Arm Workout Programs

Big arms are highly coveted fitness goals that few achieve naturally. In fact, most of those programs in typical muscle magazines are used by bodybuilders on anabolic steroids. Keep your arm workout simple and remember that the triceps muscle makes up two-thirds of the upper arm. Focusing on triceps development and using some simple, but effective, arm workout strategies you can achieve your fitness goals.

Positions of Flexion

According to "3-D Muscle Building", you do not need to train the arms with a lot of different exercises to get great results. Positions of Flexion means hitting the muscles of the upper arm from three distinctive training angles: mid-range, stretch and contraction. For biceps, you would do one or two heavy sets (after warm-ups) of barbell curls, followed by one or two sets of dumbbell incline curls, then finish with one or two sets of dumbbell concentration curls. For triceps, you start with one or two sets of decline close-grip bench press, followed by one or two sets of overhead triceps extension and then finish with one or two sets of dumbbell kickbacks. Take all sets to positive failure or the point where you can no longer perform a controlled repetition.

Rest Pause

Another great arm-building workout is the rest pause technique, which can stimulate muscle growth in the most stubborn of trainees. Rest pause means taking a certain weight and performing nine repetitions, for example, then resting 15 seconds, picking up the same weight again and doing another 6 repetitions. After another 20 seconds rest, pick up the same weight and do as many reps as possible to finish one set. Exercise selection is important because you want to get the most muscle growth stimulus. Weighted dips or decline close-grip bench presses are great choices for the triceps. Meanwhile, body weight close curl-grip pull ups or barbell curls offer the most stimulation for the biceps muscles, according to "3-D Muscle Building."

Supersets and Giant Sets

Supersets are done by performing two exercises back to back with very little rest in-between them. For example, do a set of barbell curls, rest just long enough to catch your breath and then do a set of weighted dips. Select two or three exercises for each muscle (triceps and biceps) and complete two or three supersets in this fashion.
Giant sets are another way of creating a unique growth stimulus to shock the arm muscles into building new mass. A giant set is doing more than two exercises back to back with little to no rest in-between them. For example, you would set up barbell curls, body weight close curl-grip pull ups and machine arm curls and perform one set of each back to back, with only enough rest in-between to catch your breath. One or two giant sets for both the triceps and biceps should be sufficient.