We all know that having strong, well-developed arm muscles gives you a leg up in life. Your performance levels will increase in a wide range of sports, and your overall appearance is greatly improved with a set of monster arms. Did I mention it’s one of women’s favorite body parts to ogle? The self-confidence you will gain after you read this arm muscle building guide and develop your muscles to their maximum potential will be absolutely ridiculous.
Don't be like this guy - Read this guide and learn the best arm muscle building techniques
Some Quick Anatomy
I know this is the boring part, but bear with me here. Your body is a system, and you need to understand the basics of the anatomy of your arms before you start your arm muscle building quest.
Your arms are made up of four major muscle groups: forearm muscles, biceps, triceps, and deltoids. There are around 10 forearm muscles, so for now we’ll just call them “the forearm.” I’m sure you’re familiar with the biceps and triceps. If you haven’t heard of deltoids before, they’re your shoulders. Although the shoulders connect to many different muscle groups on the body, they are the first component of your arms and are quite important in overall arm development.
These four groups should be trained in synergy – you don’t want to have imbalanced arms. Have you ever gone to the gym and seen the guys that only bench press and do bicep curls? How ridiculous do they look? Like I said earlier – your body is a system. Train it like one, and you’ll never look back.
Arm Muscle Building Workouts
Over the years, I’ve tried many different programs. Some have worked well, some have flopped. I’ve managed to distill the most important features of any arm program after so much trial and error. Here it is:
Biceps:
The most standard biceps exercise is the barbell curl. While there are many variations, barbell or dumbbell curls will suffice for biceps. The most important rule for training biceps is to not overwork them. A lot of guys train their biceps way too hard, and make no progress. Sometimes, they even lose muscle mass by overtraining. A sample biceps workout can be as simple as this:
1. Dumbbell/Barbell Curls: 4 sets of 8 reps (aim for failure on the last reps of the 4th set)
Check out my guide on how to build bigger biceps if you want some serious in-depth content on biceps blasting.
Triceps:
Your triceps are the biggest muscle group in your upper arm. So, you should be making sure that you train these muscles correctly. My favorite tricep routine is as follows:
1. Close-Grip Bench Press: 4 sets of 8
2. Bar Dips: 4 sets of 8
3. Rope Pressdown: 4 sets of 8
Shoulders / Deltoids:
Don’t forget about your shoulders!
1. Barbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 6
2. Lateral Raises: 3 sets of 12
3. Front Plate Raises: 3 sets of 12
Forearms:
Most people don’t know how to train these muscles well. I didn’t for a long time. The trick is to keep it simple. Fortunately over the years I’ve picked up quite a bit of great information, and use this workout a few times a week to blast my forearms:
1. Wrist Curls
2. Wrist Extensions
So that’s it. Combine these exercises into one workout and have an absolute blast developing your arms. Remember, never ever forget about proper nutrition.
- Kevin
