10 Arm Building Exercises for Big Guns
10 Arm Building Exercises for Big Guns
BICEPS
1. Barbell Curl
Why he does it: “Barbell curls are the mack daddy of all biceps exercises,” Jose pronounces. As such, they have been a staple in his arm training since he was 10 years old. Yes, he has been training that long. “It puts your wrists in the fully supinated position so you use as much biceps as possible, and it also allows for the heaviest resistance possible.”
How he executes it: Some bodybuilders like Arnold were famous for doing heavy cheat curls with a barbell, but Jose prefers a much stricter style. “I keep my elbows back so the bar stays pretty close to my body at all times,” he notes. “Doing them this way, I eliminate the front delts from the movement and get more biceps involvement.” The heaviest he goes on barbell curls is 135.
2. One-arm Cable Curl
Why he does it: “I love these because the tension on the biceps is constant,” says Raymond. “At no point is it easier, and there is no sticking point either.” He also likes the fact that he can get excellent contractions without having to use a lot of resistance.
How he executes it: Jose adjusts his body position until he finds the exact angle where he can curl, and the cable forms nearly a perfect vertical line as he looks down to the center of his biceps. “If you find yourself curling either in toward your body or away, you need to correct your position,” he advises.
3. One-arm Machine Curl
Why he does it: Jose doesn’t perform his machine curls with one hand by choice, exactly. It’s more a case of his anatomy not being compatible with the standard two-arm style. “If I squeeze into the machine and grab the bar with two hands, my palms face each other,” he explains. “I need to use one arm and angle my torso a little bit away from the working arm to get the proper palms-up hand position.”
How he executes it: Jose has tinkered around with various curl machines, and his best bet to get the right fit is to put the seat all the way down as a very tall man would, then kneel rather than sit on the seat. With his triceps flat on the pad, he purposefully curls up and squeezes each rep hard at the top position.
4. Dumbbell Concentration Curl
Why he does it: Jose used to be all about pushing and pulling heavy weights and makeno mistake, he still moves some serious iron. But as the years have gone by, he’s become far more concerned with working the target muscle as hard as possible. Concentration curls do just that, providing excellent isolation of the biceps when done properly. “This is an exercise you will see me do at just about every biceps workout,” he says.
How he executes it: Jose does these the “old-school” way that men like Arnold and Robby Robinson did in the ‘70s. That is, rather than sit down and use his inner thigh as a leverage point, he stands and bends at the waist, allowing the arm to hang down. “Your arm should be straight from the shoulder to the wrist,” he explains. “If your elbow goes back toward your body or shifts at all during the reps, you’re doing it wrong.”
5. Hammer Curl With Rope
Why he does it: Jose is diligent about working all the muscle groups that judges will scrutinize onstage, and the brachialis is on that list. He prefers to hit it with hammer curls using a rope attachment and a cable pulley rather than using dumbbells. “Again, it’s due to the constant tension the cables provide,” he shares. “I am able to get a good stretch and a good squeeze on every rep.”
How he executes it: Before starting the set, Jose takes a step back from the cable stack so that there is tension on the cable at the bottom position of each rep. He also positions himself so that there is a straight line from his shoulders down to the ground via the cable. “On any type of curl, you always want to be careful to minimize the involvement of your front delts,” he adds.
TRICEPS
6. Rope Pushdown
Why he does it: Every triceps workout for Jose begins with this movement, as he feels it’s the ideal warm-up. “It lets me get a lot of blood into the muscle and around the elbow joints, plus my wrists and elbows aren’t in a fixed position,” he says. “They’re free to move in the pattern my structure needs them to.”
How he executes it: Typically, Jose will do three sets of 15-25 reps, moving up in weight on each. His fourth set will start with the stack and be done as a triple drop set. Raymond also likes to incorporate “pause reps” to further ignite the intensity on any extension movement for triceps using a cable. “If I am doing 15 reps, I will do them in three groups of five,” he tells us. “The first five will be normal reps, then for the middle five I will hold the contraction on every rep for a full second, then finish with the final five reps at normal tempo again.”
7. Close-grip Bench Press
Why he does it: This is another arm-training staple Jose has been doing since before he hit puberty. “It’s a big-boy exercise,” he says, which is an understatement if you’ve ever seen him perform it. I’ve seen him do sets with 365 on many occasions, and he has done 405 for 10 reps on video, while on the road in Australia no less. “Like the barbell curl, it hits the belly of the muscle with as much weight as possible.”
How he executes it: Everyone’s hand spacing will be just a little different, but Jose allows his elbows to flare out and finds a grip that is neither too narrow as to strain his wrists nor so wide as to be more of a chest movement. “If you can touch your chest with the bar, either your grip is too wide or you have your elbows tucked in,” he notes.
Normally Jose does straight sets of these, but he also has an insanely intense version that’s the perfect finish for any chest and triceps session. It’s pretty long and drawn out, which is why we’ve never filmed it for a video. Simply put, he does 10 reps of a regular-width bench press, then immediately switches to a close grip for 10. He goes back to a regular grip for nine, then close grip again for nine, and so on until he can only get one rep with each. “When I was a teenager I could only use 135, but now I am able to use 225,” he says. If you are brave enough to try this, I strongly suggest both using a Smith machine for safety, and going lighter than you possibly think you should. Trust me— the pump and burn in your triceps, especially when done after several extension movements, is absolutely brutal.
8. Dual Dumbbell Extension on Incline Bench
Why he does it: This movement is relatively new in Jose’s arm-training arsenal. A few years ago, nagging elbow pain forced him to abandon skull-crushers, which had been a go-to triceps builder for many years. “I was experimenting with some different things using dumbbells, and I found this allowed me to reach back further and get a better stretch for my triceps, while putting much less stress on my elbows.” Raymond also likes the unilateral aspect of this movement. Having a dumbbell in each hand ensures that both triceps are working equally hard, rather than a dominant side taking over.
How he executes it: Jose lies back on an incline bench, cleaning the dumbbells to the top position of a press, but with his palms facing each other in a “hammer grip.” Lowering them behind his head for a stretch, Jose extends both arms while rotating the dumbbells slightly away from the midline of his body. This allows for a more complete contraction.
9. Dual Dumbbell Kickback, Facedown on Incline Bench
Why he does it: This triceps move is the flip side of number eight, literally. It also happened to be the result of Jose tinkering around in efforts to come up with new exercises he could use. It’s essentially just a dumbbell kickback for the triceps, but with two added benefits. It allows both arms to be worked at the same time, and the use of the bench as a stabilizing tool forces stricter form with less body rocking. “For me, it lets me hit the belly of the biceps much better than a standard kickback where you’re bent over or kneeling with one knee on a bench,” says Jose.
How he executes it: Jose lies facedown on an incline bench so that his upper chest is off the pad. With a dumbbell in each hand, he assumes the top position of a dumbbell row for the lats, and keeps his elbows high and locked in place. From there, he extends his arms back and pauses for a contraction on each rep. “The real key to getting the most out of this is to pause and flex the triceps at the top,” Jose explains. “You won’t need much weight. I suggest learning the movement with a pair of fives to get the feel I’m talking about.”
10. Overhead Rope Extension
Why he does it: Finally, Jose loves overhead rope extensions as a means of hitting the long head of the tri’s, the meaty part seen from behind. For many years, Jose did overhead extensions with a heavy dumbbell or barbell. But just as elbow pain made skull-crushers more trouble than they were worth, Jose had to say goodbye to those and switch over to a more comfortable alternative.
How he executes it: Jose rarely does overhead rope extensions as a stand-alone movement. More often, they’re part of a superset. The weight isn’t heavy, which is the only way one can spread the ropes apart as you extend.
Jose’s Training Split
Sunday:
Light back and chest
Monday:
Heavy quads, light hams and calves
Tuesday:
a.m. – Cardio, abs, posing
p.m. – Chest and triceps, 8-10 supersets lateral raises and rear delts
Wednesday:
Back and biceps
Thursday:
Shoulders and abs
Friday:
Heavy hams, light quads and calves
Saturday:
Arms
Arm Workout
Rope Pushdowns
4-6 x 15
Close-grip Bench Press
4 x 8-12
Seated Overhead Cable Extensions
4 x 12
Dip Machine or One-arm Overhead Dumbbell Extensions
4 x 12
Alternate Dumbbell Curls
4 x 15
One-arm Machine Preacher Curls
4 x 12
Barbell 21s
3 x 21
Hammer Dumbbell Curls
3-4 x 10
Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989, and maintains the popular website ronharrismuscle.com, most notable for its blog “The Daily Pump.” He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area. Facebook Instagram
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