HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR ARMS | TRAINING

Developing a pair of muscular, attractive, defined arms is a largely sought-after goal for many guys. To do so will require progressing in multiple exercises that target a set of upper-body muscle groups. These muscle groups are the shoulders, biceps, triceps, and even the forearms.

Gaining strength and size in these muscles will arise from lifting heavier weight or increasing repetitions over time - strategic progression models based on two types of two types of training - strength training and pump training.

STRENGTH TRAINING

The majority of one's arm development will be gained from upper-body compound exercises - those exercises that recruit multiple major upper body muscle groups - movements like bench pressing, heavy shoulder pressing, weighted pull ups and dips, and standing rows. Movements such as these will develop great overall arm musculature because they indirectly or directly hit the arm muscles for a high-power, full-body engaging action.

Performing the working sets of these compound exercises within the 4 - 10 rep range will support stronger, denser, functional muscle fibers - the defining features of strength training.

Doing around 2-4 sets of a compound exercise per session in this way, twice a week with a minimum 4 day rest in between specific muscle training and a minimum 2 day rest in between general strength training, will make for huge weekly strength gains .

PUMP TRAINING

It may be intelligent to throw in some pump training into your routine as well, however the amount included of this type of training should should be directly related to the amount of calories one is consuming, due to the high nutrition demand of these movements - whether one is going through a cutting, gaining, or re-comping phase.

Pump training includes movements like bicep curl variations, triceps pull downs, lateral raises, seated rows, lat pull downs. The working sets of these I recommend be kept in the 10 - 20 rep range.

Doing around 4-6 sets of a pump exercise per session, on top of the strength training and using the same resting protocols, will make for incredible arm development.

FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

The picture on the left was taken of me nearing the end of my first cut back in fall of 2016.

At the time I was weighing in at around 135 pounds - a solid lean physique for a height of 5" 7'.

As you can tell, I was pretty lean in that picture - I'd estimate around 10.5% body-fat.

My arms were by no means huge. In fact, they look almost quite small, flat.

Jump forward 9 months to June 2017 to the second picture, and I weighed 10 pounds more, at near the same body-fat percentage as the first picture. The difference is quite clear.

Near all of the gained mass translated into all-around muscular development.

Much of that mass filled out my arms, i.e. biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms.

In reality, plenty of that mass went into mainly into filling out my chest and back, two major indicators of a powerful, masculine physique.

Apart from being better lit and a flexed pose, the picture on the right shows me at the peak of a gaining phase.

TAKEAWAYS

This goes to show the extent of progress that can be made in less than a year's time. It is quite the difference in appearance in just a matter of months, and keeping in mind that I was training around 3 - 4 times a week, max to achieve this level.

Even though my diet and training protocols weren't absolutely perfect, I made substantial gains by following strictly the few key points of the heroic hybrid training outlined in my free eBook.

If you want to know how to develop not only your arms, but the rest of your physique in an effective, healthy, athletic way, take the personalization quiz here.

Until next time,

Gerardo