For those who train for looks, building big arm muscles is one of the most common goals in the gym—but no matter your goals or objective, your arm muscles should be an essential focus at some point in your workout split.
Your arm muscles—namely the biceps, triceps, and forearms—are essential for many daily movements, from gym staples like pushing, pulling, and pressing to everyday tasks like hauling your groceries or picking up your kids up to carry them.
Can You Target Only Arm Muscles?
Training your arm muscles isn’t super complicated. You can target your biceps, the crown jewel of the arm muscles, or the triceps, the largest arm muscle on the backside of the limb—or you can really dial down for focused training on less-commonly appreciated muscles like the forearms.
The following arm exercises will help you build up all those muscles. You need to warm up before you start because otherwise, you’ll increase your risk of injury and find the first few sets of your session unnecessarily tough.
Findyourgym.ae can help you find the best gyms in Dubai for targeting your arm muscles.
Triceps Exercises
As the name suggests, the triceps have three different heads: the long head, lateral head, and medial head. These heads contract during triceps exercises, but some moves emphasize different parts of the triceps. The best way to build strong, firm triceps is to choose the exercises that hit all those muscle fibers from every angle.
For more details about the triceps exercises, please check out our article, “Best Triceps exercises“.
Triceps dip
Grip rings or parallel bars with your arms straight. Keeping your chest up, bend your elbows to lower your body as far as your shoulders allow. Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
Sets 5 Reps 8 Rest 60sec
Dumbbell Bench Press
Lie on a flat bench, holding dumbbells by your shoulders with palms facing. Drive your feet into the floor, press the weights straight up, then lower them slowly back to the start.
Sets 4 Reps 12-15 Rest 45sec
Dumbbell Triceps Extension
Stand tall, holding a dumbbell in each hand over your head, with arms straight. Keeping your chest up, core braced, and elbows pointing up, lower the weights behind your head, then raise them back to the start.
Sets 4 Reps 12-15 Rest 45sec
Diamond press-up
Start in a press-up position with your thumbs and index fingers touching to form a diamond. Keeping your hips up and core braced, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor. Push down through your hands to return to the start.
Sets 4 Reps 12-15 Rest 45sec
Incline Bench Press
Lie on an incline bench, holding a bar with an overhand grip with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and arms straight. Brace your core, press your feet into the ground, and lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.
Sets 5 Reps 8 Rest 60sec
Lateral Raise
Stand tall, holding a light dumbbell in each hand by your sides, palms facing each other. Keeping your chest up, your core braced and a slight bend in your elbows, raise the weights to the sides until they’re at shoulder height. Turn your thumbs down at the top and lower them back to the start.
Sets 4 Reps 12-15 Rest 45sec
Biceps Exercises
The biceps are small muscles, but to grow them takes time, knowledge, and intelligent programming. Also, your biceps flex your elbow — which is a pretty important job when you think about it.
Chin Up
Hold a chin-up bar using an underhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, pull yourself up until your chin is higher than the bar, keeping your elbows tucked into your body. Lower until your arms are straight again.
Sets 5 Reps 8 Rest 60sec
Barbell Biceps Curl
Hold a barbell with an underhand grip with your hands shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest up, core braced, and elbows tucked into your sides, curl the bar up to your chest, squeezing your biceps as you go. Lower it back to the start.
For more details, Check out our article “Curl Barbell“.
Sets 4 Reps 12 Rest 45sec
Pull-up
Hold a pull-up bar using an overhand grip with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your chest touches the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.
Sets 5 Reps 8 Rest 60sec
Dumbbell Biceps Curl
Hold dumbbells by your sides with straight arms, palms facing forwards. Keeping your chest up, core braced, and elbows tucked into your sides, curl the weights up, squeezing your biceps as you go, then lower them back to the start.
For more details, Check out our article “Curl Dumbbell“.
Sets 4 Reps 12-15 Rest 45sec
Bent-Over Row
Hold a bar using a shoulder-width underhand grip just outside of your legs. Bend your knees slightly, then bend forwards, hingeing at the hips and keeping your shoulder blades back. Pull the bar up towards your abs, leading with your elbows, then lower it back to the start.
Sets 4 Reps 12 Rest 45sec
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