Basic arm exercises: how to pump big arms effectively? * Crossfit

Basic hand exercises are one of the most effective tools for training large, well-trained hands. After all, as you know, isolated exercises are good only as additions to the basic ones. Let's figure out how to still pump up big arms, including at home, using basic exercises for the muscles of the arms.

What does it take for muscles to grow?

First, you need to train the muscle on a regular basis, and second, let it recover. And if there are no problems with training the arms: we swing each workout, or we pump it on a separate day, then recovery is usually a disaster, and precisely because we are so passionately exploiting our arm muscles. What's the point? The biceps and triceps are, on their own, quite small muscle groups, but with very important functions in terms of helping large muscle mass. Thus, the biceps is a traction muscle group that actively assists the back in the same movements, the triceps is a pushing muscle group that "helps" the deltas and chest. Accordingly, by loading large muscle groups, you simultaneously train your arms, therefore, completely without using specialized exercises for biceps and triceps, you can add solid muscle volumes to the latter. But there are several conditions:

you have to work with very solid weights;
you should feel very good the work of the "target muscles" (lats, chest or deltas);
for a certain period of time to give up the "point" pumping of the arm muscles;
It is imperative to train your leg muscles - doing deadlifts and squats - it is the lower body exercises that lead to the strongest activation of your hormonal system and lead to a powerful natural release of testosterone.

Following all of the above tips on how to build big arms will lead to an increase in total muscle mass, that is, all your muscles will increase in volume, including the muscles in your arms. At the same time, they will become much stronger - this will definitely come in handy, but more on that below. So, we have created a certain muscle mass of the arms, but I want more.

We divided our material into 2 conditional blocks for basic exercises for the arms: 1 - these are exercises for the triceps, 2 - these are, respectively, exercises for the biceps. Let's start with the 1st.

Specialized Triceps Training

It is from this moment that we begin to do specialized exercises for the muscles of the arms, while remembering that 2/3 of the volume of the arms sets the triceps and only one third - the biceps. Accordingly, the triceps muscle of the shoulder becomes a priority for us. Despite the fact that the triceps consists of three heads, it has one tendon, respectively, when we unbend the arm at the elbow joint, the entire muscle contracts, not some separate bundle. However, depending on the position of the humerus relative to the girdle of the upper limb, the involvement of the muscle in movement can be changed.

Our goal is large triceps, therefore, our task is to include, first of all, "the largest head of the triceps." This is the middle one; its proximal end is attached to the scapula. To turn on the middle head "in full", we must raise our hand above our head and, bending it at the elbow, bring the forearm behind the head, followed by extension of the arm. The second option is to straighten the arm at the elbow joint while simultaneously changing the position of the shoulder relative to the body. Basic exercises for training arms and, accordingly, triceps are given below.

French press

The French bench press is one of the most effective basic hand exercises. Here in great detail about the technique of performing the French press.

Dips with an emphasis on triceps

The starting position is hanging on the uneven bars, the body is straight, fixed on straightened arms perpendicular to the surface of the earth.
With a fixed position of the body, or with a slight tilt of the body forward, bend the arms at the elbow joints to an angle of 90-100 degrees, without spreading the elbows to the sides - this will shift part of the load on the pectoral muscles. Deeper push-ups in this option are highly discouraged due to the increased risk of injury to the shoulder joint.
Straighten your arms under control, trying to create maximum pressure with your palms on the uneven bars.

Triceps Bench Dips

We sit on the edge of the bench, grab the edge with our hands. The grip is shoulder-width apart, it can be a little narrower, here you need to find a comfortable position for the wrist joint.
We bring the buttocks forward, transfer the body weight to our hands. At the same time, the legs are straightened at the knee joints and brought forward. The heels are on the floor, or you can use the second bench as support (the main condition: the same height with support under the arms).
We smoothly bend our arms at the elbow joints, try not to spread our elbows to the sides. The buttocks and back are lowered to the floor, parallel to the bench. The elbows are bent to an angle of 90 degrees, we fix the position with the stretched position of the triceps muscle of the shoulder.
Next, we unbend the elbows, trying to focus on sensations in the triceps. We fix the tension in the target muscles. To complicate this exercise, you can use weights, in this case, it should be located on the hips, as close to the pelvis as possible.

Biceps workout

As for the biceps, for its maximum hypertrophy, it is advisable to use alternate flexion of the arms from two main positions: when the shoulder is in line with the body and when the shoulder is retracted posterior to the body. Let me explain why this is so: alternate curls give clearer mental control over the muscle being worked out and allow you to concentrate 100% on working out the biceps on both sides. Changing the position of the shoulder relative to the body provides a shift in emphasis from the short head of the biceps (the shoulders are pressed to the body) to the long one (the shoulder is set back). It is important to understand that in each variant the entire muscle contracts, as a whole, only the degree of involvement of muscle bundles in movement changes.

Standing dumbbell curls

The starting position is standing, the best option, pressing your back and elbows to a fixed support, excluding swinging movements of the body. The forearms are supinated, in the hands of the dumbbells. The forearm is in line with the wrist.
The arm is bent at the elbow to an angle of 100 degrees, that is, not completely (ideally, you should bend the arm until you feel the maximum tension in the biceps). If you bring the dumbbell to the shoulder joint, you, thereby, relieve some of the load from the working muscle, and lose some of the effectiveness of the movement.

The most effective mode of performing the exercise: under control and slowly straighten the working arm at the elbow, preventing complete relaxation of the biceps, perform the specified number of repetitions with the working limb, then switch to working out the second hand.

Seated Alternate Dumbbell Curl 45 degrees

Optimal I.P. - sitting on a bench, back at an angle of 45 degrees. Hands with dumbbells hang freely at the sides of the body. The position of the hands is the same as described in paragraph 1 above. The essence of the exercise is to bend the arm at the elbow joint, without additional shoulder movement. The technique of the movement itself is the same as described above.

Simultaneous flexion of the arms with a barbell

I.P. corresponds to that described in clause 1. The bar is fixed in the lowered hands, at the level of the hips, the grip is shoulder-width apart. The bar can be used both curved and Olympic, EZ, of course, is preferable, since it allows you to work more comfortably and, accordingly, better concentrate on the work of the target muscles.
We bend our arms at the elbow joints under control to an angle of approximately 100 degrees, fix ourselves at the point of maximum tension of the biceps, under control we return the bar to its original position.

How to combine arm training with training the rest of the muscle groups

For the effective growth of arm muscles, 4 conditions are important (according to VN Seluyanov - the source "Fundamentals of strength training" (read from page 126)):

pool of free amino acids;
free creatine;
anabolic hormones;
hydrogen ions.

The first two conditions depend on your diet, but the last one depends solely on your training. Muscles are acidified during work in the mode of 12-15 repetitions, that is, when working with weights, 65-70% of your maximum. A burning sensation in the muscle speaks of good acidification.

Anabolic hormones are released in response to training of large muscle groups, most of which are released during leg training. Accordingly, it makes sense to train biceps and triceps on the day of the legs, after the latter. Or tie biceps training to the day when you work out the back, and do triceps after the chest. In the latter version, you should not perform more than 2 exercises in 3 sets each. In the variant of combining arms with legs, it is optimal to do 2-3 exercises for triceps in 3 sets and 1-2 exercises for biceps in 3-4 sets each.

In conclusion, a useful video about warm-up / cool-down massage for active recovery of biceps and triceps: