5 Beastly Arm Routines

This article shows five posters and shares biceps and triceps regimens that can make your pipes professional grade!

When your wimpy cousin—or granny, or anyone else—asks you to flex your muscles, which muscle do you choose? Of course, you whip that elbow up, crank your pumped biceps for all they're worth, and growl like a beast from some medieval dungeon.

Or do you? If you don't have the size, shape, or confidence you want in your biceps, then do something about it! Train to gain, eat to grow, and commit to the iron lifestyle. If you make training part of your existence, you can't help but transform. Adopt the mantra "I lift, ergo I am," and you will see results.

Use these five tried-and-true workouts to build strength and size in your favorite muscles. 

Follow the path others have forged, and you won't get lost. There are a lot of exercises in this stack you may not be familiar with, so be sure to keep the safety, follow all instructions, and  avoid looking the fool in the weight room.

 

17-INCH BICEPS BLASTER 

Are you afraid of being normal? Then don't be! This deceivingly simple arm workout will hit your favorite muscle group from a range of angles. The creator says his reward for incorporating it consistently were arms that came in at just under 17 inches in circumference.

HAMMER-GRIP ROPE CURL

Measure yours—flexed, of course!—with a tape at the peak before and after a few weeks under this protocol. The supersets will leave you gassed, so don't expect to move much weight in the skullcrushers and close-grip bench at the end!

  ICING ON THE CAKE 

This routine is meant to plug into your existing workout using the classic "bis with back, tris with chest" split. You use your biceps heavily in pulling lifts like pull-ups, rows, and even deadlifts, while your triceps play a major role in all manner of push motions, from the bench to the military press.

DUMBBELL LYING TRICEPS EXTENSION

Start with your big-ticket strength movements, then chase a pump to your heart's content. Take both equally seriously, and you'll see improvement in both your core lifts and your mirror muscles!

 DON'T FORGET ABOUT BARBELLS 

It's easy to get lost in the details when it comes to arm training. You use one cable attachment for one head, one for another, and hold your pinky just so while envisioning the precise cuts in your finished sculpture. That's one way. Another is to train arms like you (hopefully) train legs: by moving a heavy barbell first, and then finishing them off with dumbbells until smoke starts coming out of your sleeves.

CLOSE-GRIP BENCH PRESS

Using the logic of "what's good for the bis is good for the tris," this workout uses symmetrical programming to create symmetrical results. Perform the routines on separate days, or as a single routine—your choice! But however you do it, save room for the burning forearm triset after your final arm workout of the week.

 ONCE-A-MONTH ARM SHOCKER 

Make no mistake: Big, defined arms get built by following a well-designed program on a regular basis. But it's also helpful to break out of the routine every once in a while, with a full-on assault to shock your muscle in a way that you know will hurt like a mother for days afterward. This program is meant to be indulged in just once a month, and you'll struggle to get your keys out of your pocket afterward.

TRICEPS PUSH-DOWN

Feel free to substitute different curl or press variations if you can't hold down all this equipment for 20-plus minutes at a time. But don't feel free to leave anything in the tank afterward!

 KILLER BICEPS WORKOUT 

Killer! As in, you might die, bro. This 31-set death march of biceps and abs is another once-in-a-while shocker to wheel out when you've got a couple of hours to spare and want to push yourself to your absolute limit. It works even better if you've got a partner with you who is willing to follow it in an "I go, you go" style.

SINGLE-ARM INCLINE CURL

This routine follows a reverse-pyramid structure, meaning your final set should be your heaviest. Consider yourself warned!