Big Arms, Free Grow!

Alternate supersets of biceps and triceps movements works great to get a wicked pump throughout your workout.

21’s…they do miracles!! I’m sure 95% of you know about them…but for the other 5%…7 curls from straight arms down to 1/2 way…then 7 curls from 1/2 to top of range then 7 full range curls…5 sets and my arms are dead meat!

The biggest thing I found was “less is more” when it comes to arms. I used to go crazy training arms and they never really grew much. A few months ago I stopped training arms all together and had a surge of growth. Now every once in a while I throw some direct arm work in but after a good bench, dead or even clean day my arms are usually exhausted.

Strip sets. Next time you are finishing off your guns turn the gym into a strip club. The preacher curl strip sets of 12-8-6 eps with the max weight you can handle for such reps is the single best tool in my books.

Go heavy and superset. the burn stays with you for a few days. Also when doing curls, put a 2.5 lbs. plate under your arms. if the plate falls, you’re cheatin pal

Heavy close-grip chins are the only exercise that have ever added noticeable size to my biceps.

The best tip I ever got for my arms was learning to throw out my straps and grip the bar with a death grip always, even when it isn’t necessary to move the weight, the pain in my elbows finally healed after years with that advice.

If you want big arms, some form of chinups and dips are a must. I have had great success with these exercises, size and strength wise.

Here’s a great exercise for Biceps in particular: Swiss Ball preacher curl. Have, a swiss ball on a bench and you a bar or dumbbell on one or both hands and you’re hanging over the ball.

Be sure to remember correct tempo(4-0-2) when doing arms, utilising the eccentric and concentric movement.

Pyramid 55…pick a moderate weight for standing easy curls. Choose a grip and arm position that will prevent cheat movement. Start at one rep and pass the bar. Continue adding a rep each time and passing between partners. Only rest while your partner works, then jump back into the fire. Strict movement with partner assistance if needed. End on the tenth rep for 55’s. If ya picked the proper weight you may have a hard time washing or combing your hair later.

I love wave loading for my arms. Do some tricep extensions (barbell) with a 5-4-3, 5-4-3, and do the same with some barbell curls. I think you will see some big time growth. Also, I second all the comments on compound movements, but keep the reps low and heavy, I like wave loading here too.

Compound movements with heavy weights.

I typically find myself neglecting to train my arms but they still remain 17.5" cold even without directly training either bi’s or tri’s for sometimes MONTHS. I usually have little time on my hands and quite frankly I would rather work much larger bodyparts like legs and chest/back using the basics in order to get the best time/positive effect ratio.

However, when I do get the arm training “itch” I do a few things:

  1. Hammer curls. I use Hammer curls as a “base” for biceps. Whether it be running the rack or low rep high weight sets nothing in my opinion beats good ol’ hammer curls in terms of an overall arm builder and for carryover into compound power movements.

  2. Establish my “weak link” and destroy it by prioritizing it. Usually this means paying special attention to reverse/zottman curls. This also means paying special attention to tricep basics.

  3. Triceps – A dual base of heavy close grip presses and dips to failure.

Here’s another one I do:

Tricep Pressdowns (single arm). No, not the usual tricep pressdowns. I keep the resistance heaviest in the full range of motion by varying the angle of the movement.

In short, I simply extend my elbow forward while pushing down while simultaneously pronating and keeping the wobble in the elbow “groove” to a minimum. Try it for a finishing drop set or two, you’ll get a great pump.

For forearms:

In addition to the obvious deadlift and pullups some other things I throw in are:

Dumbbell Farmers Walks with a towel wrapped around the grips to give some extra thickness and added difficulty.

Take a 45lb plate with a decent “lip” and use it for grip movements by placing the fingers under the lip and “gripping” it up. For added difficulty you can remove certain fingers from the movement to stress others.

And of course, who can forget the old standby –

Wrist Roller! Yup, it’s amazing how smoked your forearms will feel after simply rolling a piece of rope attached to a weight up an old broomstick or piece of pvc.

Who else here remember this as their first pump? It seems like only yesterday that I found an old paintcan attached to a piece of rope strund through a broomstick at my uncle’s house and learned about the joy and pain of the wrist roller.

Ah, good times, good times. :slight_smile:

Do curls and eat Grow! :stuck_out_tongue:

Weighted dips and close grip bench for size and strength. Supinated chins for Bis. Stick with compound movements for size.

Deadlifts - supporting musculature. The stronger your upper back muscles are, the more force your nervous system will allow you to channel through the arm.

Weighted Chin-ups - biceps/pulling chain. This is one of the best exercises for exposing the biceps to the heaviest load possible through a full ROM, and it strengthens the muscles of the joints above and below the elbow.

Weighted Dips - triceps/pushing chain. For the same reasons as stated above.

I basically just make sure I’m hitting my back nice and heavy and my bi’s grow just fine.

I sometimes will throw in some heavy db curls for a few sets…

Canadian Cannons part I.
Canadian Cannons part II (not posted but killer)

Some of my favorite arm exercises for when it’s too nice to be stuck inside a gym, you can get a great arm workout without ever going in the gym. I like getting my sled, starting out with seated sled drags (I know it’s lats, but trust me, it works the bis too) and then doing sled walks, when I’m working arms, I connect the chain from the sled to a chain that I can hold with both hands, face away from the sled, put both hands over head, and then I put my arms at about a 90 degree angle (like a skull crusher) and do the walks with trying to keep my arms contracted like that until they just give out, then I let me arms fall to my side, and do the same thing for biceps, bend the elbow to where the arms about 135 degree angle, and keep walking, till your arms finally give out. It’s a fun change of pace workout, it works really good if you have your arms out to the side doin chest as well.