BIGGER & STRONGER ARMS WITH THESE 2 EXERCISES | The best exercises for bigger and stronger arms
There are many exercises for developing the arms, but if we are talking about the best exercises for specifically producing strength & muscle mass there are two exercises in particular that deliver just that.
In this post we are going to cover two of the best exercises that you may want to consider adding to your training routine if building bigger stronger arms is your training aim, as well as looking at some training strategies to make these exercises even better.
There are videos along the way that draw out our key talk points and then we delve a little deeper through each section.
The Best Exercise for Producing Thicker Denser Triceps: The Close Grip Press
Watch the video to find discover the Close Grip Press
While isolation exercises have there place and can have significant relevance in any workout, it's the Close Grip Bench press that is going to help develop mass and power.
The Close Grip Press being a compound exercise will enable you to move more weight, and that weight will have a significant impact in producing functional tension through the Triceps which will lead to the muscle mass gains we desire.
This also enables us to incorporate a 3rd pushing session in our workouts, where we have hit the Chest with a Bench Press, the shoulders with a Shoulder Press, and with the Close Grip Press, we get that 3rd session of more pushing power.
Benefits of Pushing Exercises
We just quite simple cannot ignore the power of pushing movements!
Working with the Bench Press, Shoulder Press and the Close Grip Press are foundational to developing upper-body strength, which also provide us with amazing physiological benefits to not just muscle alone, but also joints, tendons and connective tissue.
Strength:
Tendon Thickening & Strength:
Stimulates collegen syntheses
Increases diameter and structural integrity of the tendons
Increased resiliance to strains and tears
Increased Bone Mineral Density:
The increased mechanical stress on the bones produced through pushing heavy loads stimulates osteoblasts (bone building cells.) This strengthens joint structures where tendons are inserted.
Enhancing Joint Stability:
Multi-joint compound movements recruit the body's stabilizing muscles (such as the rotator cuff), creating greater stability for the joint capsule through ranges of movement.
Synovial Fluid Circulation: The best exercises for bigger and stronger arms
As we pump out our reps, the contraction and extension of the joints also acts as a pump that circulates synovial fluid within the joint. This lumbricates the cartilage, increases blood supply and delivers nutrients, helping to keep the joints on top form.
The Best Exercise for Producing Stronger Biceps: The EZ Bar Curl
Watch the video to find out about how to maximise the EZ Bar Curl
Invented by Lewis G Dymeck in 1948, he created the angled bar to reduce pain through his wrists and elbows when curling. Originally called the Dymeck Curling Bar, the patent rights were later bought out by Bob Hoffman of the York Barbell Company in 1964 and then rebranded as the EZ Bar, which is what we know it as today.
Further to its original designed intention, the EZ Bar is an amazing tool for heavy lifting.
Angled in a way to keep the hands and lower arm in a semi neutral position, this allows a solid engagement of the Brachialis, which is the powerhouse of lower arm flexion, whilst still engaging the Biceps. This ergonomic design can make it easier to lift heavier, increasing functional tension through the biceps, which goes on to producing bigger and stronger arms.
As discussed in the video, there are specific technique tweaks and training methods that can be used with this bar to manipulate where the workout load hits, ie, (short head of the Biceps, Long Head) as well as being able to mix contraction types, which will provide you with a bar that brings so much more the the Bicep Curl.
Short Head of the Biceps:
How To Maximise These Exercises To Increased Muscle Growth Potential
We all want maximum gains and this method is simple yet so effective at producing an environment perfect for muscle growth and that is 'superset' these exercises together.
Workout Intensity
Combining these together will provide you with workout intensity, and this has some muscle growth and even strength and performance values that just can't be ignored.
The Basic Superset
So in its basic form the superset functions like this. We do lets say the Close Grip Bench Press, we move straight onto the EZ Bar Curl, then we have a break. Basic as it comes, however, what is happening with this exercise combination is that even though we've got one muscle group having a break and then putting the focus in on the next muscle group, because it's all located in that same place in that upper arm region, we're getting a huge increase in blood flow in those upper arms, and this is where the value button gets pressed.
Now, this is actually not only amazing just for its pump value alone, but that increased blood flow increases nutrient delivery and metabolic stress, with these being key components to produce optimal muscle growth.
Time Efficiency
Now we have just maximised all of the above in one routine instead of doing them separately. Putting them together, we've made something really quite amazing happen which is going to support bigger and stronger arms.
So even if you were doing this routine as a superset as part of a bigger routine, you're still being time effective because you're just condensing everything into kind of one routine, rather than having to do your close-grip press, doing all your sets, move over, get onto your EZ-bar curls, and then you might go and do another couple of exercises.
Put that routine into one: not only have you got that concentrated intensity (which, as explained, is absolutely fantastic for your progress), but also we're being time efficient. You could even use this routine as a standalone kind of workout if there was nothing else—that you didn't have time to do in that day. You can go, 'Right, I'm going to do close-grip press and EZ-bar curls,' and you just hit that in one routine within 15 minutes. Boom, that is it: you've got a nice little workout, and at least you've done something."
Watch the video to find out about Training Strategies you can use with your Superset
As we have seen, there are ways that we can modify our supersets to gear them to suit our training needs, time constraints and overall objectives.
Check out This Superset Routine Below, where you have a full audio coach workout utilising REP Pacing techniques where we manipulate contraction types to bring even more to your tactical Bigger Stronger Arms superset.
Click on the link below and you can get started on not just this routine, but workouts for every muscle group.
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