One of the most frequent email requests I get is for a muscle building system that will produce a massive pair of guns. Bulging biceps and thick horseshoe triceps are a look that just about every guy wants or is envious of. Nobody wants to be walking around with a pair of pipe cleaners that barely fill out the sleeves on a size medium t-shirt. So once and for all, let’s set the record straight on what it really takes to build some huge arms.
First of all, you need to take note of the fact that the biceps get worked during all forms or deadlifts, rows and chin ups. They also come into play on wide grip bench presses and some forms of Olympic lifts. The triceps receive great stimulation from all forms of pressing. So right off the bat we have to be careful not to add in too much additional direct arm work or there is a great risk of overtraining which will, of course, lead to no gains in size or strength.
The ultimate muscle building system for the arms will focus on compound exercises first and foremost. If you want big guns, be sure to include a great deal of close grip chin ups in your program for maximal biceps stimulation. A close grip chin up allows your biceps to be stimulated with far greater weight (your own bodyweight) than any type of curl does. The greater load you can use on any given exercise, the greater the growth stimulus will (usually) be. Other great compound movements which provide a massive growth stimulus for the biceps are thick rope rows, rope climbs and rope or towel chin ups. For triceps you need to do a lot of dips and close grip bench presses.
Once you have those compound exercises covered you can move on to more isolation type exercises. Some of the best direct biceps exercises are:
- Standing barbell curls
- 1 arm standing barbell curls (an extremely difficult exercise if you have never tried it before)
- Standing dumbbell curls
- Incline dumbbell curls
- Standing hammer curls
For the triceps some of the best mass-building isolation movements are:
- Angled bar pushdowns
- Lying dumbbell extensions
- Bodyweight triceps extensions
- Overhead cable triceps extensions
Stick with those exercises for the next few months and you will definitely add a few inches to your pipes and be stretching your shirt sleeves quite soon. Now matter how great the temptation you must resist the urge to add in foo foo pumping exercises like concentration curls and kickbacks. These exercises are useless and will do nothing at all for you.
Since the arms are a small muscle group and receive plenty of work on other exercises they do not require their own separate workout as many bodybuilders advocate. They best option is usually to train the arms at the end of an upper body day or at the end of a full body workout. If you have better than average recovery ability you can also train them with legs on a lower body dominant day. Since they are a small muscle group and recover faster than bigger muscles like the lats or pecs the higher frequency may work out better.
This is something you will have to experiment with in your quest to come up with the ultimate muscle building system.
Hit ‘em hard and heavy a couple days a week and be sure to buy a tape measure to track your unbelievable arm growth.
For more insider tips on how to build sleeve ripping arms, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/ .
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