The Best Exercises For Arm Mass

Getting big arms is easy.

Building your arms is no different to any other muscle group. You need progressive overload, which means lifting heavier weights, for more reps, over a sustained period of time.

If it’s so easy though, then why do so many people have lacklustre arms?

These aren’t guys who don’t train either – we’re talking about people who’ve spent half their life in the gym, yet their arms still resemble toothpicks protruding from their tee shirt sleeves. They perform curls and pushdowns religiously twice a week, yet those stubborn biceps refuse to increase just an inch, and the triceps don’t want to know. What could the problem be?

The answer – exercise selection.

This article will delve into the depths of arm training, sort out the good from the bad, and deliver you the absolute best bodybuilding arm exercises for beefy biceps and tremendous triceps.

Building the Biceps

By far an away the most well-known biceps move (and possible the best known exercise in general) is the biceps curl. That’s not where we’ll start though. Instead, the first biceps exercise in the list is...

1. Chin-Ups

Chin-ups hit your back, but they also place a great degree of stress on your biceps. The one huge advantage chin-ups have over curls is that you can use a lot of weight on them, as you are, after all, lifting your entire body-weight.

To make chin-ups more biceps-focused, use a supinated grip, with your palms facing you, or find a neutral grip bar, where your hands face in toward each other.

2. Preacher Curls

The problem with the way most people perform biceps curls is that they use too much momentum. You might be able to grab a 60 pound dumbbell and get it from your waist, up to your shoulder in some sort of movement that resembles a curl, but you’re probably using momentum, and a huge degree of swing to get the dumbbell up.

Preacher curls completely eradicate any body momentum or cheating, as your upper-arms are fixed in position.

3. Fat Grip Curls

When you increase the diameter of the weight you’re curling, your forearms and biceps have to work overtime to hold it. This is why fat grip curls are such as awesome arm-builder.

You can either use a specialty thick bar, buy a pair of fat grips, or even wrap a towel around a barbell or dumbbell to make it tougher to hold, and perform curls as you would usually.

See Also: Bicep Workouts: Five Different Exercises To Maximize Growth

4. Concentration Curls

Concentration curls were a favorite of legendary bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a staple in his peak-building biceps routine.

Perch on the end of a weight bench with a dumbbell in one hand and your elbow resting on the inside of your knee. Use a full range of motion and squeeze your biceps on every rep.