Many novice bodybuilders pay special attention to building big, ripped arms. The arms are definitely considered a “vanity” muscle.
To increase the size of them, you should be ready to follow a plan and execute it flawlessly. However, if you want bigger, ripped arms, you’ll be surprised that your plan might not have a great emphasis on direct arm exercises.
There are two parts to the arm – The Biceps and Triceps. We can split these further into 5 muscle heads (3 heads for the triceps and 2 heads for the biceps) but don’t worry about the different heads for now.
All you need to know at the moment is that your biceps are at the front of your upper arm and should make up about 30% of your arm size. Triceps are at the back of your upper arm and should make a larger 70% of your arm.
How many novice lifters do you see focusing on just biceps when they hit the gym? You’re only working on 30% of your arm! Big mistake!
So, you should start by understand what you will need to acquire larger arms. First and foremost, you must learn to eat well and keep a good diet. Eating the correct foods is essential to gaining ripped arms. In fact, nutrition is imperative to gaining muscle in any area.
Nutrition is all important when looking for ripped arms. When eating, use high quality protein food to feed your arms and boost your muscle growth. Eating enough protein in your diet is essential to building your ripped arms.
Some examples of foods that have decent amounts of protein in them are: cottage cheese, eggs, whey protein, fish, steak and chicken. Remember to vary them during the day for an intake of a wide spectrum of amino acids (the building blocks of muscle).
Of course, these foods are not the only ones that are high in protein – You have many options. It’s important that you learn to read food labels.
Also, you must learn how to lift correctly. You wouldn’t randomly swing a baseball bat with any old form while practicing baseball. Yet so many people do that while lifting. Learn to correctly lift and adjust weights accordingly. The best case scenario if you use incorrect technique is that you don’t the results you want – Worst case, you do yourself an injury and can’t lift weights.
Exercise selection is the most important thing here – DO NOT focus on arm exercises all day long! This is mistake number 1 made by most beginners. To build big, ripped arms you must concentrate on big compound exercises for your larger muscle groups such as the chest, shoulders and back!
But why, when all I want is bigger, ripped arms?
Well when you are doing heavy pushing exercises for your chest and shoulders (I.e. bench presses, shoulder presses) your triceps are being put under massive stress. Similarly, when you are doing heavy pulling exercises, (such as bent over rows) your biceps are being used too.
Once you are happy with the exercise selection, begin to increase the amount of weight you are lifting when it begins to feel easy. Muscles will only begin to grow if you give them a reason to. If it feels easy for you, then what do you think your body is thinking? “Hey this is easy, we don’t need to get bigger and ripped to keep up with this demand”. Progression in your workouts will lead to consistent gains and ultimately, ripped arms.
The majority of your arm gains will come from these exercises and not the little, light weights you can lift with just your arms! Keep this golden rule in mind.
Resting – you must also learn to rest. Yes, you probably really want ripped arms as quickly as possible. That’s just human nature..That’s fine, but remember to rest. Resting gives your muscles time to recover and begin rebuilding after you tore them to shreds in the gym. So remember to rest a muscle group for at least 24-72 hours after harsh lifting.
Implementing these important tips will give you a huge advantage in your quest for ripped arms but on a final note, you must remember that to truly see the definition in your arms – you MUST have a low enough body fat percentage otherwise your arms may be large but not ripped.
The most common way bodybuilders achieve this is by following a “bulking” phase of training to add size to their muscles, which is then followed by a fat loss phase to give give them that “ripped” appearance.