I’m not sure I have known a man that has ever said ‘I’m not bothered about having big arms‘. The fact of the matter is though, if I ever did meet one, he would most likely have small arms. It's not that he doesn’t want big arms, it’s that he doesn’t know how to achieve it. Just for the record, when I say big arms, I mean lean big arms, not biceps and triceps covered in a layer of fat so you can’t see a single vein running through them.
When I’m talking about big arms, I mean big arms. I’m not talking the odd centimetre here and there, you want to add inches to your arms. You want your t-shirts to be tighter and you want to struggle to scratch the top of your back. So how do you achieve this? With big movements and a calorie surplus my friend. I’m only going to share with you two movements, one for each muscle, but if they are performed correctly and frequently enough, it’s all you will need. But before we get into what exactly these are, let’s take a quick look at the anatomy of the bicep and tricep.
Let’s start with the biceps, which are made up of the bicep brachii and the bicep brachialis. The main muscle is the brachii and it has two heads, the long and the short. They have two essential functions, flexion in the elbow (bending of the arm at the elbow joint) and forearm supination (rotating the forearm). The bicep brachialis also assists with elbow flexion but is only activated when the bicep is fully contracted. The biceps are involved in all movements that pull, which is important in exercise selection.
Remember I said you need big movements for big arms, well, there is no better movement for bigger biceps than the chin up. Sounds super simple right? That’s because it is! It’s often the simple movements that are going to give you most bang for your buck, but this doesn’t mean they are easy, far from it. Let’s take a closer look at the chin up.
The chin up has the potential to give you mighty biceps and, it's easy to perform. You simply find a chin up bar, take a supinated (underhand) grip just slightly wider than shoulder width and starting with straight arms, pull your chest towards the bar, contracting your biceps at the top. Slowly lower yourself down and repeat. If you can aim for a tempo of 1-1-3, meaning 1 second up, 1 second contraction at the peak of the movement and a 3 second decent for reps, you will be on the way to bigger biceps in no time. Aim for 3 sets of 10 like this and then start to add weight.
The triceps make up 2/3 of the arm, meaning that they hold the key to adding inches to them. The tricep has three heads, the medial, lateral and long. The function of the tricep is to extend the forearm at the elbow, meaning they are known as a ‘pushing’ muscle. For this reason, they are also used as a secondary muscle when you are training chest and shoulders.
To build horseshoe triceps, you need an exercise that is going to hit all 3 heads. Introducing the tricep dip. This is a great exercise for adding inches of muscle to your arms if performed correctly. Not only that, but as a side effect of increasing your tricep strength and size, you are most likely going to see an increase in all your pressing movements. It’s easy to perform, on the dipping station, start with your arms extended and your torso upright, this is your starting position. Now slowly lower your body, remaining upright (this keeps the tension on your triceps, don’t lean forward), until your triceps are parallel with the floor. From here, push yourself back up to the starting position but do not lock out. Instead, squeeze your triceps until you feel a good contraction and then begin the movement again. You should use the same tempo as the chin up and If you can add weight to your dips, then do. You can never be too strong!
Now you have unlocked the knowledge to bigger arms, what are you waiting for? Its arm day.
