The Best Way To Get Big Arms
The way you’re training your arms right now isn’t the best way to get big arms.
Sure, your arms are hugging your sleeves but that’s not hard to do when you’re squeezing every fiber of your being into a kid’s size XS t-shirt before hitting the club to make it look like you’re working with something.
The thing is that you’re not — you’re NOT working with anything!
That’s why you should continue reading to learn how to get big arms.1Either that, or continue standing around looking like an idiot and being unable to breathe because your shirt is so fucking tight! B-R-E-A-T-H-E, motherfucker!!!
Going to the gym and performing a bunch of curls with no particular rhyme or reason isn’t the way to make your arms grow. Not even close. That’s doing nothing more than exercising. Do that if you please but don’t act surprised by the lack of results when nothing happens. Nope, don’t fucking stand in wonder where your huge motherfucking arms are!
Instead, because what we’re interested in is a certain adaptation taking place, we have to train, or work out in a manner that’s conducive to a long-term fitness goal. In this case, what we’re interested in is arm growth. Training for that comes down to understanding some basic anatomy.
Technically speaking, the biceps brachii is the muscle that’s popularly known as the biceps. Translated from Latin, the name biceps brachii means “two-headed muscle of the arm” because it has two heads, or origin points, that join to form a single muscle belly on the upper arm. Those two heads of the biceps brachii are named according to their length and are known as the short head and the long head.
The biceps long head originates on the supraglenoid tubercle of the scapula and runs down the outside of the arm. This is the part of the biceps that’s responsible for the coveted peak. The biceps short head originates from the coracoid process of the scapula and runs down the side of the arm that’s closest to the body. It’s smaller and situated underneath the bigger and more prominent long head and provides width and thickness to the biceps. Both heads converge and insert on the radial tuberosity of the radius and the fascia of the forearm via the bicipital aponeurosis. Together, they help to supinate the forearm and flex the elbow in the supinated position. That means the biceps are responsible for rotating the palms from down to up and raising the palm side of the forearm towards the shoulder. As such, development of the biceps not only requires exercises that focus on those movements but also targeting both heads for the overall appearance of the muscle.
For aesthetic appeal, the long and short heads of the biceps should be worked, which they usually are when working out the biceps because it’s not possible to truly isolate them. However, while both heads of the biceps contract together to perform the function of the muscle, it’s possible to emphasize one head over the other. That can be done through different exercise variations and grip positions and they should be known to better sculpt the shape and girth of the biceps according to your needs and wants.
Generally, the biceps brachii long head can be targeted by performing exercises that fit into the category of keeping the elbows at the sides of the trunk; employing a narrow grip to angle the forearms across the body; and extending the arms backwards to fully stretch the long head. Examples include Bayesian curls, close-grip barbell curls, drag curls, seated incline dumbbell curls, and chin-ups. As for the biceps brachii short head, it seems to have more engagement with exercises that involve a wide grip, arms in front of the torso or parallel to the ground, and the hands moving in a supinated manner. Examples include wide-grip barbell curls, preacher curls, spider curls, high cable curls, and any curl variation that allows for the freedom of movement to twist the wrists outward at the top of the lift, such as seated dumbbell curls and concentration curls, for instance.
To get bigger arms, you need to perform a healthy dose of exercises that target the distinctive heads of the biceps. Not only that but it also helps to incorporate exercises for the brachialis and brachioradialis. Located beneath the biceps brachii, the growth of the brachialis can push against the biceps and make them appear fuller from the front. Also, the brachialis is the primary flexor of the elbow and with it being able to generate 50 percent more power than the biceps, it becoming stronger allows for the use of heavier and heavier weight to stimulate continued growth of the biceps to change the appearance of the arm. That same reason too is why strengthening the brachioradialis is of similar importance for larger biceps though this elbow flexor is located at the top of the forearm and not the upper arm like the other muscles described here. Exercises that work the brachialis and brachioradialis are those where the palms are facing down or towards each other, such as hammer curls, pinwheel curls, reverse curls, Zottman curls, and neutral-grip pull-ups, for example.
The biceps brachii long head, biceps brachii short head, brachialis, and brachioradialis are the areas of the arm that you should concentrate on for bigger arms. A movement targeting each of those areas should make up any arm program but not only should a mix of hand and arm positions be used to target them, so too should a combination of unilateral and bilateral exercises performed with a variety of equipment. That should all be done by predominantly staying in the 8-12 rep range for hypertrophy while occasionally switching from that to using slightly less weight than usual and cranking out 15-plus reps or using greater resistance for 6-8 reps. Doing that can respectively increase the training capacity of the arms and build strength so they can handle heavier loads, all of which go toward stimulating growth. What else should be done is to perform 12-20 total sets with textbook lifting form to reduce the risk of injury and receive the maximum benefit of any given exercise from the target muscle working instead of others.
As long as all of the above is done while applying the principles of progressive overload, your arms will grow in response to what you’re doing in the gym. That is, if you’re also feeding your body with enough nutrients and getting adequate recovery between training sessions, of course!
The best way to get big arms is to follow the advice that was given above, but not really.
Know why you shouldn’t really follow it if you want big arms?
Ummmmm…because the above advice is about improving the appearance of the biceps. That’s what most people associate with arm size but the biceps aren’t responsible for it as much as is believed. Instead, that distinction goes to the triceps. It’s that muscle group that you should be focused on if you truly want big arms.
Nah, I’m not shitting you!
Taking into account that the triceps make up about two-thirds of the upper arm, it kinda sorta makes sense to devote the bulk of your time and energy towards their development because they take up more real estate, which means that bigger triceps can go a long way to making the arms look bigger. Yup, to fill out your sleeves, more of the focus should be placed on the triceps than the biceps that actually comprise a smaller portion of the arm. But who really wants to do that? I mean, cable push-downs aren’t as badass as loading up a bar with all the weight in the gym and curling it in the squat rack to the joy of people who actually want to squat!
Welp, that should be more than enough info to arm yourself…2See what I did there with “arm yourself”? *sigh*
Glossary: aesthetics, arms, biceps, barbell, chin-up, dumbbell, exercise, fitness, goal, gym, hypertrophy, lifting form, muscle, muscle group, program, reps, results, squat, squat rack, training, work out, workout
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