Growing Bigger Arms Is A Challenge Part 2

Posted May 30, 2016 by Pete Mascioli in TGB BLOG, Workouts 1 0

Growing Bigger Arms Is A Challenge Part 2

Growing Bigger Arms Is A Challenge Part 2 Previously, we touched base on what is arguably the most often trained (aside from chest) muscle; the bicep. Today, it’s time to touch upon it’s “big brother” the triceps brachii. The triceps accounts for 2/3 of the muscle mass of your humerus with the biceps accounting for the remaining 1/3. The triceps has three heads; the long head, the lateral head, and the medial head. A few common mistakes in the gym are not ensuring that all three heads are utilized and forced to work and that enough weight is used to fully stimulate the triceps.

If you look at a powerlifter’s arms you will notice one thing immediately, they tend to have massive triceps. Given this fact, it’s rather obvious that heavy weighted movements create a lot of growth in the triceps. When we bench press or shoulder press, our triceps are highly activated. The triceps are familiar with and respond well to heavy loads and thus is necessary for maximal growth potential. A great example of this would be the close grip bench press. This multi-joint movement is great for hitting the entire tricep muscle belly considering you can place a high amount of weight on the bar to really ignite the muscle fibers. A few other heavier movements include; dips (with weight), lying skull crushers (straight or EZ Curl bar), and weighted push-ups.

Although heavy movements are the most effective at gaining mass, you should still do higher volume (feeder) exercises. These lighter weight and single joint (only involving movement at the elbow) exercises will allow for increased blood flow into and out of the muscle. This allows for the nutrients that are necessary for growth to flood into the muscle while the toxins and lactic acid flush out of the cells. A few prime examples are; push downs (utilize various angled bars to hit all 3 tricep heads), overhead dumbbell extensions, dumbbell kickbacks, reverse push downs, and dumbbell skullcrushers.

So remember, tear down the muscle fibers with the heavy weight movements. Then, flood the damaged muscle tissue with the higher volume exercises to allow the nutrient rich blood to engage the recovery process and allow for optimal tissue growth. This is definitely not he only way to train triceps. However if you are looking for something new or different, give this a try!

In case you did not get a chance to read part 1: Biceps Part 1

-Pete