I’ve been doing barbell curls and skull crushers since I started training, and they work well for me. However I want to switch excercises around a bit, one of the reasons is just variation, the other is that I notice I bring my shoulders forward / tighten my pecs while I do it. When it comes to curls I’ve also done a lot of reverse, preacher and dumbell curls, when it comes to triceps the only other thing I’ve found effective is pressing movements.
What could be could variations to the more standard arm training excercises? Being a relativly tall guy (6ft4in) I’ve found direct arm training to be crucial to put on the necessary mass. I’m in need of some effective excercises that allow me to isolate my arms while keeping a neutral upper body position, goal is pure hypertrophy.
All exercises have their place, but preacher curls make it hard for you to cheat so you can really focus on your biceps. A rack press (shortened ROM shoulder press, don’t know if thats the real name) works the tri’s pretty well by allowing a significant overload.
for your triceps, you should start overhead extensions to hit the long head… you will really feel a difference in the soreness location… it’ll give your arms more thickness and a better “hang” (i.e. in a front double biceps pose) Im also a big fan of hammer curls to get the brachialis going, but reverse curls are good too
and being tall… one thing ive noticed for a lot of tall clients is to focus on alot of volume… lots of drop sets and hitting the muscles in different ways… one guy in my gym put on close to 50 pounds in 6 months with this approach, he’s 6’ll and was a walking stick when he first came to my gym…