Sleeve splitting arms are a sight to behold. When fully developed, the biceps, triceps, and muscles of the forearm are extremely impressive; even in the hang position. Once flexed, these muscles take on a life of their own and give their possessor an air of confidence only understood by other gunslingers.
Some are born with the genetics that allows them to create cartoonish like arms while others fight tooth and nail for every inch gained. Regardless of which category you fall in, you still have to put in the work and choose exercises that will compliment your genetics and structure allowing for the most growth as possible to occur.
If you feel like your arm workouts haven’t been producing the results you’d like, or you’re simply bored with your current routine, give the following workout a try or pick a couple of exercises you haven’t been using and throw them into the mix.
Biceps
Straight Barbell Curls: This exercise may be considered the best overall exercise for pure strength and size gain above all other biceps exercises. Make sure when you do this exercise, you use a full range of motion allowing for the biceps to fully lengthen at the bottom with a strong contraction at the top. Keep your elbows dug into the lower half of your rib cage and avoid using body english (momentum) to curl the weight up. Keep your elbows back and back straight then pull with everything you have.
Alternating Dumbbell Curls: Another compound exercise excellent for pure size and strength gain, the alternating dumbbell curl allows for you to use some heavy ass weight with a focus on unilaterally training each biceps. The key for this exercise is to emphasize the supination of the wrist at the top of the movement for a hard contraction. Try to see as much of your pinky finger as you can at the top. Fight the urge to go with momentum by slowing down your rep speed and fully finish each repetition before starting the next with the other arm.
Preacher Curls: This is one of my favorite exercises for isolating the biceps and really finishing it off. You can choose to do these with dumbbells or a barbell, one arm at a time or both. You want to lock yourself in nice and tight to the bench, have the pad set up just a little lower than armpit height when sitting then lean into the exercise just a bit. This will help keep the deltoids out of the movement and make the biceps do all the work. Stop just short of the lockout at the bottom (to save strain on your elbow joint) then pull hard for a nice squeeze at the top.
Triceps
Pushdowns: With an exercise like this, you have so many options when it comes to the attachment you can use that I like to simply go with whatever attachment is on the cable when I get to the station. This way it keeps things fresh with muscle confusion. Used as a warm up for your triceps and elbows, you can and still should be able to use a significant amount of weight on these. Keep your elbows in tight to your body, push down hard and flex the triceps at the bottom then slowly raise your hands just past starting position to get a nice little stretch at the top. Don’t be afraid to lean into the cable a little bit when using a lot of weight, just for stability purposes.
Triceps Barbell Extensions (Skull Crushers): There’s a reason this exercise has this name, and more than one person knows why. If you are using too much weight for these and you are training without a partner, the chances of having the barbell come down and crack you on the forehead are quite high. For this exercise, you want to be on either a flat bench of a bench set up at about a 30-degree angle. Grip the bar about 8 inches apart with a false grip then slowly bring it to just above your forehead at arm’s length. On the negative portion of the rep, push your elbows towards the ceiling while keeping them in the same position. Bring the barbell to your forehead then push it back up and a little behind you at roughly a 70-degree angle. This will keep constant tension on the triceps instead of giving them a rest when your arms are fully extended, and your joint can take some of the strain. Make sure to keep your elbows in as much as you can by pushing them towards each other all through the movement.
Close Grip Bench Press: By this point in the workout your triceps should be pretty fried, so you won’t need to use a whole lot of weight here, and you can really focus on having your triceps work through the whole range of motion trying as best you can to eliminate any help from your chest and front delts. Set up under the bar with a grip just a little wider than shoulder width. Drive your elbows into your sides allowing them to just pass by your rib cage during the rep. I find by bringing the bar down closer to my neck I get a better stretch so you may want to play around with where you bring the bar down. For many, coming down to the sternum area will be sufficient. Then push the bar back up for a hard squeeze at the top.
Forearms
Behind the Back Wrist Curls: This is my all time favorite forearm exercise, and it gives me an incredible pump. Stand in front of a barbell that is set up to look like you’ll be doing shrugs. Grip it so that when you lift the bar, the backs of your hands are resting on the top of your glutes. Lean over a bit then curl your wrists and flex your forearm. Let the bar then roll to the end of your fingertips at the bottom of the movement then repeat. When you can’t curl anymore, simply let the bar go, and it will fall on the support racks.
Hammer Curls: This exercise can be done similar to the alternating dumbbell curl but instead this time you curl the dumbbell thumb up and to the front of your body or across your body. Keep your elbows back, your wrist released at the bottom of the exercise then slowly flex the wrist thumbs up as you curl the dumbbell up and across or in front of your body. Don’t be afraid to go to the heavy dumbbell rack on these.
As with each routine, I lay out, I highly recommend using the principles of Max-OT to help you reach your goals. As well, you’ll want to use the best products on the market for your bodybuilding needs given to you by none other than AST Sports Science. Be sure to check out the products page on this website; you’ll be thankful you did.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when training your arms. First, they are pretty much involved every time you train your upper body. Keep that in mind when considering the volume of your training (another reason Max-OT works perfectly here). Secondly, if overall arm size is what you’re after, put an emphasis on triceps. They make up roughly two-thirds of your upper arm. Finally, you can’t change the shape of your muscle. That was determined by your parents and the genetics they gave you. What you can do is make what you currently have bigger and better.
Don’t be let down if your arms don’t turn out to look like Arnold’s, very few people, if any at all, have that capability. Train your arms hard and heavy each session, allow for growth to occur and it won’t be long before you’re splitting sleeves and taking names.
