For massive strength and size gains, you’ll have to use a combination of compound and targeted assistance exercises. Regardless of how you train, you’ll feel an awesome pump and get jacked in no time with these 30 arms exercises.
Here’s probably my favourite weight lifting workout for arms for anyone looking to add serious mass. It’s simple and based around heavy compounds, and won’t take you more than 40-50 minutes. Feel free to split the exercises up and work triceps with chest, biceps with back, etc, or use it as a stand-alone arm workout.
If you’re training for size, you want to hit each muscle once or twice a week, so this workout once a week would be sufficient. Train for strength, and you might want to go a little heavier and a little more frequent.
Triceps
Close Grip Bench Press - 3 Sets – 8-10 Reps
Two Handed Overhead Dumbbell Extension – 3 Sets – 8-10 Reps
SkullCrushers – 2 Sets – 8-10 Reps
Biceps
Close-grip Chinups – 3 Sets 8-10 Reps
Standing Barbell Curls – 3 Sets 8-10 Reps
…and that’s it. I told you it was short! But it is, in my opinion, pretty much the best weight lifting workout for arms you could do in one session.
The close grip bench press is the primary mass-builder for the triceps, and in my experience there’s none better for adding mass. The overhead work is necessary to fully activate the long head of the tricep, and skull crushers hit the short and medial heads effectively. Notice the lack of cables or machines… then notice how quickly your triceps grow on this workout.
On the bicep side of things, it’s most definitely minimalist. I promise you, however, that if you give it a go for a month you’ll see more growth in your biceps than you would with two months of endless dumbbell and cable curls. Close grip chins are THAT good for biceps. There’s a number of reasons for it, and if you want to know more you may want to google the benefits of closed-chain bodyweight exercises.
The barbell curl is thrown in really just to satiate every lifter’s need for some sort of curl… but really, you’d do just as well or better with weighted close grip chins twice a week, adding weight continually and stopping short of failure.
Give it a go for a month and feel the difference.