some reason you don't want to (or can't) have a dedicated day for your arms, Priest recommends trying this progressive split:

• Day 1: Back
• Day 2: Chest and biceps
• Day 3: Shoulders and triceps

"Don't start the week with the arms and then try to work out the rest of the top the next day. You'll have tired muscles and you're just setting yourself up for injury when you try to go to heavy weights," she adds.

Quality and volume of work are key

Priest's approach perfectly complements the opinion of another legend, four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler, who recently reminded us that consistent isolation is essential for maximum biceps growth. Cutler also emphasized that the arms are definitely not among the areas that would be satisfied with low-volume training. On the contrary - they require consistent hard work.

Conclusion

Lee Priest's advice is based on decades of hard work and real-world experience at the absolute highest level. If your arms are stuck at a dead stop or premature fatigue is holding you back during heavy presses and pull-ups, it may be time to rethink your training plan. Shift your arm workouts to later in the week, give them their own space, and watch them grow without risk of injury!