When you mention about your fitness love, all eyes turn towards your arms. Big and sculpted arms loudly declare that you are a fitness freak and like to do weight training. If you are lean then you can’t have big arms until you gain muscle mass but if you are fat then you must reduce your body weight to get yourself in shape.
Here are some tips to gain biceps and triceps:
Take proper diet
Eating must be your first priority to gain weight and if you are obese then also eating a healthy diet is a must for you to control your weight. The normal requirement for a guy is 3000 calories per day but thin guys have a high metabolism, therefore, they need more calories. Plan your diet and divide your meals into 4-5 small meals into regular intervals in a day.
Take proper rest
The workout rule is simple, work on different muscle groups every day. For example, if you are working on your triceps today then you should work on your chest tomorrow. To grow muscles, you must give them enough rest so that they can repair the damaged tissues
Exercises for biceps
Although, biceps are not the strongest muscles of the body they are important for physical activities like pulling, lifting and balancing weights. The following exercises mainly target biceps:
Standing barbell curls
- Stand straight and put your hands on barbell at shoulder width apart
- Lift it up to your chest and don’t lower it quickly
- Resist the weight as you lower down
- Do 3 sets of 15 reps and take 30 seconds break
Standing dumbbell curls
It is same as barbell curl but the difference is that you have a dumbbell in each hand which allows you to do more reps easily than the barbell curl. You can also do dumbbell curls alternately.
- Stand straight with dumbbell in each hand
- Keep your elbows close to your body and rotate your palms to face forward
- Keep your upper arms stationary and curl the weight
- Lift the dumbbells until your biceps are fully stretched and reach to shoulder level
- Slowly lower down the dumbbells to get into the original positions
- Do 3 sets of 15 reps and take 30 seconds break
Hammer curls
- Stand up straight and a dumbbell on each hand
- Keep your elbows close to the body and palms should face your torso.
- Keep upper arms stationary and contract your biceps to curl the weights
- Raise the weights until biceps are fully stretched and hold them for a second
- Slowly, lower down the dumbbells back down to the starting position.
- Do 3 sets of 15 reps and take 30 seconds break
Exercises for triceps
These muscles are more important for muscle mass and overall strength of the arms. The following exercises can help you in strengthening them
Triceps extensions
- Stand straight and hold the dumbbell with both hands
- Put your feet shoulder width apart
- Slowly lift the dumbbells over your head until your arms are fully extended. This will be your starting position.
- You should feel the resistance in your palms and they should face upward towards the ceiling
- Keep your upper arms close to your head
- Lower the resistance in a semicircular motion behind the head
- Upper arms should remain stationary and forearms should move only
- Raise the dumbbell to go to the starting position
- Do 3 sets of 15 reps and take 30 seconds break
Push-ups
- Take a high plank position by placing your hands firmly on the ground directly under your shoulders
- Fix your toes into the floor to balance your lower body
- Flatten your back to straighten your whole body
- Slowly lower down your body while keeping your back straight
Suck in your core and pull your body up to get into the starting position