How to get BIG arms

Best way to get BIG arms

If there’s one thing that will have heads turning in and out of the gym, it’s shirt sleeve stretching arms. Training for bigger and more defined arms is very different to working other larger body parts but I am going to break it down for you as simply as possible, so you can begin sculpting your own guns of glory.

First and foremost you have to give arms their own day in your training split. Yes you will be working biceps as an accessory muscle on back day and triceps on chest and shoulder day however you will not be training them in enough detail to gain size and if your back or chest workout has been taxing, then the arms will be too fatigued to throw in at the end and see optimal results. Therefore incorporate a day dedicated solely to arms.

Another important factor is going to be adequate rest… as I said you will be working arms as accessory muscles on back, chest and shoulder day, so my recommendation would be to have your arm day the day after you train legs, that way you have had at lest 48hours of rest since the last time your arms were worked. Adequate rest is essential for optimal growth.

Another tip is that if and when possible train arms with fatter grips. Some gyms have clip on fat grips that you can put on bars, dumbbells and machine handles and some gyms carry Olympic fat bars, either one is perfect for this. 

Training with fatter grips incorporates the forearms a lot more and this is essential for bigger arms. Two of the muscles that adjoin to the bicep from the forearm are the brachialis and brachioradialis and they both help create an illusion of a larger bicep. Another important factor that is required to work these muscles and the arms optimally is to go through a FULL range of movement.

Too often I see people in the gym curling through about 40% of their range of movement with too much weight… trust me the only thing getting bigger in this scenario is their ego. Start each movement with the muscle you are training at a full stretch and then bring it to a full contraction. 

An example of this would be a preacher curl: the start of the move should have your arm completely straight with the elbow almost feeling like its hyper extended. Bring the bar or dumbbell up and keep the back of your arm against the pad. Keeping that arm against the pad try and create the smallest angle possible with the inside of your elbow joint and at the very top of the move pause for a second and squeeze to exaggerate the contraction, then slowly release and concentrate on a slow and controlled eccentric movement back to the start.

Equally important to the range of movement is working the arms from a variety of angles. The biceps for example require supernation to be worked fully on a dumbbell curl. Have your arms down by your side; palms facing in towards your thigh is neutral, rotate out so your palm is facing forward is supernation and rotate the other way so that your palm is facing behind you is pronation. Incorporating supernated, neutral and pronated movements into your arm workout is essential for hitting each angle and attaining an optimal arm workout.

Next I want you to focus your arm training on high volume… when you train arms for size I want you to train for the pump! Generally for maximal hypertrophy (muscle gain) you want to keep your rep ranges at 12-15. This will have your arms feeling very full and pumped during the workout, which is exactly what we want. Another way to achieve this high volume is to incorporate supersets where you perform 2 different exercises back-to-back without rest in-between to extend the set and fatigue the muscle.

EXAMPLE WORKOUT

TRICEPS

1. Barbell skull crushers 3x12-15 superset with close barbell bench press 3x12-15
2. Cable rope triceps extensions tri-set 3x12-15 each way (The 3 ways you perform this are - 1: straight down with rope spread outwards at bottom 2: straight down with ropes remaining together 3: turn around and extend ropes overhead)
3. Cable triceps pushdowns 3x12-15 superset with dumbbell kickbacks 3x12-15 (go through neutral, supernated and pronated contractions on the dumbbell kickbacks)

BICEPS

1. Preacher curls 4x20,15,12,10
2. Dumbbell supernated curls 3x12-15 each side
3. Dumbbell neutral curls 3x12-15 each side
4. barbell 21’s 3x21 superset with bench dips 3x30

FOREARMS

1. barbell wrist curls 3x15 superset with barbell reverse wrist curls 3x15

So there you have it, simple steps on how to get bigger arms. Other factors that are going to be essential for optimal growth and recovery are adequate protein, especially a protein shake immediately after your workout (1 – 1.5g per day per pound of bodyweight), 7-8 hours of sleep per night, a healthy balanced diet rich in vegetables, lean protein sources and good healthy fats and LOTS of water throughout the day. Adhere to the guidelines I have presented in this article for at least 3-4weeks and I promise you will see gains. Enjoy growing some monster arms!