Jesus Pimp

I'm a pretty skinny and lean guy. My arms are the skinniest part of my body and I would like they get them thicker and stronger. What types of excercises should I do?

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chrisg299

Well....do you lift regularly as of now or are you a newbie to lifting? I wouldn't start off lifting heavy, start small and grow. A great way to get started with your arms is just to lift free weights (dumbells) for a while and work up. If you can afford to sign up for a gym you'll have endless choices of machines to choose from to work on your arms.

JStrider

bench, curls(biceps), skull crushers(triceps), hand curls/lifts(forearms)

theres all kinds of upper body exercises out there... just try to be balanced with the exercise... do your biceps and your triceps.. getting opposing muscles extremely unbalanced is bad...

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Sho Nuff

If youre looking for mass dont neglect your triceps. They make youre arms appear much bigger than normal. Start with dips and work your way up to skull crushers and more direct tricep targeting workouts. PM me if you want specifics.

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Plan9Senior

First off, JStrider is completely right in telling you to focus on your triceps too. Increasing your tricep size will dramatically make your arms look bigger and better too. However, when you are doing your bicep routine, make sure to do three different types of exercises when doing your biceps and make sure to work them untill fatigue. Rotate the different exercises every few weeks to keep your muscles shocked, but ALWAYS do a few sets of standing barbell curls. Those are the absolute best exercise for your biceps because they target the entire muscle. Also, remember that your muscles grow when you are resting. Dont work your biceps more then twice a week. Eat plenty of protein as well. Hope that helps .

rogue49

BTW...remember this

Biceps have TWO muscle groups...make sure you get both
You can do this easily by switching grips (underhanded & overhanded)

Triceps have THREE...make sure you get all three
(dips for inner, overhead for middle, and normal (try the rope grip) for outer head)

If you're trying to gain mass, do less reps...more weight

Make sure you also get your Deltoid (front, mid & back)
and your forearms too (top & bottom)

This will give you a balanced arm routine, and good full arms.

Kaos

A friend of mine looks like his arms are huge, and it's because he really works out his Triceps.

Jesus Pimp

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm a total n00bie so I really have no clue what I'm doing. Where are these parts located? What's the proper way of lifting dumbells? How heavy of weights should I lift? Should I do pushups and sit ups?

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hobo

I'm a newbie and I too wouldn't mind increasing my upper body size. I look kinda skinny right now and I'd like to look more buff.

Rogue49 said to use more weight and less reps for gaining mass. How many reps should I be able to do with the dumbells for it to be considered heavy enough?

Mael

shoot for 6-8 reps to fatigue you per set. any more, and you're starting to get into general strength training. but try more for 6. the heavier the weight the better the results.

rogue49

I agree with Mael...for mass do about 6-8 reps...3 sets for each form.
Make sure you give more time between sets, to breathe & rest. (about 1-2 min.)
This is not about burning calories...but building...you need breathers.

I know you are going for more weight...but at the same time be sensible.
Make sure you can do the form correctly & smoothly.
(both push/pull & return)...this is MORE important than weight.

Try for full range of motion (all the way up, all the way down)
Do not lock your arms.

Do not jerk or go fast. Control is necessary at ALL times.

Make sure you are breathing out during the push/pull,
and breathing in during the return.

**These are the basics of weight-training.

Now, if you are getting used to doing it...you are advancing.
Try for a bit more weight...but do it safely
And maybe try to hesitate & hold for a split-second at the end of the push/pull (this is a bit more advanced)

Sho Nuff

If you really want to increase weight heres a good routine for beginners. Find out the max weight that you can bench at least 5 times and take 50 lbs off of that.

Bench 8 - 10 reps of max - 50
rest, add 10 lbs
Bench 8 - 10 reps
rest, add 10 lbs

Step this up to your max. Repeat this routine 3x a week until you can bench your max 5 times at the end, then add 5 - 10 lbs (preferrably 10) to your max. This is the routine I used when I first started lifting and saw good results in the first month.

(The biceps are the muscles you flex when someone says make a muscle. The Triceps are the ones on the back part of the arm. Pectorals are the major muscle in the chest. This bench routine will develop your biceps and pecs.)

For triceps do a similar routine laying on your back with a weight specifically for this purpose. DO NOT USE A BENCHPRESS WEIGHT. Lay on your back with your elbows pointed toward the ceiling. Hold the weight in that position and keeping your elbows at a 90 degree angle lift the weight from near your head to extending your arms almost all the way out. These are skull crushers. Start with low weight and be sure to have a spotter (someone to grab the weight if it gets to heavy) Start with a light weight if you dont have a spotter. If you find that you cant do these at all, start with dips.

Dips are when you place your arms behind your body at a 90 degree angle and lift your weight from behind. These target the triceps and will build strength and endurance to get you up to exercizes like the skull crushers. Any questions just PM me. Good luck.

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thingstodo

Everyone is right about triceps. I found reverse presses work well for me, much better than close grip on the wrists. Plus, you can build up to very heavy and not have a balance problem.

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Iliftrocks

Dang, don't shoot me, but my arms hit a real growth spurt after starting my squat routine. YMMV. My arms grew about an inch in girth within a year of dropping direct work and starting heavy squatting.

I do very little direct isolation movements with my arms, and they are pretty big. Not world class but I'm 5'8" and my arms are over 16.5" around at the ceps. I do probably as little as one set of 10 to 12 reps of machine curls a week, and as many as three sets.... Doing the curls hasn't added size, but my arm looks more sculpted, the only reason I do any direct bicep work. Doing tricep work after all my pressing just makes me more tired.

I'm not saying I don't work my arms though. I bench pretty heavy, do rowing exercises, pulldowns, and overhead presses. Not to mention shrugs and dumbell flyes.... I used to do a lot of arm work, but found that I didn't improve my arms at all, and they detracted from my bench and overhead work, could have been overstressing myself.

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Plan9Senior

That is very common. Working the largest muscles of the body has the largest effect on changing the metabolism and stimulating the body to burn fat and build muscle by stimulating testosterone during the workouts. If you currently weight train and do not work your legs (which sadly a significant amount fall into this category) then I HIGHLY encourage you to incorporate a leg day (making sure to do squats) to reap the beneficial effects of the huge hormone release that occurs during this session.

The only downfall with training legs is that it produces such a lactic acid buildup that a lot of people will feel nauscious after a killer squat session (I often get dizzy/sick to my stomach) afterwards.

hy_

I've been working out for about 6months now and I saw huge results. I work my biceps, triceps, wrist flexors and extendors, abs, pecs and my legs. But my question is, how do I balance my pecs with my back? I heard if I didn't work my back, my shoulders would go forward a bit. I wouldn't want that Thanks for hte help.

tedrlord

Reading the thread made me think of a question, too. I have sort of an odd thing with my triceps. The one below my shoulder muscle is huge, but the rest are hardly defined at all. I'm not a weightlifter or anything, so I haven't really done much to improve them. I don't know why the one muscle is big, but it's always been like that. What I'm wondering is what I can do specifically to work out these other muscles? Mainly at home, since I don't have the money for a gym membership.

Unicorn33

If you don't want to join a gym, just do massive numbers of pushups and tricep dips using a chair.

That'll do a lot if you ain't got nothing else.

Iliftrocks

Plan9 is correct, leg work, especially the squat can put you on the floor quick. I don't usually eat for about an hour or so before a workout, and not too soon after, or I get nausea pretty bad.

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tedrlord

Thanks. I've been doing pushups and I'll start on the dips.