Building Big Arms: A Comprehensive Guide

Welcome to our Comprehensive Guide to Biceps and Triceps Training

When it comes to impressive muscles, arms are the Kings! When it comes to Building Big Arms.

Men in particular are in ore of big guns and men tend to work their arms way to much, I know that’s a bit of a kicker but its true.

Over working the biceps/triceps, discourages any possible growth.

Believe it or not, but the bicep muscles are some of the smallest muscles in the body and can be easily overworked or damaged.

Let me give you a fact you must always keep at the back of your mind, biceps in particular will shrink due to overtraining.

The triceps on the other hand make up to about two-thirds of the upper arm’s muscle mass.

So putting all your effort into building the biceps is a bit counter productive as the triceps make up the mass of the arm size.

Big arms will also help you in an unexpected way, bigger and stronger triceps for example, will help power your bench press and shoulder press.

We will focus on both biceps and triceps exercise and development in this discussion, even though you shouldn’t train them on the same day to avoid over training.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking to bulk up your arms, lose some weight, get fit, or simply improve overall fitness.

These techniques will help you on your journey to ‘Building Big Arms’.

Understanding Muscle Anatomy

Before we get into the workout routines, it’s essential to understand the anatomy of your arms.

Remember I said earlier that the bicep is a Smallest muscle in the body and that’s because the bicep brachii is a two-headed muscle located at the front of the upper arm.

It’s primarily responsible for elbow flexion. The triceps brachii, on the other hand, is a three-headed muscle located at the back of the upper arms.

This is why you can lift more weight with the triceps, compared to the biceps. Also the tricep brachii is crucial for elbow extension.

Both muscles work together to enhance your arm’s strength and look, so it’s vital to incorporate exercises that target both areas effectively.

It’s also important not to incorporate the bicep and tricep workout together, let’s think about this for a moment.

If let’s say, you work your biceps on the Monday and are back at the gym on Wednesday to exercise your back.

Back requires your biceps to pull a weight towards your body consequently you are in fact working your biceps two days in a row, they therefore don’t get the rest they need to recover and grow.

So, let’s dive into effective strategies for building muscle, honing in on the exercises you can do in the gym to achieve your physical goals.

How to Maximise Your Biceps And Triceps Exercise

To start with, I would split the week into three, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And then I train each muscle groups like the bicep/tricep group, as follows:

1.  On Monday I do all my pulling work, biceps and back.

2. On Wednesday, I will do all my pushing work, chest and triceps, working the large muscle group first.

3. This will semi work the small muscles which would then require less work to stimuli muscle growth.

4.  On Friday I would do legs followed by shoulders, leaving me Tuesday or Friday and the weekend to do cardio if required.

The following week I would repeat. This will make sure I give each muscle group time to recover, remember it’s only ‘During’ rest periods muscle grows, not when we are training in the gym.

Three Key Strategies for Building Arm Mass

To build muscle mass, lose weight, and improve overall fitness, consider the following three strategies:

* Rest and Recovery: I know I keep on banging on about this but it’s so important to your progress If you don’t rest and allow your muscles to recover you will never get the development you want

Allow your muscles time to recover between workouts. Overtraining can hinder the progress and lead to injury.

* Varied Workouts: Mix up your routine to prevent plateaus and keep your muscles engaged. You should know about 5 different exercise for each muscle group.

On Monday when you do your arms, for example, you should pick three exercises from those 5 exercises you know.

Then on the following Monday, pick one you have already used and the two you haven’t done, repeating the process every other week.

This way your muscles cannot get use to your exercise routine, which will allow for continuous stimulation and growth.

* Proper Nutrition: To ensure you consume a balanced diet rich in protein, fish in particular as it contains healthy fats, and carbohydrates, to support muscle recovery and development.

Effective Arm Exercises for the Gym

Now, let’s explore some effective arm exercises which will also help you achieve your fitness goals!

To understand these key principles we are going to start with the statement of ‘Progressive Overload’, because it happens to be the main factor in builds muscle mass effectively, but unfortunately, it’s very much misunderstood.

The idea behind this statement is to gradually increase the weight or resistance you are using in your workouts.

This continual challenge stops your muscles getting use to what you are doing and will stimulate muscle growth due to the ever increasing stress put on that muscle group.

Although this statement Progressive Overload is in itself correct, it doesn’t mean increase weight with every training session, you only increase resistance (weight), when your strength levels have had time to increase too.

Just a quick note on Sets & Reps. You should be looking at doing 3x sets per exercise and you should look to do 12 reps 1^st set, 8 reps 2^nd set, and 6 reps 3^rd set.

It’s important to use a weight that will allow you to complete the rep range but not to heavy you can not finish the rep range too. You should be struggling to get out the last rep.

Barbell Curls Biceps

What follows are 3 bicep and tricep exercises for you to get started with. They are by no mins the only exercises available for your bicep or triceps, which we can get in to later.

How to Perform Barbell Bicep Curls

– Stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart while holding a barbell with an underhand grip (palms facing up).

– Keep your elbows close to your body and curl the barbell upward toward your chest.

– Focus on squeezing the bar with your fists, also squeeze your biceps throughout the lift all the way to the top of the movement.

Don’t let the bar touch the chest, your forearms should be at about a 50° angle at the end of the lift. You should continue to squeeze the bicep.

– Slowly lower the barbell back to the starting position, make sure you keep on squeezing your fists and biceps throughout the negative and positive movements.

Whatever you do, you must keep on resisting all the way down until the bar is resting at the bottom of the movement, where you should completely relax before starting your next rep.

Tips for Proper Form

a) Avoid swinging your body, it’s imperative to keep your core engaged for stability.

b) Don’t pull your elbows forward; let them remain stationary throughout the movement.

c) It’s important to isolate the biceps, don’t allow any other muscle groups to be involved in this movement, isolating the biceps, and making them work hard, is the only guaranteed way to stimulate their muscle growth.

Dumbbell Hammer Curls (Biceps)

How to Perform Dumbbell Hammer Curl