Workouts

Bulk Your Bi’s & Tri’s With This Intense Arm Routine

Your primary goal at the gym should be an overall perfect physique but still, every bro is more inclined towards building bigger arms. And because of this, most of guys spend at least 2-3 days at the gym, training their arms with as much heavy weight as they can possibly lift.

Perhaps, not the best idea to get the bulk!

I’m not saying that you won’t notice any changes. You’ll definitely see a drastic increase in your biceps and triceps but after a couple of weeks, they’ll cease to grow any further. This is where the harder process of muscle building comes in and in this article, I’ll be taking you through a proper biceps and triceps training routine to follow for maximum growth and stimulation.

On the Road to Build Bigger Arms

Now you might be expecting that I’ll advise increasing your training volume and frequency? Yes and no. We’ll actually learn how to effectively target your bis and tris to tear the muscle fibers and then recovering them for growth.

You can lift weights all day long but you’ll never be able to grow your muscles unless your training routine is properly mapped around a good plan.

1. Biceps Training & Routine

For biceps, you must know how to activate the biceps brachii. This muscle requires more work on the flexing and supinating exercises. It includes elbow flexion, which is simply the bending of the elbow joint for allowing the arm to curl upwards.

Also, your biceps are made of 60% fast twitch fibers and 40% slow twitch fibers. So, you’ll be working 60% of your time training the biceps with heavy weights for maximum growth. Ideally, 60-80% of your 1 rep max weight load for approximately 6-12 reps.

But lifting alone is not enough. You must have full control over what you curl and contract. For the slow twitch fibers, you’ll spend 40% of the time with light weights of around 50% your 1 rep max for 12-20 reps or until failure. Because of this high rep range, you have the added benefit of executing a superset of multiple exercises for insane stimulation of the bicep muscles. Supersets increase the intensity and deliver the fatigue at a faster rate.

Finally, you should be focusing on hitting the biceps at different angles for more activation. Mix it up with preacher curls, single arm curls, barbell curls or incline bench curls.

Routine To Follow

Dumbbell Concentration Curls: 6 sets, 10 reps per arm.
Standing barbell curls: 5 sets, 8-10 reps.
2 arm preacher curls: 6 sets, 8-15 reps.
Dumbbell Preacher curls: 6 sets, of 10 reps.
Alternating Dumbbell Curls: 6 sets, 12-15 reps.

2. Triceps Training & Routine

For triceps, you have to push the limits. Your triceps make 2/3 of the upper arm, so they’ll need more focus for wider arms. Moreover, they are made of three heads — inner, outer and medial heads. This demands more variation and different angles for maximum growth.

Needless to say that the medial heads usually get fatigued too early which gives room to execute compound exercises more effectively, such as the close-grip bench press. The longest fatigue time is taken by your inner triceps, so focus more on isolation exercises like triceps pushdowns/extensions and for the outer head, do both the compound and isolation exercises.