4 Uncommon Tips To BIGGER ARMS By Ben Pakulski

4 Uncommon Tips To BIGGER ARMS 

By Ben Pakulski 

 

1) LESS VOLUME! 

 

Small muscles require less volume, and recover faster. Basic logic says,  

a smaller muscle has less overall total volume of muscle fibres. It takes  

LESS overall stimulus to fatigue these muscles and less overall training 

volume to exhaust glycogen stores (stored muscle energy). 

 

2) HEAVY WEIGHTS (WITH PERFECT FORM) 

 

Heavy weights are going to fatigue a greater overall percentage of muscle 

fibres in a shorter amount of time (aka less sets). Heavy weights also have 

the added benefit of stimulating "high threshold motor units". These are 

the muscle fibres that require a lot more stimulus to grow and respond, 

but also the fibres that are more likely to be responsible for muscle 

hypertrophy or GROWTH! 

 

3) ARMS RECEIVE A LOT OF STIMULUS ON A REGULAR BASIS

 

Arms receive a lot of stimulus on a regular basis. For most people, this 

tends to occur in the middle of the range of motion where the muscles 

are strongest. In order to get the arms to grow and respond, it is necessary 

to subject them to  a different type of stimulus. 

 

One of the best ways to improve arm development is to subject them to
more tension and continuous tension at the extremes of the range of motion
(a.k.a, when a muscle is fully lengthened or fully shortened --where muscles
are weakest). 

 

This will allow for greater time under tension as well as targeting different
points of the strength curve to force the nervous system to adapt and
stimulate new muscle growth. 

 

4) YOU MUST ENGAGE THE TARGET MUSCLE FIRST IN ANY MOVEMENT

 

The FIRST muscle to engage in ANY movement must be the muscle you 

are trying to target. If you are working your biceps, to most effectively 

stimulate the bicep, it must be the muscle to initiate the movement. As 

mentioned, muscles are weakest at those extremes and that makes it LEAST 

likely to contract. This is where your conscious intent and control is vital! 

 

The best way to ensure this is happening is to CONTRACT its antagonist 

muscle. This will ensure a fully lengthened working muscle and make it much 

more likely that it will initiate the movement (provided you're using proper control).

 

E.g. when working your bicep, to fully stretch your bicep at the bottom of the 

range, it is necessary to contract your triceps before initiating the movement 

of contracting your bicep again.The opposite is true when training triceps. 

Contract your biceps at the top of the range when a tricep is fully stretched 

(forearm touches biceps).