It is one of the most often questions people are asking us. So, with this post, we want to open a new page on our website which will be called exercises. We will try to provide you the best tips on how to work out for every muscle group, so you could see the best results. In this article, we will concentrate on how to get bigger arms. But we want to warn you, we are not searching the shortest ways, we are searching for the most effective ways for you, so it will not be just the exercises. We also will add the information from point of view diet, consistency and also supplements. Only then you will be able to get the best results!
As we told a lot of times before, there are no super fast ways and you need to be patient. Bodybuilding is a slow process, where discipline and consistency are the main factors. So, what you will see in this article:
- Diet
- Biceps Exercises or How to Get Bigger Biceps
- Triceps Exercises or How to Get Bigger Triceps
- Supplements
So, let us continue to the point:
Diet
As you probably already know food is more important for getting gains than a workout. Of course, you will never gain muscles without workout, but you neither will gain them without proper nutrition. Anyway, we need to have at least a basic understanding that our body will not grow if we will not make at least a small calorie surplus. In other words, you need to eat more than your body uses.
So, what you need to know is that your body needs fuel to work properly and progress in lifting weights and build new muscles. As you possibly already know, the main 3 things we need are Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats and we need to have balance in it.
Proteins: Our recommendation is about 1.5 g of protein per 1 kg of your body weight, or 0.7 g for 1 lb.
Carbohydrates: So, for muscle growth, you need about 5g of carbohydrates for 1 kg or about 2.3 g for 1 lb of your body weight.
Fats: Don’t avoid the fats, they are responsible for a lot of valuable processes in your body, just control the intake amount per day. Also, you need to control fats as they contain more calories than carbohydrates and proteins. We recommend you to try hold in the range of 1 g for 1 kg, or 0.5 g for 1 lb of your body weight. For more details check this link out. (1)
Biceps Exercises or How to Get Bigger Biceps
1. Reps
First what we want to say if you want to make your biceps bigger, better to concentrate on the negative reps. What is a negative rep? The technique is pretty simple. So, when you take barbell or dumbbell, you raise the weight fast but lowing down must be slow lasting about 3 seconds. Also, we want to remind you that you don’t need to do a huge amount of reps, but if you will do it in a negative way the set must last about 30 seconds. Believe us, this will make your biceps scream from the pain, and you will start to see effects quite soon.
2. How often should you train your biceps?
Firstly, it is a small muscle, which has limited functionality comparingly to deltoids for example. It basically has one function, to curl your arm. You don’t have to train it more often than once a week, it needs time to regenerate. Do one, heavy workout per week, and it will grow faster than if you will overtrain it. Also, if you will train it too often it will start to adapt faster, which will slow down your progress as well.
3. Variation of Exercises
As it was told above, biceps has very limited functionality. There are no so many different exercises, and most of them are just curls. Firstly you need to do muscle overload, but with such small muscles you will not be able to do it all the time, you will just have a stagnation with time. Secondly, you need to shock your biceps, by doing different exercises and changing concentration.
4. Exercises
Well I think this is the main thing you were waiting for, but we put this point the last for a reason. The points above are first just because they must be done every-time in every exercise. It is quite a long list of different exercises for biceps, but we will mention the ones in our opinion are the most effective. (2)
Biceps curls with EZ barbell
This one is the king of biceps exercises and it is the really effective one. Just don’t forget about progressive overload and negative reps! God exercise for the beginning of your workout, as you still have a lot of energy left.
Dumbells Biceps Curls
The benefit of this exercise is, that muscle stabilizers are working much better than with a barbell. Small recommendation: raise the dumbbell fast, but low them down slowly, and you will feel the difference between this technique comparing to the traditional one.
Hummer Curls
So, hummer curls will help you to make your brachialis muscle bigger. What is not directly the biceps muscle, but it is between biceps and triceps. This way, the brachialis will push your biceps and it will look more massive!
Incline Dumbbell Curl
You will feel maximum tension on the biceps muscle in this exercise. So don’t be surprised if the weight is lower than with the exercises mentioned above. Also if you will continue to push yourself hard, using the lower weight but making negative reps, results will not make you wait long.
Concentration Curls
Usually, this exercise is recommended to do at the end of your workout. Well, it is better to do it while sitting and place all the emphasis right on the biceps muscle. Any synergetic muscle will not help you, so you will feel the best concentration and will make your biceps burn. Very effective exercise if it is executed correctly.
Triceps Exercises or How to Get Bigger Triceps
1. Reps
Same as with biceps, progressive overload is one of the main factors you need to do, basically with all muscles. So, triceps is a bigger muscle than biceps though and you can progress with overload little more than with biceps. Anyway, we can recommend you to ways of workouts here, one is negative reps (same as with biceps) and others are based on the time of exercise execution.
So, we explained how to do negative reps above, and now we will explain to you how to do the second variation. Basically, you need to choose the weight, which you will be able to lift about 30-40 seconds. But the thing is that you need to choose it correctly because you should not be able to lift it after 30-40 seconds. Usually, it is called time under tension method. It showed itself very effective.
2. How often should you train your triceps?
Even if a variety of exercises has more differences than biceps and it has fewer limitations because you can move your elbows. It is still not a big muscle. You don’t need to work out your triceps more often than once a week too, it needs time to rest. Do one, heavy workout per week, and you will see the progress quite soon.
3. Variation of Exercises
As it was told above, triceps has less limitation in exercises, because you can move your elbows in different angles. So, it is easier to shock your triceps, by doing different exercises. Also, triceps is a synergic muscle for your chest, so you can do it after your chest, or just do a separate day together with your biceps.
4. Exercises
So, as before we will show you some of the most effective triceps exercises, which are recommended by best known personal trainers and of course are based on anatomy too.
Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension
The benefit of this exercise with using dumbbells instead of EZ-bar, is that you can train every hand separately. So, you will have some more movement flexibility. Also, the benefit is that you feel muscles better when you are doing it with on hand. Just don’t rush with big weights, and save technique correct.
Triceps Dips
You will work here with your bodyweight, and this will make a huge pressure for your triceps. Just remember the technique must be correct (try not lean your body and head forward, it will change pressure on the chest more).
Rope Triceps Pressdown
Just place your hand closer together, lower the bar straight down and you can pause a little, and press bar back. Also, in the beginning, don’t try to take the too big weight, you will just do the exercise incorrectly then.
Close-Grip Bench Press
The bench press is a nice exercise to work your chest and core, but when you just change grip position, you can burst your triceps. Just take your hands closer to each other and do the same move as in chest exercise. But, also don’t forget to hold your elbows together when you are lowering the bar.
Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
If you want to pump your hands, this exercise is a perfect supporter. Usually, it is performed in the end doing high reps. So, it will be a perfect pump in the ned of your workout. Just grab pair of dumbbells straightening your elbows until your hand is parallel to the floor.
Supplements
As you possibly already know from the text above. But, you need to eat enough amount of protein and carbs to make your muscles grow. We are repeating it every time in our articles, but the truth is that there is no other way. Without calorie surplus, the proper amount of protein and carbs you will have stagnation and will not evolve.
As you see in the point Diet, you need to eat quite a big amount of food and very often it is really challenging. So, the supplements can be a nice supporter and make your life easier. Whey protein is a really good supporter if you can eat enough amount of carbohydrates, but if you can’t, mass gainer will be a perfect friend to you.
For increasing your strength, there is another supplement and it is creatine monohydrate. It is the strongest supplement for increasing your strength, and you will basically start to feel it in the first week.
Bottom Line
So, that’s are the main factors you need to know to get muscle hypertrophy (3) and see results as soon as possible. Remember hands have small muscles, don’t overtrain them. So, 2-3 exercises for one muscle are more than enough, and let them rest for one week. Stick to correct diet with calorie surplus and rest enough. Improvements will not make you wait long if everything will be done correct, so just be consistent.
