Get Big Arms
Sporting large, muscular arms immediately shows the world that you're strong and fit. As an added bonus, having bulky arms enables you to perform impressive tasks like lifting heavy furniture and pushing stalled cars to safety without breaking a sweat. Read on to learn what exercises and lifestyle habits build arm mass.
Contents
Steps
Workout Basics
- Train one or two times per week. Many people think that working out every day builds bigger muscles, but muscle mass is actually built during resting days between workout sessions. Your muscles grow stronger as they recover between lifting sessions, enabling you to gradually lift more and more weight. If you don't give your muscles time to rest, particularly your arm muscles, you risk overtraining them and delaying the results you want to achieve.
- Train in 30-minute sessions. For the same reason, you should only train one or two times per week and each training session should only last about half an hour. Your arm muscles are easier to injure than other muscles in the body, and training for over half an hour per session greatly increases the risk that you'll get hurt. Short, intense training sessions are your best bet for building arm mass.
- Train as hard as you can. Lift the heaviest weights you are able to lift and make your training sessions as high-intensity as possible. Muscle-builders call this "training to failure," because it means lifting weights that are heavy enough to cause you to "fail," or be unable to complete the exercise after a few reps. As your arms grow stronger, and you find that the weight you've been lifting is no longer as difficult, add more weight.
- Find your "train to failure" weight by experimenting with different weights until you find one you can lift several times before breaking a sweat and feeling you can't lift it again. If you can complete 10 or 12 reps without sweating or feeling much of a burn, you should be lifting more weight. If you can't complete one or two reps before giving up, decrease the weight.
- While extreme discomfort is part of building muscle mass, you shouldn't be lifting so much weight that you feel you're going to be sick or pass out. There's no shame in starting at a lower weight. Start lifting a weight you can handle, and soon you'll build up the strength required to lift heavier weights.
- Use proper form. Get the maximum benefit from your workouts and avoid injury by using the correct form when you lift weights. In addition, to lifting the appropriate amount of weight for your level of fitness and keep the following tips in mind when you're lifting weights:
- Start with your arms fully extended, rather than bent.
- Lift with controlled movements, rather than using momentum to move the weights.
- Be sure you are able to complete each full exercise for at least the first few reps. For example, if you're trying an exercise that requires fully extending your arms above your head, but you can't fully straighten your elbows, you are probably lifting too much weight.
- Work out your whole body. It's healthier to strengthen all of your muscles with compound exercises than to focus only on building arm mass. If you don't work out your legs and core, you'll end up with big arms and a lower body that isn't as muscular.
- On the days when you aren't training your arms, train other muscle groups in your legs, back and abdomen. This way you'll still be building strength while your arm muscles are recovering.
- Do compound exercises that bulk up your arms while also toning other muscles. Chin-ups and push-ups, for example, strengthen your abs at the same time they are strengthening your arms.
Building Arm Mass
- Do dumbbell curls to build your biceps and triceps. Your biceps and triceps are the main muscle groups in your arms, so focus on building them up to gain arm mass. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold the dumbbells at your sides with your arms fully extended and your palms turned inwards, curl the dumbbells to your chest, then press them over your head before reversing the dumbbells to the starting position.
- Do between 8 and 12 reps, and 3 to 5 sets. Rest for about 45 seconds between sets.
- This exercise may also be performed with a kettle bell or barbells.
- Do chin-ups to work out your biceps. Grip a fixed bar with your hands shoulder-width apart and your palms facing you. Use your arms to lift your body, until your chin is higher than the bar then slowly lower yourself back to the starting position.
- Do between 8 and 12 reps, and 4 to 5 sets.
- You can increase the difficulty of this exercise by using a weighted belt.
- Do triceps dumbbell extensions to bulk up your triceps. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold dumbbells over your head with your wrists facing inward. Lower the dumbbells behind your head so that your elbows point up in the air, then raise the dumbbells above your head and straighten your elbows again.
- Do between 8 and 12 reps, and 3 to five sets.
- This exercise can also be performed using both hands to lower and extend one dumbbell above the head.
Lifestyle Changes
- Don't eat too many calories. You may think that to bulk up your muscles, you should eat more calories than you usually would. Eating more calories doesn't translate into building bigger muscles. Rather, the calories increase body fat, which obscures muscle definition. The key is to eat a diet that enables you to be lean, so your big muscles become more apparent.
- Eat balanced meals with plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean meats.
- Avoid white sugar and flour, fried foods, and other high-calorie foods that may cause you to gain fat.
- Eat plenty of protein. Protein helps build muscles, so when you're trying to bulk up, it should be a mainstay of your diet. Find ways to make protein the focus of all of your meals.
- Choose fish, chicken, lean beef, pork, and other types of meat to supply yourself with protein. Eggs are also a great source of protein.
- Beans, nuts, spinach, and other vegetables are good vegetarian protein sources.
- Consider supplementing your diet with protein powder such as creatine, which is made from an amino acid that helps you work out harder, recover faster and build bigger muscles.
- Take rest seriously. When it comes to building muscles, resting periods are as important as workout periods. Get at least 8 hours of sleep on the days when you work out, and avoid overdoing it with other activities that require use of your arm muscles.
Tips
- Do the exercising in a room where you can see your reflection. This will help you to see whether you've got the correct form and posture. Take care not to lean or swing your body to help the weights move––watch the line that the dumbbell traces as you move and try to achieve a smooth arc. Also, watch that your stomach is flat, your back is straight and that you're not holding your breath. Proper form is vital; without it, you risk injuring yourself.
- Stick to compound exercises as much as possible.
- Always stretch before and after a workout. You could injure yourself if you don't. Warming up allows your muscles to fatigue faster.
- A smart and near effortless way to work out your arms and build some muscle is by tossing a medicine ball around. By simply juggling your medicine ball with your hands as if you're playing with it, you can exercise for several minutes in a row without tiring yourself, depending on how heavy it is. It's a kind of distraction/exercise you can do at home while watching TV, for example.
- Make sure you eat and get enough sleep. Hydration is very important too. There is no minimum amount of water you should drink, but dark urine is an indication you need more. If you're eating right (low sodium, lots of greens), too much water can cause cramping.
- You won't break strength records with 4 hours of sleep
- Workout with a friend. You might not realize you're working out at all. It will be more fun with friends.
Warnings
- Know the difference between "good pain" and "bad pain", if you are finding pain when working hard and are still able to keep lifting even though it hurts, that's a good hurt. If It is painful to the point where you can't do any more reps etc., stop, rest, and come up with what could be the problem, don't push through the bad pain, it could lead to further injury.
- Avoid steroids, as it messes up your body, inside and out.
