Strong, powerful arms – that’s what we want. It’s what most women want in a man too, apparently.
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In a poll last year by Men’s Health magazine, 67% percent of women said they would prefer thick arms to a thick penis! Click here if you don’t believe me.
Here’s the good news: you’ve just saved the $50 you were going to spend on a penis pump.
And here’s the bad news: you’re gonna have to spend some extra time pumping up those arms.
Don’t panic. This article will deliver six solid strategies for bulking up your arms through weight training. I’ve used them all to good effect. And while I’m not claiming to be on a par with Popeye, my arms are much thicker and stronger than they used to be.
When you consider that the triceps make up roughly two thirds of the upper arm, it makes more sense to put more emphasis on this muscle.
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But it wasn’t always like that. In fact I was so self conscious about my skinny arms all through my teenage years that I used to do all sorts to try and hide them. I would spend ages shopping for t-shirts and would only wear ones that hid most of my upper arms.
Short sleeved shirts were a complete no-go because they would have fully exposed the undeniable fact that my arms clearly resembled twigs. And on nights out sporting whatever skinny-camouflaging-clothes-combo I came up with, I would end up just wanting to punch the guys who were showing off their bulging biceps in tight t-shirts.
I didn’t do it obviously. In case they snapped one of my twig arms right off.
Ahem, moving swiftly on…
Assuming you’re already clued-up on the basics of muscle gain ( i.e. lifting heavy weights, and eating a clean diet with sufficient amounts of protein ), let’s move on to the plan of attack for inflating those arms of yours.
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Six Step Strategy For Strengthening And Thickening Your Arms
#1 Focus More on your Triceps.
The schoolboy error that most people make when aiming for bigger arms is putting too much emphasis on biceps isolation exercises.
Compound exercises such as chin-ups, below, and pull-ups are devastatingly effective not only for increasing the size of your arms, but for overall upper body development.
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Thinking of the ‘guns’ and flexing the head of the bicep, they hit barbell curls hard and try all sorts of variations of dumbbell curls for growth.
When you consider that the triceps make up roughly two thirds of the upper arm, it makes more sense to put more emphasis on this muscle. As it is made up of three heads (long, lateral and medial), the triceps brachii is the largest muscle in the upper arm and deserves some special attention.
My favourite triceps exercises are: dips, triceps extensions on cable machine, skull crushers (below) and narrow bench press.
#2 Change up Your Routine Regularly
You must keep mixing it up with the types of exercises you do, the number of sets, and how many reps you do each time in the gym. Don’t allow your muscles to adapt to the same old routine, you must find fresh ways to keep stressing your muscles in order to force them to grow.
“You’ve got to shock the muscle, shock the muscle, and shock the muscle with different kinds of training principles.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger.
His arms are now legendary and, in his prime, Arnie revealed his favourite biceps exercises were: barbell curls, dumbbell curls on an incline bench, and concentration curls.
His top triceps moves were: narrow bench press, triceps extensions, and single arm dumbbell triceps extensions (above the head).
#3 Don’t Forget Compound Exercises
It would be daft to get too carried away with biceps and triceps isolation exercises in an attempt to grow bigger arms.
Compound exercises such as chin-ups, below, and pull-ups are devastatingly effective not only for increasing the size of your arms, but for overall upper body development.
To download my free guide on the best compound exercises and how to perform them correctly click here.
#4 Feel the Tension
Quite often when performing exercises such as the dumbbell curl we’ll lift the weight to the top and move straight into lowering it again for the next rep.
Instead of this, make a conscious effort to hold the dumbbell at the peak of the movement and squeeze for 2-3 seconds.
Creatine has been proven to be effective in improving performance in weightlifters and other athletes.
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This is another top training tip Arnie revealed in this article he wrote for Men’s Fitness magazine. Working out this way intensifies muscle contractions and causes more stress.
“The more stress you place on the muscle, the more muscle growth you stimulate,” according to The Terminator.
#5 Slow Down
We’ve just mentioned the importance of squeezing when contracting the muscle, but there are also more gains to be had by slowing down the negative part of your exercises every now and then. (Remember, it’s best to keep switching up your routine).
For example, lowering your body more slowly when doing chin-ups will place more strain on the muscle and encourage more growth.
Same goes for isolation exercises such as preacher curls or triceps extensions. Make a conscious effort to lower the bar more slowly and in a controlled manner for maximum effect. (This will mean lifting a lighter weight than usual).
#6 Add Creatine into the Mix
If you’ve been lifting weights for a while with little progress in muscle size and definition, then supplementing with creatine monohydrate might well be your saviour.
If you put these strategies into practice and stay consistent with your training you can expect to see growth in your arms.
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It’s an amino acid that’s found in various foods and is also naturally produced in the body, helping to deliver energy to all cells, primarily muscles.
Creatine has been proven to be effective in improving performance in weightlifters and other athletes. This is because it increases the body’s ability to produce more energy rapidly, meaning you can train harder and for longer.
Creatine also pulls more fluid into the muscles, giving them a fuller look. For more details on the science behind creatine and recommendations on dosage visit http://www.creatinemonohydrate.net/
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If you put these strategies into practice and stay consistent with your training you can expect to see growth in your arms.
And if you’ve never supplemented with creatine before you might be surprised at the results in as little as two weeks.
Okay, enough reading. Time to hit the weights.
This article was originally published on Weight Training is the Way.
Hi Anthony and Erik, I wrote the above article and I’m a weight training blogger ( weighttrainingistheway.com ) . Guys – I genuinely feel your pain. Why? Because I was the skinniest dude in town….my arms and legs were like twigs, none of my clothes fitted properly, and I actually wished I was fat so I could at least try and slim down and develop some muscle that way…..since it was a nightmare trying to put on even one single pound of weight. One humiliating comment about my “skinny arms” from my girlfriend’s pal (in front of a group of… Read more »
Here’s what I’ve been doing. I take an old backpack, and stuff it full of crazy shit (a couple of power tools, and a 30 lb portable battery pack right now, for instance), so it weighs about 60 lbs. Then I wear it and do sets of push-ups. I don’t know much about good sets and all that, but I started with 40 lbs, until I could do at least a couple sets of 20 reps without breaking form, then upped it by 10 lbs at a time (not sure what I’ll do when I go past 70 though!) Every… Read more »
Doh! Comment detail again! This was, obviously, a reply to @Erik, below.
Thanks for the response, Anthony. I’ll have to start with much lower weights than you…like, zero. I don’t know that I’ll have the same issue putting on muscle mass as you or Brandon, but I doubt I’ll ever have the massive “guns” described by the author. Nothing wrong with getting stronger though, and it’ll help with the overall fitness level.
Good luck! Yeah, I just started with 40 lbs in the backpack, as a matter of trial and error. That was the point where I put it on and was like “oh man, I can’t even do 10 in a row without giving out!”, so I stuck with that. It took me something like a month before I was good enough with it to go up to 50 lbs, and again as long to get to 60. It’s painstaking, and slow going, and only just barely noticeable…but at least this summer when I know I’ll be carrying around bags of… Read more »
See I’d love to be able to try these and say that it’ll work. But the problem is people like me can’t gain muscle in their arms because genetics don’t allow us to do so. No matter how much we eat or don’t, nothing works. Guess we’ll be loveless for life then huh?
Oh it’s worse. I know from experience. You also suffer in business. If I had a dollar for every time my advice was rejected in favor of the ludicrous proposal of a tall, well built guy who looked incredible in a suit, leading to the company hemorrhaging money, and needing to lay off half the workforce (including me and “awesome suit guy”, oh the irony)…I’d have enough for a really fancy Starbucks coffee. I know how you feel, totally. You baffle doctors and trainers, and you spend years going to INCREDIBLE lengths, eating over ten thousand calories a day, and… Read more »
Not the sort of article I’m used to seeing on TGMP, but it’s an area that we neglect all too much. Physical fitness is important for so many reasons: health, self esteem, attraction. However, I really, REALLY hate going to the gym, and I just can’t afford to buy my own weights, and wouldn’t know where in my tiny apartment I would put them if I could. What sort of training plan would you recommend that doesn’t require weights? In my case I’m already taking Taekwondo, but I’m a middle-aged beginner who struggles with just the warm-ups. Is there something… Read more »