How to Build and Define Your Arms

For illustrations on How to Build and Define Your Arms, make sure to watch the video located at the bottom of the page.

Before I go out and make all kinds of promises, there is one thing that needs to be understood. Muscle growth is determined on a few factors and one very important factor is Genetics! Genetics will determine how quick it will grow, how large a muscle will grow, and which muscles on your body will respond to training better than others.

That's right, when we workout and even if we train everything equally, some muscles will grow faster than others and some will outright grow larger than others. So if you see a person with really well built arms compared to the rest of their body, it may not be because all they do is train arms all day long. They may simply have the right type of genetics for building well developed arms.

That's the beauty of body building, you are a work in progress that requires constant reworking to achieve the best results for you. And sadly even with the best training program and diligence, your arms may never be what you inspire them to be. And that goes for every body part, my personal challenge is building wide shoulders as my frame is not wide, on the other hand I have good thickness through my chest! Remember, base your expectations on what is realistic for your body type, not on other peoples builds because you are built differently and believe me they have their own areas of muscle development to deal with.

So now that we all understand what to expect, how do you go about building those well developed arms? There are three main muscles to consider when training arms, the Biceps, the Triceps, and the Forearms. The Bicep is the round ball shaped muscle on the front of your arm between your elbow and front shoulder. Many people think that large Biceps equals large arms! The reality is that the Triceps, located on the back of the arm between the elbow and rear shoulder is actual a naturally larger muscle than the Bicep and contributes to about two thirds of your upper arm. So don't forget to put the time in and get your Triceps up to par.

It's pretty obvious where the Forearm muscles are located but for those that are at a loss, the Forearm is located between your elbow and wrist. To be honest, unless you are planning on getting super huge, often enough you don't really need to work your Forearms all that much since they are brought into use every time you grab and hold a weight, and perform a pull or press. But again if you have genetically small Forearms then you may want to train them additionally.

I personally only train my arm muscles once per week because I genetically have decent arm development. I also find that performing many traditional compound movements like bench press, shoulder press, pull-ups and rows hit the Biceps and Triceps pretty well already. Since on back day I do a lot of pulling and work my Biceps along the way, I generally end my workout with a few Bicep exercises to finish them off. Likewise When I have my chest workout day, my Triceps are already fairly exhausted so hitting them at the end with some sets of Triceps exercises gets them fully worked out.

The best way to educate you on what exercises work best for hitting your arms is to show you in a video so again, make sure to watch the below video where I talk about some of the concepts in this article and also show you some of my favorite Arm building exercises like:

Triceps: 

• Seated Dumbbell Tricep Extension
• Standing Cable Tricep Extension (With Bar or Rope)
• V-Dumbbell Narrow Tricep Pushup
• Narrow Barbell Tricep Extensions (Free Weights or Smith Machine)
• Standing Tricep Kickbacks
• Bench Tricep Kickbacks

Biceps: 

• Barbell Bicep Curls (Free Weights or Smith Machine)
• Standing Dumbbell Bicep Curls
• Seated Dumbbell Bicep Curls
• Standing Bicep Curls with Cable System
• Dumbbell Bicep Curls Using Bench For Isolation

Forearms:

• Wrist Forearm Curls Palm Down
• Wrist Forearm Curls Palm Up

Full Week of Workout Videos - Friday Chest and Triceps Accessory Home

1:16 minutes - 669 Calories - Average Heart Rate 119 - Max Heart Rate 166.

• Garmin Heart Rate Monitor Session Link

Location: Home Gym

Warmup & Mobility:

• Rotator cuff work and Stretching

Strength:

• Decline standing cable flies x3 sets (Chest)
• Incline seated cable flies x3 sets (Chest)
• Flat seated cable flies x3 sets (Chest)
• Various position pushups x3 sets max reps each (Chest & Triceps)
• Tricep cable extensions using curl bar x4 sets (Triceps)
• Tricep cable extensions using rope x4 sets (Triceps)
• Crunches and leg raises (Abs)

Upper Body Workout Using Body Weight

This video looks at using mainly body weight exercises with a some inexpensive gym equipment that will tone and build muscle in the upper body areas.

Some of the exercises demonstrated are: Pushups, Chin-ups, Pull-ups, Shoulder Press, Shoulder Raises, Bicep Curls, and Triceps Extensions.

Not all of these exercises can be done by only using your body weight, but by adding some inexpensive Dumbbells and a Chin-up bar, all of these exercises can be achieved.