How to Get Bigger Arms: The Complete Training Guide

Why your arms stopped growing

Here is the ugly truth that nobody on Instagram wants to tell you: your arms probably stopped growing because you are doing too much, not too little. I see it every single day in the gym. Guys doing 20+ sets of curls, chasing the pump, wondering why their arms look the same as they did six months ago.

There are really only three reasons arms stall out:

• •You are hammering biceps and ignoring triceps
• •Your volume is way too high and you are accumulating junk sets
• •You are curling with your ego instead of your biceps

Let me break down each one, then give you an actual program that fixes all three.

The tricep problem nobody talks about

Your triceps make up roughly two-thirds of your upper arm mass. Read that again. Two-thirds. If you are spending 45 minutes on curls and 10 minutes on pushdowns, you have your priorities backwards.

I coached a guy for two years who could not get past 15-inch arms. His bicep training was obsessive. Five different curl variations, three times a week. His tricep work? A few sets of pushdowns at the end of chest day when he was already smoked.

We flipped his priorities. Cut his bicep volume in half and tripled his direct tricep work. His arms went from 15 inches to 16.2 inches in about four months. The biceps did not shrink. They actually grew too, because he was finally recovering between sessions.

How to split your arm training

For most lifters, this ratio works well:

• •Triceps: 12-16 sets per week across 2-3 sessions
• •Biceps: 8-12 sets per week across 2-3 sessions
• •Brachialis/forearms: 4-6 sets per week

That might feel wrong if you have been living in the curl rack. Trust the anatomy. The long head, lateral head, and medial head of the triceps all need attention. That takes volume. The biceps have two heads and the brachialis. Less real estate to cover.

The best exercises (and why)

Triceps

Close-grip bench press is the best overall mass builder for triceps. You can load it heavy, it hits all three heads, and it has a natural progression built in. If your close-grip bench goes up 30 pounds, your triceps got bigger. Period.

Overhead cable extensions or overhead dumbbell extensions are non-negotiable for the long head. The long head of the triceps crosses the shoulder joint, which means it only gets fully stretched when your arm is overhead. A 2022 study by Maeo et al. confirmed what bodybuilders have known for decades: training a muscle in its lengthened position produces more growth. Get your arms overhead.

Cable pushdowns (rope or bar) are great for the lateral and medial heads. They are also easy to recover from, so you can push volume here without it wrecking your next session.

Dips are a wildcard. Heavy weighted dips will put meat on your triceps, but they beat up a lot of people's shoulders. If you can do them pain-free, they belong in your program. If they bother you, skip them. There are better hills to die on.

Biceps

Barbell curls are still king. Standing, strict, no swinging. Arnold called them the granddaddy of arm exercises and he was right. Use a straight bar if your wrists can handle it. The supination at the top hammers the short head.

Incline dumbbell curls put the long head in a stretched position (arms behind your body). This is one of the best exercises you can do for bicep peak development. Set the bench to 45-60 degrees and let your arms hang straight down at the bottom. Full stretch, controlled curl up, squeeze at the top.

Hammer curls hit the brachialis, which sits underneath the biceps and pushes them up when it grows. Thick brachialis development is what separates impressive arms from average ones. It also adds width to the forearm-to-bicep tie-in.

Preacher curls (barbell or dumbbell) lock your upper arm in place and eliminate momentum. Great for people who cheat on every set of standing curls. The short head takes most of the load here.

Sets, reps, and RPE

Here is what the research actually supports for arm hypertrophy:

A 2019 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld et al. found no significant difference in hypertrophy between rep ranges as long as sets were taken close to failure. So if you like sets of 8, do sets of 8. If you like sets of 15, do sets of 15. What matters is that the last 2-3 reps are genuinely hard.

Stop doing sets of 12 where you could have done 20. That is junk volume.

Common mistakes

Ego curling. If your whole body is rocking back and forth to get the weight up, you are training your lower back, not your biceps. Drop the weight. Nobody cares how much you curl except you.

Too much volume. Ostrowski et al. (1997) compared groups doing 3, 6, and 12 sets per muscle per week. The 6-set group and 12-set group grew similarly. The 12-set group was just more tired. More is not always better.

Neglecting the eccentric. The lowering phase of a curl matters as much as the lifting phase, maybe more. Take 2-3 seconds on the way down. If you are just letting the weight drop, you are throwing away half the stimulus.

Training arms when already fried. If you just did 20 sets of back work and then try to do 10 sets of curls, those curls are garbage. Your biceps are already pre-fatigued from rows and pulldowns. Either train arms on their own day or do them first in the session.

8-week arm specialization program

This program assumes you are already training your other body parts. Slot this arm work into your existing split. If you are running a PPL, add this arm work on pull day (biceps) and push day (triceps), with an optional third arm-focused session on its own day.

Weeks 1-4: Base phase

Day 1 (with push training)

• •Close-grip bench press: 4x6-8 @ RPE 8
• •Overhead cable extension: 3x10-12 @ RPE 8
• •Rope pushdown: 3x12-15 @ RPE 9

Day 2 (with pull training)

• •Barbell curl: 4x8-10 @ RPE 8
• •Incline dumbbell curl: 3x10-12 @ RPE 8
• •Hammer curl: 3x10-12 @ RPE 9

Day 3 (arm day, optional but recommended)

• •Weighted dips or close-grip bench: 3x8-10 @ RPE 8
• •Overhead dumbbell extension: 3x10-12 @ RPE 8
• •Preacher curl: 3x10-12 @ RPE 8
• •Cable curl: 2x12-15 @ RPE 9

Weekly totals: Triceps ~13-16 sets, Biceps ~12-15 sets

Weeks 5-8: Intensification phase

Same exercises, but make these changes:

• •Add 1 set to each exercise
• •Push RPE to 8-9 on compounds and 9-10 on isolations
• •Add a drop set to the last set of each isolation exercise
• •Aim to increase weight on all exercises by 5-10% compared to weeks 1-4

By week 8, you should be visibly larger if your nutrition is in order. Which brings us to the part nobody wants to hear.

Nutrition for arm growth

Your arms will not grow if you are not eating enough. Full stop.

You need a caloric surplus of roughly 200-500 calories per day above maintenance. This is not the time for a cut. If you want bigger arms, you need to feed them.

Protein: 0.7-1g per pound of bodyweight per day. Hit this consistently. A 2018 meta-analysis by Morton et al. confirmed that 1.6g/kg/day (about 0.73g/lb) is the threshold where more protein stops helping. Going above that probably will not hurt, but it will not help either.

Carbs: Eat them. Especially around your training. Carbs replenish muscle glycogen, which is what gives your muscles that full, round look and fuels your training. If your arms look flat and small, you might just be under-eating carbs.

Sleep: Seven to nine hours. Growth hormone peaks during deep sleep. Testosterone production depends on adequate sleep. If you are getting five hours a night and wondering why your arms will not grow, there is your answer.

The honest timeline

If you are a beginner (less than one year of serious training), you might add an inch to your arms in 6-12 months with good training and nutrition.

If you are intermediate (1-3 years), expect maybe half an inch per year.

If you are advanced (3+ years), a quarter inch per year is realistic and you should celebrate it.

Anyone telling you that you can add two inches to your arms in 30 days is selling something. Muscle growth is slow. The guys with 17-18 inch natural arms have been training for a decade. Accept the timeline, stay consistent, and the growth will come.

A word on supplements

Creatine monohydrate works. Take 5g per day, every day, and do not bother with loading phases. It will add about 5-10% to your strength output, which translates to slightly more volume over time, which translates to slightly more growth. Not magic, but real.

Everything else? Mostly noise. Pre-workout gives you energy and a pump, which is fine but does not directly grow muscle. BCAAs are useless if you are already eating adequate protein. Test boosters from GNC are a waste of money.

Save your supplement budget for creatine, a good protein powder if you struggle to hit your protein targets through food, and maybe some caffeine if you train early in the morning. That is all you need.