20 Tips For Bigger Arms in 8 weeks!
Got skinny arms? Do you train your arms a lot, but they never get bigger? Well, my arms are 17.5 inches, which isn’t bad for someone who only trains 3 days per week and weighs under 14 stone is it? Genetics do play a part, but I’m sure the majority of people reading this article can add at least an inch to their arms within 8 weeks, by following the principles below.
Top 20 Training Tips For Bigger Arms in Weeks
- Perform a multiple joint whole body routine, with very high intensity
- Perform 3 training sessions per week, or 5 training sessions per fortnight
- Avoid excessive cardio. Consume a glucose drink before and during the cardio and a recovery drink immediately afterwards.
- Consume 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight, i.e. I weight 190lbs, so I need 190 x 1.5 = 285g of protein per day, spread evenly throughout the day
- Use creatine supplements
- Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day
- Eat 6+ equal size meal per day and DON’T mess up on a weekend!
- Perform weighted dips and emphasise the negative part of the movement. Increase the weight as much as possible, as long as you can still do 5-6 smoothish reps.
- Perform close grip bench presses (hands 10″ apart)
- Train arms with high intensity and low reps, with no more than 2-3 sets on the biceps per average training session. Same applies to triceps. If you have to use isolation exercises, do biceps and triceps on different days, but at the end of your workout
- Vary your training enough to keep your muscles guessing, but not so much that you are guessing whether or not you are making improvements!
- Perform bar holds. Hold a barbell and squeeze it, whilst in a standing position for as long as possible, with your training partner counting out every 5 seconds. Use a weight which allows 30-40 seconds and increase weight as you improve
- Focus your training efforts on increasing the following exercises, with the most important first: squat, deadlift, barbell rows
- Get plenty of sleep
- Use perfect form on all exercises, with a smooth and continuous rep cadence, lasting about 1-2 seconds in the positive part of the movement and 2-4 seconds in the negative part. Vary this occasionally, to train your muscles in different ways, but use the aforementioned cadence in the majority of your workouts.
- Try supersets once per week, i.e. one minute underhand pull-up (30 seconds negative and 30 seconds positive with a smooth rep cadence), immediately followed by standing barbell curls and 1 minute dip (30 seconds negative and 30 seconds positive – smooth cadence), immediately followed by lying EZ extensions (use a spotter or you will find out why this exercises is also called skull crushers). Perform both supersets at the beginning of your workout once per week, then continue as normal with compound movements.
- Try antagonistic training on your biceps and triceps at the end of a workout once per week, i.e. lying EZ extensions, followed immediately by standing EZ curls and repeated immediately.
- For a massive muscle pump on the biceps, perform a set of standing barbell curls to failure, where failure occurs at 9-10 reps. Your training partner performs his set as soon as you finish your set. You then perform your second set straight after your training partners first set and so on, until you have done 3-4 sets each. Don’t cheat at all and your arms will feel more pumped than ever. For an even bigger pump, try using BSN No-Xplode.
- Do weighted underhand pull-ups and increase the weight regularly, so you stay in the 5-7 rep range.
- Do not overtrain! 50-60 minutes in the gym is optimum. Any more and your body release a muscle shredding stress hormone called Cortisol
There are lots of potential variations to your workouts listed above and you should aim to incorporate one of these options for 4 weeks say, i.e. antagonistic training at the end of your multiple joint compound movements workout (which mainly comprises squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, rows and presses), then incorporate a different option, i.e. superset at the beginning of your workout. However you choose to follow the above advice, make sure that you do not overtrain your arms, or they just won’t grow.
The above training advice focuses on many different ideas, which would take about 20 pages to explain, so I simply haven’t. Basically, some types of training encourage a higher secretion of IGF-1 by the body, whereas others encourage a higher increase in testosterone levels, or Growth Hormone (GH). Steroids manipulate these hormone levels unnaturally, but you can do it naturally, by following the above tips, which will lead to your best gains ever!
I appreciate that some people may need further advice with regards to this article and if so, please leave a comment and I will provide further advice within 48 hours. Alternatively, if you think you can add to this advice, please leave your comments!
Regards,
Martin.
