3 OF THE BEST ARM EXERCISES

Everybody loves a good arm day! There is something special about the pump you get when training arms. In this article, I’m going to give you 3 of my top arm exercises and why they should be staples in your routine.

Let’s think about the arms for a second. You have a variety of muscles in the forearms, then you have muscle on the top of the forearm and side of the arm, lastly you have the biceps and triceps in the upper arm. The biceps are made up of two muscles and the triceps are made up of three. It’s important to know this because different exercises will target each head of those muscle groups differently. I’ll cover that in a future article as it’s enough information on its own, so for now let’s cover 3 exercises that are most likely to stimulate your arms to grow.

BARBELL CURL

The barbell curl has to be a staple in your workout program. You can do this with a variety of equipment and techniques like controlling the eccentric and concentric parts of the lifts or using an EZ curl bar instead of a straight barbell. However, the main reason this is a staple on the list is that it will give you the ability to put maximum load on both heads of the biceps. It’s no secret that big weight can build big muscle, and when the barbell curl is performed properly, it’s going to apply a heavy weight to the biceps. Definitely one of the top movements for building bigger biceps!

DEAD SKULL

Let’s switch things up and go over to the triceps. This movement requires that you control the weight throughout the movement. You’ll start from a dead stop at the bottom and then complete the rep prior to lowering the weight back to a dead stop at the bottom. This means you need to apply more force to break inertia and get the weight moving from the start of the movement…and you have to place more effort on the eccentric (negative) so you don’t drop the weight on the ground (or your head). This will require that you use more of your triceps than other movements simply because it’s more challenging. The key here is to focus on controlling the weight throughout the movement. You’re not blasting the weight up and dropping it like you would on some other movements…you’re moving the weight on the contraction and slowly lowering the weight back to the starting position where it comes to a complete stop. Lastly, this movement targets the “long head” of the triceps which is the biggest part of the arm. If you want big arms then this movement will help you build them.

DBELL HAMMER CURL

This movement makes the list because it’s a forearm exercise as well as a biceps exercise. It will mostly work the brachialis/brachioradialis which is the top of the forearm and alongside the biceps. This is a movement that completes the look of a big arm. If you have a big bicep and big tricep but skinny forearms and no brachialis/brachioradialis then your arms will look funny. So, this exercise becomes crucial for that. Because of the grip used on this it’s also an excellent grip strength builder and helps to grow the rest of the forearms as well. Also, this movement allows you to use a heavier weight than a standard dumbbell curl. That means more stress applied to the biceps which should lead to more stimulation and more growth!

There are a LOT of great arm movements and techniques that you’ll need to use to get big arms. However, these three movements should be considered staples in your arm routine. Barbell curls for big biceps, dead skulls for big triceps, and heavy hammer curls to tie everything together.

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