How to Build Big Arms

One of the most sought after physiques are big impressive arms, some have a natural wider physique so they have it easier, while others struggle. Genes do play a role in bodybuilding but don’t lose hope, even the scrawniest boy can achieve a muscular body with the right approach and dedication.

First of all, you need to get a grip of what major muscle groups comprise your arms and will give the biggest bulge: they are the biceps (upper arm, front), triceps (upper arm, back) & forearms (bottom arm). One common misconception is that biceps are the main ingredient for big arms, this is untrue because your upper arm is about 65% triceps, in other words larger than biceps muscle group and have more potential to grow in size.

Biceps are utilized when performing pulling movements, such as lifting a bag of groceries; triceps are in charge of pulling movements, such as keeping a door shut with both your arms; forearms are for grips, for example: holding onto a barbell/dumbbell, this should tell your that forearms play a big role in growing your upper arm, since you need to get a proportionally good grip when lifting heavier & heavier weights, or else you risk injury.

While wanting big, wide impressive arms is a normal thing, you need to train your body as a whole, you don’t want to look like a stick with out-of-place abnormally large arms. To be exact, compound exercises work on the biceps as well, indirectly, while growing in proportion the rest of the body’s muscle mass.

Don’t jump straight into or exclusively do arms specific exercises (like bicep curls & tricep extensions), incorporate other compound exercises to keep the proportion.

Since compound exercises (squat, dead lift, bench press) target the arm muscles indirectly, it means they’re under a lot of strain, which in turn means you need to be careful not to over-train the arms! Work on your arms twice a week at most, or else you will be hampering your arms from recovering & growing, rest is just as important, this is when muscles grow, not when you workout. A great exercise to help you get bigger arms is squats, because your whole body is "under attack" and causes much growth hormone to be released.

Form, the way you do your exercises is crucial to muscle growth, do the movements wrong and you lose focus on the muscle you are trying to target, in our case, the arm muscles. Make sure to maintain perfect form to optimally stimulate your arms. After you master the right form, vary exercises, sets, repetitions & gradually add more weight for continuing stimulating muscle growth in a well rounded manner.
The exercises

Biceps: Standing Barbell Curls: while standing, with your knees slightly bent, grip the barbell with palms facing you, shoulder width apart, lift the barbell to your chest and slowly back down, while keeping your elbows stuck to your sides!

Triceps: Lying Triceps Extensions (Skull Crushers): lying on a bench, hold a barbell with palms facing outwards, place the barbell just above your forhead, creating an arc above your head, slowly lift and straighten your arms, repeat.

Forearms: Wrist Curls: Sit on a bench, place your forearms on your thighs, hold a barbell or dumbbells and move forearms up and down, alternate grips between inward and outward.
Conclusion

Your upper arm is about 65% triceps.
Don’t neglect forearms since they are utilized for gripping.
Don’t overtrain arms & hamper growth; they are involved indirectly in many other exercises.
Maintain a correct form to fully stimulate the targeted muscle.
Advance in weight and vary workouts for a thorough stimulation of the muscles.

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