I get this question a lot from people wanting bigger guns – what is the best bicep program? How do I build bigger, more muscular arms? Read on and I’ll show you how.
Funnily enough the answer to this is usually to do more heavy squats!
Let me explain – you’ll typically add an inch on your arms for every stone of lean muscle mass you put on. It’s hard to grow that much doing nothing but arm exercises because they simply don’t challenge your body enough to make it adapt and grow.
The more muscle you recruit in a hard training session, the more growth hormone and testosterone your system will generate.
The single exercise that releases the biggest surge of those valuable growth hormones is the squat, done heavy, so the best way to build bigger arms is to make heavy, compound lifts the centrepiece of your program.
Squats, deadlifts, presses and throw in a couple of arm specific drills at the end if you can! Stick with a basic, proven, complete muscle and strength building system like the time tested 5X5 – 5 sets of 5 reps on the big 3 lifts – the squat, deadlift and bench press.
So what specific arm drills should you add to this basic program?
This is the other key point – what most people are actually after is large, muscular arms, not necessarily a bicep the size of a melon stuck to a pee wee sized limb.
About two thirds of the muscle on the arm is the tricep, the bicep only makes up one third so bear this in mind when you’re selecting drills to use.
If you’d like a ‘quick win’, try this simple bodyweight based arm routine a couple of times a week.
Set a timer or clock for 15m. You’re going to alternate a predominately tricep and bicep exercise for the whole 15 minute workout.
Alternate 5 close grip chin ups with 5 dips back and forth. On the dips, keep your upper body upright – leaning forward tends to recruit the chest muscles more. If you can’t find anywhere to dip or your furniture is too delicate, swop in diamond pushups instead.
Start in a normal pushup position and move the hands close together so the space between you thumbs and fore fingers makes a diamond shape. Then do the pushup – you’ll feel it much more strongly in the tricep.
This short routine works a treat for some quick specific gains.
Written by michaelc
Topics: Super Fitness, Upgrade Your Body