Big Arms (Without curls)

I love walking into the gym on a Saturday from 5pm-9pm. It's hilarious: a line of guys standing in front of the mirror and doing alternating bicep curls like there's no tomorrow. Classic.
  But what if I said, you can have huge arms, without ever specifically isolating your arms in a workout?

Ronnie Coleman is a prime example. I've heard time and time again that he rarely works out his just his arms. All the arm work comes from other compound movements and Ronnie's arms are definitely some of the biggest on the planet. So what is he doing that so many others aren't?

Barbell row

STICK WITH HEAVY COMPOUNDS

You want big biceps? Do your heavy rows. You want big triceps? Kill them on the bench press. If you do these compound movements, not only can you work the larger muscle groups like your pecs or lats you can equally work your biceps and triceps.
    The compound movements will use multiple joints. For example, you are doing bent over barbell rows, you lats and you biceps must work systematically to bring up the bar. Not only will you get two birds with one stone, but as you are working more muscles you will help promote more testosterone in the body. This will in turn cause more muscle growth as a whole.
     The same can be said with heavy benching or shoulder presses. The triceps NEED to work hard to help get the weight up. So you can give your triceps an excellent workout without specifically isolating them.
Bottom line: you can exhaust you arms with rows and presses alone. 

LOSE THE LIFTING STRAPS

   As for your forearms, you can check out my forearm article (HERE) or stick to this simple guideline. On your dead lifts and rows, leave your straps at home and force your arms to hold the weight up. The single best forearm exercise is heavy dead lifts. You will get bigger forearms if you stick to this alone.

SQUAT, SQUAT and SQUAT

Your lower body contains SO MUCH muscle mass. The glutes being on average the largest muscle in the body alone. So when you work you lower body, like squatting, you are promoting maximum testosterone production. The extra testosterone will help grow your arms alone. So the next time you feel like cancelling a leg day for an arm day, you're the one losing in the end. Make sure you're squatting at least once a week. 

If your goal is bigger arms while maximizing every workout, you should try to stick to the guidelines above. Give them a try for a while and see the results for yourself. Enjoy!

Email or post a comment if you have any opinion or question! 


Ty Pritchard
CanFit Pro Personal Training Specialist
tylerrpritchard@gmail.com

Image from:

healthtotalbody.com