I get asked about arm training a lot. The questions started really ramping up last year when I started to get somewhat regular with my YouTube videos and people started to notice that I do in fact have larger than average arms.
So invariably, questions started rolling in about what super secret program I was following in terms of arm development.
The secret is that there is no secret. The prescription I use for myself (and have used for many years) is basically identical to what I lay out in my power-building program.
It’s what I use for myself. It’s what I use for my clients, and it’s what I suggest you use if you want bigger arms.
Before getting into program specifics, let’s get into a few mistakes guys make when they are trying to grow their arms. As usual, many of the mistakes are made at the far left and right of the spectrum.
Mistake #1: Dieting
You will NOT grow your arms in a major caloric deficit. Sorry. They may look better if you start to train them a bit and drop some water and body fat, but they will not grow. I think arms, more than all other body parts, need to see scale weight move a bit before there is a noticeable difference in size. Look, if you are a great big fat guy, then don’t worry about your arms as a priority just yet anyways. Just get less fat. Spend the extra 10-20 minutes you’d spend training your arms at the end of a workout doing some prowler pushes. That’s a better use of your time. If you do decide that arms become a priority for you for a certain point in time, make sure you are eating in a way that supports muscle growth (see this article here for tips on mass building nutrition: https://www.andybaker.com/building-a-simple-diet-for-mass/
Mistake #2 “If you just get stronger on the main lifts, your arms will grow with everything else!”
True for a raw beginner. Not so true once you’ve got a few years of training under your belt. When a novice trainee starts Squatting, Deadlifting, Benching, Pressing, Cleaning, and Chinning for the first time ever, then yes, dedicated arm training is largely unnecessary. There is plenty of tricep work on the Bench and Press and plenty of bicep work if the trainee is chinning, but after the first several months (or maybe even up to a year or so) then size gains are going to level off and more specific work is likely needed.
So if you’ve been training for several years and you still have small arms, then you probably need to train them.
The notion that “squats make your whole body grow” is again, true, but only up to a point.
Mistake #3 Over-training the arms
This is probably the biggest mistake I see. In an effort to prioritize arms, guys will do way too much work. You can overdo things in terms of volume, frequency, or both. Often, trainees will add a dedicated bicep/tricep day to their week (which isn’t an entirely stupid thing to do) but then within that session they are cranking out way too much volume. Hammering your arms with 10-20 sets of curls, extensions, etc doesn’t work that well for most. There is simply a point in which more and more sets and reps just pushes a muscle beyond what is needed for a growth stimulus and becomes a liability.
Some other guys will add some arm work 3-4 days per week, often a few sets of biceps/triceps at the end of all their main workouts. This doesn’t work well either. They don’t need to be stimulated this often to grow.
Mistake #4: Too Heavy or Too Light
Again, mistakes at both ends of the spectrum.
I haven’t gotten my best arm growth from doing super heavy barbell curls or tricep extensions. I have used this approach in the past, but the end result mainly tends to be lots and lots of elbow inflammation and that is about it. The really heavy stimulus comes from our heavy pressing exercises, chins, and rows. Arms grow better from more moderate weights taken to failure in the 8-15 range (maybe lower on occasion to break through a strength plateau) with near perfect form.
Likewise, you aren’t going to grow your arms much by tossing in a few token pump sets with half assed effort at the end of a workout. It’s better than not training them at all, but it won’t lead to any serious growth. You don’t have to go long or often, but you do need to go hard when it comes time to train the biceps or triceps.
Mistake #5: Partial Range of Motion, Shitty form, and ignoring the Mind-Muscle Connection.
I understand that many people don’t think that the latter matters that much or even exists at all. For the smaller exercises especially, it does. When you are squatting a heavy weight, you don’t need to focus on feeling the quads stretch and contract on every rep. This is going to happen regardless. But when we’re doing isolation work, we can’t just move the weight from point A to point B without an intense mental focus on feeling the muscles stretch and contract on every rep. If you aren’t walking away from your sets of curls with an intensely painful pump at the end of each set, you are likely not seeing much growth. Same with tricep work.
If your arms just feel “tired” after working them rather than swollen and pumped I’d encourage you to work on that mind muscle connection during your sets and you’ll get better results.
All your isolation type bicep/tricep work should be taken through as full a range of motion as possible. Focus on full deep stretches at the bottom end of the range of motion, and hard volitional contractions at the top. Control the eccentric phase as well.
Mistake #6: Same exercises, same weights, same rep scheme
My experience has been that isolation type assistance exercises need to be rotated in and out of the program much more frequently than the major barbell lifts. Meaning that you pretty much need to perform Squat, Bench, Deads, and Presses every week (or some very close variation thereof) but you don’t necessarily need to barbell curl or LTE every single week. Doing so leads to very quick stagnation and often overuse type injuries around the elbow and wrist. You don’t need 42 different curl variations, but maybe 3-4. Same with triceps. May 3-4 different types of extension movements that we rotate through on a weekly basis. You’ll progress your strength better this way, stimulate the muscle more effectively, and avoid some overuse type injuries.
Ditto with rep scheme. Sometimes we may want to BB Curl some heavy sets of 6-8 with full rests, and other times we may want to do sets of 15 with 60 second rests.
How to set up the template…….
I usually build the program around a dedicated Bench Press focused session to start with. So if we assume you are going to have a dedicated Bench Press focused session, let’s place that on Monday for the sake of discussion (it can be whatever day of the week works for you).
On the Bench Press day we’ll start with Heavy Flat Bench Presses, then move to Incline Presses, and finish the Bench work with Dips. After we are done with our Bench and Bench Assistance work (or call it “chest work” if you prefer) then we’ll move to Bicep training. I like doing Biceps here because the elbows and biceps are warm up, but not tired like if you train them right after doing Back work, which is very common practice. This allows us to go a bit heavier in a fresher state.
Go with TWO bicep exercises. You’ll be rotating the two exercises around weekly or every couple of weeks with as many combinations as you want from a menu of maybe 4-6 exercises at most.
The first exercise of the session is heavier usually about 3 sets in the 8-10 rep range. Maybe as low as 6 reps on occasion. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets and focus on moving as heavy a weight as possible for an average of 8 reps per set with perfect form, full range of motion, etc. Adjust the weight as needed (down) from set to set to make sure you are keeping your reps around 8ish and maintaining perfect form. These sets should be taken to failure. We aren’t doing a ton of volume here, so we want quality, fatiguing reps. If you stop at 8 reps with 2-3 reps left in the tank you aren’t getting enough stimulus.
The second exercise is lighter with sets in the 12-15 rep range. Rest periods will be shorter and loads will often be dropped set to set to maintain the volume and form. I may often use drop sets, rest-pause sets, etc here to keep the reps high, sometimes even up to 20 or so reps. The object here is metabolic stress…..i.e. get a massive pump.
That’s it for biceps. 6 intense focused sets taken to failure with perfect form, and full range of motion.
Sample:
- Bench Press 3 x 5
- Incline Bench Press 3 x 8-10
- Dips 3 x 10-15+
- Barbell Curl, Dumbbell Curl, Incline Dumbbell Curl, DB Preacher Curl, etc 3 x 6-10
- Barbell Curl, Dumbbell Curl, Incline Dumbbell Curl, DB Preacher Curl, Cable Curl, Machine Curl 3 x 12-20
A little tip……if you struggle with Dips after Bench / Incline, do the first heavy bicep movement as the third exercise of the day, then do dips, then do the second bicep exercise. This short break will allow you to crank out more dips.
Again, assuming the Bench Press / Bicep Day is on Monday, then we’ll do a dedicated Back Training session on Friday. If biceps are a priority, start this session off with Chins or Weighted Chins and then do all your other exercises like BB Rows, DB Rows, Pulldowns, etc. This is our second bicep stimulus of the week, but it’s kind of an “indirect” stress on the biceps. This is part of my direct / indirect system that I use with all muscle groups in my power-building program.
The Back Day usually has around 15 total sets for back, and about 10 of those sets have a bicep component to them. The rest usually rear delt work and shrugs
Now for Triceps…….
So if we are doing Bench, Incline, and Dips on Monday, all of that serves as our “indirect” tricep stimulus, although the reality is that it’s pretty damn direct. The Dips on Monday I like to keep in the higher end of the rep spectrum, like 10-15. This is partly because I like to do Dips again on Thursday as part of a dedicated Shoulder / Tricep session. On Thursday, I like to take the Dips heavier, with added weight in the 6-8 rep range. This also serves as our “indirect” chest stimulus later in the week after hitting it really hard on Monday.
If I need to give my shoulders a break, I will sub out the Dips with heavy Close Grip Benching or even Floor Presses as my heavy tricep exercises and my “indirect” chest stimulus.
I follow that up with an extension exercise that I change up every week. This is worked in the 8-15 rep range, often with a drop set or two on the final set to really pump some blood into the muscle.
We rotate through Lying Tricep Extensions (with EZ Bar or Dumbbells), French Press (with EZ Bar or unilaterally with a Dumbbell), and Cable Pressdowns.
And that’s it for triceps. 6 dedicated intense sets on Thursday (after Overhead Pressing).
The Sample Week…….
Monday: Chest / Biceps (plus indirect shoulder, triceps)
- Bench Press 3 x 5
- Incline Bench Press 3 x 8-10
- Dips 3 x 10-15
- Seated DB Curls 3 x 8-10
- Barbell Curls 3 x 15 (descending sets with 30-60 sec rest)
Thursday: Shoulder / Triceps (plus indirect chest)
- Standing Shoulder Press 3 x 5
- Seated DB Press 3 x 8-10
- Side Delt Raises 3 x 15-20*
- Heavy Dips 3 x 8-10
- Lying Tricep Extension 3 x 8-12 + Drop Set x 8-12
- *the side delt raises serve as a nice break for the triceps between the overhead pressing and heavy dips
Friday: Back, Traps (plus indirect biceps)
- Weighted Chins 3 x 8-10
- Barbell Rows 3 x 8-12
- Seated Cable Rows 3 x 12
- Rear Delt Raises 3 x 15-20
- Shrugs 3 x 15
Follow this protocol as I’ve laid out here and your arms will grow.
The full KSC Method for Power-Building is available here if you want to see how I lay out an entire training program using the Direct / Indirect training system for muscle hypertrophy and physique development.
In my online coaching club, we also have a Power-Building Track you can follow along with that is very similar to the programs I reference in the KSC Method for Power-Building. If you’d like some ongoing guidance as you try your hand at power-building, this is an affordable and easy option….The Baker Barbell Club Online
