Every Guy wants bigger arms and every Girl wants ”toned” arms. but what’s the difference?

Whether you want hoooge or “toned” arms you actually have to train them the same way. To develop your arms you have to use heavy weights or resistance. The whole “tone” and “sculpt” thing is rubbish, your arms either get bigger or smaller just like every other muscle in your body. The bigger the muscle the more likely your going to see it. The lower your body fat the more defined and leaner you will look.

Now we Know that we need to increase muscle on your arms to look hoooge or toned we need to establish what is the best way to achieve this both long-term and short-term.

For short-term results a lot of people would suggest high amounts of volume training that particular muscle. This will work to a certain degree short-term and with beginner trainee’s, but unless you’re using heavy weights and your very strong you won’t progress and you won’t improve your arms. Performing arm exercises alone is actually not the best way to train your arms however arm isolation exercises will obviously have their place if your goal is to improve your arms. This brings me to my next point.

The best way to improve your arms is to get strong first then introduce some added isolation arm work. basic pulls such as chin ups, bent over rows, Pully rows, db 1 arm rows will all be a great exercises for building your biceps not to mention releasing growth hormone and strength increases.

Exercise such as Dips, bench press, press ups, Floor presses and shoulder presses would all be great for training your triceps whilst again releasing more growth hormones and improving strength.
The stronger you get at these exercises the more weight you will be able to lift when performing your isolation exercises resulting in bigger arms or “toned” arms for the ladies.

When should I do my arm exercises ?

My personal preference would be at the end of your workout when you have completed your main strength or push and pull exercises. Another tip to save time is to superset your arm workouts. Perform a bicep exercise such as a Db curl with a tricep exercise such as a tricep pull down. You could also superset arm exercises with lower body exercises such as squats and deadlifts. This means you could be potentially training your arms 3-5 times a week give them more chances to grow and get bigger instead of a once a week dedicated arm day like most bodybuilding programs prescribe. don’t worry too much about recovery either you arm muscles are so small they normally recover in a couple of days.

So next time you go and workout don’t go straight in to a set of curls or kickbacks instead do you main stuff first and then perform your Gunshow at the end.

Jay Farrant personal trainer Dublin.

The Abs gym personal training studio Dublin