If you’re a regular gym enthusiast, you probably want to get your arms as big as possible, or at least up to par. In every gym, the majority of guys is trying to do this but only a few of them ever succeed. Of course, there’s an explanation for it – they are either not eating properly, not supplementing properly or not training properly, with an emphasis on the last one which seems to be the prime reason most of the time. If you want to be one of the few that get huge arms, here are some exercises that you might want to try.
Superset #1 – machine preacher curls with triceps rope extensions
When you combine these two exercises, you achieve antagonism in your muscles. This means that when you do the bicep exercise, blood will flow through the arms, of course – but when you superset that one with a tricep exercise, the results are much more impressive. You will have blood flowing into all of your arm muscles and you will get an incredible pump.
To start, just push an isolation move to get all the gears rolling and the blood flowing towards your arms, but also to get your biceps and triceps working without the interference of other muscles.
To do these exercises, get on the preacher curl machine and keep your back, hips and chest to their respective pads for more balance and a better feel of the machine through the multiple points of contact. Then, curl the weight up and make sure that your shoulders are pulled down and back so that you don’t use them during this exercise.
When you’re at the peak of your curl, twist your wrists to activate the peak of your biceps, and then slowly but steadily put the weight back down. Do a set of this and then switch right to the cable rope extensions. Have your rope attachment set up at eye level beforehand, and push down the weight with your triceps.
Remember to keep your elbows tight to your core all the while doing the movement, but when the contraction reaches its peak, flare your hands outward to achieve the maximum effect on the lower part of the triceps. Return to the top and you’re done with this rep. For best possible results, do six sets of each with 8-12 reps per set. Take up to a minute of rest between the sets.
Superset #2 – barbell curls with close grip bench press
When you’ve done with the isolation movement, and the pump and blood flow are at their peak, all the while synovial fluid is flowing to the joints, it’s time to hit the heavy weights and get the real effects! If you want to make your arms bigger, you will need to stay with the basic principles of bodybuilding, so use compound movements such as the straight bar curls and skull crushers. They might look old-fashioned and boring, but they will make your arms grow like no other exercise.
To perform this superset, start with the barbell curls. You will need to pick a weight that will be just heavy enough to make it hard for you to perform 6-8 reps. However, you won’t be doing six to eight – you will be doing them until you reach muscle failure, in the best form that you can put out. When you reach the point before muscular failure, lift the weight up abruptly and then lower it down slowly to make sure that your muscle is overloading.
After that, go straight to the bench and start doing close grip bench press with a weight that you can only lift for 8 reps. Do six sets of each exercise, with 8 to 12 reps of each. Rest for 45 seconds up to a minute between sets and you’re good to go.
Superset #3 – curl 21’s and pushdown 21’s
Now that your arms have the best possible pump and blood flow in them, you will be able to work them to their full capacity and influence a completely different type of muscle fiber. Be warned – this will exhaust your muscles, but the upside is that it will also give your muscles the opportunity to grow much faster than before!
To perform this superset, start on the bar with the curl 21’s. Do seven reps from the bottom of the movement, seven from the top and seven with the full movement. After this full set, head for the triceps push-down at the cable pulley machine and do 21 reps as well. These reps will be structured similarly to the curls that you just did – 14 of them will be half movements and 7 will be full movements.
Do these exercises for four sets each and of course, 21 reps per set. However, if possible, do them combined – one set of one exercise and then one set of the other. When you’ve done four of each, that’s it, go home, you did it. Take 45 seconds up to a minute of rest between the sets.
So if you want to get your arms really strong, head for the gym, grab the appropriate (meaning “relatively heavy”) weights and get pumping. Remember to keep your form proper and your nutrition strict – this will make sure your arms are up to par.