Getting bigger arm muscles takes far more than simple curls and press-downs. The following compound exercises can take your arm workout to the next level, helping you get faster results.
Think about the exercises you usually turn to when you want to work your triceps or biceps. Chances are, the exercises you use are primarily isolation moves such as preacher curls or tricep pushdowns. While these exercises can be beneficial, you may also want to look into more complex multi-joint exercises.
Doing compound exercises for your arms may sound strange. To understand why they work, you need to understand a bit more about what they are. Compound, multi-joint movements engage more than one muscle group and use multiple joints. Examples include exercises like squats, pull-ups, and deadlifts. These exercises require far greater involvement of the muscle fibers, which can increase the amount of testosterone that the body is producing. This increase in testosterone can then make it easier to build bigger muscles. This physiological response is particularly beneficial when you are working on muscles in your back or upper arms.
Tricep Exercises
Close-Grip Barbell Bench Bress
Anyone who is serious about building muscles should be using this exercise. You can think of it as an alternative to a traditional bench press. The main difference is that your grip is closer in, with your hands positioned a couple of inches from each side of the barbell. This forces you to engage your triceps when you lift and lower the bar. To keep from injuring yourself, you will need to use less weight than you lift for a traditional bench press since the pecs are less involved in the movement. The chest and shoulders will still do some of the work, but the primary focus shifts to the triceps when you move your grip in closer. Aim for doing up to five sets of 8-12 reps each.
Dips
Bodyweight and weighted dips are one of the most popular exercises of all time, simply for the fact that they work. Do bodyweight dips at first until you build up your strength. Once you find that those are too easy, start gradually adding weight. These exercises also engage the chest muscles and the deltoids in much the same ways as the close-grip bench press. To force your triceps to do as much of the work as possible, hold your elbows in as close as you can to your body and try to keep your body itself in a vertical position. To get the best possible results, aim for doing about 10 to 20 reps in each set.
Bicep Exercises
Chin-Ups
The main difference between a chin-up and a pull-up is the position of your hands. With pull-ups, your palms face away from you whereas with chin-ups your palms face toward you. This move is fantastic for building your biceps. If you really want to grow your biceps through chin-ups, you need to get your brain involved as well by focusing on contracting the bicep as much as possible throughout the movement. Start by doing 3 or 4 sets of chin-ups using your bodyweight until you reach muscular failure. If you can get to 15 chin-ups using perfect form, you can then start to add weight. Depending on your current strength, you may need to start out by just focusing on the portion of the chin-up where you lower yourself down. Rather than lifting your weight up, jump into the starting position and lower yourself from there.
Bent-Over Row With A Reverse Grip
Again, the main difference between this move and a traditional row is the position of your palms. With this move, your palms face away from you rather than toward you as in a traditional row. Shifting your grip puts the focus squarely on your biceps by allowing your elbow to bend and extend further. This increased movement of the elbow also helps involve the lower lat muscles. This exercise can help increase testosterone production, making it easier to achieve the bigger biceps that you want.
The post Get Bigger Arm Muscles with Multi-Joint Movements appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
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