Ep. #768: The Best Arm Workouts for Building Mass

Hey, I’m Mike Matthews and this is Muscle for Life. Thank you for joining me today for a new episode. And if you hear strange Nas Schoollike sounds in the background, that is packing tape because I’m getting ready to move from Virginia to Florida and the room I am in right now, bedroom in my basement, fancy podcast recording set up is the best I can do to minimize the back.

Noise. So anyway, it shouldn’t be too bad, but you may hear some strange sounds now. And then as I record today’s episode, which is going to be about getting bigger arms, and I suppose that is a rather gendered statement because most guys would say, Yeah, I want my arms to be. Bigger, but most women, at least most women who have followed me over the years would probably not, They would think about it in different terms.

They would say that they would like more muscle definition or muscle tone in their arms. And what I’m going to share in today’s podcast will help guys get closer to their goal, which is arms as big as possible usually, and women as well. It’ll help women get more defined in more toned arms because there is nothing special.

Toning a muscle or sculpting a muscle or defining a muscle. Muscles can get bigger and they can get smaller, and you can have a higher body fat percentage and look rounder and fluffier. Or you can have a lower body fat percentage and look harder and more. Defined, And so for women out there who want to have more muscle definition in their arms, really what you want then is you want a relatively low body fat percentage, not unhealthily or inappropriately low, let’s say around 20% is what most women I’ve worked with over the years want.

To look like that’s an athletic look where you have muscle definition all over your body, but you still have curves and you still have boobs and you still look feminine. You don’t look like a jacked bodybuilder. And so that’s the body fat percentage part of the equation. And then to have a good amount of muscle definition in your arms, and again, I’m speaking to women here, you need to.

Quite a bit more muscle in your arms than the average woman. It’s hard to put an exact number to it in terms of pounds or even percentages, but you need to have a lot more muscle and a lot more strength in your arms than your average woman who does not train her muscles. And you need to have a relatively low body fat percentage.

And that’s how you get that look of very defined or very toned, but not big. And. And so in today’s podcast, I’m going to share with you my favorite tips for getting better arms, fitter arms, bigger arms, more defined arms, more toned arms. Again, you can understand that in different ways, and also what I’m gonna share with you in this podcast is gonna be a bit different than what you may be used to hearing.

If you look around online, you’ll find. Arm workouts that are all about bombing your biceps and putzing your triceps. Doing a ton of volume usually, and using various fancy training techniques like drop sets, super sets, giant sets and so forth with the apparent goal of paresis, of paralysis of the limbs.

Like when you can no longer move your arms, that’s when you know you’ve done an effective arms workout. And while that type of training can be fun, I used to do a lot of it a long time ago. It is not nearly as effective or enjoyable as what I’m gonna share with you in this podcast. Also, if you like what I’m doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my v i p one-on-one coaching service because my team and I have helped people of all ages and all circumstances lose fat, build muscle, and get into the best shape of their life faster than they ever thought.

And we can do the same for you. We make getting fitter, leaner, and stronger, paint by numbers simple by carefully managing every aspect of your training and your diet for you. Basically, we take out all of the guesswork, so all you have to do is follow the plan and watch your body change day after day, week after week, and month after.

What’s more, we’ve found that people are often missing just one or two crucial pieces of the puzzle, and I’d bet a shiny shackle, it’s the same with you. You’re probably doing a lot of things right, but dollars to donuts, there’s something you’re not doing correctly or at all that’s giving you the most grief.

Maybe it’s your calories or your macros. Maybe it’s your exercise selection. Maybe it’s your food choices. Maybe you’re not progressively overloading your muscles, or maybe it’s. Else and whatever it is. Here’s what’s important. Once you identify those one or two things you’re missing, once you figure it out, that’s when everything finally clicks.

That’s when you start making serious progress, and that’s exactly what we do for our clients. To learn more, head over to www.by legion.com. That’s bui legion.com/vip and schedule your free consultation call, which by the way is not a high pressure sales call. It’s really just a discovery call where we get to know you better and see if you’re a good fit for the service.

And if you’re not for any reason, we will be able to share resources that’ll point you in. Direction. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, and if you also want to finally stop spinning your wheels and make more progress in the next few months than you did in the last few years, check out my VIP coaching [email protected] legion.com/vi.

Okay, so let’s start this podcast by biting directly to the center of the Totsy pop. Let’s start with my top five tips for better arm workouts, and the first one is to use both compound and isolation exercises for your arms. Now, many people think that isolation exercises like biceps curls and triceps extensions are the best way to gain.

Arm size to add lean muscle to their arms. But research shows that compound exercises like the pull up, chin up and closed grip bench press are actually more effective in this regard. What’s more studies show that adding isolation exercises. Two, a routine that focuses on compound exercises is even more effective.

It improves muscle growth in the arms even more so arm isolation exercises certainly should have a place in your program, but you should make sure that they are coming later in your workout. They should come after your compound exercises, and those are the ones that you want to focus on the most in terms of ensuring that you make progress and that.

Ordering is a major component of that because what you’ll find is if you are starting most or all of your workouts with heavy compound lifting, let’s say you’re doing one, two, or even three compound exercises with relatively heavy weights, let’s say anything over 70% of your one rep max. So you’re doing sets of no higher than 12 reps and below, you’re gonna find.

When you come to your biceps curls or any sort of triceps specific isolation exercise, it is going to be hard to progress in those exercises if you are progressing in your compound exercises, and that is totally okay. That is normal and that is what you’re going for. Now, ideally, of course, we would want to progress on everything, but because of how much.

Energy and how much effort it takes to progress in a bigger compound lift. Like for example, a bench press, any variation, an overhead press, any variation. It is going to mean slower progress on those isolation exercises that come later in the workout, but that doesn’t make exercise is ineffective. They are still effective volume.

Assuming you are using proper form and you are ending your. One to maybe two reps shy of muscular failure, which would be a little bit aggressive for your big lifts. I would recommend ending most of those sets with two reps still in reserve, so two or maybe even three reps shy of muscular failure, at least in your first set, or two, maybe on your last set of a compound exercise.

If. You have one, maybe two reps left, that’s okay. But with isolation exercises, you can push a bit closer to failure. You can end all of your sets, one to maybe two reps shy of muscular failure. And in your last set here and there, if you are pushing. To zero reps left, so that was really your last rep that you could do.

You would’ve failed on the next rep. That’s okay as well. Whereas with compound big lifts, I would not recommend doing that. Certainly on a, not on a regular basis. If you are following a program like My Beyond Bigger, leaner, stronger program and you are doing a round of amap, as many reps as possible every four months like you do on that program to see where your strength is at, then I think it’s okay if you.

Push real close to failure, a zero or one rep left in reserve type of set, but that should not be the normal in your week to week training. Okay. My next tip for building better arms is to use heavy weights, use weights that are in the range of, let’s say 70 or 75% of one rep max. To 85% above that doesn’t work well with isolation exercises and particularly with arm exercises.

Like you’re not gonna load up a barbell and do sets of two or three on a curl. You could, but it’s not necessary. I would say anything below four reps is probably inappropriate for isolation exercises, and most of your training should be in the range of four to six or six to eight reps. You could do some eight to 10 or even higher.

Training with your arms as well, if you wanted to. But it’s not necessary, I think, to go over 10 reps per set, even on isolation exercises. And again, I talk about why in Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, which is the sequel to Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, and it’s for intermediate and advanced weightlifters. But to make that clear in terms of rep ranges, I’m talking about anything from let’s say four to 10 reps.

On your biceps corals and your triceps extensions and all the other biceps and triceps exercises that you do. And in terms of specific rep ranges, they tend to work best in increments of two, so four to six three can work as well. So it could be four to seven, or it could be five to. Eight, but increments of two work well because they allow you to work up to the top of your rep range for one set.

If you are relatively new to weightlifting, and then add weight, you can go up usually by a total of 10 pounds, and that knocks you down to reps. And then as you get stronger and more experienced, you need to work up to two sets at the top of your rep range. So again, let’s say you’re doing curls in the rep range of four to six or six to eight.

When you are relatively new, you’ll be able to work up to one set of six or one. Eight, add weight. So if you’re doing dumbbell curls, it’s gonna be a total of 10 pounds. You’re gonna go up by five pounds per dumbbell, and that’ll knock you down two reps. Then you can work with those new heavier weights until you can hit the top of your rep range for one set, and then fast forward a year and now you’re stronger.

The weights are heavier. You are probably going to have to now work up to two sets of six or eight before you can go up 10 pounds and have it stick, so to speak, meaning not miss the bottom of your rep range. And that’s what you want to do with that double progression model. First, you progress on reps and then you progress on weight.

And when you add weight, You want to be at the bottom of your rep range, or at least you want to be no lower than the bottom of your rep range. If you go up and wait, and let’s say you’re working in four to six or six to eight and you hit your target of two top rep sets, you then go up and wait and you can get five or seven reps.

Hey, totally fine. , but if you were to get three or five reps, not a good sign. That means you probably progressed too quickly. You should go back to the lighter weight, and you have two options. One, you work with it until your reps in reserve have gone up. So let’s say that you hit. Two top rep sets in one workout.

So when you’re new, one top rep set in the workout, you increase. And then as you become more experienced, it becomes two top rep sets in that workout. And it can even turn into three or four, depending on your programming. And so anyway, coming back to this scenario where you’ve hit your. Two top rep sets in your workout.

You moved up and then you missed the bottom of your rep range. You have two options. You can go back to the lighter weight and work with it until you have more reps in reserve. So let’s say on that second top rep set, you had zero good reps left. You had to really grind it out. To hit your second set of six or eight, go back to that lighter weight and work with it until you have one or two, or maybe even three reps in the tank, and then you will be able to progress.

So you can do that. Or if that’s not the issue, if you weren’t grinding your final top rep set, you can then add another top rep set to your progression target. So now you’re going. Three top rep sets before you progress, and then you’ll find that it can stick. And the reason I recommend doing a lot of heavy weight lifting for your arms as opposed to what many other people promote, which is a lot of lighter weight, very high rep stuff, finisher exercises, they call them or.

Pump workouts where you’re doing lighter weights and 15, 20, 25 plus reps, Sometimes going to muscular failure, sometimes going close to it, and sometimes ending far from muscular failure. Some people pitch that as a quote unquote, in. Easy way to gain arm mass because you don’t have to work that hard if you’re taking a 20 pound dumbbells or 25 pound dumbbells if you’re a relatively strong man and doing sets of 15 or 20, for example.

And the reason I don’t recommend doing much of that, and I do recommend doing a lot of heavy traditional weightlifting for your arms, is the same reason I recommend that for all the bigger muscle groups because. Weight of the evidence is clear. That style of training is more effective for gaining muscle and strength, and that applies to all muscle groups.

Now, what is true is that you can’t train your smaller muscle groups. In exactly the same way as you can. Your larger muscle groups, like I mentioned, I would not recommend doing sets of two to three for your arms, like you would for your legs. You can do that. You can get under a barbell with 95% of your one rep max, and you can do sets of two to three, and that can be very productive.

Not so much with arms training, but again, so long as you stay in the rep range of four to 10 or maybe four to 12, you can do a. Productive work for your arms, and if you want to add some very high rep stuff into your programming now and then you can do that as well. How much is it going to add? It’s hard to say, but if you enjoy it, that’s reason enough to do it.

Now and then, but just don’t make it the rule. Make it the exception. My next tip is to make sure that you are implementing some form of progressive overload with your arms. You can’t just phone in your arm training and use the same weights and do more or less the same number of reps over time and expect your arms to get bigger or stronger or fitter.

They need to be exposed to higher levels of mechanical tension over time, just like any. Muscle group does. And so even though you are probably going to be doing your arms training later in your workout, unless you have, for example, an arms day, which is totally fine, and if you really wanted to focus on your arms, I’d actually recommend doing that.

I’d recommend setting up your training so you can have one session where you just focus on your arms as opposed to doing arms specific exercise. After deadlifting for example, on a pole day where you are pretty bushed after your three or four sets of heavy deadlift and you are not going to be able to use as much weight and do as many reps on your biceps curls, and you get around to them as you would if you were to start a workout with biceps curls, for example.

And so what you need to pay attention to is that your arms are getting stronger over time, and if that’s not happening, then you need to address something. You need to address your programming, need to address your diet. You need to address your recovery, especially if you are generally. Stuck if you’re not moving the needle anywhere.

If most of your one rms are stagnant on the big lifts and you are rarely hitting progression targets on the smaller lifts, assuming that you are using double progression on them, then there is something systemically wrong that needs to be addressed.

If you like what I’m doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my v i p one-on-one coaching service because my team and I have helped people of all ages and circumstances lose fat, build muscle, and get into the best shape of their life faster than they ever thought possible. And we can do the same for you.

Okay. My next tip is to put just as much effort into training your triceps as your biceps. And this is particularly for men, but I would say it also applies to women because most of us, when we think of having great arms, we immediately think of biceps, big biceps, or very def. Find biceps. And ironically, the biceps contribute substantially less to arm size than the triceps.

The triceps are a much bigger muscle groove. For most people, developed triceps will account for anywhere from 50 to 70% of their overall arm size. So if you are particularly going after big arms, you want big triceps. This is one of the little known quote unquote, secrets to having big. Have big triceps, and my next tip is to use different exercises that train every portion of your arm muscles of your biceps.

In triceps. I’m leaving out forearms because most people are not concerned with training their forearms, especially if they do a lot of heavy pulling. Their forearms tend to develop nice. Just so you know. So anyway, when you are programming your arms training, it’s smart to include a variety of different biceps and triceps exercises because research shows that varying the position of your shoulder and your upper arm when you perform biceps and triceps exercises, trains those arm muscles in slightly different ways, and that can help your bottom line results, that can help you get more muscle and strength out of.

Workouts and it can help you avoid muscle and balances. So for example, if you are currently only doing standing barbell curls for your biceps, and you do them several times per week, I would recommend doing those, but then also trading some of that volume for an inclined dumbbell curl, right where you place your upper arms behind your body, or maybe some preacher curls, which place your upper arms in front of your.

And instead of only doing, let’s say triceps, push downs on the cable machine, try easy bar skull crushers, which place your arms at a 90 degree angle relative to your body. Or maybe an overhead dumbbell triceps extension. One of my favorite triceps exercises where you place your upper arms next to your head and you have a dumbbell above your head.

And that feeds nicely into the next thing I wanna share with you, which is an example. Of a very effective arm workout. So here’s what this could look like. You could start with the close grip bench press. You could do three sets of heavier weight, maybe four to six reps on this. And I really like this exercise.

This is one of my favorite upper body exercises, especially triceps exercises because you can use a lot of weight and you can maintain good form and you can. Overload those triceps. And of course it also trains your chest and it trains your shoulders and even your biceps a bit. So again, any form of bench press is one of the best upper body exercises you can do.

And when you want to emphasize the triceps, it’s hard to beat the close grip. Bench press, then you could follow that up with pull ups. You could do three sets of four to six reps there as well. And that means add weight if you can do more than four to six reps with just your body weight. And the pull up is another one of my favorite upper body exercises, contrary to what many people think it is, not just a back exercise.

Research shows that vertical pulling exercise. Like the Pullup, especially the Chinup, are great biceps builders as well, and I like that they are very easy to load with weight. So as you get stronger, you can grab a dip belt and you can attach a plate. That’s the easiest way to do it, and you can now implement progressive overload.

Easier. Next on the workout would be an easy bar skull crusher, and here I’d recommend using slightly lighter weight because if you go too heavy on this exercise, it can irritate your elbows. That isn’t always the case. Like you can profitably do four to six reps on this exercise. But I’ve just heard from enough people over the years, and I’ve made a mental note that higher, slightly higher, 68 or even eight to 10 on this exercise seems to produce less trouble for most people.

And I like this exercise because it’s great for training these slightly smaller medial and lateral heads of the triceps. So the triceps have three heads. You have the medial, you have the lateral, and you have the long. And the long head gets a lot of the focus and the glory because it’s the largest. But as I mentioned earlier, using exercise variations to train the muscles in slightly different ways allows you to, in the case of the triceps, put some emphasis on the other two heads that you’re gonna want to fully develop as well.

And so that’s that. And you could do three sets of, let’s say eight to 10, or six to eight, or four to six. If this exercise has never bothered your elbows, even when you go heavy, that would be okay. And then in the workout, we will move on to a barbell curl. Three sets of, again, four to six, six to eight, eight to 10.

You can choose whichever fits your liking or fits your general programming. And as far as biceps curls go, the barbell curl is the king or the. If you like, because it allows you to use as much weight as possible and use proper form and not increase the risk of injury. It’s not a dangerous exercise, and you can load it heavy.

Okay, so that is a good example of an effective arms workout, a balanced workout that trains your biceps and your triceps. Let’s now lay out a biceps workout. You want to have just a biceps day or just a biceps session, let’s say. How would that look? What would. I would start with the Chinup. I would do three sets of heavier lifting here.

I’d probably do four to six because that is easy to do with the Chinup. You can load it safely, you can load it effectively, and research shows that it emphasizes the biceps more than the. Pull up it, of course, does train your back as well, but the chin up is really one of the best biceps exercises you can do because of how much stress it puts on the biceps and because of how easy it is to effectively load with a dip belt.

And then I would move on to an easy bar preacher curl, and I would do three sets of slightly. Less weight and more reps. Six to eight, maybe eight to 10. Again, it would depend on what I’m doing in my programming and why this exercise? I really like this one for forcing the biceps to do all of the work.

You just can’t cheat reps on this exercise. You can’t swing your arms around. You can’t move your elbows around. You’re just locked in place and your biceps have to do all of the work, and that means that you have to use less weight than when you are doing, let’s say, a standing easy. Bar curl. Even if you try to use perfect form, inevitably your final rep or two or three are gonna be a little bit sloppier than your first few reps.

When you’re standing, your elbows are gonna move a little bit. For example, not on the preacher curl. It’s similar to standing versus seated overhead pressing, where with the standing press, it is more of a whole body exercise than just a shoulder exercise, and so you’re able to lift heavier weights and there’s a lot more upper body motion.

Whereas on the seated press, if you’re using good form, you are really focusing on training your shoulders and your triceps. You are not getting the added impetus from the other parts of your body that are able to contribute to the standing press. Okay, so after the easy preacher curls, let’s move on to alternating dumbbell curls.

Let’s do three sets of six to eight or eight to 10 reps here. And this exercise is nice because you can train each arm independently, and that prevents one arm from taking over. What can happen on a barbell curl, as good as the. Is if you have a muscle imbalance and you are not aware of it, it is probably going to get worse.

It is certainly going to stay the same if you don’t notice that, for example, say you’re right handed and your right arm is actually 20% stronger than your left arm, and in this case, bicep, specif. What’ll happen with the barbell curl inevitably, unless you really pay attention to it, and even then, it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on, especially as you get deeper into a set.

Your right arm is going to contribute a bit more to the motion than your left arm, and it may not get worse. It may not, over time make your right arm 30% stronger, but it will minimally maintain that muscle IMB balance. With dumbbells, however, you don’t run into that problem. And a little tip that you can use when you’re training with dumbbells and you are aware of a muscle imbalance.

One side of your body, one limb being stronger or weaker than the other is lead with the weaker. So start and end your sets with the weaker limbs. So let’s say your left biceps are weaker than your right biceps, and if you were to grab a 40 pound dumbbell, you would be able to do six reps with your left.

And eight reps with your right arm. What you would do with the alternating dumbbell curl, where you have one dumbbell in each arm is you would start your set with your left arm, so that’d be rep one, and then your right arm would mirror rep two until you reach your intensity target for that set, meaning how close you’re going to muscular failure.

Let’s say you’re going to one good rep, left, one rep in reserve, you would go until you reach that point with your. Arm. So let’s say that’s rep four, rep five, and then you would do your rep with your right arm and end the set there, even though you could do maybe several more reps with your right arm.

And if you do it that way, it allows your left arm to catch up to your right arm. Whereas if you start and end your sets with your right arm, your strong arm, what can happen? You are doing your set, you’re doing your reps, and it’s getting pretty hard for your left arm, less hard for your right arm. You do a rep for your right arm and then your left arm fails.

You can’t do it. So now you have done one additional rep for your strong arm, which is not gonna help correct the muscle imbalance, especially if you do that. Often. Okay, so we have done our dumbbell curls. We’ve done our three sets of six to eight or eight to 10 reps, or maybe four to six, depending on your programming and your circumstances.

It’s worth mentioning that in my own training years ago when I discovered the importance of lifting discovered in the sense of learned, I didn’t make the discovery. I just learned that lifting heavy weights is more effective than doing very high rep style. Training and doing the super sets and drop sets and giant sets and so forth.

So when I learned that it is better to lift heavy weight and just do straight sets and focus on progressive overload, I noticed that my biceps and my triceps, that my arms responded really well to four to six rep and six to eight rep training, and particularly four to six. I did a lot of four to six.

Curls and a lot of four to six rep triceps extensions and press downs for at least a year or a year and a half. And my arms started growing again for the first time in a long time. My arms were basically the same size for four years at least, but when I started to make them strong, and I did that with heavy weights and double progression, then they started getting.

So anyway, the dumbbell curls, the alternating dumbbell curls are done. Let’s move on now to hammer curls. And if you’re not familiar with this is simply a dumbbell curl, but instead of rotating the dumbbell, or instead of holding the dumbbell in a supinated palms up position for the entire curl you are holding.

The dumbbell in a neutral palms facing each other position. Now, why should you do that? This exercise emphasizes the brachialis, which is a small muscle that can help push up another muscle called the biceps bray eye. And if you can do that, then your upper arms and your biceps in particularly look a little bit bigger, and it can help with your bi.

1. Now, it can’t give you an Arnold like bicep speak, of course, because there are genetic factors in play, but it can help you develop a little bit more P. Okay, so that’s it for an example of an effective biceps workout. Let’s do the same thing now for triceps. What if you just want to focus on your triceps?

I would start with the close grip bench press again. I would do three sets, heavy weight, four to six reps, and then I would move on to the easy bar skull crusher. I would do three sets of six to eight or eight to 10. Or four to six if I knew that it wasn’t going to piss off my elbows. And that exercise has upset my elbows in the past, and it has also not upset my elbows seems to be a bit random, but if I use a little bit lighter weight, then I consistently don’t have issues.

So that’s what I do now with that exercise. Then I would move on to a dumbbell overhead triceps extension, and I would do three sets here of six to eight or eight to 10. This exercise, like the skull crusher, is excellent for training the smaller medial and lateral heads of the triceps. Of course, it trains the long heads as well, but it is particularly good for placing emphasis on the smaller heads.

And then I would end with a cable triceps press down. And as far as an attach. You can use an easy bar, you can use a straight bar, you can use a rope. Those are my favorite attachments, and I like to alternate between them. So I will use one attachment usually for an entire macro cycle of training. So for four months I’ll use one attachment, and I’m currently doing triceps press downs twice per week.

So on the first triceps, press down the first round. I will use one attachment, I’ll use the easy bar, is what I’m doing right now. And then on the second round I’ll use a different attachment. The rope is what I’m using, and I’ll do that for an entire macro cycle. Four months, and then I’ll change it up.

Let’s say I’m going to continue doing two rounds of triceps press downs. Maybe I will use the rope in the first one this time, and then I’ll use the straight bar in the second. And why this exercise? Research shows that it is particularly good for emphasizing the long head of the triceps. Again, that’s the largest of the three sections of the triceps, and that is the head that is going to most contribute to the size of your triceps, and therefore it’s gonna contribute greatly to the size of your arms.

Okay, so that’s it for the few examples of. Arm workouts that I wanted to share with you. And one final point I want to quickly discuss is frequency. I am often asked, how often should I be training my arms? And I think that one dedicated arm workout per week is enough for most people. And the reason for that is if you are doing the most important things right in your training, which means that you are doing.

Squatting and hip hinging. Deadlifting, of course, is my favorite hip hinge, and there are different types of deadlifting you can do. It doesn’t have to be just the barbell deadlift. If that doesn’t work for you, maybe the trap bar deadlift will work for you. You could try it with the low position if your back can take it, but if your back is a problem, then the high handle position, we’ll put even less stress on your back, and so you’re doing your hip.

You’re doing your squatting, you’re doing your horizontal pressing, you’re bench pressing and your dumbbell pressing, and you’re doing your vertical pressing your overhead. Pressing, maybe sometimes seated. Maybe sometimes standing and doing different types of variations, maybe strict military pressing standing, and then sometimes push pressing or some other variation of the overhead press.

And if you are also doing your big pulling exercises in addition to the deadlift, so you’re doing your horizontal pulling, maybe. Barbell rowing and some dumbbell rowing or even seated cable rowing. Barbell row is probably my favorite horizontal pole, and as well as vertical poles, pullups your chin-ups, your lap pull downs.

If you’re doing all of those things, you are training your arms. It’s indirect volume. It’s not exactly the same as doing a biceps curl. Like a barbell row is not the same as far as the amount of stress put on the biceps as the biceps curl, but it certainly count. As volume, it maybe doesn’t count one to one, but that’s why you can do just compound exercises and get bigger arms.

But what you will find is if you are a guy and you want big arms, you are probably not gonna get there with just compound exercises. Now, many women who are less concerned about the size of their biceps and triceps, they may be able to get the arms that they want. Ever doing a biceps or triceps exercise with just doing the big compound lifts.

That said, having worked with many women over the years, I would say that just as many have needed to do some arms training in addition to their compound lifting to get the look that they want. And these were not women who. To look jacked. These were women who want to look like women who are very fit.

And so then if you’re following a good strength training program, you are training your arms, but you are probably gonna have to do a bit more than that to get what you want and a dedicated arms. Is a very effective method of doing that where you do biceps and triceps training and you can start that workout with whichever of those two muscle groups you want to focus on the most because you are probably gonna progress the fastest in the exercises that you do in the beginning of your workout when you have a bit more energy and a bit more grit,

And if you don’t have a favorite between your biceps and your triceps, then. Alternate, which you start with every couple of months. So for two months you could start with your biceps exercises, and then for the next two months, flip it around. Start with your triceps exercises. All right. That’s it for this episode.

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That is the best way to get ahold of me, [email protected]. And that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you.