To develop significant size in your arm muscles, split your muscle groups into separate workouts so you can train four days per week. The major muscles you need to develop to build massive arms include your chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps. Therefore, focus on your chest, shoulders and triceps on Mondays and Thursdays and train your back and biceps on Tuesdays and Fridays. This allows you to complete more exercises per muscle group, enabling you to overload your muscles more adequately and stimulate growth.
Volume
Muscle building requires high volume workouts, according to Dr. Lee E. Brown of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. To stimulate growth, perform each exercise at a volume of three to five sets of eight to 20 repetitions. Rest one to three minutes between each set and exercise. You are likely to be fatigued and, in some cases, sore following the workouts. However, the 72 hours of rest between workouts should be adequate for your muscles to recover fully.
Chest Exercises
Develop your chest by performing chest presses, incline chest presses, chest flies and pushups. To perform chest presses, lie on your back on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Begin with the dumbbells in line with your chest with your palms facing forward and push the dumbbells up toward the ceiling. You also can use a barbell with the exercise. Incline chest presses use the same technique but are done on an incline bench. For chest flies, lie on a bench, holding the dumbbells out to your sides with your arms mostly straight. Bring your arms together at your midline. For pushups, be sure your hands are slightly outside the width of your shoulder with fingers pointed forward. Keep a straight line in your torso as you lower your body toward the floor, continuing until your elbows bend to about 90 degrees.
Shoulders and Triceps Exercises
Effective exercises for your shoulders include shoulder presses, upright rows and lateral raises. To perform shoulder presses, sit or stand and push the weights up toward the ceiling, extending your elbows fully. Upright rows should be done while standing. Allow a pair of dumbbells to hang down toward the floor in front of you and drive your elbows out and up toward the ceiling, pulling the dumbbells up toward your chin. To perform lateral raises, hold a pair of dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing your thighs. Keep your elbows primarily straight as you raise your arms up and out to the side until they’re parallel with the floor. To target your triceps, complete lying tricep extensions and overhead tricep extensions. For lying tricep extensions, lie on your back on a bench and hold a single dumbbell with both hands in front of you with fully extended arms. Bend your elbows, lowering the dumbbell toward your forehead. Overhead tricep extensions are completed in a similar manner, but while standing. Begin with extended arms over your head and bend your elbows to lower the weight behind your head.
Back and Biceps Exercises
To develop your back muscles, perform lat pull-downs, pullups and rows. For the lat pull-down, sit at a lat pull-down pulley unit. Use a wide grip with palms facing forward and pull the bar down in front of your face until it nearly touches your upper chest, then control it as it returns to the starting position. Pullups can be completed with a wide, forward grip, which emphasizes your back muscles, or a narrow, reverse grip, which recruits your bicep muscles to a greater degree. To perform rows, sit at a rowing pulley unit. Grip the bar and sit up tall as you drive your elbows back, bringing the bar toward your chest.
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