5 Ways Skinny Guys Can Get Bigger Arms (Least To Most Important)
Bigger arms...it's what every guy wants after their first time stepping foot into the gym. For some people, it's pretty easy to get bigger arms. For skinny guys that are underweight, it is a big struggle to add meat to their limbs. There are 5 things that skinny guys need to do to get bigger arms:
1) Train your arms the CORRECT way
What is the correct way to train your arms? It's actually not as complicated as you may think.
Biceps:
- Warm up the elbows by doing a light weight version of either dumbbell curls, straight bar curls, or EZ bar curls (if you have limited wrist mobility). Aim for 15-30 reps until you feel blood flow in your biceps. It is extremely important to not skip this step, as it will decrease your injury risk.
- Start with an exercise that allows you to go heavy for 8-12 reps using a full range of motion. This could be straight bar or EZ bar curls. You want to work the bicep with an exercise that makes the toughest part of the exercise happen in the middle range of motion. 3-4 tough sets will be plenty here.
- Next, move on to an exercise that works the brachialis muscle (the muscle on the side of the bicep that helps push the bicep out). This can be done with any "hammer curl" variation. Use dumbbells, a rope attached to a cable machine, or a bar that has vertical handles. Aim for 10-15 reps, using a tempo of 2 seconds up and 4 seconds down. 3-4 sets is plenty. It's important to go slow on the way down so that you get full use of that brachialis muscle. After your last set, do a drop set with a weight that is 50% of your starting weight for maximum reps.
- Next, move on to an exercise that puts a stretch on the biceps when you use full range of motion. This can be exercises like an incline curl, preacher curl, or spider curl. Exercises like this will make the tough part of the exercise happen at the top, where the contraction will be intense. You probably won't need heavy weigh here, so aim for 12-15 reps and 3-4 sets. Make sure you control the weight on the way down and DON'T use momentum to get the weight up.
- *Optional: Finish your bicep work with an exercise that works the forearms, like reverse curls. This will enhance the full look of your arms. Use a tempo of 2 seconds up and 4 seconds down. Aim for 10-15 reps and 3-4 sets.
Triceps:
- Warm up the elbows by doing a light weight version of rope or straight bar pushdowns, or even doing a couple pushups. Aim for 15-30 reps until you feel blood flow in your triceps. It is extremely important to not skip this step, as it will decrease your injury risk.
- Start with an exercise that will target the outer triceps like pushdowns. This will help get even more blood flow to your arms to keep you injury free. Aim for a challenging 12-15 reps and 3-4 sets. Focus on feeling the squeeze in the triceps and don't rush the reps.
- Now that your arm is fully ready, time to move on to your heavy pushing movement. This can be exercises like weighted dips and pushups, pin presses, and floor presses. You want the weight to be heavy enough so that you can only get 6-10 reps max. Aim for 3-4 sets, then throw in a drop set with significantly less weight than your working sets.
- Next, move on to working the long head of the triceps. This area helps your arm look bigger from back. To work the long head, you need to do exercises that put a stretch on the arm over your head or behind your head. This can be exercises like skull crushers, overhead extensions, or kickbacks. Aim for 10-15 reps and 3-4 sets. Do a drop set with 50% of the weight of your working sets.
The rest period between all of your arm sets should be 60-90 seconds to keep the intensity high.
2) Get quality sleep
Real quick, how much sleep did you get last night? If you have no idea or you know that it wasn't at least 7 hours, you could be killing your gains by not getting those ZZZ's.
Sleep is crucial to your recovery. No recovery = No muscle growth. It really is that simple. Start tracking your sleep intake using an app like "Sleep Cycle".
With this app, you can set a 30-minute wake up window, where the app will wake you up when you are furthest away from deep sleep in that 30-minute timeframe. This is great because you will feel rejuvenated and less groggy than waking up in the middle of a deep sleep. I can personally say this has made a HUGE difference in how I feel on a daily basis with my recovery. The app is free, so definitely check it out.
3) Be patient
Being impatient is one of the biggest reasons that you don't have big arms; you just expect greatness to happen too soon. A lot of skinny guys compare their arms to those of bodybuilders, so using that as a metric of success will always leave you feeling defeated. Bodybuilders often use performance enhancing drugs, have incredible genetics, and over a decade of consistent weightlifting experience. YOU on the other hand, likely haven't trained hard for more than a year consistently.
To put it in simple terms for you...it takes time bro. Quitting isn't an option anymore. Keep working your arms, and plan on doing it for 5+ years consistently before you say you can't have big arms.
Take progress photos every 3 months and compare your pics this year to years ago. You are making more progress than you probably think!
4) Do progressive overload on compound lifts (Track your workouts)
How much weight did you do on pin presses 4 months ago? How many sets and reps did you do on hammer curls 2 weeks ago? When is the last time you tracked your workouts? Have you EVER tracked your workouts?
If you're like most skinny guys, you just go to the gym and get a pump, train until you think you worked hard enough, and then leave. STOP IT. You need to start tracking your workouts, including your arm workouts, to make sure you are progressively overloading your muscles.
Just like you need to gradually increase your weights on bench press to be able to do more, or know that you're doing more reps with a certain weight on squats to get bigger legs, you need to work harder overtime on your arms.
Get a notebook or use your phone to log your workouts. When you can no longer go heavier, do more reps, when you can't do either, switch the exercise.
If this month you can do 50lbs skull crushers, and later this year you are doing 70lbs, your arms will be bigger.
5) Eat in a calorie surplus
If you want bigger arms you have to eat enough food to get bigger overall. This is the most important thing you need to know. When is the last time you've seen a guy with huge arms, but a small chest, back, legs, and shoulders? It doesn't happen.
Let's take a hypothetical 6 foot 140lbs guy. He has small arms, and very low muscle mass overall. No matter how hard this guy trains his arms, he will hit a plateau with arm growth at a certain point as long as he stays 140lbs. He simply hasn't given his body the necessary resources to grow.
If our example guy eats in a calorie surplus and gets to 160lbs, now his arm growth capacity will increase as well. The only way to get that extra weight on is to eat in a calorie surplus. More food=bigger body=bigger arms.
When you utilize all of these tips together, and do them consistently, you'll have noticeable results within a year, good results in 1-2 years, and GREAT results in 3+ years.
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