Three Steps To Huge Biceps & Triceps

Face it – when you first started bodybuilding, you imagined yourself with massive, mountainous biceps. You pictured perfect bulging horseshoe triceps. Even if it was somewhere in the back of your mind, that was what you wanted most out of your weight training.

That being said, you probably weren’t exactly sure how to achieve these massive arms. Most people go about it completely the wrong way – they go to the gym every day and spend countless hours doing bicep curls and tricep kickbacks. Then, they head home wondering why their arms are growing at a snail’s pace.

Here are three simple steps that will increase your bicep and tricep growth by leaps and bounds. Follow them religiously, and I guarantee you’ll have those massive biceps and triceps in no time…

1) Recognize your arms for what they are.

Your biceps and triceps may look like big, impressive muscles – but they’re really not. Relatively speaking, they’re fairly small muscles. Your back, chest, and thighs are much larger muscle groups that deserve far more attention.

Believe it or not, building a routine that focuses on your back, chest and thighs will help you make big gains on your biceps and triceps. Some of the very best exercises – deadlifts, pull-ups, bench press, and even squats – can help increase the size of your arms. These exercises are large compound movements that involve all the muscles in your body. In addition, they’re so difficult that they cause your body to release more testosterone and growth hormone, which results in muscle growth all over the body (yes, even in your arms).

It’s also important to realize that the triceps are a much larger muscle than the biceps. Roughly speaking, the triceps make up 2/3rds your upper arm muscle mass, and the biceps only 1/3. You may want to focus your time accordingly, doing more sets for triceps than for biceps.

2) Pump up the intensity, dude!

If you’re not lifting to muscular failure on every lift, you’re not working hard enough. Muscular failure means that you are physically unable to lift the weight again by the end of your set. Aim to complete 5 to 8 repetitions before you reach muscular failure. When you’re able to lift more than 8 reps without failing, add more weight.

Also remember that less is more. If you’re able to complete 10 sets of 8 repetitions for your biceps, you’re simply not working hard enough. Each week you shouldn’t be doing more than 5 sets for biceps and 6 or 7 sets for triceps, at the very most!

3) Eat big to grow big!

The worst thing you can possibly do if you’re trying to build big arms is to neglect nutrition. Someone once told me that “one pound of bodyweight equals one inch on your biceps”. This is not very realistic, but it’s a good thing to remember – you need to pack on general muscle mass and bodyweight in order to build your arm muscles.

In order to gain muscle, you need to consume more calories than you burn. The more calories you take in, the faster you’ll grow. Eat at least 5-6 meals per day, every couple of hours. Make sure to eat lots of protein (1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight each day is a minimum). Eggs, chicken, tuna, beef, cheese, milk, and whey powder are all good sources of high quality protein.

A healthy lifestyle is important to overall weight training, and therefore for building big arms as well. Try to think of building those big biceps and triceps as part of a whole bodybuilding lifestyle. This lifestyle should include drinking lots of water, eating lots, and getting plenty of sleep. Try to stay away from alcohol or drugs as they can hurt your muscle gains.

If you want specific bodybuilding routines and tips on bicep and tricep training (and much more), visit www.MuscleGainGuide.com. The Muscle Gain Guide is the internet’s #1 source for muscle building information.