How to Get Bigger Arms: 8 Ways to Build Muscle Efficiently
Updated January 2024
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Looking to have bigger, stronger, bulkier muscular arms that will boost that feeling of confidence? Then you’re at the right place. Maximizing muscle mass, whether for purely aesthetic reasons, enhancement of athletic performance, health-related benefits, or improvement of the quality of life, can be attained with an adequate plan. The right strategy involves alterations in diet and planned, structured exercises that are safe, healthy, and appropriate.
Eight ways to get bigger arms and build muscle efficiently include increasing your protein intake, eating enough calories, having a routine, stretching, getting in your warm-up sets, doing supersets, trying different movements, and not neglecting your forearms.
This article will walk you through the best exercises for bigger arms and the details of eight efficient ways to build those muscles.
What Are the Best Arm Exercises?
The arm comprises many muscles that work together to allow you to perform all sorts of motions and tasks. Upper body strength is helpful for a host of regular activities, from household chores such as lifting groceries and raking leaves to everyday actions like picking up your kids or pulling doors open. Any activity involving pushing, pulling, lifting, or reaching requires you to utilize your arm muscles.
Find out some of the best exercises targeting the main muscle groups of the arm.
Biceps
1. Runner's Lunge Biceps Curl
Take a lunge position with both knees bent at angles of 90 degrees. Your front knee should be over your front foot while your back knee is poised above the floor, heel raised. Hold a dumbbell (affiliate link) in each hand with palms facing inward. Keeping your upper arms still, curl the dumbbells up towards your chest. Then, with control, lower the weights down. That’s one rep. Do six to 15 reps and continue immediately to your next exercise, resting only when you absolutely need to.
2. Renegade Row
Beginning in a plank position, grip a pair of dumbbells, making sure your wrists are straight. Keeping your core engaged and your hips level, pull your left elbow towards the ceiling until your hands are close to your ribs. Lower it down and repeat the same process on the opposite side. Again, that's one rep. Do six to 15 reps, and then continue on to your next exercise, resting only as you need to.
3. Hammer Curl
Take a stance with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms hanging down beside you with a weight in each hand. Keeping your palms facing inwards towards you and your elbows pressed to your body, lift the dumbbells to your shoulders. Release to start to complete one rep. Perform six to 15 reps.
Triceps
1. Triceps Kickback
Start in a quarter squat with your torso tilted forward at 45 degrees, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms bent so the weights are by your rib cage. Extend your arms to push the dumbbells back, squeezing your triceps. Return to the start position with control. That's one rep. Do six to 15 reps, then continue on to your next exercise, resting only as you need to.
2. Overhead Triceps Extension
Start by holding the ends of one dumbbell in both hands with your arms extended straight above your head. Keep your biceps by your ears, and bend your elbows to lower the dumbbell slowly back behind your head. This is your start position. Then, straighten your elbows to re-extend your arms overhead. That's one rep. Do six to 15 reps, and then continue on to your next exercise, resting only as you need to.
3. Bent-Over Tricep Extension
Standing with your feet hip-width apart, hold a dumbbell in each hand and let your arms hang at your sides. Your palms should be facing inward. Bending from your hip with your knees slightly bent, lean forward with your torso until your body is at about 45 degrees to the ground. Keep your upper arms by your torso with your elbows at your sides and extend your forearms behind you until they are parallel to the floor. Release them to complete one rep. Perform six to 15 reps.
Shoulders
1. Hollow Hold with Overhead Press
Sit on a mat and hold a single dumbbell or kettlebell (affiliate link) in front of your chest with your legs bent and feet flat on the floor. Engage your core, shift back onto your tailbone, lift your feet into the air, and extend your legs straight ahead, a few inches above the mat. This is your start position. Maintain your hold and press the weight straight up over your chest. Lower it back down. That's one rep. Do six to 15 reps, and then continue on to your next exercise, resting only as you need to.
2. One-Arm External Rotation
Start standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, right hand on hip, and left arm holding a dumbbell with your elbow bent at 90 degrees and pinned against your waist. Your forearm should be in front of your body and parallel to the floor, with your palm facing upwards. Keeping your elbow in place, rotate the weight out 45 degrees toward the left side. Slowly return to start. That’s one rep. Alternate your arms with each set. Do six to 15 reps, and then continue on to your next exercise.
3. Upright Row
Take a stance with your feet shoulder-width apart and your legs kept straight. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing toward your body and weights touching your quads. Pull your elbows upwards and outwards to lift the dumbbells to your shoulder height. Reverse your movement to return to the starting position. That’s one rep. Do six to 15 reps, then continue on to your next exercise, resting only as you need to.
8 Ways to Build Your Arms
Increase Your Protein Intake
Proteins are key when your goal is to build muscle. A muscle-building diet often involves consuming foods high in protein. Recent studies recommend that people working out to build muscle eat about 1.6 grams of protein per kilo of body weight each day. You could reach out to a registered dietitian to plan a specified diet for you. Otherwise, your best bet may be a variety of protein sources which could include foods like cottage cheese, chicken breast, milk, egg whites, and Greek yogurt.
Eat Enough Calories
Building muscle isn’t only about eating some more protein or consuming only high-quality protein sources. To build muscle, you’ll need to consume more calories than you burn. Generally, you need to eat at least 500 more calories than your body’s maintenance levels so your body has enough fuel to grow your muscles.
Have a Routine
Going over the same movements and angles too many times can lead to overuse injury and limited growth. For maximum results, each of the muscle groups must be targeted individually. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends performing whole-body (arms inclusive) strength training on two to three nonconsecutive days a week. The recommendation for general muscle strength training is two to three sets of eight to 12 repetitions per session, irrespective of what part of your body you’re training. You’ll need to target each muscle group (biceps, triceps, and shoulders) at least twice a week to get maximum results.
Stretch
Stretches are low-impact exercises that can increase your short-term range of motion and reduce the risk of injury-this is important because injuries won’t allow you to exercise and hence prevent you from building your muscle mass. Stretching your upper body activates your muscles, stimulates blood flow, and increases your short-term range of motion and flexibility. Performing stretches as a warm-up or cool-down before or after an upper-body workout will help prevent soreness as well.
Get In Your Warm-Up Sets
Warmups work to prep your body and nervous system to cope with different moves and loads. So, skipping them can lead to soreness or serious injury. The best warmup moves are movements that look similar to your workout for the day. Aim for eight to 10 minutes of warming up before you begin your upper body workout. Get your blood flowing with some cardio, like jumping jacks, cycling, jogging, or a brisk walk, and then do some warmups specifically for the arms, like arm circles, T arm swings, high knee pulls, overhead shoulder stretches, and arm punches.
Do Supersets
Supersets are a great way to intensify your workouts and add volume to your sessions while reducing workout time. They also stimulate muscular stress, hence promoting muscle growth. A superset is done by alternating between exercises of opposing or the same muscle groups with little or no rest in between. The most popular supersets for arm workouts are the antagonistic supersets for opposing muscle groups (for example, biceps and triceps) - this allows the muscle not being worked out at the time to rest while the other muscle group is being worked out and vice versa.
Try Slower Movements
Taking a slower approach to strength training while using lighter weights is both a safe approach for beginners and helps your body increase the recruitment of more muscle fibers to overcome external resistance. Performing a slow rep workout causes your muscles to spend more time under tension than they would in fast reps. Time under tension simply translates to the time a muscle spends under strain. The time under tension helps to optimize muscular strength and endurance, thereby increasing the effectiveness in building body mass.
Don’t Forget About the Forearms
The forearms are some of the often neglected muscles, like the calves and the neck, which can make a big difference in your physique. Well-defined, big forearms give a better aesthetic view, and strengthening them is important because it can help improve grip strength, which makes moving about in daily life easier. A strong grip helps you carry, hold, and lift items with ease in your everyday life and during athletic activity. Some exercises include palms-up wrist curls, palms-down wrist curls, behind-the-back cable curls, and pull-ups.
The Best Workout For Getting Bigger Arms
Create a workout that includes the exercises mentioned before to target the shoulders, triceps, biceps, and forearms, or follow along with this thorough and effective workout plan.
This workout comprises a circuit targeting the arms. The circuit will include one exercise each for the biceps, triceps, forearms, and shoulder regions.
Also, if you are choosing to only exercise at home, be sure to consider our list of recommended at-home workout equipment (affiliate link) to add variety and resistance to your routine!
Warm-up: arm circles, T arm swings, high knee pulls, or overhead shoulder stretches.
Perform three to four sets of the following exercises:
Renegade row x 10 reps
Overhead triceps extension x 10 reps
Pull-ups x 8 reps
One-arm external rotation x 8 reps
Cooldown: arm stretches mentioned above in a slower manner
Final Thoughts
The key to growing your arms is balancing training stress with recovery. As with not having enough training time and stress, excessive training volume without enough time for recovery can diminish growth. Muscle-building training that does not allow rest days for recovery may produce less than optimal muscle development. If it’s your goal to build those arms, you’ll need to strike a balance in all the right things. And do remember to take time to rest!
