When it comes to why men go to the gym, besides wanting to get Brad Pitt’s abs from “Fight Club,” he probably also wants to bulk up his biceps and puff up his T-shirt sleeves like in “Pay and Get.” Like Mark Wahlberg in . Or Mark Wahlberg in “Boogie Nights.” Or Mark Wahlberg in “The Fighter.” Or pretty much every movie Mark Wahlberg has ever been in.
While the former CK model/rapper couldn’t help with this article, we were able to enlist some of the best personal trainers to break down the best arm exercises for men so they can see (and demonstrate) great results .
Why on earth would I want big arms?
Good question. “What’s the most striking thing about a trainer?” asks James Castle-Mason, PT specialist at Roar Fitness in London. “If they have big arms, it looks good under a shirt. Big arms immediately tell people you’re in control and that you look fit. Having big arms does wonders for a man’s confidence, lets people know you’re serious about training, and it gets people to pay attention.”
Keith McNiven, founder of London-based personal training company Right Path Fitness, agrees. “Everyone wants to work out their arms; it works with the chest and back as a ‘strength 3’, giving the upper body a defined look. Arms are often on display, though, so men tend to be more motivated to make sure their guns are in top shape.”
Aside from the aesthetics, there’s a functional reason to strengthen your body. “By training your arms, you’re also building muscles that also play a key role in the development of your back, chest and shoulder muscles,” Castle-Mason explains. This makes you stronger all around, which you’ll appreciate whether you’re a rugby player, a busy dad or both.
do you understand? So let’s move on to the best arm exercises for men.
1. Biceps Exercise
For many men, hard-hitting bicep curls are the go-to choice when it comes to building their arms. But as Luke Worthington, a movement and performance expert at London’s Third Space, explains, there’s more to achieving T-shirt-filled arms than endless curls. arms) starts with understanding the structure of the muscles,” he said.
“The biceps flex the elbow and the triceps extend the elbow, so choosing exercises to work the biceps is relatively simple,” he continues. “For biceps exercises, wide hand spacing will target the lateral head, while narrow hand spacing will target the medial head—so if the goal is growth, do one of each.”
To get the most out of your biceps, PT Castle-Mason recommends doing this arm exercise once a week in conjunction with your daily exercise routine. For best results, choose a moderate weight and perform 10-12 repetitions.
Incline dumbbell curl
(3 sets of 10-12 reps) Position the bench at a 45-60 degree angle (depending on your preference). Lie on your back on a bench with your arms hanging by your sides. Keep your elbows fixed and bent in this position, making sure not to swing the weight. Control down until your arms are straight, keeping tension on your biceps the entire time.
In this position, your shoulders are extended and your arms are behind you. This specifically stretches the long head of the biceps, which makes up the majority of the muscle mass at the peak of the biceps, making it perfect for filling out your T-shirt sleeves.
Standing Dumbbell Preacher Curl
(3 sets of 10-12 reps) Set up a bench at a 60-75 degree angle. Stand behind the bench and place your arms on the bench, holding the dumbbells. Keeping your wrists extended, curl but don’t swing until you reach peak bicep contraction. Make sure not to rest at the bottom and keep tension on the muscles throughout the set.
The preacher curl is a bit of a jack of all trades, but it specifically targets the lower biceps and brachialis. It doesn’t work the peak biceps muscles as well as the incline curl, so it’s best to combine the exercises to get the benefits of both.
Dumbbell Hammer Curl
(3 sets of 10-12 reps) Hammer curls can be performed sitting or standing. Simply lock your elbows at your sides, grab the dumbbells with a neutral grip, and hold them firmly as you curl and keep tension on the muscles throughout. Hammer curls also target the brachialis, so they can be performed like preacher curls.
2. Triceps training
Tired of cable pulldowns and dips? Castle-Mason’s Triceps Triple Shot is an arm exercise that makes working the back of your arms fun. Again, 10-12 reps is the sweet spot for size, and moderate weights will challenge the muscles without overloading them or affecting form.
“Most people focus on their biceps. But the secret to big arms is that your triceps make up two-thirds of your arm’s mass,” explains Castle-Mason. “Building big, horseshoe-shaped triceps will make your arms look much bigger than a bicep curl. Luckily, we have exactly the tools you need to do just that.”
Close grip bench press
(3 sets of 10-12 reps each) Lie on the bench press machine, holding the barbell with both hands slightly shoulder-width apart. Keeping your shoulders locked back, treat this movement like a regular bench press, but keep your elbows close to your torso. Feel the stretch at the bottom and squeeze your triceps as you push toward the top.
This all-around triceps workout is unique. It is one of the few exercises that works the arm muscle groups. You gain a relatively large range of motion and have great carry over benefits to your regular bench press and other pressing exercises.
Lying EZ Bar Skull Crusher
(3 sets of 10-12 reps) This is one of the best arm exercises for the long head of triceps in men. When the arms are well developed, this is the head that contributes the most to arm thickness, so pay attention.
Lie on a flat bench. If you’re doing weight training, place your feet on the bench, as this exercise has a tendency to lengthen the spine. While lying down, hold the EZ Bar in your hands with your elbows in line with your shoulders. Slowly lower your elbows onto the bench, allowing them to move slightly back while keeping the bar behind your head at the lowest point to really stretch your triceps. Extend your elbows toward the ceiling in front of you to fully contract your triceps at the top.
Triceps Pressdown
(3 sets of 10-12 reps) Overhead movements can sometimes cause discomfort because heavy loads may require more technique. Triceps straight-bar pushdowns don’t require much technique, but they are effective in stimulating the triceps.
Attach a rope or barbell to the cable and choose the desired weight. Lean forward about 30 degrees (believe it or not, this is not cheating). Your starting position should actually be with your upper arms about 90 degrees from your torso. Traditional advice is to stand upright for arm exercises, but this angle allows for a stronger contraction of the triceps. Now simply push the barbell down until your elbows are fully extended, then back up.
3. Forearm Organizer
The above are the key exercises. But before you start popping protein powder, the best arm exercises involve more than just your biceps and triceps. In fact, there’s another area called the “forearms,” and exercising them is just as important as exercising the muscles in your shirt cuffs. Working the entire arm helps prevent imbalance, and it makes half your arm look less like a Twiglet, which is always a good thing. All you need, McNiven says, is one move that works.
“The forearms are the most forgotten muscle in every arm workout,” he says. “That’s weird because they’re actually the most noticed part of the body.”
Wrist Curl
It’s a small gesture, McNiven said. “While seated, hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms up, and bend your wrists up toward you and then back. Superset with reverse wrist curls. Do the same exercise but with your palms facing toward you. Down.” That’s it. As a bonus, it’ll build your strength and endurance for every arm workout you do.
Choose 3 sets of 10-12 reps at the end of each arm workout to balance your muscle gains.
4. Mix it up
The above training plan will have you building big arms in no time, and hopefully you’ll learn a few things about how muscles work, too. But there’s more than one way to boil an egg. Luke Barnsley, head trainer at elite London gym Third Space, outlines a different approach to arm training. After a month, mixing up your routine not only helps to stimulate complacent muscles to work harder, it also helps to keep things interesting by setting up a whole new set of challenges.
Follow this plan for six weeks, adding a set of exercises every two weeks. The key is to always use a controlled rhythm. For each exercise, count three seconds on the descent and one second on the lift. This increases the “time under tension,” which means your muscles have to really engage to get the most benefit from the movement.
“To help mix up the exercises, I created an agonist/antagonist superset,” Barnsley says. “Basically, you do two exercises in a row. Compound exercises are performed with fewer reps to target different muscle fibers, allowing you to build both strength and hypertrophy. These moves are fairly simple, and there are countless tutorials on YouTube to teach you how to perfect your form.”
Compound movements are movements in which multiple joints move simultaneously, meaning heavier weights can be lifted and often require a greater range of motion. This means more muscle fibers will be mobilized, resulting in more results. [i.e. bigger arms].
“After supersets A and B, we move into C. Start with conservative loading. The goal for the first week is to complete all reps on all sets. Then slowly add weight to A1. And B1. Do it right, accurately. Oh — and be patient.”
A1. Pull-ups
(5-7 reps, 3 sets) You probably know where this is going, but it’s worth repeating the basics. Grasp the pull-up bar with your underhand grip, palms facing you. Then brace your core and tighten your arms, pulling your entire body up until your chin is just above the bar. Lower with control and move forward again.
A2. Rope Triceps Pressdown
(12-15 reps, 3 sets) As mentioned above, place your hands on the barbell attached to the tensioner and lean forward about 30 degrees (set the tensioner so that the barbell is at chest height). Push the barbell down until your arms are straight, then return to the starting position. Be careful not to arch your back during the exercise. Rest 60-90 seconds between exercises.
B1. Close Grip Bench Press
(5-7 reps, 3 sets) Repeat the previous exercise again. Lie on a bench, holding a pair of dumbbells, elbows tucked at your sides, hands slightly narrower than shoulder width. Push up until your arms are almost fully extended, then slowly return and repeat.
B2. Cable bicep curls
(12-15 reps, 3 sets) On the tensioner, place the two tensioners below calf height and install D-shaped handles. Stand in the middle, holding one in each hand, arms straight. Then, keeping your back straight and your core strong, lift both handles upward so that your elbows are fully bent.
The range of motion is much longer than most biceps exercises, giving you maximum burn return. Rest 60-90 seconds between exercises.
C1. Seated Dumbbell Curl
(12-15 reps, 3 sets) Sit down, but don’t get too comfortable. Sit upright on a bench with your back straight, holding a medium-weight dumbbell in each hand, and begin with your arms hanging by your sides. From there, just curl them all the way up and back to the starting point.
C2. Dumbbell Skull Crusher
(12-15 reps, 3 sets) Final set: Lie on a bench with a medium-weight dumbbell in each hand to give your triceps a final push. Starting with the weight above you, bend your elbows so the dumbbells are above and beyond your head. To complete the movement, extend your elbows until your arms are straight, then return to the starting point. Rest 45-60 seconds between exercises. Whether you choose to start on the track in Barnsley or with the workman style in Castlemason, the key to building big arms is to focus on movement, not self-improvement. And, needless to say, training your arms alone is the fastest way to establish yourself as a fitness novice. So please have a leg day too, okay?
