Every guy seems to want to learn the secrets on how to build big arms. I have to tell you that it is basically the same as building any other body part. Every muscle in your body pretty much grows under the same principals.
Muscle naturally grows very slowly- unless you are using something to chemically alter the process, like steroids. But lets stick to the natural muscle growth discussion for now.
Muscles are made to to work. You gain muscle by making it work harder. That means you have to blitz system muscle fibers every time you workout. We are all genetically predetermined as to how many fibers we have in each muscle. They don't split on a cellular level like fat cells do. So the only way to build size in a muscle is to make the fibers bigger.
Muscle fiber building comes from progressive and increasing load on that muscle. Thus, to build bigger arms, you need to overload your arm biceps and the triceps muscles. These are of course in your upper arm- which is the focus of this article. Your forearm really gets a lot of training when doing the other exercises so I don't tend to focus on specific exercises for it.
4 exercises to build big arms:
To build rock hard arms, the best weight training exercises are inclined fully supinated dumbbell curls and cable preacher curls for the biceps and then french curls and triceps cable push-downs for the triceps muscles.
Bigger Biceps
Let's talk about how to do the two biceps exercises mentioned above.
Cable Preacher Curls
Preacher curls done with the cable keep the tension on the muscle at the highest point of contraction. This is critical to muscle growth. traditional curls actually reduce the load on the biceps at the top of the movement and thus are not as efficient.
Be sure not to go too fast with your reps. As with most weight training exercises, you need to be at a two down and one up repetition time. Also, the rep range as an efficient way to gain muscle must be between six and ten. If you are doing more than that, then the weight is too light and you are not overloading the muscle. Therefore you are just burning calories and are not effectively building muscle mass.
Incline Supinated Curls
For this you will need dumbbells and an inclined bench. Supinated just means that the palms of your hands are facing forward. This will put the biceps muscle into a position so that it is worked properly to gain the most growth. By hanging your arms down as you sit on the incline bench, there is more tension created than if you were standing up in the traditional front curl position.
Don't forget the triceps
People forget that the triceps muscle takes up almost two-thirds of your arm. If you build a larger triceps then your arm is going to appear to be bigger. Most people just focus on the curls and totally miss a big portion of how to get big arms.
French Curls
The proper way to do french curls is often not taught. Most people you see doing them come down to to their nose or forehead. This is why they are often called skull crushers. Because if you drop the weight... well you get the picture.
If you lower the weight behind the top of your head you actually work the triceps muscle more. This brings your elbows slightly up and beyond the 90 degree mark which will help maintain tension on the triceps at the top of the exercise. If you don't do this, then you reduce the load on the muscle just at the maximum contraction point - and point of maximum gain.
Triceps Cable Extensions
Like the cable preacher curls, this weight training exercise will keep a load on the muscle at its highest contraction point. Thus it works the triceps harder just when it counts the most for gaining muscle.
To do these, use the top cable pull and push down focusing on using the triceps. Use a straight bar, not the rope for maximum gain. Again this position puts massive focus on the head of the muscle. By using the rope, you don't contract the triceps fully.
How big can your arms get?
If you think you can naturally get massive twenty inch plus arms, then you may be sadly unsatisfied with your results. Most guys with huge arms have either used some steroid enhancement, or bulk up with a bunch of fat. This is just not realistic for growth natural muscle.
Depending on your body type, there is a possibility to get close to this after many years of training. Just don't expect to do it in 90 days.
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