How to pump up your arms without harm to your health. The best exercises to develop brachialis

Have huge hands– this is the goal of every adequate man. But it happens that your arms simply don’t grow, no matter how much you load them. What should you do - accept your fate and walk around waving your skinny little arms until the end of time? No matter how it is, we don’t go to the gym to give up. You will get what you want, the main thing is to know.

I want to say right away that if you are a beginner who has just joined the gym, you should not place significant emphasis on working out your arms. Train using exclusively the big three: , . This also includes the horizontal and vertical thrust of the block. From these exercises, a beginner will gain weight much faster, in addition, his arms will increase in size.

Those who have been training for a long time, but progress in arm growth leaves much to be desired, can follow the advice that I will give below. I am sure that using them, you will be able to break out of this stagnation and build big arms.

Arm muscles. Know what you are training

How to pump up huge arms if you don’t know the specifics of the two main muscles that are involved in building a voluminous arm - biceps and triceps. Each of them is characterized by different indicators of recovery and performance.

Biceps - despite its popularity even among amateurs, it is the smallest muscle on the arm. Because the biceps muscle works more intensely throughout the day, it takes less time to recover than the triceps. Also, biceps are very sensitive to working weight. If you take a little less, it won’t grow; went too far - growth stopped again. To train your biceps, select weights that allow you to work in the range of 8 to 15 repetitions. I wrote about this in more detail not long ago. Follow the link and read it.

Triceps – This muscle is primarily responsible for creating large arms. It is the largest muscle in the arm, but also the weakest. For many, before coming to the gym, the biceps may be larger than the triceps, only because it is not involved in Everyday life. Also, the triceps, all other things being equal, is characterized by the ability to work with greater weight in comparison with the biceps.

So that the question: how to pump up huge arms stops bothering you, try introducing the following combinations of arm training into your program.

Train your biceps with your back and your pectoral muscles with your triceps. This is a classic combination. Great for advanced beginners who are not yet working, emphasis on hands. By training your back, your biceps also work indirectly, so after the main load, you finish it off with one or two exercises.

The same goes for the pushing group – chest + triceps. The disadvantage of this combination is that you simply won’t have any strength left to effectively work on your arms, since your biceps and triceps are already tired. Here, unfortunately, even pre-workout complex powerless.

Chest with biceps and back with triceps. One of the best workout combinations to include your arms. There is no minus of the previous combination, but there is a negative point regarding recovery. The fact is that if training the chest with biceps occurs immediately after training the back with triceps, the latter may not have time to recover. This shortcoming is easy to eliminate - just put a leg day between these workouts - that's all.

Training biceps and triceps in one day. Many professionals consider this method the most effective if you want to pump up really big arms. This opinion is not unfounded. First of all, look at Dorian Yeats or Arnold - that's how they trained their arms. Works? Undoubtedly.

Secondly, with this method of training, it becomes possible to do more exercises per muscle group, in addition, there is enough time for recovery. The disadvantage of this method is that you will have to add one more day to your weekly program, and this opportunity is usually only available to professional athletes who know exactly how to pump up huge arms.

Tip #1. Invest in every approach. Whatever exercise is chosen to work on the arms, maximum concentration is always required. There is no need to wave your hands in vain. Regardless of weight, you need to strain the muscle as much as you can. The main sign that everything is going as it should is that while you are resting between approaches, you are trying to catch your breath. If your arms don’t straighten after the workout, it means it went as it should. This is the only way to break through stagnation and make your hands grow.

Tip #2. Use supersets in your workouts. For example, I did an approach to barbell curls for biceps - immediately grab the dumbbells and do it. Or this way - lifting the biceps and immediately, without rest, extension on the block.

Supersets can be extremely effective, but don't go overboard with them. Do only one workout out of three in this style, otherwise you can get completely the opposite result.

Tip #3. If nothing helps and your arms still don’t grow, then you should think about what I’m doing. That is, you can mark time, doing the same exercises year after year. Do not do it this way. Get rid of this annoying routine for both you and your hands. Remember - in the swamp there is no development, and this also applies to training. You see that the muscles are not growing - change the exercises, the number of approaches, the pace of the exercise, etc. until a new load for the arms makes them grow.

That's all the wisdom. Now you know how to pump up huge arms. You just need to follow the recommendations and principles described above. If you were looking for hand exercises, then follow the link or look at the corresponding section, there is a lot of useful information there. Thank you for your attention, subscribe to the newsletter, comment on the post - this will be the best gratitude for me.

Video: How to pump up huge arms

The sight of an athlete flexing his biceps is mesmerizing. However, achieving such muscles in your own arms is a difficult task, many are sure. In fact, everyone can do this, says multiple bodybuilding champion, author of his own methodology and the book “How to Build the Body of Your Dreams,” Yuri Spasokukotsky. And he confirms by his own example: only thanks to bodybuilding he managed to bring the modest volume of his biceps from 28 cm to the desired girth of 45 cm. The main thing is to avoid making those common mistakes during training that stop muscle growth.

Beautiful biceps require good nutrition

Mistake No. 1. Copying the champion's program. Most athletes have a genetically strong group of arm muscles, the development of which is not particularly affected by training. In addition, they use anabolic steroids.

• Pay attention to those bodybuilders whose arms were weak and strengthened through exercise.

Mistake No. 2. General overtraining of the body. If you rock up every day, move actively and engage in other sports, the body’s regenerative forces will quickly be depleted, and a state of overtraining will occur.

• Optimally calculate your workouts and recovery time after completing them.

Mistake No. 3. Insufficient nutrition. For muscle growth, protein is necessary, which, in turn, is poorly absorbed when there is a deficiency of carbohydrates in the body.

• Make sure you have the required amount of carbohydrates and calories in your diet.
• Eat small meals, five to six times a day, otherwise your arm muscles will not grow.

Mistake No. 4. Frequent training of the arm muscles can cause inflammation in the ligaments and tendons and, accordingly, loss of muscle mass.

• You can't train your muscles every day. It takes time to restore them.

Mistake #5: Using light weight. Many people believe that they can train biceps with light weights. This is wrong! Athletes perform curls with a 100-kilogram barbell.

• Include strength exercises in your workout.

Do you want to pump up your arms? Train your legs

Mistake No. 6. The complex contains only light isolating exercises, during which the biceps “burns” and inflates, and then returns to its usual shape.
During training with heavy weights, muscle pain does not occur. It appears the next day and indicates damage to muscle fibers, without which further muscle growth is impossible.

• Muscle pain after strength training shows which of them were successfully “broken through”.

Mistake #7: Not training your legs. Lower body exercises help increase the production of testosterone, a hormone that promotes muscle growth in general and biceps in particular.

• Do squats, bench presses, strength exercises.

Mistake No. 8. The wrong muscles are loaded. To strengthen the triceps, many people first start doing push-ups. As a result, the triceps do not receive the proper load, and the shoulders and chest are completely “killed”.

• The conflict of recovery processes in different muscle groups leads to a decrease in strength indicators in basic triceps exercises.

Improper execution of cheating with a reverse bend in the spine deprives the biceps of the necessary load and overloads the spine.

• When cheating, do not deviate your body from a vertical position.

Mistake No. 9. Brachialis is not taken into account. This small muscle, as if from the inside, supports the biceps and contributes to its volume.

• Hammer style curls will help.

The main rules of training and the most effective exercises for creating powerful arms. Tips for beginners on how to learn to feel the work of the triceps and biceps.

How to quickly pump up your arms?

The logic for newcomers to the gym is simple - if you want to build big arms, do as many biceps exercises as possible. However, everything is not so simple. Contrary to the idea of ​​muscles as separate independent elements, they always act together - even the abs work when doing biceps curls.

The muscles of the two arms make up no more than 10-15% of the total muscle mass of the body - and this muscle is divided into 20-25 different muscle groups. The only reasonable way to quickly build up arm muscles is to increase overall muscle mass, and not to pump up biceps and triceps.

How much do arm muscles weigh?

Consider an average athletic man weighing 70 kg. With a total muscle mass of 60-65 kg, the majority will be occupied by the torso (30-35 kg), followed by the legs (10-13 kg of muscle on each leg), and each arm (including shoulders) will have a maximum of 4 -6 kg.

Even an athlete’s biceps weight is 1.5-2 kg - unattainable figures for an untrained beginner. Moreover, the nature of strength training is such that it provokes muscle growth more or less evenly throughout the body. It is simply naive to believe that biceps training will affect the growth of the core muscles.

Hands Day - maximum twice a week

Given the relatively small size of the biceps and triceps, these muscles do not require countless exercises or heavy lifting. Much more important is the presence of a mental connection between these muscles and the brain, which allows you not just to pull the weight, but to feel the work of a specific muscle.

Even for a professional, arm muscle training should be done no more than twice a week (at least 3 days off), and its total duration should not exceed 10-15 minutes. IN otherwise the biceps and triceps will be overloaded, which will negatively affect their recovery and growth.

Hand training for beginners

For beginners and intermediate level athletes, one arm workout with isolation exercises per week is enough. On other days, these muscles are involved in the training indirectly - the triceps are involved in the work with the bench press and other exercises, and the biceps are involved in pull-ups and rows.

“Arm Day” is recommended to be combined with leg training, since these muscle groups have virtually no effect on each other’s work. Beginners are allowed to perform no more than 2 different isolating exercises for the arms (one for biceps and one for triceps), and an average athlete - no more than 4.

The best exercises for hands

It is important to remember that the best biceps or triceps exercise is one in which you can actually feel the muscles working. In order for your arms to grow, it is not enough to perform barbell curls for biceps or pull-downs for triceps, while arching your whole body.

It is important to note that most beginners are not able to correctly perform even such a simple exercise as alternate lifting of dumbbells - any muscles are involved in the work, but not the biceps at all, and the effect of the training manifests itself exclusively in the form of pain in the lower back and neck.

How to properly train triceps?

The direct mass of the triceps is at least 30-40% greater than the mass of the biceps. Strong and developed triceps are important both for overall arm size and for increasing performance in basic exercises. The advantage of training this muscle is that its work is easier to feel by the characteristic burning sensation.

Anatomically, the work of the triceps is associated with the work of the pectoral muscles and “push-off” movements - primarily various push-ups. Learn to feel the triceps in one of the typical exercises, then perform it twice a week with a medium weight, for 12-15 repetitions and 3-4 sets.

How to train biceps correctly?

The most honest answer to the question of how a beginner can train his biceps is that it is better for him not to train this muscle at all. The truth is that using excessively heavy weights when performing biceps exercises leads to the formation and reinforcement of incorrect technique.

The easiest way to learn to feel your biceps is with concentrated dumbbell raises on a bench - fix the incline bench at 60 ° , then lean your shoulder on it so that the outstretched arm from the dumbbells lies on the bench with your palm facing up. Slowly raise the weight, then lower it.

It is impossible to imagine pumped up arms without the presence of general muscle mass, and beginners often do not know how to feel their biceps and triceps. In reality, the muscles of the arms develop when performing various rows - horizontal (push-ups, bench press) and vertical (pull-ups, lat pull-downs).

Powerful, strong, sculpted male hands are the main sign of strength and a real magnet for girls. It is with the goal of pumping up arm muscles that many guys start visiting the gym. Of course, everyone wants to quickly get hands like top bodybuilders. To do this, the guys furiously hang weights on the barbell and grab the heaviest dumbbells. But, more often than not, this does not bring results. And the point is not even that professionals are heavily involved in “chemistry”. It’s just that most guys who dream of getting fifty-kopeck hands make the same offensive mistakes.

Introduction

Basic exercises are the basis for gaining mass, but not everyone can benefit from them. Each organism is individual. And it’s not at all a fact that lifting the barbell for biceps, which your friend loves to do, will help pump up your arms too. Hand exercises must be selected very carefully into your training complex. And to do this, you need to try different exercises and styles of performing them in order to keep for yourself not the most popular, but the most effective.

How to make your arm training more effective

Warm up. It is very important to warm up well before you start training your arms. Moreover, the weight should not be large. 3-4 approaches will prepare the muscles for more serious loads. Only after this can you begin exercises with heavy weights. Moreover, it is imperative to stretch the antagonist muscles. If you're going to work your biceps, do a couple of sets for your triceps, and vice versa.

Choose the right working weight. A common mistake beginners make is to overestimate their capabilities. Naturally, instead of having bigger muscles, they get more pain. It is best to add weight gradually. It is a mistake to think that training with an average (8-10) number of repetitions leads to weight gain in the arms. The muscles of many people, due to the large number of slow-twitch fibers, respond to growth when performing exercises only with a high (15-20) number of repetitions.

Pay attention to all muscle groups. That is, to pump up your arms, you need to work not only to increase your biceps. You also need to train your triceps, brachialis, and don’t forget your forearms. Weak forearms are one of the main reasons for the lack of weight progression in many biceps exercises. Do you want bigger biceps? Rock your forearms!

Correct technique. Only with the correct technique will the exercises bring the desired result. Otherwise, you will not only end up missing it, but also suffer serious injuries. Biceps and triceps are small muscles in volume. They don't need heavy weights, they need targeted loading. To eliminate large muscle masses from working, do more arm exercises while sitting and lying down.

Don't overload your hands. There is no need to train your hands often. The biceps and triceps take an active part in many exercises for the back and chest, bearing most of the load. Very often, the reason for stagnation in gaining muscle mass in the arms lies in their overtraining. One workout per week is enough to grow your biceps and triceps.

Correct exercises for biceps

It should be noted right away that the choice of exercises is an individual matter. However, there are several movements that have been scientifically proven to be effective. And this “evidence” was found by Bret Contreras, a fitness expert, trainer, as well as a scientist and author of several books.

In 2010, he conducted a study on how muscle fibers react to various exercises. To do this, he used a special medical device - an electromyograph. Based on these studies, several of the most effective exercises for hands from a scientific point of view..

Pull-ups. Moreover, you need to use both parallel and reverse grip. Performing the exercise in these two ways allows you to maximize the use of your biceps. But here you need to remember some rules. To ensure that the load falls on your hands, you need to narrow your grip. In addition, your arms do not need to be fully extended. If you cannot perform 10 or more repetitions, then try doing the exercise in a graviton or on a barbell.

Standing barbell curls. And there is a nuance here - the neck must be curved. According to the results of Contreras’ experiment, you need to pump up your biceps with just such a barbell

Lifting dumbbells on a Scott bench. There is a mandatory condition in this case as well. The angle of the bench should be almost 90 degrees. In this case, the biceps muscles stretch and grow much better.

The hit parade of exercises voiced by Contreras is different from the usual. But as the device showed, these movements involve the largest number of biceps muscle fibers, which in turn causes its growth. Therefore, when choosing exercises, you need to focus solely on your own sensations and observations of muscle reactions. Whether to take into account the results of Contreras' experiments or not is an individual matter. You just need to understand that the path to big muscles always runs through the head.

Many athletes constantly complain that no matter how much they pump their arms, they still don’t grow. This is understandable, because 90% percent do not understand at all how to properly pump their arms.

Moreover, I noticed that mostly it is the beginners who always complain, who usually have been studying for no more than one or two years.

Although, what is there to hide, sometimes even those athletes who have, let’s say, a solid experience of training with iron behind them, sometimes complain, but even they experience difficulties with the volume of their arms.

I will not talk now about the correct technique of the exercises themselves and about some subtle points related to training, but I will tell you about my observations.

Over my many years of experience, I began to notice how various athletes usually train their arms. And I discovered for myself three main differences in how beginners pump their arms, how advanced athletes with extensive training experience pump their arms, and how professional athletes pump their arms.

I will give only three main options for how athletes usually pump their arms in the gym, depending on their experience.

After which you will draw conclusions for yourself and see which category you are in. this moment relate. Well, in fact, you will understand why your hands don’t grow.

The first option is how beginners usually pump their arms, and this is almost 95% of all practitioners with about one or two years of experience.

Although newcomers also have three to five years of experience or more, i.e. those athletes who usually don’t develop at all from year to year, and don’t really change at all...

So, if you have noticed, all these citizens are engaged mainly in a scheme of a minimum of basic exercises and a maximum of isolated exercises on the arms.

In other words, such athletes perform only a few pressing and pulling exercises, but they constantly hammer their arms with a huge number of isolated exercises.

Moreover, sometimes the number of such exercises reaches almost 5-6 exercises for each muscle group, namely the biceps and triceps.

What does it mean?

This means that they almost always focus exclusively on isolated arm exercises at the forefront of their training. Although at the same time they themselves don’t look very good, to put it mildly, or rather, they don’t look like anything at all.

Usually, it is precisely these athletes who for some reason do not have arms that grow, just like everything else. Well, at least I don’t know people whose arms grow separately from their body.

The second type of athletes are those who have already realized that the first option is not an option and they will not pump up their arms this way. Therefore, these athletes usually have much more experience behind them.

And their training looks like this: a maximum of basic exercises and a minimum of isolated and other exercises they don’t need.

At the same time, they always perform quite a large number of various pressing and pulling exercises. And always with a large number of working approaches, that is, with a large training volume.

In other words, they divide their training into pressing and pulling training. Where they actually perform at least 4 to 6 really heavy basic pressing or pulling movements.

As they say, only the base is only hardcore. And at the same time, they perform only a couple of isolated exercises on the arms, i.e. 1-2 exercises for biceps and triceps per week.

And to the surprise of all beginners, their hands are constantly growing, just like everything else. In my opinion, this is a much more correct and more reasonable option for how to pump your arms.

Why? It's simple...

Heavy basic exercises at first, and this is in the first couple of years, and indeed in the future, work the muscles of your arms much better and much more effectively due to the constant use and work with heavy working weights than in the same isolated exercises.

And the movement itself is more natural!

Therefore, such athletes’ arms grow much faster, and their arms are an order of magnitude larger than those of those athletes who are still working according to the first option.

Well, the last option, as absolutely all pros do, is to completely separate all of their muscle groups in each of their workouts.

If you haven’t come to this yet, then you will come to it sooner or later. Because this is the only way you can work out all your muscles as intensely as possible.

You will have a separate workout for each muscle group, where you will perform 4 - 6 or more exercises in order to properly work your muscles.

Although at first you will most likely work your triceps and biceps in one workout and only then separate them later.

Thus, each of your muscle groups will receive a simply colossal and simply monstrous load in each of your workouts.

And of course, after this, they will also grow well. But you still need to get to this point, and if you start training like this right away, it won’t bring you much results.

Now look at how you are training now...

I am sure that most of you train according to the first option, when you devote more to various isolated exercises than to the main basic ones.

That’s why your hands are still not growing, and they won’t grow if you continue in the same spirit...

If you want your arms to grow, then pay more attention to the basic basic exercises. Do more heavy compound exercises, do more working sets, work with heavier working weights.

This is the only way your hands will respond to muscle growth, but of course you shouldn’t forget about isolated exercises.

But don’t get too carried away with them...

And only after you have already collected quite a substantial muscle mass, you can move on to the option with separate training to work out each of your muscle groups separately.