Huge, muscular arms are a quality that many serious bodybuilders are interested in. However, the same sort of training program used by an aspiring bodybuilder can be used with little modification for those who have more modest goals in terms of arm size.

Building Mass in the Biceps, Brachialis and Triceps
The best exercise for overall biceps mass is the standing barbell curl, and the standing barbell cheat-curl. The cheat curl involves using a heavy weight that you are not capable of lifting in strict form, such that you have to use the muscles of the upper body to ‘swing’ the weight up, i.e. cheating, but you only cheat just enough so that you can complete the curl: by only cheating just enough to complete the curl, the biceps are forced to work maximally throughout the movement.

If you cheat too much and swing the weight most, or all of, the way up, then you are defeating the purpose of the exercise, which is to make those biceps work maximally, and get them used to heavier weights that can be used in strict barbell curls.

The biceps muscle has two muscular ‘heads’ which need to be trained in specific ways: the inner and outer heads of the biceps. The outer head is responsible for biceps peak, and you can check this in the following way: with your biceps of one arm contracted as in a front biceps pose, put a finger from your other hand on the peak of the muscle. Then, whilst still keeping your finger in position on the muscle, lower your arm to your side, and you will see that your finger is positioned on the outside of your biceps, on the outer head.

Effective exercises for the outer head include concentration curls that curl inward toward the centre of the chest, narrow grip barbell- and preacher curls, and hammer curls. Hammer curls are performed with dumbbells with the thumb facing upward throughout the movement, and can be performed in a cross-body fashion such that the dumbbell is lifted across the body and finishes with the thumb uppermost, and the dumbbell against the chest. Hammer curls are also excellent for brachialis development, the brachialis being the muscle which lies under the biceps, and can be seen between the biceps and triceps in a rear double biceps pose.

The triceps muscles of each arm have three heads: the inner, medial (termed here as the ‘lower’ triceps), and outer heads. Probably the best exercise to improve the lower triceps is weighted dips, and dips in which the arms are only straightened three-quarters of the way, whilst keeping tension on the triceps throughout. The outer triceps respond to movements in which the hands are in a ‘thumbs-up’ position: exercises include triceps pressdowns with a rope, dips, dumbbell kickbacks, one-arm cable pressdowns with the palm facing up, and many others.

The inner triceps respond to movements in which the thumb is turned inward, and include lying or standing barbell triceps extensions, triceps pressdowns with a bar (palms facing down), one-arm cable pressdowns (palm downward), close grip bench presses, and many others.

It is important that the muscles of the arms are not over trained, since these muscles are used in workouts for other body parts, such as chest and back. The way in which workouts are constructed should have this in mind, such that chest and back workouts are separated by several days from direct arm workouts. In fact, the arms are probably best trained on their own in a single workout, or directly after shoulder work.

The number of sets required to stimulate the muscles of the arm will vary with the individual depending upon how intensely that person can train, how quickly they recover from workouts etc. It is something that you must experiment with for yourself.

How many of the exercises listed above are needed in a workout? This depends on the particular goals that you have in mind for your arm training. For instance, if you are primarily training for mass but you have a weak point with your biceps peak, then standing barbell curls and cheat curls, with some dumbbell concentration curls bringing the dumbbell into the chest, would suffice.

However, if you are training primarily for muscular definition coupled with a reduced calorie diet, then you should focus more on isolation movements, but still do some standing barbell curls to retain the mass in your biceps. Similar comments apply to the training of the triceps, with a basic movement such as dips or close grip bench presses being included with an exercise or exercises that target weak points in the muscle.

Train hard and be Strong!
Mick Hart.

Founder of Mick Hart Training Systems and
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