This page has three beginner arm workouts. These workouts are good for solely isolating, building, strengthening and shaping the muscles in your arms.
If you’re a beginner to weight resistance training your main focus should be on compound exercises such as the bench press and lat row exercises. Compound exercises will give you the biggest gains in strength and muscle mass.
Such compound exercises will also work your arms, however if you’re a more advanced lifter or you’re struggling to build size on your arms you may want to try some arm isolation workouts like the ones below.
If you want good arms training your biceps and triceps equally is very important. It’s a common belief that the bicep is the largest and strongest muscle in the upper arm however this is not true, the tricep is in fact the largest and strongest muscle in the arm. The tricep makes up about two thirds of your entire upper arm size and it shouldn’t be over looked.
Brachialis
This is the muscle on the outside of your arm in between the bicep and tricep, it’s a large muscle in your arm yet it’s normally over looked. If you want good arms training your brachialis is important, it is worked during normal bicep curls. However it can be focused on more by changing the technique of the bicep curl, for example narrow grip barbell curls or hammer curls focus more on the brachialis.
The below workouts focus on all the areas of your arms for full and balanced arm development.
Beginner Arm Workouts
| Dumbbell Arm Workout | ||
|---|---|---|
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Alternating bicep curls | 3 | 10 each arm |
| Single arm over head tricep extensions | 3 | 10 |
| Concentration curls | 3 | 8 - 10 |
| Bent over tricep extensions | 3 | 8 - 10 |
| Gym Arm Workout | ||
|---|---|---|
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Standing reverse curls | 3 | 8 - 10 |
| Lying tricep extensions | 3 | 8 - 10 |
| Bicep curls with preacher bench | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Standing cable tricep extensions | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Wrist curls | 3 | 10 |
With the below super set workout, perform the first two exercises together, perform one set of each exercise without resting between exercises, complete all the sets and then rest and then perform the second two exercises together.
| Super Set Arm Workout | ||
|---|---|---|
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Standing barbell bicep curls Cable tricep extensions | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Barbell curls on a preacher bench Both arm tricep kickbacks | 4 | 8 - 10 |
See the following pages for performing various types of bicep curls and tricep extensions.
