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Best Arm Workouts to Build Muscle Fast – Hardgainer Tips
How long have you been trying to get ‘guns’ with no success?
If you try to follow the latest arm workouts in your standard ‘muscle mag’, it’s pretty hard to get the results you want.
You see, most of those pro bodybuilders you see in there are on ‘the juice!’ (steroids)
But don’t stress – here are the simple, tried-and-true muscle building techniques that have allowed MANY ordinary guys to pack on some serious mass to their upper arms, WITHOUT drugs or supplements. Follow along and you can too!
First, we will look at the best upper arm exercises for gaining muscle.
Next, we will put these exercises together into a couple sample muscle building workouts.
Finally, we will touch on proper nutrition and rest, which are ESSENTIAL to gaining muscle.
So, let’s get started…
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Step #1 – Best Arm Workouts – Best Arm Exercises
So, if you want to get ‘big guns,’ you have to do hundreds of curls, right?
WRONG!
Isolation exercises are great once you have already established a base level of muscle mass, but until then, we want to stimulate the growth of our arm muscles by hitting them with HEAVY compound movements.
Heavy Weights Stimulate Muscle Growth
Your muscles will not be fully activated by an exercise unless the weight you are moving is heavy enough to require MAXIMAL EFFORT.
In one study, researchers found that most moderate intensity exercises only caused the medial head of the triceps to activate. It was only when the weight was dramatically increased that the lateral and long heads of the triceps were activated.
As a general rule, the more weight you are moving with an exercise, the more that weight will stimulate your muscles to grow.
So, for now, skip those triceps pushdowns and bicep concentration curls, and instead focus on close grip bench press, weighted dips, weighted body rows, weighted pullups, and heavy dumbbell rows (skip heavy barbell rows since they can place excessive strain on your lower back).
Step #2 – Sample Arm Workouts
Believe it or not, you should DEFINITELY include a heavy, total body lift such as the deadlift or squat in your workouts for the upper arm.
These lifts cause the body’s anabolic (muscle-building) hormones to be released, priming your body to respond to the workout by packing on muscle mass.
Be sure to get some instruction in proper form (check YouTube for some excellent tutorials).
Workout #1
After taking 10 minutes or so to warm up (do some bodyweight squats, easy sets of pushups and pullups)
1. Deadlift – 2 sets 6-8 reps
2.a.Weighted Body Rows – 3 sets 6-8 reps (superset this with the following exercise)
2.b.Weighted Decline (feet up) pushups – 3 sets 6-8 reps (use blast straps, a suspension trainer, or rings for greater difficulty)
3. Close Grip Bench Press – 3 sets 6-8 reps
This workout is more geared towards the pushing movements, focusing more on triceps and shoulders.
Rest a couple days, and then…
Workout #2
Warm up, then…
1. Squat – 2 sets 6-8 reps
2.a. Weighted Pull ups – 3 sets 6-8 reps (superset this with the following movement)
2.b. Handstand pushups or Military Press (dumbbell or barbell) – 3 sets 6-8 reps
3. Hammer Curls – 2 sets 6-8 reps
As you can see, this workout is more geared towards pulling motions, and as a result, develops the biceps.
Ideally, you want to periodize intensity of your workouts as the weeks and months go by (and even during a week of working out). Do a Google search for “micro-periodization” for more details on how to plan this.
Step #3 – Rest and Diet for Maximum Muscle Gain
Proper rest and recovery is ESSENTIAL to gaining muscle with your arm workouts. Remember, you grow while you are recovering, not while you are working out!
One problem that many hardgainers have is NOT RESTING ENOUGH between workouts. So train hard in brief, intense sessions, then rest and let your body bounce back.
Sleep
Get at least 8 hours of sleep per night. Sleeping less than this reduces testosterone levels and thus harms your muscle growth.
Diet
Eat around 20 times your bodyweight in calories – if you are 150 lbs, eat 3000 calories per day.
1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is a good rule of thumb, as is getting 20-30% of your calories from fat and 2-4 grams of carbohydrate per pound of bodyweight.
Keep track of what and how much you are eating so you can adjust your nutrition as you go along.
Summing it all up…
So, now you have a good idea of what are the best arm exercises for maximum muscle gain. You also have a couple workouts to try out, and know how to take advantage of diet and rest to optimize your lean muscle mass building.
All that’s left for you to do is get out there and do it!
