I have been going to the gym for a year. I have made significant progress and am very proud of that. However, my arms are not progressing like I want them to. Currently I am doing 3 exercises per workout for biceps and triceps and using weights of 25, 30 and 35 pounds for dumbbells and 40, 45, 50 pounds for barbells when doing preacher curls. I change my exercise routine every time I go to the gym and can see some changes but I’m not getting the results I really want. Am I being too impatient or do I need to change something in my workout? I don’t feel I have the arm strength I should have after a year of going to the gym and the size of my arms are not really growing that much. How can I pack on size to my biceps and triceps?
Getting big muscular arms comes down to choosing the best mass building exercises in order to really stimulate the muscles to grow and then eating enough calories in order repair and rebuild those muscles to grow larger and stronger. You need the mix of both super high intensity workouts coupled with a solid nutritional plan in order to really see growth. Use barbells whenever possible to add the maximum amount of weight which will help build the most muscle mass. Sample mass building exercises include barbell curls for the biceps and close grip bench press for the triceps.
For your diet, it’s paramount that you eat enough calories each day to saturate the muscle and recover from intense workouts. Your protein intake is extremely important, so try to make sure to eat at least 1 gram per pound of body weight. So, if you weigh 175 pounds you will need to eat 175 grams of protein per day. Divide this total number into 5-6 meals throughout the day to keep a steady supply of protein to your muscles. For your overall calories, a good formula to use is to take your body weight and multiply it by 18-20 to give you a daily calorie goal for building muscle. For the example weight of 175 pounds, this would come out to 3,150 to 3,500 calories each day. Once again, divide this number up into 5-6 meals and it will come out to about 600-800 calories per meal.
For your workouts, focus more on your repetition range and the level of intensity. Make sure to always go to positive failure on all of your sets after you’re warmed up. You should barely be able to lift the weight on the last rep. If you can easily complete that last rep, it’s simply too light of a weight and you need to pump it up a little. This will truly force your muscles to grow. Have a training partner spot you for the last few reps to make sure you’re really pushing yourself. Your rep range should be 6-8 for overall mass building.
