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Your Arms Need These Exercises

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

With so many arm exercises out there, it's hard to know what arm workout to do. But you're probably doing too many bicep exercises and tricep exercises and focusing on the wrong areas. In fact, after cutting out all the fluff and focusing on just 2 science-backed arm exercises, I’ve gotten fuller and bigger arms. I also asked the top natural bodybuilders and muscle growth researchers (Alberto Nunez, Mike Israetel from RP Strength, Daniel Plotkin) the same question. If you could only pick 2 exercises 1 best exercise for bicep and 1 tricep exercise to maximize growth, what would they be And they all pointed to the same 2 weird exercises. Today, I’ll show you what these 2 best arm exercises are and teach you how to do them properly in your arms workout at the gym so your arms grow faster than ever. Click below to try the BWS app for free for 2 weeks, no strings attached: Click below to subscribe for more videos: Out of the many bicep arm exercises, I started in the gym with standard bicep curls. But here’s the problem. They challenge your biceps mostly in the middle position when your arm is flexed. This is a similar challenge your biceps already get from your back exercises. Plus, because the biceps cross all the way over the shoulder, exercises like dumbbell curls don't stretch your biceps as much as they could by exercises where your arm stays behind you. Which, at least based on research on other muscle groups, seems to be a powerful way to stimulate more growth. To discover the best exercise for your biceps, scientists from a brand new 2025 study ran an exercise comparison. They split participants into 2 groups. One group did only incline curls for 8 weeks, whereas the other group did preacher curls. Incline curls led to more growth in the upper part of the arm, but preacher curls led to more growth in the lower part of the arm! Meaning Theoretically, to maximize growth in all parts of your biceps, you’d want an exercise where the challenge is hardest at the bottom but without the arm held in front of the body, so the biceps are more stretched. Fitness experts share 3 options when it comes to the best exercise for biceps: reverse preacher curls, flat bench dumbbell curls, and behind-the-body cable bicep curls. But even with the best arm exercises for the bicep, your biceps only contribute about a third of your arm size. The other two-thirds The triceps. Unfortunately, most people use arm exercises like pushdowns, close-grip presses, or dips that don’t allow this muscle to reach its full potential. Those arm exercises primarily work just 2 parts of the triceps: the lateral head and the medial head. Which are what beef up the triceps from the front and side. But the third head, the long head, is the biggest part of the triceps and beefs them up from the back and hangs down when you flex your arms. So, what’s the better option To find out which tricep exercise would yield bigger arms, Scientists from a 2022 study had subjects perform overhead extensions with one arm and pushdowns with the other arm for 12 weeks. Now, because the long head crosses over the shoulder, whenever you do a triceps exercise with your arm overhead, this muscle gets stretched, which, as you know by now, seems to boost growth in certain muscles. But surprisingly, all 3 heads grew more with the overhead extensions, resulting in 1. 4x more overall triceps growth than the pushdowns. Now, we don’t yet know why the other 2 heads grew more, and we could definitely use another study to confirm these findings, but the researchers used MRI, which is the gold standard of measurement, so the study is strong. This is also why every single expert I spoke to chose the overhead extension as their #1 triceps exercise. Alberto prefers the overhead tricep extension with a rope. Daniel likes the overhead tricep extension with a cable, usually with his hand wrapped through the D handle and elbow propped up. Which variation should you choose What you’re looking for is a variation where you feel very little to no pain in your elbows or shoulders as you do it, yet feel a great pump in your triceps after you finish your set. Whichever you choose, here’s the key. For cables, bump up the cable to about hip height, and stand close to the cable so that the challenge is hardest closer to the bottom when the muscle is stretched. For the dumbbell version, keep your upper arm locked straight up and down; don’t allow it to bend as you tire. And on all the variations, don’t stop halfway. Get as deep a stretch in the triceps as possible by letting your hand come down behind your neck as far as it can. As for how to implement these arm exercises in your arms workout in the gym, while other arm exercises are still great and can help grow your arms, for the best results, you’ll wanna do these 2 specific movements for 3 sets of 10-15 reps at least 1-2 times per week.
Date: 2025-02-27

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Comments and reviews: 20

jeremy_ethier
You gotta try straight arm bicep exercises, you will thank me.
The straight-arm bicep exercise is an underrated way to target the biceps brachii in a lengthened position. It’s effective because it emphasizes the stretch of the biceps under load, which can contribute to muscle growth and strength development.
Benefits of Straight-Arm Bicep Exercises
1. Enhanced Muscle Stretch & Growth Lengthening the biceps under tension increases muscle activation and can lead to better hypertrophy (muscle growth.
2. Stronger Tendons & Joints Training the biceps in a stretched position can improve tendon resilience and elbow joint health.
3. Carries Over to Athletic Performance Strengthens the biceps in a functional range used in sports and activities like rock climbing, gymnastics, and wrestling.
4. Targets Long Head of Biceps Since the long head of the biceps crosses the shoulder joint, straight-arm movements emphasize it more, improving peak development.
Why It Works
The biceps have two primary functions: elbow flexion (bending the arm) and shoulder flexion (lifting the arm.
When the arm is straight and extended behind the body (as in cable straight-arm curls or incline curls, the biceps are placed under maximum stretch, creating mechanical tension, which is a key driver for muscle.
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ColinHarvey78
Big fan of the facing out bicep curl (Jeff Nippard calls them Bayesian curls) but the fatigue towards failure is pretty intense. Currently I find lying down bench dumbbell curls hurt my elbows (as do pull-ups) so have swapped them out.
Also I really like overhead tricep curls, which I find work best for me with a rope, or with a twin cable machine, crossed behind me with a cable in each hand. Really important to get maximum stretch at the bottom but it can lead to very sudden failure and the weight I can manage becomes very low, making drop sets difficult too. Perhaps one to not go to maximum extension towards the end of the set as the muscles tire, to maintain volume and increasing time under tension.
I then super set those two exercises on the twin cable machine. They only need quite minimal changes between - adjust weights and I remove the handles for the tricep curls.
I then do preacher curls later in the week and either more tricep OH extensions or push downs, getting that maximum stretch at the bottom again good call Dr Mike says about the lower part of the biceps getting a really good workout on the row though
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notdre217
I think bicep curl machines are also underrated for these reasons, assuming your gym doesn't just have the preacher curl version but the one where your arms are against pads in line with your body, next to you. Your arm doesn't go behind you, but it fully extends in-line with your body, and the max tensions point is pretty close to the arm being fully extended.
It probably isn't a general go-to because obviously there's the caveat that you have to have that equipment available. Benches and weights are universal and most people who are serious about working out will have access to cable machines. Just if you do have that machine, give it a shot. I feel like machines got a weird stigma around them when Starting Strength, barbell lifting, crossfit, etc really exploded because machines aren't functional, limit stabilizers, etc and get overlooked by a lot of lifters now.
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HP-gs3df
00: 04 Transform your arms with two science-backed exercises.
01: 35 Different bicep exercises target muscle growth differently.
03: 10 Effective arm exercises for optimal muscle growth.
04: 39 Flat bench dumbbell curls maximize bicep tension for better muscle engagement.
06: 04 Incorporate various bicep and tricep exercises for balanced arm development.
07: 32 Overhead tricep extensions significantly enhance muscle growth.
09: 02 Select tricep exercises that minimize elbow discomfort and maximize effectiveness.
10: 21 Incorporate deep tricep stretches into your workout routine effectively.
Crafted by Merlin AI.
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bogse
My favorite stading 55lbs umbells in both hands and do both hand behind the neck same time. I invented this myself. Ive tranied 35 years.
Buddy of my with same amount training backgorund said that he has never seen anyone but except one strongman who is doing that movement. I still dont know who is that strongman, any ideas And myarms have had significant visuable easy to notice gains when I started to train arms 2-3 times a week. Before I trained always just once because those days was a myth that arms are so small muscle group you can only train once a week them. There was no science studies about weight lifting back then.
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HenrikKKristensen
This video resonates with me.
Having worked out in the gym for more than 2 years, the minute I started using cable excesses for biceps and triceps, I could feel the day after soreness directly and only in the exact muscles I wanted to hit. and I could very quickly see growth in these muscles.
So from the ones presented in your video, the cable variants are for me. For biceps I use a seated variant though, I just feel I keep the rest of my body more stable that way and only use the biceps.
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heindattel3919
2: 31: I learned many years ago that the muscle grows always as a whole. Therefore there shouldnt be any kind of only left right upper or under grows of any muscle right And it was considered a myth that you can grow just one part of the same muscle. According to that understanding, is the claim 2: 31 more then just confusing. Maybe it was meant different or i just dont get it yet. Thanks for the effort and the good production though.
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Henbot
This is cool. I been experimenting now that I am no longer a young man with exercises at home with my dumbbell and found similar exercises. I agree the strongest ones for my triceps was the overhead stuff. With the bicep one I can’t do it exactly due to none of the equipment but do it standing up curls from behind and make sure the weight isn’t big but really impressed me how good my biceps and triceps particularly got after 4 months
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IronMoose95
Dr Mike's lying Bicep curls changed my life. More Bicep soreness than any other excersise. ZERO, yes ZERO systemic fatigue so I could do this after deadlifting God himself and get some quality reps in. And you only need light weight.
The problem being that the position makes my arms fall asleep during the set at higher rep ranges, but it's that much worth it that i continue to do it
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Theworldisbig1
Hmm for bicep I feel like you’re missing one that I personally used and very similar to the other 3 seated dumbbells bicep curl where you sit slightly toward the front which causes your bis behind your shoulder and every curl force your elbow toward the lat nice lengthy stretch behind the shoulder other are great but more options since most require bench or preacher curl pad
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mohdghoneem12
Hi! Did we try triceps using two robe cables, that will give the triceps a full range of motion hitting all the heads. We only need to lean 30 degrees to the front fix our elbow to our side, only a slight lift when the weight goes up giving it the stretch, squeezing at the bottom with a neutral grip making sure that the folded fingers are facing the floor.
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BeyondSkys09
Love this Jeremy. You always promote the latest science-backed research into body building with very clear explanations of the science. Saves us time reading through the research papers too. And really grateful for you bringing some of the best gym athletes into your videos too. Keep up the great work man in making body building more accessible!
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Junaid-xd9sz
I need to incorporate arm isolation training.
Currently I only do hammer curls and tricep cable extensions.
Main focus is weighted dips, weighted pull ups and Zercher squats.
Have a 50kg pull up goal almost there so I prioritise that over isolations.
One annoying thing is at my gym the dam cable machines are always in use.
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hofferjh
9: 45 For me the overhead Even the free weights and the police doing the rope or either way hurts my shoulder pretty bad what I found out for me is using dumbbells doesn't pull my shoulder out of out Place And I broke my wrist from a car accident so all the other stuff hurts the wrist So the dumbbell does not hurt the risk either
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raxzy2416
It's easy to fall into the trap of obsessing over finding the most optimal exercise. Just choose one, stick with it, and progressively overload over time. You'll get 90% of the gains you would get by doing the most optimal one, and much better gains than if you constantly change exercises because there's a more optimal new one.
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coachjasonlacy
Hey, after watching this, I was wondering what you thought about using a blaster curl on an incline bench! That seems to duplicate the same motion, even for people that are just at home with dumbbells a ton of support and you can obviously adjust height for range of motion. Curious what your thoughts are!
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sadxparty
from the personal experience:
flat bench db curl may be good if you are around 1. 5m in height (5 feet. even in your video you touches the floor. imagine doing it if you closer to 2m (6. 6 feet. also with the arms (lever in this context) so long imagine the force you are applying to your shoulder joints.
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tabmax22
you can do something similar to the flat bench bicep curl by just standing up a few steps ahead of a wall and leaning your upper back against the wall to create an angle. So your upper back and back of arms are flat against the wall, while your torso and legs are at an angle.
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jeremy_ethier
I have correct form with my biceps excercises and yet most of the time i give up becauae of wrist/forearm failure. I barely feel anything in my biceps.
People advice to not have a toght grip but not entirely sure how to hold the weight without a tight grip
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jeremy_ethier
A book that changed my life in ways that I never could imagine is Secret Testosterone Nexus of Evolution. Drop whatever you're doing right now and go find that book. Trust me after applying its principles, my testosterone levels skyrocketed like never before.
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