'Beginner' Arm Training

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Strangely, I haven’t seen much for “how do I train my arms” threads in a long while.

Anyway, I need/want to start training my arms directly and I’d like some advice. I have monkey arms with a narrow torso.

My regular training is squat, bench, row, deadlift, pullup; pretty high frequency. I’d like to add some arm training on top of that.

Two caveats, up front:

  • BB curls cause too much pain in my forearms. I’ve tried several widths and elbow positions, higher rep, lower rep, but I haven’t found anything that doesn’t end up hurting my forearms.

  • My right elbow has some issues from an infection and/or botched surgery job when I was a baby. I can extend it all the way for tricep movements, but not bicep movements. I literally can’t move my arm past about 95% extended - good for maintaining tension, bad for getting a stretch.

Otherwise… this is what I was thinking.

For biceps:
(after rows or deadlifts or pullups) ez-bar curls + hammer curls

For triceps:
(after bench) close-grip bench + overhead DB extensions? skullcrushers? bar dips?

3x a week on each, alternating days.

Not really sure sets/reps/volume. Given the planned 3x weekly frequency, is 5x10 for each too much? Is 3x8 too little?

Ideally free weights only. I have an ezbar, straight bar, rack, db handles, and micro plates.

Am I even on the right track?

2

Personally, I think 3X per week is too much frequency for triceps. My presses would be severely affected if I did that much. I never had any luck doing bicep training after pull-ups/chins as they fatigue the biceps on their own. If you are not training your arms directly at all now, you might want to ease into it and see how it affects the rest of your routine. If you want to prioritize arms, you could be a bit more aggressive.

3

[quote]pcdude wrote:
Personally, I think 3X per week is too much frequency for triceps. My presses would be severely affected if I did that much. I never had any luck doing bicep training after pull-ups/chins as they fatigue the biceps on their own. If you are not training your arms directly at all now, you might want to ease into it and see how it affects the rest of your routine. If you want to prioritize arms, you could be a bit more aggressive.[/quote]

Yeah, maybe I’m asking the wrong question.

About the only thing I know right now is BB curls won’t work for me, and the primary lifts don’t seem to provide enough stimulation.

Considering there’s about a million bicep exercises, and half a million tricep exercises, I’m not totally sure where to start. Whether that be exercise selection, volume, or frequency.

From what I’ve seen around, it seems like bb curls + hammer curls is a pretty solid combination, as is close-grip presses + an extension movement and/or dips. But even then, I don’t really know.

4

I think it is rather personal. What works for some may not work as well for others. Also, it depends a lot on is you are trying to gain strength or mass. I have gotten the most out of skullcrushers with the EZ bar and CGBPs for triceps, and EZ bar curls and DB curls for biceps. Bottom line is you will need to experiment a bit to see what works best for you.

5

Maybe a better way to look at it…

15-20 sets a week of isolated bicep and tricep movements seems to be about average across BB focused programs

Split that across 2 sessions, and just use a couple movements, try them out, see how they work, adjust as necessary.

Is that a good starting point?

6

Mass goal, in this particular case.

7

Go to about the 10 minute mark. I think we have relatively similar training weeks right now. If I get done with my required stuff and still have a good bit of energy I will hit these up. I think they are better than the traditional skullcrusher that goes to the forehead and they don’t have near the effect on my other lifts that CG benches do. I will knock out a 3x10, never to failure, never having to really grind, with very little rest between to get a good pump once or twice a week.

With biceps, I do a lot of chins so that hits them pretty heavy but if I want something extra I usually hit BB Curls or DB Curls. EZ Bar never has really done that much for me and I vastly prefer DB’s if BB’s are a no go. The one exception would be the preacher curl with the EZ Bar.

Don’t overthink it. If you have a little extra in the tank, do some arms with one or two of these but don’t add to much at once, one variable is easier to keep an eye on than several:

Triceps- Lying Tri Ext; V or Straight Bar Pushdowns with a cable or band; if it doesn’t have a negative effect Close Grips or Dips would be in here.

Bis- Just curl something. I can absolutely blow my biceps up and have no adverse effects on any other movement except chins. My favorites are Standing DB curls, Incline DB Curls, BB Curls, or Preacher Curls with the EZ Bar or DB’s.

8

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Strangely, I haven’t seen much for “how do I train my arms” threads in a long while.

Anyway, I need/want to start training my arms directly and I’d like some advice. I have monkey arms with a narrow torso.

My regular training is squat, bench, row, deadlift, pullup; pretty high frequency. I’d like to add some arm training on top of that.

Two caveats, up front:

  • BB curls cause too much pain in my forearms. I’ve tried several widths and elbow positions, higher rep, lower rep, but I haven’t found anything that doesn’t end up hurting my forearms.

  • My right elbow has some issues from an infection and/or botched surgery job when I was a baby. I can extend it all the way for tricep movements, but not bicep movements. I literally can’t move my arm past about 95% extended - good for maintaining tension, bad for getting a stretch.

Otherwise… this is what I was thinking.

For biceps:
(after rows or deadlifts or pullups) ez-bar curls + hammer curls

For triceps:
(after bench) close-grip bench + overhead DB extensions? skullcrushers? bar dips?

3x a week on each, alternating days.

Not really sure sets/reps/volume. Given the planned 3x weekly frequency, is 5x10 for each too much? Is 3x8 too little?

Ideally free weights only. I have an ezbar, straight bar, rack, db handles, and micro plates.

Am I even on the right track?[/quote]
Looks great dude. Something I’ve always kinda liked for arms is doing like a heavy-medium-light thing. I mean it’s not like I thought of this; tons of guys way bigger and stronger than me have been doing it for years.

Anyway for your biceps maybe do some heavy EZ bar curls for like 4 sets of 8, then medium hammer curls for 4 sets of 10-12, then do something light for a good pump, maybe 4 sets of 12-15 on like concentration curls or cable curls; whatever works for you to get the blood in there.

Same sets and reps for triceps. Close grip bench is obviously a great heavy pick. Skull crushers or weighted dips are a good medium. And some rope pushdowns or something for your light, again whatever gives you a massive pump.

9

I like that article as a basis. While I don’t do direct arm training all the time consistently I use the principles of exercise order and schemes. For me I have a schedule conflict where going to the gym for a dedicated arms day isn’t really there. So I do arms as a fiinisher, still using the above link’s recommendation on what order to do certain exercises.

I once tried the entire arm workout scheme as written and it took a good amount of time, can’t really remember probably about an hour depending how fast you move through it.

10

I know a lot of people advocate the rope pushdowns, but I tend to get more (soreness) from cable extensions. I set the cable height at about head level, face away from it and grab the rope overhead and lean away and then do my extensions. It really gets the tricep stretched more than a cable pushdown. I do a couple sets of this after OHP and incline bench day. In a similar fashion, incline dumbell curls stretches the long head of the bicep more.

11

Thanks everyone. The heavy-medium-light makes sense, I’ll probably do something like that.

I actually really like those leaning-away overhead cable extensions too. I’ve used them before, but most of the time I lift in my garage, and after awhile, it became a pain to use two gyms to lift… part in my garage, part in the apartment gym.

I tried hooking some pulleys off my rack to do some sort of cable work, but after I snapped a rope, I haven’t pursued it further. (The rope was just to see if it would work, obviously the finished version would use actual cable.) I might look into a better design though.

Also, I’d love to do incline db curls, but as I mentioned, once my right arm’s extended, I literally can’t bend it past that 95% point. So getting a stretch on my right bicep is pretty much impossible.

12

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Also, I’d love to do incline db curls, but as I mentioned, once my right arm’s extended, I literally can’t bend it past that 95% point. So getting a stretch on my right bicep is pretty much impossible.[/quote]
Try them face down where your chest is supported against the back of the incline bench. You won’t get that stretch, but this is one of my favorite light bicep exercises.

13

I have pretty mediocre arms but I also haven’t pursued them until recently (and begrudgingly), but my arms work consists of:

Push days:
3 x 15 rope push downs (1s hold) supersetted w/ 3 sets of 3s negative dips (sometimes I do these non supersetted w/out the 3s negs)
or
3 x 12 v-grip extensions and 3 x 12 lying db extensions
and
occasionally 3 x 8-12 supine db rolls, which is more rotator cuff prehab, but also a tricep exercise because of my weakness.

Pull days
3 x 8 1.5 BB curls and/or 4 x 12 Machine preacher curls (1s hold) and/or 3 x 8 db hammer curls w/ 3-5s negs (I normally pick at least 2 of these three)
or
4 x 10 hammer curls (seated or standing and/or 3 x 10 db curl and 4 x 15 reverse EZ curl

I’m on a cut, so the only thing I’ve really made progress in is the dips.

14

I like and second the whole closegrip bench. Growing your tris and the back of your arms is usually initially overlooked. Everyone focuses on bi s. Total arm size is more likely to come from these two.

Heavy medium light is great. Hits all thresholds.

C.T has N arm blitz type of workout here. Maybe check that out.

For me once i plateaued on typical curling. My arms grew when I stopped… . cus I started doing closegrip bench, chins and rows. They grew again. Some overhead pressing or even doing an Incline closegrip is a good changeup for tris too

15

Bi’s:
Heavy DB curls 3 - 5 sets with a dropset on the last one
Lighter EZ bar curls 15 - 20 reps 3 - 4 sets

Tri’s:
CGBP moderate weight 3 - 5 sets
Skull crushers moderate weight 3 - 4 sets
Seated overhead DB extensions lighter weight 15 - 20 reps, 3 sets

Alternate bi’s or tri’s first week to week. My go-to arms workout.

16

If I were you I would add one exercise for bus and one for tris at a time. That way you know what works, also what causes problems (if any). I’m sure others will have advice but just my opinion

17

I used to use the JM press in lieu of close grip bench to reduce loading on the front delts (bench press disease from early lifting habits). Worked well for a medium type of load. Elitefts.com: ONE Movement - JM Press - YouTube

Then tricep push downs to absolutely burn it out. One thing I really liked was a bar with free turning handles rather than the cheap ones included with most pulley machines.