THE ANATOMY TO GETTING HUGE ARMS

Arms are one of the most sought after and desired for body parts to show off and impress other people with. All that the average person think's of when you talk about arms is the bicep. Little do they know that the triceps takes up 2/3 of the arm. If you look at most guys with well-developed arms you'll see that there back arm is very developed.

To get huge arm's we want to reverse engineer and actually break down what muscle groups are in the triceps and bicep and what exercises are going to stimulate each specific muscle group. If you do this correctly you can create a real 3d effect making your arms look massive.

So let get into it! We will first explain the anatomy of the bicep and triceps then how to exercise each muscle head and finish off with an
example exercise that you can try out or even make your own to apply what we have learnt. This will be sure to get those big arms that make heads turn!


The Bicep

The bicep contains two heads. The long head on the outer side of the arm being the brachialis and the short head on the inner arm. You can manipulate which head you want to put more stress under by grip width (wide grip on barbell works more short head while close grip long head) you can change stress on a particular head by which way your palms are facing. If your palms are down like a reverse curl it hits more long head if they are up doing a regular curl it hits short head, if to your sides like a hammer curl it will hit predominately your long head. Another thing most people realise is that the thickness of the grip of the barbell can also improve not only the thickness and 3d effect of your arms but also grow your forearms. Most gyms unfortunately don't have thicker handles barbells and dumbells but you a awesome alternative is to use Fat Grips which are used by Phil Heath the current mr Olympia (2016) These can slip on to your dumbell and give you that extra tension on your biceps when doing curling exercises!

APPEARANCE OF MUSCLE HEADS

Your long head of you bicep is what makes your bicep look thick. It gives it that 3d look.

Your short head is what gives height to your bicep peak making them look like mountains when flexed.

Now you can see why it's important to work both.

Bicep exercises for short head:

-Preacher curls
- high cable curls
-
Long head

- hammer curls
- incliner dumbell curl
- reverse barbell curl

Both heads

- barbell curl
- zottman curl
- dumbell curl
- drag curl

BICEP TIP: Don't curl wrists when curling. Keep the wrist straight to your arm for more tension on biceps.


TRICEPS

Now to the meat of the arms being the triceps. The triceps have 3 heads to your arm. We will break down each head and where it is located and then tell you which exercises we can target these specific heads.

 1. The long head is at the back of the arm this is the longest head. The exercises you can do to 
work the long head are:

•    Skulls/lying triceps extensions/French press
•    Overhead extension (reverse grip too)
•    Pushdown using straight bar with a narrow grip
•    Close-grip bench press 
•    Dips

2.    The Medial triceps is located in the middle of the arm. Exercises to hit this head are:

•    Close-grip bench press
•    Overhead extension
•    Skulls
•    Pushdown (v-bar or straight bar)
•    Reverse grip pushdown
•    Dips
3. The lateral head is on the outside of the arm and what most people reference as the horseshoe of the triceps. This is what protrudes to the sides and makes your arms look 3dish. Exercises for lateral head.

•    Rope extensions
•    Kickbacks
•    Pushdowns
•    Dips

A good triceps tip when doing exercises like skull crushers is to put the thumb on the outside of the bar. This takes out your forearms and biceps doing the work. This can also to be applied to when training back on lat pulldowns for e.g it puts more tension on the back than the forearms and biceps.

Ok great! so now you know the anatomy of your arms. Now it's time to apply what we learnt. This is a basic workout routine with the philosophy of breaking down the type 2 muscle fibres with some heavier bicep and triceps work and then moving into a higher rep range to rip down the remaining type 1 muscle fibres. This exercise also covers all the heads of the bicep and triceps.

1. Close grip barbell press - 4-6 reps 4 sets (90 secs rest)

2. Standing Barbell curls - 4-6 reps 4 sets (90secs rest)

3. Hammer curls ( with fat grips) 8-12 reps 4 sets (60secs rest)

4. skull crushers - 8-12 reps 4 sets (60 secs rest)

5.Preacher curl - 8-12 reps 4 sets (60secs rest)

6. Straight bar pushdown - 8-12 4 sets (60secs rest)

7. Bicep cable curl - 15-20 reps 4 sets (45secs rest)

8. Rope extensions - 15-20 reps 4 sets (45 secs rest

There you go there is an example too building big balanced arms. Stick to the rest times. If you want more of a challenge superset each alternating exercise and then rest the prescribed rest period.

Hope you enjoyed today's article write in the comments below your thought's and don't forget to share with your fellow gym partner!