Thick arms make a body look really impressive, and you can get them if you follow these basic principles. Check out these simple secrets and see how to maximize your biceps and triceps.
Get Thicker Arms with these Tactics
Got huge guns? Do you want them? The first thing that might enter your mind when you think of huge, thick arms is bicep curls. Bicep curls are one exercise that can help stimulate the muscles in your arms to make them grow larger, but they are just a small part of the equation.
If you want to get really thick arms you need to focus on your biceps, triceps and perform some compound exercises that will really help thicken up your arms. Keep reading to learn about some tips, techniques and tactics that will help you get thicker arms.
With the right choice of exercises, you can build great arms.
Bicep and Tricep Exercises
In your quest to get thicker arms, you absolutely cannot avoid doing exercises that stimulate your biceps and triceps. If you are going to do bicep curls, you need to vary the exercises that you perform. Include barbell curls, dumbbell curls, and preacher curls into your weight lifting routine.
Mix it up weekly and do not overdo the curls. Perform curls for one or two exercises and then switch over to something different.
The same goes with exercises for your triceps muscles. Stick to one or two exercises that directly stimulate your triceps muscles and then branch out. If you are a natural athlete, you will not get thicker arms by performing isolation exercises all the time.
The best way for natural athletes to get thicker arms is through a combination of isolation exercises and various compound exercises.
Compound Exercises for Thicker Arms
If you want to see an explosion in the size of your arms, then you need to perform compound exercises. You will need to perform exercises that target both the biceps and triceps.
Contrary to what many people think, the triceps muscles are even more important than the bicep muscles because the triceps make up two-thirds of the upper arm. So if you really want to get thicker arms, triceps development is key.
Dips are one of the compound exercises that you have to add to your workout routine. Although this exercise focuses on all the muscles in the upper body, your triceps will do a lot of work. This exercise works all three heads of the triceps muscles, as well as your chest and shoulder muscles.
Start off by performing eight repetitions of this exercise only using your body weight. Once you can perform eight repetitions easily, add weight when doing dips. It is all about progression when trying to gain lean mass, so when you have reached the ability to perform eight reps with a certain weight, add more weight.
Getting thick arms will not happen overnight, but with persistence and dedication, it will happen.
Another fantastic compound exercise that will help develop your triceps is close grip bench presses. While this might seem like an exercise better suited to help build your chest muscles, when this exercise is performed correctly your triceps will be begging for mercy and they will grow.
You will have to start off with less weight than if you were performing bench presses, but you must always be mindful of the need to progress. Eight is the magic number.
When you can easily perform eight repetitions with a certain weight, increase the weight and keep moving forward.
There are compound exercises that will target your bicep muscles and help them grow even better than bicep curls. Supinated chin-ups (with the palms facing toward your body) will help you develop your bicep muscles.
As with the other exercises, the name of the game is progression and you should add weight when you can easily perform eight reps.
Increase the Volume
Increasing the volume with which you do arm workouts is another tactic to help you get thicker arms. This is not to say that you should be doing bicep curls and skull crushers three times a week.
The best way to get thicker arms is by performing more of the compound exercises. You can focus on isolation exercises one day and after a period of rest, you can concentrate on doing dips, chin-ups, and close grip bench presses.
If you are frequently working your arms in different ways, you will immediately notice an increase in their size.
Increase the Time Under Pressure
Another effective technique for getting thicker arms revolves around tempo. If you perform all exercises at a slower pace, your arm muscles will work harder and they will be forced to grow. When doing the eccentric and concentric phases of each exercise, increase the time.
For example, if you usually perform chin-ups where it takes two seconds to lift your chin over the bar, and two seconds to lower yourself, increase that time to four seconds.
At first, you will be performing fewer repetitions, but with time that will easily increase. Not only will you notice an increase in your endurance, but you will get stronger and, of course, your arm muscles will get thicker.
Other Useful Techniques
The methods mentioned above will do wonders to help you get thicker arms, but you can do more. It is all about stimulating the muscles to grow and that can happen indirectly.
Some bodybuilders have found that they have noticed increased arm development by performing heavy deadlifts for low reps at the end of an arm workout.
Farmer’s walks also help stimulate the muscles in your arms to grow. Any exercise or activity that involves carrying or pulling loads will help stimulate the muscles in your arms.
Thicker Arms with only a Few Changes
By making a few changes in your workout routine, you will be able to get thicker arms. The first step is to incorporate compound exercises that target the triceps and biceps. Not only will you stimulate the muscles in your arms, but you will notice an increase in size and strength in your upper body.
The next steps involve increasing the volume of your workouts and increasing the time that you take to perform each exercise. The last step is to try new things. Deadlifts, farmer’s walks, and tire flipping are just some examples of ways that you can give your body new stimuli that will help those arm muscles grow.
