While this site is built around learning how to get ripped abs fast, we cannot afford to neglect the rest of the body as well. After all how goofy would you look with a six pack but the rest of your body is built like a twig? Building bigger arms is an important workout goal for almost every guy because biceps and triceps are groups of muscles that can still get attention even while you’re wearing a shirt and in fact can enhance the fit of that shirt. When trying to put on muscle too many folks tackle the problem in an incorrect way and then get frustrated when their results start to taper off. You want bigger arms? Then you need to develop a plan to make sure that those muscles are growing and not getting stuck on a training plateau. Here are seven tips to help take your arm training to the next level and beef up those biceps and triceps fast.
1. Tweak the Volume
I’ve seen lots of guys at the gym blasting away at their arms until they can barely move them and they do this type of training multiple times per week. Now as a short term strategy this can work to shock the muscle into growth. However, if you do it for to long eventually the muscle will experience overtraining and your progress will begin to tank. The biceps and triceps are fairly small muscle groups so the amount of direct stimulation that you need to give them is different than say what you would do on a leg day. The muscles in your arms also get worked indirectly while doing different press exercises or even when doing pull-ups and you hand grip is targeting your back muscles. Generally the amount of sets you should be doing for your arms is between 12-16. Again for short time periods going above that can have benefits but can lead to overtraining.
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2. Make Your Arms the Priority
If you have a muscle group that doesn’t seem to be keeping up with the rest of your body then a great strategy to remedy this problem is to emphasize that group. This means that is you are doing a more total body workout when you lift weights then start that workout by attacking the biceps and triceps first. At the start of your workout is when you are usually going to have the most energy and focus so take this time to pump out some quality repetitions of your favorite curl variations or tricep exercises.
3. More Intensity
Yes, you might need to drop the total volume of work you do on your arms that is no excuse to slack off. You should try to make you biceps have to work harder in a shorter period of time to help stimulate growth. You can increase the intensity of your arm workout by shortening the time spent resting in between sets, using heavier weights, or adjusting the tempo at which you lift. Rest as much as you feel you need to do another set with proper form but don’t stand around talking or messing with your mp3 player because you need to make your workout harder.
4. Rest
Workouts and diet are extremely important for any fitness plan but so is getting enough rest. Sleeping 6-8 hours per night is essential to see maximum gains and have your body running at its best. Also, taking a break from the gym can actually help your arms grow bigger. Make sure that your schedule in the gym allows for proper rest and put at least a day or two in between your arm workouts. Every few months it’s not a bad idea to let your body take a week or so off and recover. From personal experience I usually see some great gains in muscle after one of these rest weeks.
5. Don’t Forget the Triceps
Triceps are the bigger of the two muscle groups so it makes sense that if you want bigger arms you should definitely make it a focus. Triceps often get neglected because the bicep has that peak that can make your arms visually appealing. However, truly great arms will have the triceps fully developed and make your arms look massive.
6. Change Up
Your body has an amazing ability to adapt to almost anything you decide to throw at it. In terms of workouts this means that if you stay on the same routine with the same exercises for too long the results you will get will eventually reach a sticking point. For big and ripped arms you need to add variety to your workouts. Try replacing one exercise with another to attack the muscle from a different angle. Experiment with different weight and rep schemes to try and shock your muscle. I remember when my leg development reached a plateau I switched one workout from heavy squats to a weight slightly heavier than my warm up set. Instead of doing a normal rep scheme I just did squats at that weight for a set amount of time maybe like 90 seconds to two minutes. This simple change during a few workouts helped spur extra development and got me to the next level of my training. Try to find new ways to make your workout challenging and make your body have to adapt.
If you want to build bigger arms faster then you’re in luck because it is relatively easy to add mass to these muscles. Find out the problems with your current workout and experiment with no patterns of rest and different exercises to make your body have to keep up with the changes. Getting ripped abs is great but having two huge arms can really make you turn some heads.