Building arm muscles takes regular, high-volume, weight-training
workouts that target the biceps, triceps and forearms. High-volume
weight-training workouts feature a high number of exercises, sets and
reps. Even though your focus here is the muscles in your arms, your
workouts should contain compound, multi-joint exercises that work other
muscle groups in addition to isolation exercises that specifically
target the arm muscles.
In a muscle-building weight-training program, allowing your
muscles enough rest is as important as the workouts themselves.
Therefore, to give your arm muscles adequate time to fully heal between
workouts, schedule just two arm-focused workouts into your training
regimen every week. Spread out your workouts throughout the week so that
there are two to three days off in between, such as a Monday and
Thursday routine.
Compound lifts require movement at multiple joints and
therefore work numerous muscle groups. For example, chinups require your
shoulders and arms to move and therefore build strength and size in
your latissumus dorsi, which handle movement at your shoulder joints,
and your biceps brachii, which control movement at your elbows. Start
your workouts with compound exercises since they are most effective at
bringing about muscle gains. First choose an Olympic lift -- like hang
cleans and push jerks; these are compound exercises that heavily involve
muscles in your legs, hips and torso, but the muscles in your arms help
guide the barbell. Next, add two to three compound exercises that work
just the upper body. Choose from dips, close-grip pushups and close-grip
bench presses, which work your chest and shoulders and challenge your
triceps to straighten your arms and your forearms to stabilize your
wrists. You can also include chinups and close-grip, underhand
pulldowns, which recruit your latissimus dorsi in your back and place a
significant load on your biceps and forearms.
Once you’ve finished your compound lifts, move onto isolation
exercises that specifically target your biceps, triceps and forearms.
For your biceps, choose from barbell biceps curls, dumbbell biceps
curls, cable curls and dumbbell incline curls. Focus on your triceps
with lying barbell triceps extensions, overhead dumbbell triceps
extensions and standing cable triceps pushdowns. During each biceps and
triceps exercise, keep your elbows in a static position as you either
straighten or bend them. Work your forearms with wrist curls, reverse
wrist curls, hammer curls and wrist rollers.
Workouts designed for building muscle are different than ones
that focus on developing strength. Muscle-building training requires
high-volume workouts, which mean sessions should consist of numerous
exercises that are done for multiple sets for a relatively high number
of reps. Pete McCall of the American Council on Exercise recommends
doing three to five sets of eight to 12 reps of every exercise and
resting just 45 seconds in between each set. Use a weight that makes
finishing the reps within each set challenging. For example, if you're
unable to do eight reps, you should lighten the weight. If you can do
more than 12 reps with relative ease, you should bump up the weight
slightly.
How to Build Arm Muscle
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