How To Get Bigger Arms (2024)

How to Get Big Arms

Learning how to get bigger arms is a matter of sculpting bigger, stronger biceps and triceps, it helps to arm yourself with a bit of knowledge about your muscles and how they work. Your upper arms are divided into three main muscle groups. Firstly, we have the biceps, which run along the front of the arm from your elbow to your shoulder joint. The main function of the biceps is to bend the elbow. Secondly, we have the triceps that also run from the elbow to the shoulder, but their main role is to straighten the elbow. The triceps are a larger muscle group than the biceps, which means they have more potential to grow. The third group is the brachialis, an upper arm muscle that runs under the biceps. It's really only visible when looking at the arms from the side, but will make your arms appear much larger when viewed this way. Although most people who want to know how to build arm muscle focus on biceps training, if you want really big arms then you need to work your triceps and brachialis just as hard. To get a truly sleeve-busting look, you need to work the triceps, biceps and the brachialis.

Here are the most important principles you need to follow in order to build bigger, stronger arms:

1. Train your arms a maximum of twice per week

The muscles in your arms are more prone to overtraining than other muscles of the body, mainly because they're worked hard during pulling and pushing movements, such as the bench press and lat pulldown.

But so many guys think that training their arms 3-4 times a week is the best way to get them to grow. Do this, and you're setting yourself up for major disappointment! Stick to 1-2 arm workouts per week. This gives your arms the recovery time they need to grow bigger and stronger.

2. Train them hard and fast

To get your arms to grow, you need to overload them by periodically training them to failure and beyond. Don't just go through the motions. Prepare yourself for some high intensity sets and really squeeze out every last rep.

If your primary goal is to add muscle mass to your arms, your entire arm routine should take you no more than 30 minutes. Working out how to get bigger arms is not like running a marathon. Many people do too much arm work in search of big arms. Short and intense is best to add mass quickly. When training your arms, more is not always better.

3. Use correct technique

Lift and lower the weight slowly in a controlled, focused manner. If the weights you're using are too heavy, you're only training your ego. This will never build big arms. To develop your arms fully, start every repetition with your arms fully extended. This makes the exercise harder, and targets all the fibres in the muscle. If you're using too much weight (like most people do) you'll end up doing partial repetitions, and swinging your body all over the place but most importantly of all you'll put yourself in real danger of getting injured. Reduce your weights and do the exercise properly.

How To Get Bigger Arms (2024)

FAQs

How to get bigger arms fast? ›

The best exercises for bigger arms
  1. Standing Dumbbell Bicep Curl. How to do it: Grab a pair of dumbbells and let them hang by your sides. ...
  2. Hammer Curl. ...
  3. Incline Dumbbell Curl. ...
  4. Zottman Curl. ...
  5. Decline Dumbbell Hammer Curl. ...
  6. EZ Bar Curl. ...
  7. Chin Up. ...
  8. Standing Barbell Bicep Curl.

Can skinny arms get big? ›

Skinny guys can build their arm muscles fast by following a regimen of strength training and eating muscle-building foods. Building muscle can seem like a difficult challenge for men that have been skinny their whole lives or who have recently lost weight and muscle mass at the same time.

What makes arms thicker? ›

Triceps Training

If you want your arms to become wider, the first step is to increase the size of your triceps. The upper arm itself is made up of 3 major muscles: 50% Triceps, 30% Bicep and 20% Brachialis. Since the triceps make up 2/3 of the upper arm, this will be your main focus for getting wider arms.

How to get bigger arms in 7 days? ›

How To Get Bigger Arms In A Week – Simple & Easy!
  1. The Biceps. The Biceps or Biceps Brachii is a two-headed muscle that origin from under the deltoid and insert below the elbow. ...
  2. The Triceps. ...
  3. 1-Barbell Curl: ...
  4. 2-Hammer Curls: ...
  5. 3-Incline Dumbbell Curls: ...
  6. 4-Preacher Curls: ...
  7. 5-Concentration Curls: ...
  8. 1-Close Grip Bench Press:
Dec 22, 2023

How to get veiny arms? ›

Heavy farmers walks, forearm curls, reversed grip bicep curls, and other grip-style exercises are great ways of building lean muscle in your forearms and increasing the vasodilation that occurs. You should notice your veins popping while you do these exercises.

What causes skinny arms? ›

With muscle atrophy, your muscles look smaller than normal. Muscle atrophy can occur due to malnutrition, age, genetics, a lack of physical activity or certain medical conditions. Disuse (physiologic) atrophy occurs when you don't use your muscles enough. Neurogenic atrophy occurs due to nerve problems or diseases.

Do push ups build muscle? ›

1. Improves upper body strength. The push-up helps to build muscle and improve strength throughout the upper body. It targets the muscles in your chest (pectoralis major), arms (particularly the triceps) and the shoulders (especially the scapular stabilizing muscles).

At what age do your arms get thicker? ›

It was demonstrated that muscles growth in puberty occurs in two stages. Periods of arm muscles growth are 12 and 15 years and that is 13 and 15 years for leg muscles. Most significant growth speed for both groups falls on the age of 15.

How long does it take to get big arms? ›

Typically, it takes around 6-8 weeks for you to start noticing changes in the appearance of your arms. At around the 12 week mark, this is typically when you can expect to see more significant changes, especially if you didn't already have a large amount of muscle mass in the area!

Will lifting weights make arms bigger? ›

It's a common misconception that lifting heavy weights—especially for the upper body—will cause bulkiness. The truth: Bulking up comes from hormones, extra calories, and an intentional, consistent muscle-building routine (genetics play a role too).

How to add mass to arms? ›

You can build up to doing two to three sets of each exercise as you build your strength.
  1. Concentration curl. Share on Pinterest. ...
  2. Cable curl. Share on Pinterest. ...
  3. Barbell curl. Share on Pinterest. ...
  4. Chinup. Share on Pinterest. ...
  5. Triangle pushup. Share on Pinterest. ...
  6. Tricep kickback. Share on Pinterest. ...
  7. Dips. ...
  8. Overhead extension.
Nov 25, 2019

How to get huge arms fast? ›

The 4-Week Arm-Builder Workout Program
  1. Curl Over Bench.
  2. Dumbbell Hammer Curl.
  3. Barbell Curl (4,0,1,0 Tempo)
  4. Rope Press Down (4,0,1,0 Tempo)
  5. Overhead DB Extension.
  6. Parallel Bar Dips (failure)

How quickly can you get bigger arms? ›

However, it can take up to 12 weeks before more significant changes are visible. Ultimately, the best way to build bigger arms is to focus on increasing the intensity and volume of your workouts while following a healthy diet. By doing this, you will be giving your muscles the best chance to grow.

How can I gain 1 inch in my arms? ›

The Exercises
  1. Close grip bench press.
  2. Standing barbell curl (straight bar)
  3. Reverse grip triceps push-downs.
  4. Alternate dumbbell curl (seated)
  5. Vertical dips on parallel bars.
Jan 23, 2019

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