3 Tips To Building Bigger Arms
Don't lie, we've all longed for pythons like Arnold's. Ever since terminator we've been in awe of those arms hiding away in our dimly lit basements swinging our home dumb bells around praying for the gods to bless us with sleeve hugging arms. But what really is the key to sleeve hugging arms, thick biceps and popping triceps? Here we go with three tips that will help you achieve them!
1) EXERCISE SELECTION
Generally speaking, our arms should also be used in bigger pressing and pulling movements. If these are not included in the program as well as direct arm work, you could be missing out on some essential gains. Focus on progressive overload on the big movements such as bench press, overhead press, barbell row, chin ups and then focus on adding in direct arm work to your routine. Prioritise the compound movements first then hit direct arm work later!
2) Using appropriate amount of volume
How much should we train arms? If your workout already consists of a lot of push and pull compound movements such as the bench press and barbell rows, how much direct arm work do we really need to do for growth?
For our triceps, generally speaking we need around 10 sets for minimum effective volume (minimum amount of volume per week for growth).
For our biceps, generally speaking we need around 14 sets for minimum effective volume (minimum amount of volume per week for growth).
With this information, we can look to add the respected amount of sets into our workouts and look to TAPER UP the volume as the weeks go on before we do a deload week and reset back to our minimum effective volume.
3) utilise different rep ranges
Don't be afraid to pick up some weight and use momentum in your favour. Try heavy curls where you use momentum to get the weight up and focus on using a 3 second negative on the way down. But, BEWARE, don't go overboard and snap your back, just use the natural momentum you can get from the arm swing you can get and control the negative. This, accompanied with moderate to higher rep work (8-15, or even 20!) will ensure you are hitting all the different types of muscles to ensure growth!
I hope these 3 tips help you in pursuit of arm gains, and as always, if you have any other questions, please feel free to book in a free consultation!
Dan