To sculpt bigger, stronger biceps and triceps, it helps to arm yourself with a bit of knowledge about your arm muscles and how they work. Your upper arms are divided into three main muscle groups. Firstly, we have the biceps, which runs along the front of the arm, from your elbow to your shoulder joint. The main function of the biceps is to bend the elbow. Secondly, we have the triceps that also run from the elbow to the shoulder, but their main role is to straighten the elbow. The triceps are a larger muscle group than the biceps, which means they have more potential to grow. The third group is the brachialis, an upper arm muscle that runs under the biceps. It's really only visible when looking at the arms from the side, but will make your arms appear much larger when viewed this way. Although most people focus on biceps training, if you want really big arms then you need to work your triceps and brachialis just as hard. To get the sleeve-busting look you're after, you need to work the triceps, biceps AND the brachialis.
Here are the most important principles you need to follow in order to build bigger, stronger arms:
Train the arms a maximum of twice per week
The muscles in your arms are more prone to overtraining than other muscles of the body, mainly because they're worked hard during pulling and pushing movements, such as the bench press and lat pulldown. But so many guys think that training their arms 3-4 times a week is the best way to get them to grow. Do this, and you're setting yourself up for major disappointment! Stick to 1-2 arm workouts per week. This gives your arms the recovery time they need to grow bigger and stronger.
Train them hard
To get your arms to grow, you need to overload them by periodically training them to failure and beyond. Don't just go through the motions. Prepare yourself for some high intensity sets and really squeeze out every last rep.
Train them fast
If you're primary goal is to add muscle mass to your arms, your entire arm routine should take you no more than 30 minutes. Building muscle is not like running a marathon. Many people do too much arm work in search of big arms. Short and intense is the best training way to add mass quickly. When training your arms, more is not always better.
Use correct technique
Lift and lower the weight slowly in a controlled, focused manner. If the weights you're using are too heavy, you're only training your ego. This will never build big arms. To develop your arms fully, start every repetition with your arms fully extended. This makes the exercise harder, and targets all the fibres in the muscle. If you're using too much weight (like most people do) you'll end up doing partial repetitions, and swinging your body all over the place but most importantly of all you'll put yourself in real danger of getting injured. Reduce your weights and do the exercise properly.
How the Protein Project can help you reach your goal?
The role of nutrition
Bigger arms don't come from curls or presses alone. Exercise only provides the stimulus for growth. To provide your muscles with the fuel they need to get bigger and stronger, you need to make sure you eat enough calories every day If your arms are growing, and your weight is moving up on the scales, you know you're on the right track.
Something else you can do to ensure rapid muscle growth in your arms (and your entire body) is to consume protein and/or carbohydrate immediately prior to, and straight after exercise.
Nutrients eaten at certain times, most notably before and after your workout, can better contribute to muscle repair and recovery compared to the same nutrients consumed during other times of the day.
Feed your body with the right nutrients after exercise, and your muscles will be able to repair and recover far more quickly - which means bigger, stronger arms for you.
Give your arms a head start on muscle growth by taking a rapidly absorbed protein drink (such as Promax) before hitting the weights and a high-carbohydrate weight gainer (Progain) after a workout.
Like all Maximuscle products, Promax and Progain contain a precise blend of active ingredients that are subject to stringent independent quality control tests, and are trusted by many of Britain's elite teams and athletes, including the RFU, the WRU, and Amir Khan and Lawrence Okoye.
