Tag: Arms
Hardcore Calisthenics Arm Workout To Build Muscle Mass and Strength
Arm training and weights go together like peanut butter and jelly. To build bigger biceps, you’ve got to do the curls. Conversely, you must do cable pushdowns and barbell skullcrushers to craft horseshoe triceps. Or do you? With a little ingenuity, you can get an awesome arm workout with nothing but your body weight. If […]
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The Best Barbell Shoulder Workout for Bigger, Stronger Delts
Go to any gym, and you’ll find numerous machines you can use to target your upper and lower body muscles. Name any body part, and there will be at least a few machines that you can use to develop it.
However, as useful as machines can be, they do have drawbacks. For example, despite being adjustable, most machines are made for average-sized lifters. If you are very tall or short, you may not fit the machine correctly and be unable to use it safely.
In addition, machines tend to lock you into a fixed movement pattern. This means you won’t have to use your stabilizing muscles much during your workout, which is why machines are often viewed as non-functional.
Finally, machines are big and expensive, putting them beyond the reach of most home exercisers.
Freeweight, and, more specifically, barbell training, can help you navigate around these drawbacks. Barbells might be low-tech, but they are most assuredly high-effect!
In this article, we share a basic but big barbell workout for stronger, more muscular shoulders.
Deltoid Anatomy Basics
The deltoids are your most prominent shoulder muscles. They’re made up of three groups of fibers, usually referred to as heads. The three deltoid heads commonly work together, but it’s also possible to emphasize each one by performing specific shoulder joint movements.
The three deltoid heads and their functions are:
Anterior head – located at the front of your shoulder, the anterior deltoid head is arguably the hardest working of the three. That’s because it’s involved in all chest and overhead pressing exercises. Its functions are flexion, horizontal flexion, and medial rotation of the shoulder joint.
Medial head – also known as lateral deltoid, this head is located on the side of your shoulders. The medial head gives your upper body its width and contributes to your V-taper. The function of the medial deltoid is the abduction of your arm, which means lifting out and away from the midline of your body.
Posterior head – located on the back of your shoulder, the posterior deltoid is also known as the rear deltoid. It works in opposition to the anterior head and is responsible for horizontal extension, extension, and exterior rotation of the shoulder joint. The posterior is usually the weakest and least developed of the three deltoid heads.
Building big, strong, aesthetically pleasing deltoids involves training all three heads relatively equally. If one head is allowed to get too big, it could unbalance the look of your upper body and even lead to imbalances and joint dysfunction. Use a variety of exercises to make sure you work all three deltoid heads.
Barbell Deltoid Exercises – Benefits
Not sure if barbells are the right choice for building those boulder shoulders you’ve always dreamed of? Well, worry not! Take a look at the following benefits and then decide:
Great for building size and strength – do you want to look strong and be strong, too? Barbell shoulder exercises are the way to go. Lifting heavy weights will add slabs of meat to your deltoids while improving functional strength.
Widely available – no matter where you train, you should have access to barbells and weights. Every decent gym has them, and they’re available for home exercisers, too. As such, wherever you work out, you should be able to perform this barbell shoulder workout.
Adaptable and versatile – you can modify most barbell deltoid exercises according to your needs and goals. Adjust your hand position, range of motion, and the angle of your arms to hit your muscles the way you want to, and make your chosen exercises as safe and efficient as possible.
Workout satisfaction – barbell training is challenging and fun. Few things are as satisfying as hoisting a heavy barbell over your head. Training with just a barbell might be somewhat old-school, but that has a certain appeal for some exercisers.
Barbell Deltoid Exercises – Drawbacks
While barbells are an excellent deltoid training tool, there are a couple of drawbacks to consider, too:
Safety – while barbell training can be safe, there is an increased risk of accident and injury if you train alone or without a power rack. Many barbell shoulder exercises involve lifting or holding a weight above your head.
A failed rep could see that weight crashing down on your head or neck. As such, you should stop your set with 1-2 reps left in the tank or, if you plan on training to failure, make sure you have a spotter on hand.
Heavy starting weight – most Olympic bars weigh 45 pounds or 20kg. This is not insignificant! Even an empty barbell may be too heavy for some lifters, particularly for beginners or when doing isolation exercises like front raises.
Not suitable for drop sets – a drop set is where you rep out to failure, reduce (or drop) the weight by 10-15%, and then rep out again. This training system allows you to expose your muscles to a higher-than-usual level of fatigue.
However, stripping weight plates off a barbell is time-consuming, making most barbell exercises impractical for drop sets. In contrast, drop sets work best with machine and dumbbell exercises.
It’s hard to hit the medial deltoid – while your medial deltoid is involved in all barbell shoulder exercises, it’s all but impossible to isolate this important muscle. So, if you want to prioritize medial deltoid size, you’ll need to supplement your barbell workout with some form of lateral raise, e.g., cable, dumbbell, or resistance band.
Barbell Deltoid Workout – Overview
Now your deltoid anatomy and physiology knowledge is up to scratch, it’s time to hit the gym and train!
Do the following deltoid workout 1-2 times per week as part of a weekly training split, where you train your remaining body parts on different days.
For example:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Chest & Triceps
Legs
Rest
Back & Biceps
Rest
Shoulders
Rest
But before you jump into lifting any weights, it’s crucial to warm up and prepare your body for the challenges that await.
Begin with a few minutes of easy cardio, and then move on to dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises that target your muscles and joints, focusing on your shoulders, elbows, and lower back. These steps will set you up for a safer and more effective workout session.
Related: How to Warm Up for Strength Training
Warmed-up and ready? Then let’s get to work!
Exercise
Sets
Reps
Recovery
1
Barbell push press
4
6-8
3 minutes
2
Barbell upright row
3
8-10
2 minutes
3
Barbell Bradford press
3
10-12
90 seconds
4
Barbell front raise
3
10-12
90 seconds
5
Barbell shrug
3
12-15
60 seconds
Exercise Instructions
There are two ways to do any barbell shoulder exercise – the right way and the wrong way. The right way is safe and effective, while the wrong way is dangerous and usually less productive, even if it allows you to lift heavier weights.
So, follow these instructions to ensure you’re doing the exercises in your barbell shoulder workout correctly!
1. Barbell push press
Muscles targeted: Deltoids, triceps, core, legs.
It’s often said that cheats never prosper, but a little strategic cheating could help you unlock a whole new level of shoulder strength and size. The barbell push-press is a dynamic exercise where you use your legs to help you lift the weight. This means you can use heavier than normal loads, exposing your muscles to more tension. So, in this instance, cheating may actually do you good!
Steps:
Begin by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and the barbell resting on your front shoulders, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and elbows pointed forward. Brace your core and stand in good posture with your head up and chest lifted.
Bend your legs and descend into a quarter squat.
Explosively extend your legs and use this momentum to help you push the barbell overhead to arm’s length.
Slowly lower the barbell back to your shoulders and repeat.
Benefits:
Builds explosive strength and functional muscle mass.
Exposes your muscles to more weight and tension than usual.
An excellent exercise for athletes from all sports.
Tips:
Keep your core engaged and maintain a neutral spine throughout the exercise.
Lower the weight under control to increase time under tension for better muscle growth.
Use 10-20% more weight than you can use for strict overhead presses.
2. Barbell upright row
Muscles targeted: Deltoids, trapezius, biceps, forearms.
The barbell upright row is a somewhat controversial exercise because some people find it hard on their shoulders. However, providing it doesn’t bother your joints, this movement is a great way to add width to your deltoids and beef up your upper traps at the same time. Also, as it’s a pulling exercise, it provides your already fatigued triceps with a useful break before your next challenge.
Steps:
Hold a barbell in front of your legs using a shoulder-width overhand grip. Stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent for balance, core braced, and shoulders pulled down and back.
Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar up the front of your body to around mid to upper-chest height.
Extend your arms, lower the bar, and repeat.
Benefits:
One of the few pulling exercises for the deltoids.
Hits all three deltoids, especially the medial head.
An effective exercise for building a bigger “yoke.”
Tips:
Experiment with your grip width to find what’s comfortable and works best for you.
The higher up your chest you pull the bar, the more punishing this exercise will be for your joints.
Shrug your shoulders up at the midpoint of each rep to maximize upper traps engagement.
3. Barbell Bradford press
Muscles targeted: Deltoids, triceps.
The barbell Bradford press is named after a professional weightlifter and a renowned strength coach, Jim Bradford. It’s a unique exercise that hits all three deltoid heads reasonably equally. It also keeps the target muscles under constant tension, which may be beneficial for triggering a pump and maximizing muscle growth.
Steps:
Begin by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and the barbell resting on your front shoulders, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and elbows pointed forward. Brace your core and stand in good posture with your head up and chest lifted.
Without using your legs for help, press the bar up so it’s level with the top of your head.
Push the bar backward and lower it behind your neck.
Next, push the bar back up and over your head, lowering it to the front of your neck.
That’s one rep – keep going!
Benefits:
A novel exercise that can help you break through your current deltoid training plateau.
Hits your deltoids from several angles at once.
An excellent exercise for getting a deep pump and burn in your deltoids.
4. Barbell front raise
Muscles targeted: Deltoids, trapezius.
Barbells make it very hard to isolate any part of your deltoids. Invariably, whether you are pushing or pulling, all three deltoid heads, plus your biceps and triceps, end up working together. Barbell front raises are one of only a small number of deltoid isolation exercises.
Steps:
Hold a barbell in front of your legs using a shoulder-width overhand grip. Stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent for balance, core braced, and shoulders pulled down and back.
Keeping your arms straight, lift the bar forward and up to about shoulder-height.
Lower the bar back down to your legs and repeat.
Benefits:
One of only a few deltoid isolation exercises you can do with a barbell.
A very shoulder and lower back-friendly exercise.
An effective way to emphasize and prioritize your anterior deltoid.
Tips:
Avoid using momentum to lift the barbell.
Brace your core throughout to stabilize your lower back during the exercise.
Take care not to lean forward and back, as doing so will take the stress off your deltoids.
5. Wide grip bent-over row
Muscles targeted: Deltoids, trapezius, rhomboids, biceps.
Bent-over rows are usually seen as a back exercise. However, when you widen your grip and pull the bar into your chest, they turn into an excellent posterior deltoid exercise. Your rear delt is notoriously hard to train and often neglected as a result. This movement ensures your rear deltoid receives the love and attention it deserves.
Steps:
Hold your barbell with an overhand wider than shoulder-width grip. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, shoulders back and down, and core braced.
Hinge forward from your hips until your upper body is roughly parallel to the floor. Let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders.
Leading with your elbows, row the bar up and into your chest.
Extend your arms and repeat.
Benefits:
An excellent rear deltoid.
A great move for building stronger mid-traps and rhomboids.
Good for improving posture.
Tips:
Do not round your lower back, as doing so could lead to injury.
Lead with your elbows to maximize rear deltoid and upper back engagement.
Keep your wrists straight throughout.
FAQs
Do you have a question about our barbell shoulder workout or building bigger delts in general? Don’t worry because we’ve got the answers!
1. Is the barbell shoulder workout suitable for beginners?
Dedicating an entire training session to what is essentially a small muscle group will be too much for most beginners and could soon lead to injuries and overtraining. Most beginners would do better following a less advanced workout, such as an upper/lower body split of a full-body training routine. Return to this workout in a year or so when you’ll be better prepared.
2. How many times per week should I perform this barbell shoulder workout?
Most exercisers will get good results by doing this program 1-2 times per week. However, you should avoid doing it the day before or the day after chest day, as both workouts involve many of the same muscles. Training chest and shoulders on consecutive days could hurt your recovery and progress.
3. Can I make changes to this workout?
Feel free to modify this workout according to your needs and goals. If there is an exercise you don’t like, replace it with one you find more enjoyable. However, resist the temptation to switch out exercises you find hard, as, invariably, they are the ones that drive muscle growth. Easy workouts don’t build muscle!
4. Can women do this barbell shoulder workout, or is it only for men?
While this workout was written by a man for men, that doesn’t mean women cannot do it. However, please bear in mind that it is a muscle-building workout, so it may not align with some women’s fitness goals. So, if you don’t want bigger, more muscular shoulders, don’t follow this program.
5. What should I do if I experience shoulder joint pain during the workout?
Shoulder joint pain is a common problem for ardent bodybuilders and weightlifters. It can be caused by general wear and tear, and some exercises can make it worse, such as upright rows or behind-the-neck presses.
If any of the exercises in this workout cause shoulder pain, you should stop e and follow these steps:
Review your form – back technique can cause pain.
Use less weight – lifting more than you can safely handle is a leading cause of injury.
Use a different exercise – even changing your grip can help.
Seek medical advice – if your shoulder pain persists, get it checked out to determine if you have an injury.
6. What warm-up exercises should I do before starting the barbell shoulder workout?
Your pre-shoulder workout warm-up should consist of the following:
5-10 minutes of easy cardio
Dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for your entire upper body, e.g., shoulder rolls, arm circles, overhead arm reaches, fist clenches, etc.
2-3 progressively heavier “ramped sets” of push-presses.
Spend as much time on each stage as necessary to ensure your muscles, joints, and brain are ready for the workout you’re about to do.
Read more about warming up for strength training here.
7. How long should I follow this program?
Even a great program like our barbell shoulder workout will eventually lose some of its effectiveness. Your muscles gradually get used to any training plan, and it’ll lose some of its potency. If your progress stalls, your training feels stale, or you haven’t been able to increase your weights for more than a few weeks, you probably need a new workout.
How long this takes varies from individual to individual, but you should expect to change your training plan every 4-8 weeks.
Check out our library of training programs for your next workout!
More Shoulder Workouts:
More Barbell Workouts:
Wrapping Up
Armed with our barbell shoulder workout, you have everything you need to take your deltoid gains to the next level. Combining heavy low-rep compound exercises with lighter higher-rep movements ensures that no fiber of your delts will go unstimulated.
Of course, your shoulders are just one of several critical muscle groups, so you must incorporate this workout into a balanced weekly training program that also works your chest, back, arms, and legs. Warm-up before each workout with cardio and dynamic exercises for a safer and more effective session.
Sadly, building bigger muscles can be a slow and laborious process, so you’ll have to commit to the long haul. That said, with dedication and determination, you can build the boulder shoulders of your dreams.
Barbell Triceps Workout for Mass and Strength
When it comes to triceps training, most exercisers make a beeline to the cable machine and start cranking out triceps pushdowns like their gains depend on it. And while all those sets of straight-bar, rope, and EZ bar pushdowns can be effective, cable triceps exercises have their limitations.
For starters, always doing your triceps training with your upper arms by your sides means you’re always emphasizing the same triceps head. In addition, it’s hard to go really heavy with any triceps pushdown variation, which could limit growth and strength gains. Use too much weight, and you could well feel pushdowns more in your core than your arms. Finally, if you work out at home, you may not even have access to a cable machine.
The good news is that you can address all these workout shortfalls with an old-school barbell. Barbell training is arguably one of the best ways to build mass and strength, even in your triceps.
In this article, we share a no-frills but high-effect barbell triceps workout that’ll kick your arm development into overdrive.
Triceps Anatomy Basics
Before we unleash our barbell triceps workout on the unsuspecting masses, let’s take a moment to look at the anatomy and physiology of this critical arm muscle.
The triceps brachii, commonly known as the triceps, is a three-headed muscle located at the back of the upper arm. Its primary function is elbow extension, which means it straightens the elbow joint. The triceps are also involved in shoulder extension.
The three triceps heads are:
Long head: The long head originates from the scapula (shoulder blade) and extends down the back of the arm. It plays a crucial role in shoulder extension and contributes to the overall size and shape of the triceps. Overhead triceps exercises emphasize the long head of the triceps.
Medial head: The medial head is located on the inside of the arm. It works with the other triceps heads to extend your elbows and contributes to the overall width/thickness of the triceps muscle. Exercises where your arms flare away from your sides emphasize the medial triceps head.
Lateral head: Located on the outside of the upper arm, the lateral head is responsible for the horseshoe shape often associated with well-developed triceps. It assists in stabilizing the elbow joint during extension. The lateral head works hardest when your upper arms are close to your sides.
Incorporating various exercises with different arm positions into your triceps workout routine ensures that you hit all three heads of the triceps effectively. That’s why focusing almost exclusively on pushdowns could hurt your triceps’ shape and size.
Barbell Triceps Workout – Overview
Now you’ve refreshed your triceps anatomy and physiology knowledge, it’s time to hit the gym and train!
Do the following workout 1-2 times per week as part of a weekly training split, where you train your remaining body parts on different days.
For example:
Days
Workout
1
Monday
Chest
2
Tuesday
Back
3
Wednesday
Shoulders
4
Thursday
Legs
5
Friday
Triceps
6
Saturday
Biceps
7
Sunday
Rest
But, before you lift any weights, make sure you warm up to reduce your risk of injury while improving workout performance. Start with a few minutes of easy cardio followed by dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for your muscles and joints, focusing on your shoulders, elbows, and lower back.
Related: How to Warm Up for Strength Training
Warmed-up and ready? Then let’s get to work!
Exercise
Sets
Reps
Recovery
1
Barbell close grip floor press
4
6-8
3 minutes
2
Barbell overhead triceps extension
3
8-10
2 minutes
3a
Barbell skull crusher
3
10-12
90 seconds
3b
Barbell close-grip bench press
4
Barbell behind-the-back triceps extensions
2
12-15
60 seconds
Exercises 3a and 3b are to be performed as a superset. Do the skull crushers and then, without pausing, switch to close grip bench presses using the same bar and weight. Rest a moment and then repeat the pairing twice more to make three triceps-blasting supersets.
Exercise Instructions
There are two ways to do any barbell triceps exercise – the right way and the wrong way. The right way is safe and effective, while the wrong way is dangerous and usually less productive, even if it allows you to lift heavier weights. Follow these instructions to ensure you’re doing the exercises in your barbell triceps workout correctly.
1. Barbell close grip floor press
Muscles targeted: Pectoralis major, triceps, deltoids.
A lot of exercisers view the barbell floor press as the poor man’s bench press. While the floor press IS a good workout option when you don’t have a bench, it’s actually an excellent exercise in its own right.
The floor press forces you to lower the bar under control and push it up from a dead stop, and the close grip will hammer your triceps. Go heavy with this movement; it’ll pack on triceps mass like nothing else.
Steps:
Lie flat on your back on the floor. Grip your barbell with an overhand grip, hands slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart. Hold the bar over your chest with your arms extended. Pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your abs.
Bend your elbows and slowly lower the barbell towards your chest until your upper arms lightly touch the floor.
Drive the barbell back up to full arm extension without locking your elbows at the top to maintain muscle tension.
Continue for the prescribed number of reps.
Benefits:
A very shoulder-friendly exercise.
The close grip provides an excellent triceps workout.
No bench required, so it’s a great movement for home workouts.
Tips:
You can do this exercise with your legs straight or bent as preferred.
Lower the bar slowly and then extend your arms explosively to maximize muscle engagement.
Keep your upper arms close to your sides to maximize triceps engagement.
2. Barbell overhead triceps extension
Muscles targeted: Triceps.
The barbell overhead triceps extension is also known as the French press, although the reason why is unclear. Regardless of the origin of the name of this exercise, it’s a great way to build bigger, stronger triceps and preferentially targets that all-important long head. However, you will need good shoulder mobility to pull it off.
Steps:
Hold your barbell with a narrower-than-shoulder-width overhand grip. Raise the bar overhead so your arms are next to your ears.
Bend your elbows and lower the bar down behind your head.
Extend your arms and repeat.
Benefits:
An excellent triceps builder.
Preferentially targets the long head to the triceps.
Requires and develops good shoulder and elbow mobility.
Tips:
This exercise can be done seated or standing as preferred.
Avoid arching your lower back during this exercise. Keep your core braced to support your spine and maintain your posture.
Use a grip that feels comfortable for your shoulders, elbows, and wrists and doesn’t cause pain in any of these areas.
3a. Barbell skull crusher
Muscles targeted: Triceps.
If awards were given for the exercise with the most bad@$$ name, barbell skull crushers would be the outright winner! This exercise is so-called because if you fail mid-rep, you could hit yourself in the head with the bar. So, take care when doing this exercise, and always leave a rep or two in the tank.
Steps:
Lie on a bench and hold a barbell over your chest with an overhand, slightly narrower than shoulder-width grip.
Keeping your upper arms stationary, bend your elbows and lower the bar down slowly to lightly touch your forehead.
Extend your arms and repeat.
On completion, transition immediately to the next exercise.
Benefits:
A very effective triceps isolation exercise.
A low-tech but high-effect exercise for building bigger, stronger triceps.
Works well even with lighter loads.
Tips:
Lower the barbell under control, avoiding any sudden or jerky movements.
Keep your elbows tucked in and pointing upward throughout.
Use the same bar and weight for the next exercise. There is no need to change your position.
3b. Barbell close-grip bench press
Muscles targeted: Pectoralis major, triceps, deltoids.
Following skull crushers with close-grip bench presses will blow your triceps up! This demonic combo isolates your triceps and then uses your pecs and deltoids to push your triceps even further beyond failure. It’s gonna hurt, but this pairing will add slabs of muscle to the backs of your arms.
Steps:
Lie on a bench and hold a barbell over your chest with an overhand, slightly narrower than shoulder-width grip.
Bend your elbows and lower the bar down to your chest
Drive the weight back up and repeat.
Benefits:
A great way to finish off your triceps after skull crushers.
Delivers a skin-splitting pump and deep triceps burn.
An excellent exercise for mass and strength.
Tips:
Keep your shoulder blades together and your chest up to maintain stability during the exercise.
Keep your upper arms close to your body to emphasize the triceps.
Use a spotter to assist you, especially when using heavy weights.
4. Barbell behind-the-back triceps extensions
Muscles targeted: Triceps.
You won’t see many people doing this exercise, but that’s their loss! Barbell behind-the-back triceps extensions are a kind of kickback exercise that hammers your triceps, especially the long head. This is your final exercise, so push yourself to failure on both sets.
Steps:
Hold a barbell behind your back using an overhand, hip-width grip.
Bend your knees slightly and lean forward until your shoulders are level with your hips.
Extend your elbows so your arms are straight, and then bend them until the bar lightly touches the back of your legs. Keep your upper arms parallel to the floor.
Continue for the prescribed number of reps.
Benefits:
A uniquely challenging old-school triceps exercise.
Prioritizes the triceps’ long head.
The perfect end to a barbell triceps workout!
Tips:
Keep your upper arms close to your body to emphasize the triceps.
Avoid using your legs or lower back to help you lift the weight. Do as much work as possible with your triceps.
Go light – this exercise is much more challenging than it looks.
Barbell Triceps Exercises – Benefits
Not convinced that barbells are the best tool for building massive horseshoe triceps? Consider the following benefits and then decide:
Time-efficient
Barbell triceps exercises train both arms simultaneously, which could save you a lot of time compared to working each limb individually.
Ideal for heavy weights
Barbells are ideal for building strength with heavy loads. Lifting heavy weights can also increase muscle density. Most barbell triceps exercises are compound, meaning they involve multiple muscle groups. This means you can lift even heavier loads, pushing and developing your strength to its limit.
Accessible
No matter where you train, you should have access to barbells and weights. Most commercial gyms have rows of barbells, and they’re standard equipment in most home and garage gyms, too. While home cable machines do exist, they’re pretty big and expensive, so they may not be practical for many people.
Versatile
There are lots of different barbell triceps exercises to choose from. Whether you want to hit each triceps head with laser-like precision or just build the strongest muscles possible, barbell triceps training will help.
Barbell Triceps Exercises – Drawbacks
While barbells are an excellent triceps training tool, there are a couple of drawbacks to consider, too:
Safety
Exercises that involve holding a weight over your chest, neck, or head can be dangerous. A failed rep can leave you pinned under a heavy load. As such, you should stop your set with 1-2 reps left in the tank or, if you plan on training to failure, make sure you have a spotter on hand.
Joint stress
Some barbell triceps exercises can be hard on your joints. In contrast, the same movements done with dumbbells are often more joint-friendly, allowing you to rotate your wrists, elbows, and shoulders more naturally.
Not practical for drop sets
A drop set is where you rep out to failure, reduce (or drop) the weight by 10-15%, and immediately rep out again to take your muscles beyond failure.
Taking weight plates off a bar takes too long for drop sets to be practical. You’d need to use fixed-weight barbells to do drop sets effectively. That’s why most drop-set workouts involve dumbbells or selectorized weight machines, both of which allow for quick load changes.
Starting weight
The average Olympic barbell weighs a not insignificant 45 pounds or 20kg. This may be too heavy for some lifters, especially beginners or when doing barbell triceps isolation exercises like skull crushers.
FAQs
Do you have a question about our barbell triceps workout or building bigger arms in general? Don’t worry because we’ve got the answers!
1. Can beginners do this workout, or is it more suitable for experienced lifters?
The volume, training methods, and difficulty of some of the exercises in this workout mean that it’s better suited to intermediate and advanced lifters. It’ll probably be too long and hard for a beginner.
If you are new to working out, focus on building some basic strength and improving your training tolerance before attempting this program. Even then, consider doing fewer sets and stopping each set short of failure to get used to this type of training.
2. How many times a week should I do this workout?
Most exercisers will get good results by doing this program 1-2 times per week. However, avoid doing it immediately before or after your chest and/or shoulder workouts, as both also strongly involve your triceps, which might be too much for you to recover from. Arrange your workouts so you do this program before a leg, back, or biceps workout.
3. Can I use an EZ-curl bar for the exercises mentioned in the workout?
While this is a straight barbell workout, there is no reason you can’t use an EZ bar if that’s what you prefer. The angled handles of an EZ bar may put your wrists, elbows, and shoulders in a more comfortable position. Also, you could use an EZ bar for some exercises and a straight barbell for others. Experiment with both options and see which you prefer.
4. Can I combine this barbell triceps workout with other muscle groups on the same training day?
This barbell triceps workout would combine well with a similar biceps program. You could also do it after a back workout. However, it’s already quite lengthy, so expect to spend well over an hour in the gym if you combine this workout with another.
Related: Biceps and Triceps Superset Workout
5. How long should I rest between sets during this workout to optimize performance and recovery?
Generally, the harder and heavier you train, the longer you need to rest between sets. In this program, you’ll rest for three minutes between heavy compound lifts but just 60 seconds between lighter isolation exercises. This is both logical and practical.
However, you should rest for as long as it takes for your muscles to recover and feel ready to attack your next set. If your reps drop significantly or you need to reduce the weights, you probably need to rest a little longer. It’s generally best to rest too long rather than not rest long enough.
6. Can women do this barbell triceps workout, or is it tailored more for men?
While this IS a fairly guy-orientated workout, that doesn’t mean women can’t do it, too. However, its purpose is to build muscle and strength rather than improve muscle tone or burn fat, so bear that in mind if you’re a woman considering this program.
7. Can I combine barbell triceps exercises with other training modalities?
There is no law that says you have to use the same type of equipment for your entire workout. Using different equipment will make your program more varied and interesting, leading to a more enjoyable training experience. For example, instead of using a barbell for all the exercises in our workout, another approach would be:
Diamond push-ups
Cable overhead triceps extension
Barbell skull crusher
Barbell close-grip bench press
Dumbbell triceps kickbacks
The movements are largely the same, but you’ll be using different tools and methods to for some of the exercises.
Barbell Triceps Workout – Wrapping Up
Building bigger, stronger triceps is seldom easy, but this workout is designed to help you achieve the arm size and strength you’ve always dreamed of.
Keep in mind that while barbell triceps exercises are incredibly effective, it’s usually best to combine them with other types of training to keep your workouts fun and challenging. You don’t have to go all barbell all of the time.
Now, armed with your new knowledge of triceps anatomy and the power of the barbell, go forth and conquer your triceps-building goals! Remember, though, that muscles don’t grow overnight, but with determination and consistent effort, you WILL see the results you desire.
The 30-Day Arm Challenge for Dramatic Size & Strength Gains
Big arms demand immediate respect.
They are the body’s “show muscles,”; the most frequently displayed part. So the faster we can add size to our biceps, triceps, and forearms, the better.
However, most lifters fail to grow their arms. You might be one of them.
Are you having trouble making your forearms bigger? Have your biceps reached the height of their potential? Are you unable to get that amazing triceps horseshoe out?
What’s needed is an intervention — a short, sharp arms shock that will leave your bis, tris, and forearms no choice but to respond.
This 30-day arm challenge is designed to do just that.
Understanding the Arm Muscles
The arms consist of the following three muscle groups:
Biceps
Biceps Anatomy
The biceps brachii muscle comprises two heads — long and short. The short head originates higher than the long head on the scapular. The radius, or forearm bone, is connected to the one tendon that traverses the elbow joint and receives both the long and short heads.
The biceps are responsible for extending the elbow. They also have a small impact on shoulder flexion, which occurs when the arm extends in front of the body.
Triceps
The triceps is situated behind the biceps, on the upper arm. The biceps and triceps are opposing muscle groups so that when one contracts, the other relaxes. Since its purpose is to straighten the arm, any exercise that requires you to do so while facing resistance will engage your triceps.
The triceps muscle has three heads:
Medial
Lateral
Long
The region immediately below the side of the shoulder is known as the outer or lateral head. This head gives the arm a thicker, more robust appearance when fully developed and originates at the shoulder socket on the scapula. The long and medial heads originate at the top of the humerus, or upper arm. The triceps tendon is attached to the olecranon process of the ulna, the bigger of the two forearm bones, where all three heads of the triceps insert.
When completely developed, the triceps give the back of the upper arm a horseshoe shape.
Forearms
The muscles of the forearms can be divided into four groups:
Flexors
Extensors
Rotators
Extrinsic muscles
The flexor muscles are located on the side of the palm. The extensor muscles are on the side of the back of your hand. The forearm rotators supinate the hand, rotating it externally. They also pronate it to move in internally.
The fingers are moved by very small muscles divided into extrinsic muscles on the forearm and intrinsic muscles in the hand itself.
The forearm is capable of six actions. These are:
Wrist Flexion
Wrist Extension
Wrist Abduction
Wrist Adduction
Forearm Supination
Forearm Pronation
Should Women Train Their Arms Differently?
No, women should not train their arms differently from men. Men and women should not only perform the same forearm, biceps, and triceps movements, but they also shouldn’t use different rep ranges. In the past, women have been advised to tone their arms by using those lovely pink lightweight dumbbells and focusing on high repetitions. That counsel, however well-intentioned it may have been, will not produce the outcomes that most women desire.
Any lady I have ever met with strong, athletic arms has managed to lift what seemed like a heavy object to them. These women’s lack of testosterone, rather than their training methods, was the main reason their arms didn’t get bulky.
The musculature of men and women is the same despite our hormones being different. As a result, this 30-day arm challenge is just as effective for women as it is for men.
30-Day Challenge Overview
The 30-day Arm Challenge is divided into four 7-day phases as follows:
Strength A
Hypertrophy A
Strength B
Hypertrophy B
Strength and size go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Each week you will develop greater arm strength to propel muscle growth. You will train each body part (biceps, triceps, and forearms) twice to thrice weekly.
Let’s now drill down on each of the four training phases:
Phase One: Strength
Rep ranges: 4-6 & 6-8
Focus: Strength development / Balanced strength across arm muscles
Rep Style: Straight sets
Main Stimulus: Central nervous system
The exercises selected for this stage are those that most people struggle with. As a result, you can improve your arm strength and balance, preparing you for the hypertrophy phase.
You will gradually increase the weight with each set during each strength phase. Your final set will be the heaviest weight you can lift while maintaining perfect technique. As a result, if you are performing eight reps, a ninth rep would be impossible for you to complete with good form.
Phase Two: Hypertrophy
Rep range: 10-12, 12-15, 15-20
Focus: Muscular development (hypertrophy) / targeting muscle heads
Rep Style: Tri-sets
Main Stimulus: Muscular system
The goal of Phase Two is to build the various muscle heads. Tri Sets are a part of your Phase 2 exercises. You perform these three exercises back-to-back. You can rest for 10 seconds between exercises and 120 seconds before your next round.
Phase Three: Strength
Rep ranges: 3-5 / 5-7
Focus: Strength development / Balanced strength across arm muscles
Rep Style: Straight sets
Main Stimulus: Central nervous system
During your second strength phase, you will lower your reps slightly from Phase One. Your body has already adapted to the 4-6, 6-8 rep range, so you need to go lower to continue getting stronger. You will be alternating between biceps and triceps exercises over four exercises. Rest between sets ranges between 60 and 120 seconds.
Phase Four: Hypertrophy
Rep range: 12
Focus: Muscular development (Hypertrophy) / targeting muscle heads (double emphasis)
Rep Style: Supersets
Main Stimulus: Muscular system
During this phase, you will double down on a particular muscle head by performing supersets (i.e., Scott curls and prone incline curls for the short biceps head). This forces the body to recruit maximal muscle fibers. After each superset, you will rest for 90 seconds. The workout will consist of a bicep superset (A1 & A2) followed by a triceps superset (A3 & A4). Then, move on to your second biceps superset (B1 & B2) and a final triceps superset (B3 & B4).
The Workouts
Here’s what the workout split for the four phases looks like for this 30-day arm challenge:
Strength A: Days 1-8
Hypertrophy A: Days 9-16
Strength B: Days 17-23
Hypertrophy B: Days 24-30
You won’t train your arms daily, as it can lead to over-training. Instead, you will train them every 48 hours. Recent research shows this is the ideal time frame for optimal hypertrophy and recovery. [2]
Here is an overview of your training days:
Day 1
Workout One
Day 2
Day 3
Workout Two
Day 4
Day 5
Workout Three
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Workout Four
Day 9
Day 10
Workout Five
Day 11
Day 12
Workout Six
Day 13
Day 14
Workout Seven
Day 15
Day 16
Workout Eight
Day 17
Day 18
Workout Nine
Day 19
Day 20
Workout Ten
Day 21
Day 22
Workout Eleven
Day 23
Day 24
Workout Twelve
Day 25
Day 26
Workout Thirteen
Day 27
Day 28
Workout Fourteen
Day 29
Day 30
Workout Fifteen
Phase One Workouts: Days 1-8
Your phase one workout consists of a pair of superset exercises that have you alternate a biceps and triceps exercise. Moving between the superset exercises should take you at most 10 seconds. That means you must have each exercise set and ready to go before you begin your workout. Rest for 90-120 seconds between supersets.
Superset A
Optimized Exercise Form:
Preacher Cable Curls:
Take an underhand grip on the barbell or EZ curl bar before settling into a preacher curl bench position. Your chest and upper arms should be in touch with the arm pad once you adjust the seat.
Keeping your chin tucked the entire time, extend your arms down the pads with a slight bend in the elbows. Keep your wrists in a neutral position and use a relaxed grip.
Squeeze your biceps and bend your elbows to start the upward movement while keeping your upper arms in touch with the arm pad. Lift until your shoulders are in line with the barbell or EZ bar.
Squeeze your biceps in the top contracted position.
Slowly straighten your elbows to bring the barbell back to the beginning position.
Close-Grip Bench Press:
Lay down on a flat bench with your feet planted on the floor. Grab a barbell with a grip that is just inside your shoulder width.
Unrack the bar.
From a starting position with the bar hovering above your chest, slowly lower the bar to your lower chest while keeping your elbows close to your body.
Press the bar firmly back up to the starting position.
SuperSet B
Close-Grip Chin-Ups: 4 x 8,6,6,4
Dips: 4 x 8,6,6,4
Forearms:
Reverse Curls: 3 x 12,10, 8
Optimized Exercise Form:
Close-Grip Chin-Ups
Reach up and hold the bar with a supinated grip and your little fingers about six inches apart.
Pull your chin up to and over the bar by pulling with your biceps and back.
Holding your arms in the highest contracted position, squeeze your biceps as hard as possible for a two-second hold.
Lower back to starting position under control.
Dips
Grab parallel bars with a neutral grip, then lift yourself until your arms are completely extended. Maintain an upright body position with straight legs.
Now, descend by bending your elbows to bring your torso toward the floor (do not allow your elbows to flare out to the side).
Push through the triceps to return to the start position.
Reverse Curls
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and a pair of dumbbells held at arm’s length with a pronated grip in front of your thighs.
Maintaining a neutral spine and keeping your elbows at your sides, bring the weights up to shoulder level.
Lower under control and repeat.
Phase Two Workouts: Days 9-16
Your phase two workout consists of a pair of tri-sets. Moving between each exercise in the tri-sets should take at most 10 seconds. Rest for 120 seconds between tri-sets.
TriSet A
Alternate Dumbbell Curls: 3 x 20/15/10
Tricep Pushdowns: 3 x 20/15/10
Incline Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 3 x 20/15/10
Optimized Exercise Form:
Alternate Dumbbell Curl
Hold dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing inward towards your thighs while standing with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Turn your right wrist to the front while keeping your elbow at your sides. Curl the weight up until your bicep is fully contracted.
Lower under control reversing the wrist motion so that your palms face your thighs in the bottom position again.
Repeat with the other arm.
Tricep Pushdown
Stand in front of a high pulley cable with a rope attachment. Hold the bottom of the rope handles with your elbows pinned to your sides.
Your hands should be at mid-chest level at the start position. Extend your arms down and slightly outward to fully extend the triceps.
Return to the start position under control and repeat.
Triceps Kickbacks
Grab a light dumbbell in your right hand and stand with your torso at a 45-degree angle and your left hand resting on your thigh.
Fully extend your right arm back from the starting position.
Revere and repeat, making sure not to use momentum to lift the weight.
TriSet B
Skullcrusher: 3 x 20/15/10
Barbell Curl: 3 x 20/15/10
Triceps Kickbacks: 3 x 20/15/10
Forearms:
Zottman Curl: 3 x 20/15/10
Optimized Exercise Form:
Skullcrusher
Lie on a flat bench with your feet firmly set on the floor. Hold a pair of dumbbells in your hands and hold them above your chest. Angle your arms slightly toward your head.
Keeping your elbows in, bend at the elbows to slowly bring the weight down and over your head. Do not move the position of your upper arms as you lower the dumbbells.
Press through the triceps to return to the start position.
Barbell Curls
Grab a barbell with your hands at shoulder width.
Keeping your elbows at your sides, bring your forearms up while squeezing your biceps. Contract as strongly as you can in the top position.
In that position, your knuckles should be at the level of your shoulders.
Now, slowly lower the bar to the start position. This eccentric portion of the rep should take twice as long as the concentric lifting portion.
Zottman Curls
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and a pair of dumbbells held at arm’s length with a neutral grip.
Supinate the dumbbells during the eccentric motion. Your palms should face the ceiling when your hands are at your chest level.
Rotate your hands into a pronated (palms down) position.
Slowly lower the dumbbells to the start position.
Rinse and repeat.
Phase Three Workouts: Days 17-23
In phase three, you will do straight sets. Your total focus is on lifting maximum weight with perfect form. Rest as long as needed between sets to fully recover for the next set. At this stage, you should use a dip belt to add poundage to your bodyweight exercises.
Close-Grip Bench Press: (warmup 15 reps) 4 x 7,5,5,3
Close-Grip Chin-Up: 4 x 7,5,5,3
Barbell Curls: 4 x 7,5,5,3
Dips: 4 x 7,5,5,3
Reverse Wrist Curls: 4 x 12, 10, 8, 8
Optimized Exercise Form:
Reverse Wrist Curls
Sit on the edge of a bench with a pair of dumbbells held with a palms-down grip. Your hands should be about eight inches apart. Rest your forearms on your knees with your wrists hanging over the edge of your knees. Make sure your forearms are parallel to each throughout the movement.
Extend your wrists down all the way as you allow the dumbbells to roll down your fingers.
From the bottom position, flex your forearms to bring the dumbbells back to the start position.
Phase Four Workouts: Days 24-30
Your phase four workouts consist of nine exercises. They are divided into four supersets, two each for biceps and triceps and a standard set for forearms. Rest for 90 seconds after each superset.
Superset A1
Preacher Cable Curls: (warmup 15 reps) 4 x 12
Incline Dumbbell Curls: (warmup 15 reps) 4 x 12
Optimized Exercise Form:
Incline Dumbbell Curl
Set the angle on an incline bench to 45 degrees.
Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on the bench with your arms hanging at your side.
Rather than starting with your arms hanging down in a fully vertical or neutral position, begin the exercise with your forearms about 10 percent from the vertical position. Your palms should be facing the ceiling.
Flex at the elbow to bring the right-handed dumbbell to the shoulder; contract the bicep in the top position.
Lower under control, again stopping 10 percent short of full extension.
Repeat with the left arm and continue alternating to complete your rep count.
SuperSet A2
Single-Arm Triceps Pushdown: 4 x 12
Reverse Dips: 4 x 12
Forearms:
Farmer’s Walk: 3 x 20 paces
Optimized Exercise Form:
Single-Arm Triceps Pushdown
Attach a single-handle attachment to a high pulley cable.
Stand in front of the pulley, facing it. Grasp the handle in your right hand and hold it at chest level with your elbows at your sides. Adjust your positioning so that the cable is taut in the start position.
Extend your arm and contract your triceps.
Reverse the motion to return to the start position, keeping your elbow at your sides.
Reverse Dips
Position yourself in front of a chair with your palms resting on the chair seat and feet on the ground about two feet in front of it. Your hands should be about six inches apart and your knees bent.
Lower your body toward the floor by bending at the elbows, going down all the way.
Push through the triceps to return to the start position.
Farmer’s Walk
Grab a heavy pair of dumbbells off the rack and hold them at arm’s length by your sides.
Walk around your workout area, taking 20 paces away from the dumbbell rack and then returning. This should take 3-60 seconds.
Replace the dumbbells on the rack.
SuperSet B1
Close-Grip Chin-Up – (warmup 15 reps) 4 x 12
Alternate Cable Curls – (warmup 15 reps) 4 x 12
Optimized Exercise Form
Alternate Cable Curls
Set the cable pulleys at their lowest level.
Stand in front of the machine, facing away from it, and grab the cable handles.
Adjust your position so the cables are taut, with your arms slightly behind your torso and elbows at your sides.
Flex the right elbow to curl your hand up to your shoulder. Squeeze the biceps tightly in the top position.
Lower under control and repeat with the left arm.
Alternate sides to complete your rep count.
SuperSet B2
Close-Grip Bench Press: 4 x 12
Triceps Push-Ups: 4 x 12
Optimized Exercise Form:
Triceps Push-Ups
Get down in the standard push-up position, but with your hands together under your body so that your thumbs and first fingers are touching. The gap between your hands will form a diamond shape.
Maintaining a tight core and a straight line from head to toe, lower your chest to the floor.
Push back to the start position.
30-Day Arm Challenge Nutrition
You will never grow your arms unless you eat a personalized nutrient-dense diet. Your body can only work with the building materials you provide it. Even if you are following the best arm workout on the planet, you will not add a single gram of muscle to your body without creating the right sort of caloric surplus.
Your workout places stress on your muscles. The type of workouts in this program will cause micro-tears in the muscle fibers. As a result, when you walk out of the gym, you will be weaker and smaller. Only when you feed the muscle with the protein and carbs needed to repair the micro-tears in your muscle fibers can you benefit from all your hard work. Besides repairing the muscle, your body will add a little bit more size to the muscle fiber to meet a similar challenge in the future.
You must create a daily caloric surplus to give your body the nutrients needed to build muscle. That means you are taking in more calories than you use.
To determine how many calories you need, multiply your body weight by 20. So, a 180-pound guy needs to consume 3,600 calories to give his muscle cells the building blocks for creating new mass.
Those 3,600 calories should be divided into six meals of equal size and spaced around three hours apart to get the most benefit from them. Each meal should have 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 20% healthy fats as its macronutrient ratio. Aim for one gram of protein per pound of body weight.
These are the best protein sources to include in your mass gain diet:
Eggs
Dairy products
Whey protein powder
Lean beef
Chicken breast
Lean pork
Fish
You should also be consuming generous servings of these starchy and fibrous carbohydrates:
Potatoes
Yams
Brown rice
Corn
Pumpkin
Broccoli
Asparagus
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Maintaining Your Gains
The week after you complete the 30-day arm challenge, you should take a break from training your biceps. Then follow a periodization program where you spread out each training phase from a week to a month. Here’s how it will look:
Month One: Hypertrophy 1
Month Two: Strength 1
Month Three: Hypertrophy 2
Month Four: Strength 2
Take a week off from training at the end of the second and fourth phases. You can follow this periodization program continuously to make ongoing gains.
Myths Around Arm Training
Several persistent myths surrounding arm training must be wiped away before every lifter can get the best bang for his lift. Let’s put straight the four most common arm workout fallacies:
Myth #1: You Can Build Arms with a Partial Range of Motion
Everywhere you look, whether in your local gym or on YouTube, you see guys doing partial reps, usually with weights that are far too heavy for them. Make no mistake; this is not a smart way to train. You need to work a muscle through its full range of motion for full development and maximum strength.
Myth #2: Standing Barbell Curls Are All You Need
The standing barbell curl has been the go-to exercise for the biceps since the beginning of organized weight training. As a result, you see a lot of guys rely on it as their sole bicep builder. That, however, is a mistake. Barbell curls allow you to use a lot of weight but have limitations. They do not allow for grip supination to target the different heads of the biceps.
When it comes to the triceps, a lot of guys spend their time on exercises of dubious value that do not allow for much weight, such as triceps kickbacks, when they could be doing moves that allow for a lot of weight, like close grip bench press and dips.
The bottom line is that you do not want to rely on just one or two exercises for arm development – variation is a must for overall development.
Myth #3: It’s All About the Weight
The standing barbell curl has got to be the most abused exercise in the gym. The reason is simple — people try to impress others with how much weight they can curl. As a result, they use so much body swing and momentum that their biceps are getting no stimulation at all.
Don’t be like those guys — leave your ego behind and focus on perfecting your exercise form and increasing your strength. Remember, 5 pounds curled perfectly is much better than 10 pounds with a bad form.
While we’re on the subject of weight, progressive overload should be gradual. So, rather than jumping from a 10-pound to a 15-pound dumbbell on the curl (a 50% increase), look to add just a single pound on the next set (a 10% increase). If your gym has microplates, you can make jumps of just 1-2%, which is even better.
Myth #4: You Can Wing It
The old saying that those who fail to plan, plan to fail is as true on the gym floor as anywhere else. You cannot turn up and train by feel if you are serious about getting results. Instead, you should record every exercise, set, rep, and weight in a training journal. That will allow you to know exactly how many sets, reps, and pounds to target on the next workout.
Most Common Arm Training Mistakes
There is generally no shortage of enthusiasm when it comes to arm training. There are, however, many common mistakes that tend to hold people back from getting anywhere near achieving their potential. Here are three of the common arm training mistakes and what to do about them:
Over-Reliance on Isolation Exercises
Which exercise will get you to bigger arms faster, curls or chin-ups? Pushdowns or triceps dips?
When you encounter someone who trains frequently but has poor arm development, they are usually weak for their body weight in the fundamental heavy compound pulling and pushing exercises.
All exercises can be divided into two main groups — isolation (single joint motions) or compound (gross motor activities). Compound movements often involve two joints, whereas isolation movements only involve one. Curls are single-joint exercises solely using the elbow, whereas chin-ups are compound exercises using both the elbow and the shoulder. Compound movements are the type of exercise that contribute the most to muscle growth. So, you won’t be able to add inches of thick, powerful muscle if you don’t focus on getting stronger at challenging pulling and pushing exercises like chin-ups or presses.
Lack of Arm Training Frequently
In the early stages of weight training, before drugs and protein powders, the training methods differed significantly from those employed today. They worked out their entire bodies three to five days a week, including their arms. Nowadays, training a body part more than twice per week is uncommon. In fact, the most popular bro split involves working out one body part per day and then working out every body part once weekly.
The introduction of steroids is credited with starting the tendency to train body parts sparingly. After bodybuilders began using steroids, training more than once weekly became unnecessary. All they had to do to gain muscle was pound a muscle group long and hard once every week. But for the vast majority of natural lifters, this simply does not work.
You transmit a signal to your muscles to grow when you lift weights. This signal can be measured using a process known as “muscle protein synthesis.” According to studies, this signal increases significantly after exercise, peaks at around 24-48 hours, and then rapidly declines. It reaches baseline and even deviates from baseline after 48 to 72 hours. [1]
This is not a concern for steroid users, but it is for natural lifters. Additionally, studies reveal that the duration of this muscle-building signal decreases with expertise. Only 14 hours may pass with an elevated signal for advanced lifters. You need to frequently send that muscle-building signal if you are like most participants in these trials. Maybe even every day. Sounds simple enough, but if you train and pound your arms daily, the cumulative damage will make you extremely sore, swollen, and over-trained. So, how can we circumvent this issue?
By adjusting the intensity.
Start by exercising your arms thrice weekly at a relatively high intensity. On these days, work out hard, but don’t lift to failure; instead, stop one or two reps shy of it. Divide the volume you currently perform for your arms each week into three workouts.
For most people, this translates to 12–21 sets overall per week for each muscle. For instance, if your objective is to complete 12 sets over the week, perform four sets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Allowing Workouts to Get Stale
The saying “everything works, but nothing works forever” is certainly true when it comes to gaining muscle. No matter how great your training plan, exercise, and rep range, your body will eventually stop responding. People who find themselves in this scenario frequently increase the intensity or make minor adjustments, such as concentrating more on muscle contractions. They usually end up hitting the dreaded training plateau.
Unless you regularly alter your programming, your body won’t be able to build muscle consistently. Although switching up your workouts is crucial, switching up your rep range is even more important. Most rep ranges are beneficial for gaining muscle, but training in each one is a completely distinct experience.
Consider contrasting sets of 20 reps with sets of doubles. Both rep ranges create muscle, although being very different. Low reps (1–5 reps), moderate reps (8–12 reps), and high reps (15–20 reps) are the three main rep ranges for gaining muscle. Each one of them has been shown to increase muscle mass.
Use low rep ranges to maximize the development of grinding strength, use the low rep ranges. The traditional bodybuilder rep range for muscular development is the moderate rep range. In research, the 8–12 rep range consistently produces the highest muscle growth when other rep ranges are compared head-to-head. Most people undoubtedly get trapped in this rep range for this reason, and after being locked for a few months, their muscles cease reacting.
When used in a cycle with other rep ranges, going as high as 30 reps, this rep range is fantastic. Workouts with this rep range may seem like marathon sessions. They produce the craziest skin-bursting muscle pumps, but they are also draining. Remember that up to 70% of your arm’s volume consists of fluid and non-muscle fiber components. By increasing the ability of your arms to hold more non-muscle fiber structures and fluids, they will grow bigger if you train them to produce insane pumps with high reps. Start with a single rep range, then switch to a different range after a few weeks. Each time, observe how your arms respond.
Key Arm Training Principles
Here are five principles that need to form the foundation of your 30-day arm challenge:
1. Intensity + Volume
Many people who want to focus on arms development are relatively weak in terms of their arm strength. As a result, they cannot lift enough weight to build bigger arms consistently. You will not progress unless you combine intensity with volume.
2. Variety
If you repeatedly do the same thing, your body will adapt and stop responding. As a result, periodization has been a part of organized weightlifting from the beginning. That is why you must switch between intensification (strength work) and accumulation (hypertrophy work).
3. Targeted Stimulation
The key job of the arm muscles is elbow flexion and extension. The elbows flexors consist of four muscles:
The brachialis
The brachioradialis
The pronator teres
The bicep brachii (long head + short head)
Each of these muscles responds differently to stimuli. For example, the brachialis responds better to force, while the brachioradialis responds better to speed. Changing the grip also changes the focus of the exercise. A pronated grip targets the brachialis, while a supinated grip hits the biceps brachii. Even though the exercises may seem similar, they have a very different effect on the arm muscles.
4. Prioritization
To prioritize your arm development, you must train them at the beginning of the week. This applies to your training week cycle and your specific workout. So, arm training should be on Day One, and you should train your arms first during that workout. That way, you can pour all your training energy into your arm workout while you are fresh.
5. Progressive Overload
When you work a muscle, the stress leads to micro tears within the muscle fiber. Proper nutrition and rest allow the muscle to get bigger and stronger to meet that stress in the future. So the muscle can meet the previous stress level in the next workout. Unless you add extra stress in the form of either more weight or reps, it will not be overly stressed, and the micro-tears that lead to growth will not occur.
Read also: Progressive Overload: The Science Behind Maximizing Muscle Growth
Bonus Section: How To Improve Arm Vascularity
Nothing says badass like a pair of big and vascular arms. Vascularity refers to the clearly visible veins running throughout the body. A vast network of veins crisscross your body. These veins are typically not visible as they are covered by body fat that lies underneath the skin.
The pinnacle of fitness is having a muscular body that is also vascular. It announces that you are in excellent physical condition with little body fat. Of course, there are a lot of folks who have never set foot inside a gym but have visible veins. Some people are genetically predisposed to develop insane vascularity. There are also several medical problems that increase a person’s vascularity.
Even if you were born on the wrong side of the veiny genetic pool, there are definitely things you can do to improve your vascularity:
1. Reduce Your Body Fat Percentage
The more fat you have, the less noticeable your veins will be. Therefore, reducing your body fat percentage is the first thing you should do to highlight your vascularity.
Men must be in the 10 to 12 percent body fat range to have clearly visible veins. On the other hand, women must be even lower.
The first thing you need to do is enter a negative calorie balance. The difference between the calories you burn off and consume should ideally be 500 calories.
Second, drastically reduce your complex carb intake. The timeframe immediately following your workouts is the only time you should be eating carbohydrates. Approximately an hour after your workout, consume a meal or smoothie that is 50% carbs and 30% protein.
Add steady-state cardio to your weight training sessions if you’re trying to get vascular. Most of the calories you burn while exercising with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) will come from your glycogen stores. The calories you burn from steady-state cardio will come from your body fat reserves.
2. Strength Training
Contrary to popular belief, doing a lot of high rep sets with lesser weights is not the greatest approach to developing arm vascularity. The best technique to develop size and vascularity simultaneously is through heavy training in the 8–12 rep range. Blood pumps through the body more intensely the harder you train. The veins enlarge as a result, making them easier to observe.
You should end your workout with high-repetition sets to achieve a maximum pump. This will saturate the working muscle with blood, giving it the impression that it is about to explode. This kind of exercise is a component of Hany Rambod’s FST-7 program for bodybuilders trying to get into a super-ripped (and veiny) condition.
3. Include Isometrics
You should perform isometric holds during your recovery period and after your workout to further improve your vascularity.
4. Cut Water
A layer of fat beneath the skin will prevent your veins from peeking through. Water can also get between your veins and your skin. The bodybuilders on the Mr. Olympia stage appear so diced because they have removed most of the water from under their skin.
Wrap Up
The 30-Day arm challenge works. So long as you stick to the plan, you will develop significantly bigger and stronger biceps, triceps, and forearms. And those arms will not only be big but also defined. Put your all into this program with total dedication, belief, consistency, and grit, and you’ll be rewarded with arms to impress!
References
MacDougall JD, Gibala MJ, Tarnopolsky MA, MacDonald JR, Interisano SA, Yarasheski KE. The time course for elevated muscle protein synthesis following heavy resistance exercise. Can J Appl Physiol. 1995 Dec;20(4):480-6. doi: 10.1139/h95-038. PMID: 8563679.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/frequency-66701244
Biceps and Triceps Superset Workout for Huge, Pumped Arms
There isn’t a bodybuilder alive who doesn’t want bigger, more muscular arms. And anyone who tells you they think their arms are too big is probably lying! Whether you compete in bodybuilding or are just a recreational lifter, big arms are the badge of honor that every exerciser wants. Average Biceps Size: How Do You Measure Up?
To build impressive arms, you need to work on your biceps and triceps equally. This can come as a bit of a shock to novice lifters, who wrongly assume that their biceps are the most important muscle for arm size.
In fact, it’s the triceps that make up the larger proportion of your upper arm mass, so they need your attention too.
One of the best ways to make sure you train your biceps and triceps with the same volume is to do biceps/triceps supersets. As well as providing a balanced workout, supersets are also more time efficient and deliver a skin-splitting pump.
While you could write your own biceps and triceps superset workout, we’ve created one for you. Do this workout 1-2 times a week to turn your peashooter arms into cannons!
Arm Anatomy Basics
While you don’t need an in-depth knowledge of arm anatomy and physiology to build bigger biceps and triceps, it can help you make better decisions about which exercises to include in your workouts. Understanding how a muscle works means you will have a better understanding of the best way to train it.
So, feel free to skip this section if you just want a workout to follow. Otherwise, let’s go back to school and learn a little more about how the biceps and triceps function.
Biceps brachii
Credit: Salix, Licensed under Creative Commons 2.0.
Biceps brachii means two-headed arm muscle. However, we usually shorten this to biceps for ease. The biceps are located on the front of your upper arm and crosses your elbow and shoulder joints. This means it’s a biarticular muscle and affects both of these joints.
The functions of your biceps are:
Elbow flexion
Forearm supination
Shoulder flexion
The biceps have two origin points and one insertion point, which means it has two heads – the long head and the short head. The long head is attached to the back of the scapula, while the short head attaches more toward the front. The long head is responsible for your biceps peak, while the short head gives your biceps their width.
Both heads always work together, but it is possible to emphasize each one slightly by altering the position of your upper arm.
Brachialis
All biceps exercises also hit the brachialis, which is best thought of as another biceps muscle. Like the biceps, the brachialis is an elbow flexor but is not involved with shoulder flexion or forearm supination.
Located partially beneath the biceps brachii, the brachialis helps prop up your biceps to make them look even more impressive. It also contributes to upper forearm size.
Triceps brachii
Located on the back of your arm, the triceps brachii, or triceps for short, is a three-headed muscle. Like the biceps, the triceps cross two joints – the elbow and the shoulder – making it a biarticular muscle.
The functions of the triceps are:
Elbow extension
Shoulder extension
The three triceps heads work together, but it’s possible to emphasize each one by altering the position of your arm. The long head is located on the inside of the upper arm, while the lateral head is found toward the outside. The medial head is between the long and medial heads.
An Introduction to Supersets
Before we reveal the nuts and bolts of this biceps and triceps workout, let’s take a moment to discuss supersets, explaining what they are and why they’re so beneficial and effective. That way, you’ll not only understand how to perform the workout, but you’ll understand why it works.
Firstly, supersets involve doing two exercises back-to-back. So, you do the first exercise and then, without resting, immediately do the second. On completion of exercise number two, you rest for the prescribed period and then repeat the pairing a couple more times.
For example:
Pull-ups x 8
Push-ups x 15
Rest 1-2 minutes and repeat
Types of Superset
There are several recognized types of superset, including:
Agonist supersets – two exercises for the same muscle group, e.g., bench press and push-ups.
Agonist/antagonist supersets – two exercises for opposing muscle groups, e.g., leg extensions and leg curls.
Agonist/opposing synergist supersets – one exercise for a large muscle group and one for an opposing small muscle group, e.g., pull-ups and triceps pushdowns.
Lower body/upper body supersets – one leg exercise followed by one torso or arm exercise, e.g., lunges and shoulder presses.
Agonist/distant agonist supersets – two exercises for anatomically dissimilar muscle groups, e.g., biceps curls and calf raises.
Pre-exhaust supersets – an isolation followed by a compound exercise for the same muscle group, e.g., leg extensions and leg presses.
Post-exhaust supersets – a compound exercise followed by an isolation exercise for the same muscle group, e.g., bench press and cable crossovers.
Superset Benefits
What’s so super about supersets? Good question! The benefits of supersets include:
Shorter workouts – doing two exercises back-to-back means you half the amount of time you spend resting. This can turn a long workout into a much shorter one. Alternatively, you can cram more training volume into the same duration. Either way, supersets make your workouts more time-efficient.
A better pump – doing two similar exercises back to back or two opposing exercises will drive a lot of blood into the area you are training, and you’ll get a great pump as a result. A pump pushes oxygen and nutrients into your muscles and may also help stretch the surrounding fascia, making more room for growth. Bodybuilders love a good pump, and it’s often considered an indicator of future muscle size.
A balanced workout – assuming you do agonist/antagonist supersets, organizing your exercises into opposing pairs means that you automatically train both muscles equally. This ensures they grow at a similar rate and can help prevent muscle imbalances.
Superset Drawbacks
While supersets are largely beneficial, there are a couple of superset drawbacks to consider, too:
Monopolizing training equipment – supersetting your exercises means you’ll need to monopolize two sets of equipment, one of which you won’t be actively using. This can be a problem in busy gyms, and doing supersets could make you unpopular with your fellow exercisers.
This issue can be avoided by doing supersets with the same piece of equipment or pairing body weight with equipment-based exercises, e.g., lat pulldowns and push-ups.
Cardiovascular fatigue may be an issue – moving quickly from one exercise to another won’t just challenge your muscles; it could also affect your heart and lungs. If you lack cardiovascular fitness, you could find that your performance in the second exercise is impacted.
This should be less of an issue with biceps/triceps supersets, as these muscles are relatively small and shouldn’t demand much from your cardiovascular system. However, if you find yourself feeling very out of breath, you should take this as an indicator that you need to do more cardio.
Lower training weights – while this won’t be an issue with agonist/antagonist supersets, which can actually increase strength by firing up your nervous system, doing pairs of similar exercises back-to-back will invariably necessitate using lighter weights for the second movement. This will limit your strength gains but shouldn’t hurt hypertrophy or muscle building.
No time to dawdle or dillydally – if you like to stop and chat between exercises, supersets are not for you. Most types involve moving immediately from one exercise to the next, and taking more than a few seconds will make your workout less effective.
If you are new to supersets and usually stop to gossip between exercises, get ready to say, “Can’t stop – doing supersets,” as you move quickly from one movement to the next.
Read more about supersets in this detailed guide.
Biceps and Triceps Superset Workout – Program Overview
Now you know a little more about biceps and triceps anatomy and how and why supersets work, it’s finally time to hit the weights and train your arms!
Do the following workout 1-2 times per week on non-consecutive days, e.g., Monday and Thursday. Make it part of a weekly training split, where you train your remaining body parts on different days.
For example:
#
Days
Workouts
1
Monday
Biceps & Triceps
2
Tuesday
Legs & Shoulders
3
Wednesday
Rest
4
Thursday
Back and Chest
5
Friday
Rest
6
Saturday
Biceps & Triceps
7
Sunday
Rest
But, before you lift any weights, make sure you prepare your muscles and joints for what you are about to do to minimize your risk of injury and improve workout performance. Begin with 5-10 minutes of easy cardio followed by dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for your muscles and joints, focusing on your elbows, shoulders, and lower back.
Related: How to Warm Up for Strength Training
Warmed-up and ready? Good; let’s get to work!
#
Exercise
Sets
Reps
Recovery
1a
Chin-up
4
6-8
2 minutes
1b
Close-grip bench press
2a
EZ barbell curls
3
8-10
90 seconds
2b
EZ barbell skull crushers
3a
Concentration curls
3
12-15
60 seconds
3b
Triceps kickbacks
4a
Biceps cable curl
2*
15-20
30 seconds
4b
Biceps cable pushdown
*Drop set on your final superset.
Exercise Instructions
When it comes to getting the best results from your workout, exercise technique really matters. Doing exercises the right way is generally safer and better for keeping your muscles under tension. In contrast, poor exercise form usually takes work away from the muscles you want to train and can cause injury.
Follow these instructions to ensure you’re doing the exercises in your workout correctly.
1a. Chin-up
Muscles targeted: Biceps, latissimus dorsi, forearms.
No, you haven’t inadvertently strayed onto a back workout, although you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s the case. Chin-ups are a GREAT lat exercise, but also one of the best ways to overload your biceps. Pulling down from above means you don’t have to worry about maintaining good posture or using your legs to help you lift the weight. This means you can go really heavy to build hard, dense, muscular biceps.
Steps:
Hang from your pull-up bar using an underhand, slightly narrower than shoulder-width grip. Brace your core, pull your shoulders back and down, and lift your feet off the floor.
Without kicking or swinging, bend your arms, drive your elbows down and back, and pull your chest up to meet the bar.
Descend smoothly and repeat.
Tips:
Wear a weighted vest to make this exercise harder and keep you within the specified 6-8 rep range.
Use gym chalk or lifting straps to reinforce your grip if necessary.
Do underhand-grip lat pulldowns if you cannot do chin-ups.
1b. Close-grip bench press
Muscles targeted: Triceps, pectoralis major, anterior deltoids.
While this might not be your usual triceps exercise, it’s one of the best for building mass and strength. Yes, your pecs and delts will also get a workout, but it’s your triceps doing the bulk of the work. The good news is that as your close-grip bench press performance improves, so too will your conventional bench press.
Steps:
Lie on your bench with your eyes directly beneath the bar. Hold it with an overhand, slightly less than shoulder-width grip.
Pull your shoulders back and down and press them into the bench. Brace your abs and plant your feet firmly on the floor.
Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest.
Bend your elbows and lower the bar to your chest. Keep your upper arms tucked into your sides.
Drive the weight up to arm’s length and repeat.
Tips:
2a. EZ barbell curls
Muscles targeted: Biceps, brachialis, forearms.
EZ barbell curls are a classic biceps exercise. They put your wrists in a semi-supinated position for a more comfortable, effective workout. Also, you should be able to use the same weight for the next exercise, making this an excellent superset for quick changeovers and busy gyms.
Steps:
Hold your EZ bar with a medium-width, underhand grip. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Brace your core, pull your shoulders back and down, and look straight ahead.
Without using your legs or back for assistance, bend your elbows and curl the bar up to around shoulder height.
Lower it back down to full arm extension and repeat.
Tips:
Do not use your legs or back to help you lift the weight.
Push your elbows forward at the top of each rep to increase biceps engagement.
Pause at the top of each rep and flex your biceps as hard as possible.
2b. EZ barbell skull crushers
Muscles targeted: Triceps.
Skull crushers are so-called because that’s what could happen if you fail to complete a rep or lower the bar too quickly. Use a spotter to prevent accidents but enjoy this challenging yet effective triceps-building exercise. Use the same bar/weight that you used for EZ barbell curls.
Steps:
Lie on your back on a flat bench. Using a medium-width overhand grip, press and hold the barbell over your chest.
Pull your shoulders back and down and plant your feet firmly on the floor. Brace your core.
Keeping your upper arms vertical, bend your elbows and carefully lower the bar to your forehead.
Extend your arms and repeat.
Tips:
Try a slightly declined bench to increase triceps long-head engagement.
Lower the weight toward the top of your head to get a bigger stretch in your triceps.
Take care not to turn this exercise into bench presses. Keep your upper arms vertical and stationary throughout.
3a. Concentration curls
Muscles targeted: Biceps.
Concentration curls are an excellent exercise for building a higher biceps peak. Working one arm at a time, they also allow you to identify and fix any left-to-right imbalances.
Don’t go too heavy with this exercise. Instead, go slow, contract your biceps as hard as possible at the top of each rep, and put your mind in your muscle to fully engage your biceps. Do one set for each arm before moving on to the next exercise.
Steps:
Sit on the end of an exercise bench with a dumbbell in one hand.
Lean forward and rest the back of your upper arm against the inside of your thigh so your elbow is straight and the weight hangs straight down.
Bend your elbow and curl the weight up toward your shoulder. Pause and squeeze your biceps hard.
Extend your arm and repeat.
Switch arms and do the same number of reps on the opposite side.
Tips:
Squeeze your biceps as hard as possible at the top of each rep.
Use your free hand to help you finish your last few reps if necessary.
Supinate (rotate) your forearm as you bend your elbow to maximize muscle engagement.
3b. Triceps kickbacks
Muscles targeted: Triceps.
Many exercisers are quick to dismiss triceps kickbacks, saying they’re too easy or only suitable for women. However, the truth is that kickbacks are an excellent movement, especially for the long head of the triceps. That said, if done correctly, you won’t be able to use a heavy dumbbell, which can be a knock to the ego. Despite this, kickbacks are very effective.
Steps:
Place one hand and one knee on a bench so your upper body is parallel to the floor.
Hold a dumbbell in your other hand, bend your elbow, and pull your elbow up and into your ribs. Your arm should be bent to 90 degrees.
Without moving your upper arm, extend your elbow and push the dumbbell back toward your hip.
Bend your arm back to 90 degrees and repeat.
Switch arms and do the same number of reps on the opposite side.
Tips:
Go light – focus on squeezing and not swinging the weight up.
You can also do this exercise with a cable machine or a resistance band.
Extend your shoulder slightly at the mid-point of each rep to maximize triceps long-head engagement.
4a. Biceps cable curl
Muscles targeted: Biceps.
While there is nothing wrong with freeweight biceps and triceps exercises, cable machines offer a couple of advantages. For starters, they keep your muscles under near-constant tension, creating an incredible pump. Secondly, they’re ideal for drop sets, which are an excellent way to finish your arm workout. Any way you slice it, cable exercises are a great addition to your arm workout.
Steps:
Attach a revolving bar to a low cable machine. Grip the bar with an underhand, slightly narrower than shoulder-width grip.
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, core braced, and upper arms by your sides.
Starting with your arms straight, bend your elbows and curl the handle up to your shoulders.
Extend your arms and repeat.
Do 2-3 drop sets on your last set.
Tips:
Pause at the top of each rep and squeeze your biceps to maximize muscle engagement.
Push your elbows forward slightly at the top of each rep to increase biceps long-head recruitment.
You can also do this exercise with a cable EZ bar if preferred.
4b. Triceps cable pushdown
Muscles targeted: Triceps.
Triceps cable pushdowns are an excellent way to finish your arm workout. They’re a low-skill exercise that leaves you free to focus on cranking out the reps and pushing your triceps to failure. Plus, they’re the perfect exercise for drop sets. Work hard; this is your final exercise.
Steps:
Attach a straight revolving bar to a high pulley machine. Grip the bar with a slightly narrower than shoulder-width overhand grip.
Pull your upper arms down to your sides and stand with your feet hip-width apart, core braced, and knees slightly bent.
Push the bar down toward your upper thighs. Straighten your arms hard to fully engage your triceps.
Bend your elbows as far as possible while keeping your arms next to your sides.
Do 2-3 drop sets on your last set.
Tips:
Pause at the midpoint of each rep and flex your triceps.
Brace your abs and keep your torso stationary throughout.
You can also do this exercise with a rope or EZ bar handle.
Biceps and Triceps Superset Workout – FAQs
Do you have a question about our biceps and triceps superset workout or arm training in general? No sweat because we’ve got the answers!
1. Can I change any of the exercises in this workout?
You are free to make whatever changes you like to these workouts. For example, if you don’t have a cable machine, you could do freeweight, resistance band, or bodyweight exercises instead. Also, if you find any exercise uncomfortable or painful, go ahead and swap it for something more suitable.
However, avoid changing an exercise just because it’s hard. It’s those challenging exercises that drive your progress.
2. What diet should I follow with this workout?
Our superset workout is a bodybuilding program designed to increase upper arm strength and size. To build muscle, you need a calorie surplus and to consume enough protein – typically one gram for every pound of body weight. Also, you should try to eat healthy, as your body needs plenty of vitamins and minerals.
Align your diet to your training to ensure you get the best possible results from your workouts.
3. Will this program work with blood flow restriction training?
Blood flow restriction (BFR) or occlusion training involves working out with snug-fitting elastic bands around your limbs. This reduces or occludes blood flow into the area, making your workout harder while creating more metabolic stress. According to some fitness experts, blood flow training can enhance muscle building.
While you may not want to use BFR wraps for your entire arm workout, you could certainly use them for the final 1-2 exercises.
4. What weights should I use for the exercises in this workout?
Unfortunately, we can’t answer this question because we don’t know how strong you are. So, while it will take a workout or two, you’ll need to experiment to find the right weight.
This weight should take you close to failure within the prescribed rep ranges. For example, for the first two exercises, if you can do more than eight reps, the weight is too light, but if you can’t do six, it’s too heavy. Finetune your workout until you’re in the rep-range sweet spot.
However, you should also strive to increase your weights every week or two. This will ensure you keep making progress. That said, never sacrifice good form for more weight on the bar. Your technique should not change even though you’re using heavier loads.
5. What about forearm training? How can I incorporate that into my arm workout?
Bigger, more muscular forearms can add a lot to the appearance of your arms. Some people find their forearms grow because of their general back and arm training. However, others need to train their forearms more directly to make them grow.
If you fall into the latter category, you could add a forearm superset to your biceps and triceps workout. Choose a wrist flexion and a wrist extension exercise and do them back to back.
For example:
6. How long should I follow this superset arms workout?
Even the best workouts lose their effectiveness after a while, but how long that takes depends on you. People respond differently to the same workout, and while one person may plateau after six weeks, another may still be making gains after three months.
So, stick with the plan for as long as you feel it’s working. Switch to another arm workout when your progress begins to stall. You can always come back to this workout in a few months when, after a break, your muscles should respond to it again.
Closing Thoughts
A lot of exercisers wish they had bigger arms, but you need more than wishes if you want your biceps and triceps to grow. Instead, you must work hard and commit to a long, arduous road of consistent training. Big arms don’t happen by accident.
In terms of time efficiency and effectiveness, superset workouts are hard to beat. They allow you to pack a lot of volume into a short timeframe and also deliver that all-important pump.
Do our biceps and triceps superset workout 1-2 times week for the next couple of months, and your arms are guaranteed to grow. Let’s turn those pistols into rocket launchers!
Lat Pulldown Guide: Muscles Worked, How-To, Benefits, and Different Grips
If you want to build a stronger, more muscular upper back, lat pulldowns will help. Sure, pull-ups and chin-ups are more hardcore and “functional,” but lat pulldowns make it easier to target your muscles with laser-like precision. Small changes to your torso angle or hand width will affect the target muscles differently.
And speaking of your hands, should you do lat pulldowns with a wide, medium, narrow, parallel, overhand, or underhand grip? With so many options, it can be hard to know what’s best.
In this article, we explain how to do lat pulldowns correctly and how the different grips affect your muscles.
Lat Pulldowns – Muscles Worked
Contrary to popular opinion, the “lat” in lat pulldowns doesn’t refer to your latissimus dorsi muscle. Instead, it’s short for lateral, which is the plane of movement that your arms move in when you perform this exercise.
However, despite this naming confusion, lat pulldowns do indeed work your lats. That said, they aren’t working alone, and several other muscles are also involved:
Latissimus dorsi
Known as the lats for short, these muscles are located on the side of your upper back. Connecting your arms to your trunk, the lats are responsible for the adduction and extension of your shoulder joints. They also play a role in medial rotation. When well-developed, the lats look like muscular wings and are responsible for your upper back width.
The lats are the agonist or prime mover during lat pulldowns. However, using different grips and hand widths will allow you to emphasize different regions of this muscle.
Trapezius
The trapezius is the large diamond-shaped muscle that covers much of your mid-upper back. Known as the traps for short, there are three sets of fibers that make up this muscle – upper, middle, and lower. The middle and upper fibers are most active during lat pulldowns, as they work to pull your shoulders together and down. The upper traps are not very active during lat pulldowns.
Rhomboids
Located between your scapulae or shoulder blades, the rhomboids work with the mid-traps to pull your shoulders back and together. There are two pairs of rhomboid muscles – major and minor – and both are working during lat pulldowns.
Deltoids
The deltoids or delts are your main shoulder muscles. Like the traps, there are three sets of deltoid fibers, often referred to as heads – anterior (front), medial (middle), and posterior (rear). All three delt heads work together, but the posterior head is the most active during lat pulldowns.
Rotator cuff
The rotator cuff is a group of four small muscles that control and stabilize your shoulder joint. These muscles are the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. While you won’t be able to see or feel these muscles during lat pulldowns, you can be sure they’re actively engaged.
Biceps brachii
The biceps brachii, more commonly just called the biceps, is your primary elbow flexor and also supinates your forearm, i.e., turns your palm up. Located on the front of your upper arms, your biceps play a critical role in lat pulldowns. Using a supinated or palms-up grip puts your biceps in a stronger position, so you may find that grip allows you to use more weight.
Brachialis
The brachialis is like a mini-biceps, helping to flex your elbows. However, unlike the biceps brachii, this muscle plays no part in the supination of your forearm. As such, it’s equally involved regardless of what grip you use.
Brachioradialis
Brachioradialis is one of your main forearm/wrist flexors and plays a big part in your grip strength. If your hands start to fail before your lats, this muscle is a likely culprit. You can work around a weak grip by using lifting straps. However, it’s also a good idea to work on your grip strength so it is less of a limiting factor in your workouts.
Core
Core is the collective name for the muscles that make up your midsection. During lat pulldowns, you’ll need to use these muscles to stop the weight pulling your spine into hyperextension. The core muscles include the rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae. However, the rectus abdominis is the most active.
How to Do Lat Pulldowns
There are several ways to do lat pulldowns, as outlined later in this article. However, the medium-width overhand grip is arguably the most common variation and the one most lifters should master before moving on to other options.
In addition, all types of lat pulldown share many of the same characteristics, so it makes sense to master this version first.
So, get more from lat pulldowns while keeping your risk of injury to a minimum by following these guidelines.
Attach a long bar to your lat pulldown machine.
Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
Stand up and hold the bar with a pronated/overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip.
Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Do not flex your wrists.
Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.
Pro Tips:
Make lat pulldowns even more effective with these handy performance tips, many of which can be applied to other lat pulldown variations:
Do not lean back or sway to pull the bar down. This takes tension away from the target muscles.
Squeeze and don’t jerk the weight down to minimize momentum and keep your muscles under tension for longer.
Pause at the midpoint of each rep to maximize lats activation and improve your mind-muscle connection.
Use a full range of motion to maximize muscle engagement.
Avoid using too much weight. Ego-lifting will make lat pulldowns less effective. Make sure you can feel the lats doing most of the work and not your biceps.
Pull to the front and not the back. Behind-the-neck lat pulldowns are harder on your shoulders and reduce lat engagement, making the exercise less effective but more risky.
Use a false or thumbless grip which tends to reduce biceps activation and lets you focus more on your lats.
Use lifting chalk to dry your hands, prevent slippage, and reinforce your grip.
Use lifting straps of your hands fail before your lats. However, you should also work on developing a stronger grip.
Lat Pulldown Benefits and Drawbacks
Not sure if lat pulldowns deserve a place in your workouts? Consider these benefits and then decide!
Very adjustable and accessible
Pull-ups and chin-ups are great, but you need to be strong enough to lift your body weight using just your arm and back muscles. This feat may be beyond the ability of many exercisers, either because they’re weak or heavy.
You can adjust the weight with lat pulldowns, so they are accessible to all levels of strength and experience, irrespective of body weight.
Very safe
Performed with good technique and an appropriate load, there is very little to go wrong with lat pulldowns, and accidents and injuries are rare. They’re very shoulder-friendly, and most people can find a grip that is both comfortable and effective.
Perfect for intensity-boosting drop sets
Most lat pulldown machines have selectorized weight stacks, so you can change the load quickly and easily. This makes them ideal for drop sets. Rep out to failure, reduce (or drop) the weight by 10-15%, and then rep out again. Do 2-4 drops to fully exhaust your muscles and stimulate maximal hypertrophy.
Widely available
Most gyms have at least one lat pulldown machine. As such, this is a very accessible exercise, and most gymgoers should be able to include it in their back workouts.
Plenty of variations to choose from
As you will see in the next section, there are numerous ways to perform lat pulldowns, each with a slightly different effect. Lat pulldowns need never be repetitive or boring.
While lat pulldowns are a mostly beneficial exercise, there are also a few drawbacks to consider:
Limited overload
The amount of weight available for lat pulldowns varies from machine to machine. If you are very strong, you may find that you can max out on the lat pulldown at your gym. When this happens, you should seek out a plate-loading lat pulldown machine or graduate to weighted pull-ups.
Using very heavy weights can be difficult
Getting into the correct lat pulldown starting position with a weight greater than your body weight can be a real challenge. You may find yourself dangling from the bar and unable to get your legs under the knee pads.
If this happens to you, you can ask a training partner to help you or may need to switch to pull-ups, where getting into the right starting position is considerably easier.
Equipment requirements
While most gyms have at least one lat pulldown machine, you probably won’t have space for one in your home gym. As such, most home exercisers cannot do lat pulldowns. However, you can replicate this exercise with resistance bands, or you can do pull-ups and chin-ups instead, using a resistance band for assistance if necessary.
10 Lat Pulldown Variations and Alternatives
Basic overhand medium-grip lat pulldowns are an excellent exercise, but if that’s all you ever do, you’ll soon get bored and hit a plateau. Changing your grip will affect the target muscles slightly differently and help you avoid training ruts.
Use these variations to customize your back workout and target the areas you want to develop. However, remember that the lats will always be the engine that drives your lat pulldowns, and any changes you make will only have a very small effect.
1. Overhand wide-grip lat pulldowns
Overhand wide-grip lat pulldowns are very popular with bodybuilders. They use this exercise to increase upper lat width, creating that highly prized V-shaped torso. On the downside, a wide grip is less efficient, so you won’t be able to lift as much weight. This means wide-grip lat pulldowns are good for muscle hypertrophy but less so for building strength.
Steps:
Attach a long bar to your lat pulldown machine.
Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
Stand up and hold the bar with a pronated/overhand, wider than shoulder-width grip. Your arms should form a broad V-shape.
Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Keep your wrists straight.
Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi (upper), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.
Benefits:
Fill out your upper lats to make your back wider.
More challenging than most other lat pulldown variations.
Less weight is needed for an effective workout.
Tips:
Drive your elbows down, back, and in to maximize lat and mid-back engagement.
Keep your wrists straight.
Lift your chest up toward the bar.
2. Overhand close-grip lat pulldowns
You won’t see many people doing overhand close grip lat pulldowns because they’re hard and feel a little awkward. However, they involve a large range of motion, making them useful for developing lat flexibility. They hit your forearms hard and emphasize the lower fibers of your lats.
Steps:
Attach a bar to your lat pulldown machine.
Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
Stand up and hold the bar with a pronated/overhand, slightly less shoulder-width grip.
Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi (lower), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.
Benefits:
An effective way to target the lower lats.
A challenging forearm workout.
Provides your lats with a deep, beneficial stretch.
Tips:
Keep your upper arms close to your sides as you pull down.
Drive your elbows back to maximize lat engagement.
Do not lean back, as doing so makes this exercise easier.
3. Neutral close-grip lat pulldowns
This popular exercise works in much the same way as #2 but is considerably easier on your wrists and more comfortable. The neutral or parallel close grip is also very strong, and most lifters can use more weight for this variation. Like overhand close-grip lat pulldowns, this exercise emphasizes your lower lats and also hits your mid-back.
Steps:
Attach a neutral grip bar to your lat pulldown machine.
Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
Stand up and hold the bar with your palms facing inward.
Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi (lower), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.
Benefits:
A comfortable, joint-friendly grip.
Hits both the mid back and lower lats.
Develop back width and thickness simultaneously.
Tips:
Lean back slightly to increase mid-back engagement.
Use a little more weight than for conventional lat pulldowns.
Use lifting straps to reinforce your grip if necessary.
4. Reverse grip lat pulldowns
Using a reverse or supinated grip puts your biceps in their strongest position, so you should be able to use more weight or crank out more reps before hitting failure. On the downside, using a reverse grip slightly decreases lat engagement, but using more weight or doing more reps should cancel out this deficit.
Steps:
Attach a straight bar to your lat pulldown machine.
Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
Stand up and hold the bar with a slightly less than shoulder-width underhand grip.
Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi (lower), biceps, trapezius, rhomboids, forearms, core.
Benefits:
An excellent biceps and back exercise.
Good for building strength.
A useful precursor to bodyweight chin-ups.
Tips:
Keep your forearms parallel throughout.
Drive your elbows down and back to maximize lat engagement.
Use a little more weight, as this is a strong grip and arm position.
5. Neutral wide grip lat pulldown
Wide grip pulldowns are typically done using a straight bar and a pronated grip. While effective, this puts your arms in a mechanically disadvantageous position, limiting the weight you can use and the number of reps you can perform. Using a wide neutral grip bar makes for a more comfortable workout and puts your biceps in a stronger position. However, not all gyms have such a bar.
Steps:
Attach a long parallel grip bar to your lat pulldown machine.
Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
Stand up and hold the bar with your palms facing inward.
Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi (upper), biceps, trapezius, rhomboids, forearms, core.
Benefits:
A strong, comfortable grip.
Allows you to lift more weight and/or do more reps.
An excellent biceps workout.
Tips:
Pull your elbows down and into your sides to maximize lat engagement.
Keep your chest up throughout.
Pause at the bottom of each rep and flex your lats hard.
6. Cable crossover lat pulldowns
What’s wider than wide-grip lat pulldowns? This exercise! Cable crossover lat pulldowns involve pulling in from the sides, which really hits your upper lats. It’s not unusual to feel this exercise directly beneath your armpits. Use this move to fill in your lat gaps and build the ultimate V-taper.
Steps:
Stand between the uppermost handles of a cable crossover machine and take one in each hand. Kneel in the middle of the machine with your arms outstretched to form a Y-shape.
Lift your chest and pull your shoulders down and back.
Bend your arms and pull your elbows into your sides.
Extend your arms and repeat.
Continue for the desired number of reps.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi (upper), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.
Benefits:
One of the best exercises for wider upper lats.
Very shoulder-friendly.
An excellent back workout finisher.
Tips:
Pause at the midpoint of each rep to hammer your upper lats.
Keep your arms out level with your torso.
Lift your chest to increase upper back engagement.
7. Single-arm lat pulldowns
While it’s common to have one arm stronger than the other, big left-to-right strength imbalances can affect both your appearance and your upper body function. Single-arm lat pulldowns are a simple way to fix such imbalances and are also an excellent method for improving your mind-muscle connection, not to mention your lateral core strength.
Steps:
Attach a long D-shaped handle to your lat pulldown machine.
Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
Stand up and hold the handle with one hand.
Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
Leading with your elbow, bend your arm and pull the handle down to your shoulder. Tuck your elbow into your side.
Smoothly extend your arm and continue for the desired number of reps.
Switch arms and do the same number of reps on the other side.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.
Benefits:
An effective fix for left-to-right strength imbalances.
Good for enhancing your mind-muscle connection.
Delivers an excellent oblique workout.
Tips:
Keep your shoulders and hips level throughout.
Pull your elbow in close to your side to maximize lat engagement.
Use an overhand, neutral, or underhand grip as preferred. Alternatively, let your wrists rotate naturally as you pull down.
8. Straight arm pulldowns
Every lat pulldown variation discussed so far works the biceps as much as the lats. In contrast, straight arm pulldowns involve no elbow movement, and your biceps are left out of the exercise. Straight arm pulldowns are one of the few lat isolation exercises and are ideal for warming up or finishing off your lats.
Steps:
Attach a straight bar to a lat pulldown machine.
Hold the bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Brace your core and pull your shoulders back and down.
With straight arms, step back to tension the cable. Lean forward slightly from your hips.
Without bending your elbows, push the bar down to your thighs.
Raise your arms and repeat.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi (lower), trapezius, rhomboids, core.
Benefits:
One of a few lat isolation exercises.
Perfect for pre- and post-exhaust supersets.
This is an excellent exercise for swimmers and anyone whose sport involves throwing.
Tips:
Keep your chest up, core tight, and lower back slightly arched.
Use as big a range of motion as possible without letting the weights touch down.
Experiment with different grip widths to see which you prefer.
9. Resistance band pulldowns
Home exercisers are often unable to do lat pulldowns. After all, not everyone can fit a lat pulldown machine in their home gym, and chin-ups and pull-ups may be out of the question. The good news is that you can replicate all of the previous exercises using a resistance band and a suitable anchor.
Just ensure that your resistance band is in good condition and won’t snap mid-rep, and your anchor is strong enough and won’t fail. Getting hit in the face by a resistance band is no laughing matter!
Armed with your resistance band, you should have no problem recreating your favorite pulldown exercise and working your lats at home.
10. Pull-ups and chin-ups
If you are very strong or don’t have access to a lat pulldown machine, pull-ups and chin-ups could be your next best option. Yes, you’ll need to up your game and lift your entire body weight with just your arms, but that will only enhance your muscle and strength gains. Pull-ups and chin-ups might be low-tech, but they’re very high-effect and offer a lot of bang for your workout buck.
Steps:
Hang from an overhead bar using a wider-than-shoulder-width overhand grip (pull-ups) or a narrower-than-shoulder-width underhand grip (chin-ups).
Pull your shoulders back and down and brace your core. Bend your legs so your feet are clear of the floor.
Starting with straight arms, bend your elbows and pull your chin up and over your bar.
Smoothly lower yourself back down and repeat.
Muscles targeted:
Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.
Benefits:
Minimal equipment required so ideal for home and outdoor workouts.
A very functional pulling exercise.
A good test of relative strength.
Tips:
Don’t swing, kick, or kip, as doing so takes work away from your target muscles.
Think about lifting your chest and not your chin up to the bar to increase muscle recruitment.
Use a resistance band to make these exercises easier or a weighted vest to make them more challenging.
Lat Pulldown Guide FAQs
Do you have a question about lat pulldowns or back training in general? No problem, because we’ve got the answers.
1. What is an easy way to remember which lat pulldown exercise works which muscles?
With ten different lat pulldown variations and alternatives, it would be easy to forget which one works which muscles. However, there are a couple of ways to make all this information easier to remember.
As a general rule, the wider your grip, the more upper lat activation there will be. Think wide grip for wide lats. In contrast, a narrower grip tends to hit your lower lats more. Exercises that involve more pulling in than pulling down emphasize your middle back, i.e., mid-traps and rhomboids.
Keeping this in mind, you should have no problem identifying which part of your lats you are working on.
2. How many reps and sets should I do to build bigger lats?
Contrary to popular belief, you can build bigger muscles with almost any rep range – from as low as five to 30 reps or more. The main proviso is that you must train your muscles to within a couple of reps of failure to make them grow. This contrasts the 6-12 rep range that was once the standard recommendation for hypertrophy training.
That said, sets of 6-12 are arguably more time-efficient than sets of 30 or more, so use your best judgment when deciding how many reps to do.
Regarding sets, two to four should be sufficient for most people, especially if you are doing several back exercises in a row. If you feel you need more than four sets to fatigue your lats, you are either stopping your sets too soon before failure or resting too long between efforts.
3. How many times a week should I train my back?
While some lifters can get good results from one back workout per week, most people will make better progress if they train their backs twice a week, e.g., Monday and Thursday. This provides a good balance between work and recovery.
However, this doesn’t mean you should do the same back workout each time you train – that would soon become boring. Instead, create two different back programs to keep your workouts interesting and productive.
For example:
#
Workout one
Workout two
Exercise
Sets x reps
Exercise
Sets x reps
1
Deadlifts
4 x 4-6
Pendlay rows
4 x 4-6
2
Wide-grip lat pulldown
3 x 8-10
Close-grip lat pulldowns
3 x 8-10
3
Single-arm rows
3 x 10-12
Seated cable rows
3 x 10-12
4
Straight arm pulldowns
3 x 15-20
Dumbbell pullovers
3 x 15-20
5
Face pulls
3 x 15-20
Band pull-aparts
3 x 15-20
4. How much wider will wide-grip lat pulldowns make my back?
Unfortunately, this is one of those questions we cannot answer. That’s because your ultimate muscle shape and size are determined by several factors, including your genetics, muscle origin and insertion points, training history, attention to diet, rest, and recovery, and your commitment and motivation.
Even if we knew all these things, we don’t have a crystal ball and cannot see into the future!
So, all we can say is if you train hard, eat right, get plenty of sleep, and don’t quit, you can significantly increase your back width. Build your workouts around lat pulldowns and pull-ups, and you’ll be heading in the right direction.
5. What are the best exercises for building a thicker upper back?
While lat pulldowns are great for building back width, rows build upper back thickness. There are lots of effective rowing exercises, including:
Bent-over barbell rows
T-bar rows
Cable rows
Inverted rows
Single-arm dumbbell rows
Chest-supported rows
Kroc rows
Pendlay rows
Meadows rows
Yates rows
With so many different exercises to choose from, you should have no problem finding the perfect rows for your needs and goals. Combine vertical and horizontal pulling exercises to build a back that’s both wide AND thick.
Lat Pulldown Guide – Wrapping Up
Lat pulldowns deserve a place in everybody’s back workout. Regardless of which variation you perform, this popular exercise will help you develop a broader, stronger, more muscular upper back. You can emphasize your lower lats with close grip lat pulldown variations or spread your wings with a wide grip. Most lifters should do both.
However, wide lats are only part of what makes an impressive back; you also need thickness, which is where rows come in. Combine vertical and horizontal pulling exercises to build an impressive 3D back that looks good from every angle.
Yoga Push-Up Guide: Muscles Worked, How-To, Benefits, and Alternatives
The classic push-up is one of the best exercises you can do for your upper body. Requiring nothing more than the space to lie down, you can pump out push-ups anywhere and anytime, which is why they’re such a favorite of the military, martial artists, prisoners, and home exercisers alike.
Standard push-ups are almost unbeatable, and training to do more push-ups will increase chest, shoulder, and triceps muscle size and endurance.
However, as potent as push-ups are, you can have too much of a good thing. Do enough push-ups, and they can lose some effectiveness and even become boring.
That’s why most push-up aficionados include different push-up variations in their workouts, including decline, diamond, paused, deficit, and explosive push-ups. While each of these push-up exercises uses many of the same muscles, they hit them in a slightly different way.
And now you can add a new exercise to your push-up arsenal – yoga push-ups.
In this article, we reveal why and how to do this fantastic exercise and some of the best variations and alternatives.
Yoga Push-Ups – Muscles Worked
Yoga push-ups are a compound upper-body exercise. This means they work multiple joints and muscles working together. The main muscles involved in yoga push-ups are:
Pectoralis major
Known as the pecs for short, these muscles make up the bulk of your chest. There are three sets of pec fibers, called heads: clavicular (upper), sternal (mid), and coastal/abdominal (lower). The pecs are the agonist or main muscle trained during yoga push-ups. All three pec heads are involved in this exercise.
Deltoids
The deltoids, or delts, are your primary shoulder muscles. Like the pecs, there are three sets of deltoid fibers or heads: anterior (front), medial (middle), and posterior (rear). All three deltoid heads are involved in yoga push-ups, but the anterior head is the most active. The medial and posterior delts work mostly as stabilizers.
Triceps brachii
Better known simply as the triceps, this three-headed muscle is located on the back of your upper arm and is mainly responsible for elbow extension. Because of its relatively small size, the triceps are usually the first muscle to fail during yoga push-ups.
Serratus anterior
Also known as the boxer’s muscle, the serratus anterior is located on the side of your chest and is responsible for keeping your scapulae or shoulder blades flat against your ribs. This muscle is so-called because, when well-developed and you are lean enough to see it, it looks like the blade of a serrated knife.
Trapezius
The unusual shoulder movement during yoga push-ups means your trapezius is more active than with regular push-ups. The trapezius is the large, flat, kite-shaped muscle of your upper back. It comprises three sets of fibers: upper, middle, and lower. All three groups of fibers work during yoga push-ups, but the upper fibers are the most active.
Core
Core is the collective name for the muscles that encircle your waist, including the rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae. These muscles contract inward to increase intra-abdominal pressure, which helps support your lumbar spine and prevent unwanted movement. Yoga push-ups are more core-centric than regular push-ups.
While yoga push-ups are most definitely an upper-body exercise, your legs are also involved. You’ll need to use your glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings to keep your lower body straight and rigid. However, the load on these muscles is pretty low, so you’ll still need to train your legs separately if you want to make them stronger or more muscular.
How to Do Yoga Push-Ups
Get more from yoga push-ups while keeping your risk of injury to a minimum by following these guidelines:
Squat down and place your hands flat on the floor, roughly shoulder-width apart, and fingers pointing forward. Brace your core and pull your shoulders down and back.
Walk your feet out and back so your body is straight. Engage your legs to stabilize your lower body.
Bend your arms and lower your chest down to within an inch of the floor.
Next, push up and back, lifting your hips up toward the ceiling. Gently push your head between your arms to extend your shoulders, open your chest, and stretch your lats.
Keep your legs as straight as possible, and press your heels down toward the floor. Your body should now resemble an inverted V.
Return to the starting position, bend your arms, and repeat.
Pro Tips:
Inhale as you lower your chest to the floor, and exhale as you push yourself back and up.
Experiment with the width of your hands to see what feels the most comfortable.
Pause at the midpoint of each rep to maximize the stretching and mobilizing effect of this exercise.
Do yoga push-ups as part of your warm-up or morning routine or during your chest or shoulder workout.
Use push-up handles to increase your range of motion and take stress off your wrists.
Yoga Push-Up Benefits and Drawbacks
Not sure if yoga push-ups deserve a place in your workouts? Consider these benefits and then decide!
Anywhere, anytime
Like most push-up variations, you can do this exercise almost anywhere and anytime. As such, yoga push-ups are perfect for home exercisers and anyone who wants an excuse-free upper body workout.
An effective mobilizer
While yoga push-ups are a great upper-body muscular endurance exercise, they’re also an effective full-body mobilizer. A few reps of yoga push-ups will stretch your shoulders, chest, upper back, lower back, hips, hamstrings, and calves. This means yoga push-ups aren’t just a conditioning exercise but are also suitable for warm-ups.
Increased shoulder engagement
All push-ups involve your deltoids, but yoga push-ups work them more than most. The semi-inverted position at the mid-point of each rep is similar to that of an overhead press or handstand push-up, both of which are great deltoid exercises.
While yoga push-ups are a mostly beneficial exercise, there are also a few drawbacks to consider:
No regressions
There is no obvious way to make yoga push-ups easier. With regular push-ups, you can always bend your legs and rest on your knees to do three-quarter push-ups. Unfortunately, there is no such regression for yoga push-ups.
Potentially more shoulder stress than regular push-ups
Some exercisers struggle with overhead movements and find they cause shoulder discomfort and pain. Yoga push-ups place your arms overhead, so they may cause more shoulder joint stress than other types of push-ups. If yoga push-ups bother your shoulders, you should drop them from your program.
7 Yoga Push-Up Variations and Alternatives
Yoga push-ups are a highly effective upper-body exercise, but that doesn’t mean you need to do them all the time. There are several variations and alternatives you can use to keep your workouts productive and interesting:
1. Feet-elevated yoga push-up
While there is nothing wrong with doing a few yoga push-ups to mobilize and warm up your upper body, some people prefer to do them as a main workout exercise. If you want to overload more than stretch your muscles, feet-elevated yoga push-ups are the answer.
Steps:
Adopt the push-up position with your feet on a knee-high box or step. Brace your core, set your shoulders down and back, and engage your legs.
Bend your arms and lower your chest to about an inch above the floor.
Push back and up and lift your hips into the air so your body resembles an inverted V.
Return to the push-up position, bend your arms, and repeat.
Muscles targeted:
Primary: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
Secondary: Core.
Benefits:
A more demanding variation of yoga push-ups.
A great movement for more experienced exercisers.
Even better for mobilizing the shoulders and hips.
Tips:
Make sure your bench/step is stable and won’t tip over.
Warm up your hamstrings before attempting this exercise.
Take care not to hyperextend your lower back.
2. Single-leg yoga push-ups
Yoga push-ups provide a welcome core workout. However, the core is not working all that hard. This single-leg variation is much more core-centric and provides an excellent flexion/anti-rotation core workout.
Steps:
Adopt the push-up position with straight arms, core braced, and shoulders back and down. Lift one foot off the floor.
Bend your arms and lower your chest to about an inch above the floor.
Push back and up and lift your hips into the air so your body resembles an inverted V.
Return to the push-up position, bend your arms, and repeat.
Switch legs set by set.
Muscles targeted:
Primary: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
Secondary: Core.
Benefits:
An intense core and upper body exercise.
More leg and glute engagement than regular yoga push-ups.
Requires and develops greater coordination and positional awareness.
Tips:
Wear non-slip shoes or do this exercise barefoot.
Lift your non-weight-bearing leg higher to engage your glutes more.
You can also do this exercise with your foot on a step or box, i.e., single-leg foot elevated yoga push-ups.
3. Toe-tap yoga push-ups
Toe-tap yoga push-ups increase shoulder and core engagement while adding a rotational element for greater spinal mobility. If regular yoga push-ups are not challenging enough, and you don’t have a step to put your feet on, this is the next logical progression.
Steps:
Adopt the push-up position with straight arms, core braced, and shoulders back and down.
Bend your arms and lower your chest to about an inch above the floor.
Push back and up and lift your hips into the air so your body resembles an inverted V.
Reach back with one hand and touch your opposite foot.
Return to the push-up position and repeat.
Alternate sides rep by rep.
Muscles targeted:
Primary: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
Secondary: Core.
Benefits:
More challenging than regular yoga push-ups.
Increased core engagement.
Greater mobility, balance, and coordination demands.
Tips:
Touch your shin and not your toes if you lack flexibility.
Try to hinge from your hips rather than round your lower back.
You can also do this exercise with your feet on a step or box, i.e., feet elevated toe-tap yoga push-ups.
4. Y-reach yoga push-up
This yoga push-up variation works your upper back as well as your chest, shoulders, and triceps. As such, it’s both time-efficient and a great way to prepare your major muscles and joints for upcoming workouts.
Steps:
Adopt the push-up position with straight arms, core braced, and shoulders back and down.
Bend your arms and lower your chest to the floor.
Lift your hands off the floor and extend your arms forward to form a Y-shape. Point your thumbs up to the ceiling.
Bring your hands back in and under your shoulders.
Push back and up and lift your hips into the air so your body resembles an inverted V.
Return to the push-up position, bend your arms, and repeat.
Muscles targeted:
Primary: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
Secondary: Core.
Benefits:
An excellent postural exercise.
Trains your pushing and pulling muscles simultaneously for a time-efficient upper body workout.
A great way to prepare your upper body for your upcoming workout.
Tips:
Place a folded exercise mat under your hips for comfort.
Keep your upper back engaged and shoulders pulled down and back throughout.
Take care not to lift your head and hyperextend your neck when lying on the floor. Tuck your chin in and look down.
5. Dive bomber push-ups
Dive bomber push-ups are very similar to yoga push-ups. However, they involve some additional movements designed to increase spinal mobility. Dive bomber push-ups are great for loosening up your entire back after a long day sitting at your desk.
Steps:
Adopt the push-up position and then lift your hips into the air. Brace your core and pull your shoulders back and down.
Bend your arms and lower your head toward the floor.
Imagining you are ducking under a low bar, lower your chest to the floor, and then, keeping your hips low, extend your arms and push your upper body away from the ground.
Reverse the motion, again ducking under that imaginary bar, and repeat.
Muscles targeted:
Primary: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
Secondary: Core.
Benefits:
An excellent mobilizer for the entire spine.
A challenging alternative to regular push-ups.
More lat engagement than with regular push-ups.
Tips:
Adopt a wide stance to take tension off your hamstrings.
Use push-up handles for less wrist strain and a bigger range of motion.
Take care not to hyperextend your spine.
6. Pike push-ups
Yoga push-ups work your chest and deltoids pretty equally. But, if you want to focus more on your shoulders and avoid working your chest, pike push-ups are the exercise for you. They also involve less coordination than yoga push-ups, so they may be a better option for some beginners.
Steps:
Adopt the push-up position with your arms straight and hands roughly shoulder-width apart.
Lift your hips and push your butt back so your body resembles an inverted V. Brace your abs.
Bend your arms and lower your head to the floor, taking care not to bump it.
Extend your arms and repeat.
Muscles targeted:
Primary: Deltoids, triceps.
Secondary: Core.
Benefits:
An excellent bodyweight deltoid exercise.
More weight on your arms than conventional push-ups.
Simpler to learn than yoga push-ups.
Tips:
Experiment with the width of your hands to see what works best and feels most comfortable.
Use parallettes, push-up handles, or yoga blocks to increase your range of motion.
You can also do this exercise with your feet elevated, like this:
7. Mike Tyson push-ups
While boxer Mike Tyson probably didn’t invent this exercise, his use of it means it now bears his name! Yoga push-ups require good hamstring flexibility to perform them correctly. Mike Tyson push-ups work the same muscles but without needing such supple hammies.
Steps:
Adopt the push-up position with your feet pressed against the bottom of a wall to stop them from slipping.
Bend your arms and lower your chest to the floor.
Extend your arms, bend your legs, and push your hips backward so you’re in a semi-crouched potation.
Extend your legs and descend into another rep.
Muscles targeted:
Primary: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
Secondary: Core.
Benefits:
A more accessible exercise for people with tight hamstrings.
A challenging chest and deltoid exercise.
It was Iron Mike Tyson’s favorite exercise!
Tips:
Keep your feet pressed against the wall throughout.
Experiment with the position of your hands to see what’s comfortable and works best.
Take care to flex from your hips and not round your back as you move into the semi-crouched position.
Yoga Push-Up FAQs
Do you have a question about yoga push-ups or push-up training in general? Don’t worry because we’ve got the answers!
1. How many reps and sets of yoga push-ups should I do?
Because yoga push-ups are a bodyweight exercise, it’s hard to say how many reps you should do. Depending on your body weight and fitness, you might be able to do 10, 30, or even 50 reps, so telling you how many to do would be a mistake.
So, you’ll have to determine how many reps to do. Start your set and continue until you cannot do any more reps in good form. Then, as the weeks pass, do your best to crank out more reps. However, never sacrifice good (and safe) technique for more reps. The trade-off isn’t worth it.
In terms of sets, 3-5 should be enough for most people. If you can do more than this, you probably aren’t pushing your sets close enough to failure, or you are resting too long between efforts.
2. Can I do yoga push-ups every day?
You can do yoga push-ups daily provided you don’t train them too hard each time you work out. For example, you could do 3-4 hard sets close to failure one day and a couple of easy sets for mobility and warming up the next. This will give your muscles the time they need to rest, recover, and adapt to your more intense workouts.
Related: 12 Reasons to Do Push-Ups Every Day
3. Will yoga push-ups build muscle?
Provided you take your sets close to failure, yoga sets could help you build bigger pecs, delts, and triceps. However, this may entail doing high-rep sets, which is not the best use of your training time.
So, if you want to build muscle with yoga push-ups, choose a variation that takes you close to muscular failure in 20 reps or less. This will save you from doing long, inefficient workouts.
4. Are yoga push-ups safe?
Yoga push-ups should be safe for most exercisers. After all, with no barbell to come crashing down on your chest, they’re obviously much less risky than bench presses. That said, the overhead aspect of yoga push-ups means that they put some stress on your shoulders. So, if overhead presses bother your shoulders, yoga push-ups probably will, too.
If you have a history of shoulder pain, introduce yoga push-ups gradually and be prepared to drop them from your workouts if they bother your joints. However, people with healthy shoulders should have no problems with this exercise.
5. Are yoga push-ups better than regular push-ups?
While yoga push-ups differ from regular push-ups, that doesn’t mean they’re better. Yoga push-ups involve more shoulder and core engagement and also mobilize your hips and spine. Regular push-ups do not do this. However, if those benefits don’t interest you, it would be wrong to say that yoga push-ups are better.
In almost every instance, the best exercise is the one that delivers the results you want, is the safest, and that you enjoy. For some, this will be yoga push-ups; for others, regular push-ups will be the best.
Therefore, it’s up to you to determine which is the correct push-up for you.
Yoga Push-Ups – Wrapping Up
With so many types of push-ups to choose from, it can be hard to know which one to do. After all, they’re all excellent, and you can do most of them anywhere and anytime. Regular push-ups are most people’s first choice, but they have their limitations.
Yoga push-ups are an excellent exercise for working your chest, shoulders, and triceps while simultaneously mobilizing your hips and lower back. They’re also a little more core-centric than regular push-ups.
So, whether you’re bored of regular push-ups or just want a new challenge, why not give yoga push-ups a go? Try ‘em; we think you’re going to love ‘em!
The No Weight Equipment Arm Workout for Bigger Guns
Showing up at the gym at five o’clock is futile; crowded dumbbell areas, every squat and power rack occupied, and a sense of claustrophobia take place. You look around and scratch your head wondering where to start and how in the world you will get an effective workout in this zoo you call a gym.
The answer may seem simple, but one that many have scoffed at time and again: adopt a minimal equipment workout that enables you to train arms from anywhere. As foregoing traditional equipment such as dumbbells and barbells, not to mention weight machines and utilizing your body weight, isn’t anything new; the concern lies in the effectiveness of said workouts.
Many see bodyweight training as easy or only used for maintenance. However, you can build appreciable muscle mass if you do bodyweight training correctly. A recent study by the leading researcher in muscular hypertrophy, Brad Schoenfeld, reported that sets performed in the lower rep range and heavier loads (3 sets of 7 reps) and lighter weight with higher reps (25 to 35 reps) yielded similar hypertrophy results. [1]
Advantages of No Equipment Training
Let’s look at some advantages of no-equipment training and see if it’s a good fit for your next arm workout:
The Solution to a Crowded Gym
Nothing is more frustrating than entering the gym ready to put your perfect plan for bigger arms into action when you look around and find no place to go. So when every rack, dumbbell, barbell, and machine is occupied, creativity is paramount. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to fall back on. Chin-up bars, suspension trainers, and even the floor become highly effective tools for building larger, sleeve-busting arms.
Builds muscle mass
By now, you know all too well the infamous definition of insanity: doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. A no-equipment arm workout will surely spur more than enough diverse stimulation and shock your arms into growing. It’s not just a minor modification of a dumbbell arm curl or a slight shift in elbow angle during a triceps pushdown. It’s an entirely new challenge.
Using Little to No Equipment Will Put Excitement Back Into Your Training
The sheer novelty of doing something new will boost motivation and skyrocket your progress to new heights. Science Daily looked at a study concluding that people learn from new experiences without even trying [2]. This trigger can be advantageous when trying new exercises, especially ones you’ve never tried before.
Now let’s look at some specific, highly effective arm exercises when the gym is crowded, and you’re unable to use the traditional means to build your arms, or you just want something new.
Bodyweight Biceps Exercises
Add the following bodyweight biceps exercises to your exercise arsenal:
Suspension trainer biceps curl
Generally speaking, muscle activation is greater during suspension training versus comparable traditional movements. A study from the Sports Biomechanics Journal looked at many criteria regarding muscle activation, including electromyographic signals, and found that suspension training was superior to the more traditional moves. [3]
For the suspension biceps curl, affix a suspension trainer rig high on a sturdy bar or station. Grasp the handles and place your feet close to the anchor point. Lean back and extend your arms so they are perpendicular to your torso. With your palms facing the ceiling, bend only at your elbows to bring your forehead toward your hands. Your body should remain in a plank position and move toward the anchor point. Once your biceps are contracted and beside your head, reverse the motion and straighten your arms.
Variations: A simple modification to either progress or regress the difficulty is to adjust your stance. The closer your feet are to the anchor point, the more challenging the exercise. The more your feet are placed below your hips, the easier it is. Whichever variation you choose, keep your elbows high and stationary while performing the move slowly and under control.
Biceps chin-up
Another non-traditional biceps builder is the reverse grip chin-up. Normally performed to develop the back, a few tweaks can make this into one effective biceps builder. To place the most stress on your biceps, grasp the overhead bar with an underhand grip about shoulder-width apart. Contract your midsection and round your back slightly. This will take the stress off of your back. Curl your body up with your biceps, bringing your shoulders toward your hands. Flex hard at the top and then return under control.
Variations: If you’re not the best at the chin-up and need to make the exercise a bit easier, you can loop a band around the bar overhead and step into the other end to lessen the body weight lifted. Or you can place your toes on a bench or box to assist you. Either way, work your way to lifting your body weight over time. Another regression is performing the same exercise on a lower rack with your feet on the floor and legs extended out in front of you as if you were going to perform a reverse rack row.
To progress the exercise, pause at the top of the movement for a count of two before slowly lowering to the start position.
Inverted rack curl
Think of this as a combination of the suspension curl and chin-up. Assume a sitting position under a stable bar in a rack or Smith machine. Take an underhand grip above your head and straighten your body from shoulders to feet. Curl your body up and your forehead toward the bar, then return to the bottom extended position.
Variations: Raising the bar will make the exercise a bit easier since more body weight will be supported by your feet. Lowering the bar raises the difficulty since your arms will be under more total body load.
Suspension trainer lateral curl
Stand with your right shoulder closest to the suspension trainer. Grasp the handle with your palm facing the ceiling and extend straight to your side. Your entire arm should be nearly level with your head. Begin by curling your arm and raising your body toward your hand. Extend back down by straightening your arm. This biceps exercise is considered a bit advanced, so be careful not to loosen up your form at risk for injury.
Variations: As with other suspension trainer exercises, the closer you move your feet toward the anchor point of the trainer, the more challenging it becomes. The less angle to the anchor point, the easier it becomes.
Best Triceps Exercises
Here are some of the most effective bodyweight triceps exercises:
Suspension trainer triceps extension
The triceps extension is a demanding but adjustable exercise that can be done pretty much anywhere with a suspension trainer. Affix a suspension trainer overhead on a pull-up bar or some other stable foundation. Grasp the handles facing away from where the suspension trainer is anchored. Back your feet up and extend your entire body with your hands overhead. Maintaining a planked body position, bend only at the elbows as your body lowers toward the ground. Your hands should move past your ears. Reverse direction and straighten your arms out once again.
Variations: As with suspension trainer biceps curls, adjusting your stance can make the exercise more or less challenging, depending on your strength and ability. Moving your feet back toward the anchor point will impose more body weight into the movement, and moving them out will make it easier. Adjust as necessary.
Triceps push-up
As an old favorite but often forgotten exercise for triceps is the push-up with hands placed close together. Also called diamond push-ups, a study from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse looked at the triceps activity with electromyography comparing traditional triceps exercises such as pushdowns, close-grip bench presses, and skull crushers with triceps push-ups. The study found that triceps push-ups had the most significant muscle activation. [4]
Start by assuming a plank position with your hands about six inches apart. Lower your body toward the floor while keeping your elbows by your sides. Stop just a few inches from the floor before returning to the top position.
Variations: There are many ways to make triceps push-ups more challenging. First, you can simply place your feet on an elevated surface or a bench to transfer more stress to your upper body. Additionally, you can add instability, such as your feet looped into a suspension trainer or placing your hands on a small medicine ball. You can also slow the exercise’s cadence and pause at the bottom for a count or two.
Rack triceps press
Stand in front of a stable bar in a rack or Smith machine bar that is about hip height. Grasp the bar with an overhand grip a little wider than shoulder width. Step back with your feet until your body is straight and your arms arm extended out in front of your torso. Bending your elbows, slowly lower your body toward the bar as your head moves closer to the bar. Allow your head to dip below the bar as your elbows are fully bent. Reverse the direction until your arms are extended once again.
Variations: Raising the bar higher will allow you to perform more reps and is apt for beginners. As you move the bar lower to the floor, more stress is placed on your triceps for a more advanced version.
Suspension trainer triceps press-down
Getting that powerful triceps contraction can easily be achieved without a cable machine. Utilizing a suspension trainer stand facing the anchor point of the trainer. Hold the handles by your sides with your palms facing behind you. Slowly raise the handles by bending at the elbows as your body leans back slightly. Once your hands are parallel with your elbows, press and straighten them back down and back as you contract your triceps.
Variations: Standing closer to the anchor point will increase the amount of stress on your triceps, calling for more intensity and strength. Advance to more difficult variations only after you’ve mastered the basics first.
Whichever variation you choose, be sure to master the basic movement before progressing to more challenging versions.
Sample No Weight Equipment Arm Workout Program
Here’s a quick sample program you can plug into any workout any day of the week. Use as a shock to replace your normal arm program or adopt it for several weeks, progressing with each exercise. Shoot for performing the following routine at least twice per week.
Biceps
Suspension trainer biceps curl: 3 x 10-15 reps
Biceps chin-up: 3 x as many as possible
Inverted rack curl: 3 x 10-15
Suspension trainer lateral curl: 3 x 10-15
Triceps
Suspension trainer triceps extension: 3 x 10-15 reps
Triceps push-up: 3 x as many as possible
Rack triceps press: 3 x 10-15
Suspension trainer triceps press down: 3 x 10-15
Wrapping Up
If you’re still skeptical about building appreciable amounts of muscle without dumbbells, barbells, and other more traditional means, then maybe it’s time you try the above program. Perfect the exercises, progress like you would any other program, and be sure to challenge yourself with more difficult versions. You have nothing to lose and only more muscle to gain to fill out those sleeves just in time for summer.
References
Schoenfeld B., Wilson, J, & Lowery, R. (2016). Muscular adaptations in low- versus high-load resistance training: a meta-analysis. Eur J Sport Sci., 16, 1–10.
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology). (2020, February 5). Novelty speeds up learning thanks to dopamine activation. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 12, 2023, from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200205132255.htm
Aguilera-Castells, Joan & Buscà, Bernat & Fort-Vanmeerhaeghe, Azahara & Montalvo, Alicia & Peña, Javier. (2020). Muscle activation in suspension training: a systematic review. Sports Biomechanics. 19. 55-75. 10.1080/14763141.2018.1472293.
Boehler, B. (2011). Electromyographic analysis of the triceps brachii muscle during a variety of triceps exercises. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
CrossFit Cluster Exercise Guide: How To, Benefits, Muscles Worked, and Variations
CrossFit is a unique sport. It involves beginner-friendly simple movements like the air squat, shoulder press, and kettlebell swings. On the flip side, it also incorporates demanding exercises such as rope climbs, pig flips, and Olympic lifts (clean and jerk and snatch) that get elite athletes on their knees.
Most CrossFit WODs (workout of the day) consist of circuits that combine two or more movements. The CrossFit cluster takes this a step further, merging the thruster with the clean into a single exercise.
Interestingly, the thruster is a combination of two exercises — the front squat and the push press. Adding the clean to the mix makes the cluster a blend of three compound (multi-joint) movements.
CrossFit has set itself apart by requiring its athletes to perform unique and challenging compound exercises that help you work your entire body in a short time. The cluster fits the bill perfectly.
In this article, we go over the fundamentals of the CrossFit cluster, and everything you need to know about it to master the movement, including its benefits, correct form, common mistakes, variations, and the muscles worked during this exercise.
What is a CrossFit Cluster?
A CrossFit cluster combines two exercises — the clean and the thruster. The compound exercise works your entire body. Most WODs have just the right amount of clusters as chippers or in a circuit to destroy you by the end of the workout.
Each cluster begins from the ground. You must lift the bar to your hip height and catch it in the front rack position at the bottom of a squat. The rest of the movement is the same as the thruster. From the bottom of the front squat, stand up by extending your knees and driving through your midfoot. As you’re about to achieve full knee extension, use the momentum to drive the bar overhead and lock out your elbows. Return the bar to the front rack position.
In the thruster, you would go right into a squat after catching the bar and repeat for the recommended reps. However, you will return the bar to the floor with each rep while doing the cluster. Adding the cleans makes the cluster much more demanding than the thrusters.
You must follow the perfect form while performing the cluster to avoid unnecessary strain on your lower back. Lifting with a rounded back is one of the most common mistakes while doing this exercise.
Muscles Worked During CrossFit Cluster
The CrossFit cluster is a full-body exercise, recruiting almost every muscle fiber in your body. It is such an effective compound exercise that we think this section should be titled “Muscles not worked in a CrossFit Cluster.” Nonetheless, here are the muscles stimulated in this exercise:
Legs
The cluster works your quads during the initial lift off the floor; your glutes and hamstrings are activated as you get into the squat after catching the bar. This exercise is a complete leg builder that will help you add strength and size to your lower body.
Back
While performing the cluster, you’ll experience latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, teres major and minor, and trapezius muscle engagement. Since this is a hip-hinge movement, you’ll also feel lower back stimulation.
Shoulders
From pulling the bar off the floor and pressing it overhead, you’ll experience shoulder engagement. Cycle through the cluster reps, and you’ll feel a sick anterior and lateral deltoid pump.
Arms
The first half of the movement involves pulling the bar to the front rack, resulting in biceps engagement. The second half requires you to press the bar overhead, which will fire up your triceps.
Core
Performing a clean, especially while lifting heavier, requires a strong core. Your midriff and stabilizers will also be in action as you press the bar overhead and complete a lockout. Folks that lack a solid core will have trouble completing a heavy overhead lockout.
Benefits of CrossFit Cluster
Adding the cluster to your exercise arsenal entails the following benefits:
Boosts Your Skills
CrossFit involves a lot of skills. Most WODs involve a healthy chunk of high-skill weightlifting moves such as the Olympic lifts and gymnastics moves like handstand walks and ring muscle-ups.
The cluster helps you improve at Olympic lifts by incorporating the clean, front squat, and overhead press into a single movement. It will aid in improving your technique and get you better results faster.
Full-Body Exercise
The cluster is a full-body exercise that will help you build overall strength and muscle mass. This compound exercise will improve your functionality, making you better at other exercises and day-to-day activities.
The cluster will also improve your metabolic conditioning, boosting your performance in demanding workouts.
Helps Build Strength and Muscle Mass
The compound exercise will boost your strength and muscle mass. You must, however, program your workouts accordingly. Stay in the 1-5 rep range to focus on strength. On the other hand, the 8-12 range is optimal for hypertrophy. [1]
Enhances Endurance and Stamina
Perform high-rep sets of clusters, and you’d be gasping for breath. Adding cluster ladders to your WODs will help you build stamina and endurance, translating to better performance in demanding workouts.
Improves Coordination
There are several moving parts in the cluster. You need to clean the barbell off the floor, perform a squat, and then do an overhead press. Doing this exercise regularly will help improve your hand-eye coordination.
How To Do a CrossFit Cluster
The CrossFit cluster is a complex lift. You must dial in your technique to get the best bang for your buck. There will be a lot of tips and tricks, so pay close attention. Here is how to perform the cluster with the perfect form:
Steps:
Place a barbell against your shins and stand upright with a shoulder-wide stance.
Grab the bar using a shoulder-wide hook grip. Your hip crease should be below your knees crease. This will help you use your quads in the initial phase of the lift.
Your chest should be open, and you should look straight ahead while at the bottom of the lift.
Pull the bar to your hip level while keeping it close to your body by driving through your midfoot.
Pull the bar faster as it crosses your knees, and you stand upright by extending your knees.
The bar should make contact with your hips. At this point, lean back slightly, generate momentum by getting on your heels, and pull the bar toward your shoulders.
In one motion, jump your feet wide and get under the bar to catch it in the front rack position at the bottom of the squat.
Get out of the hole explosively by driving through your midfoot.
Press the bar overhead as you reach the top of the movement.
Move your head through your arms to achieve a lockout.
Lower the bar to a front rack position.
Repeat for reps.
CrossFit Cluster Tips
Pull the slack out of the bar at the bottom by pulling the bar slightly off the floor. This will help ensure a smooth upward movement.
You can skip jumping your feet out if you are comfortable with your initial stance and can use it to push the weight overhead.
Your elbows should trace over the bar in the initial part of the lift and drop below the bar as you catch it in a squat. This will help you keep control of the barbell.
Avoid rounding your back or looking down in the initial phase of the cluster, as it can put unnecessary strain on your neck.
Driving through your heels or toes will throw you off balance. Drive through your midfoot to maintain your center of gravity.
This Exercise:
Target Muscle Groups: Back, Legs, Shoulders, Arms, and Core
Type: Strength
Mechanics: Compound
Equipment: Barbell
Difficulty: Intermediate
Best Rep Range: 8-12 Reps
Common Mistakes While Performing a CrossFit Cluster
Stay clear of the following cluster errors for optimal gains and to avoid injuries:
Improper Form
Like all the other exercises, you only get better at the cluster with practice. Since this is a compound movement, lifters tend to make several mistakes initially. You must not yank the bar off the floor in the first half of the lift, as it can throw you off balance.
Keep your chin tucked and your eyes locked straight ahead throughout the exercise. Tilting your head toward the ceiling or the floor will again make the lift unstable. Plus, many lifters get on their toes too soon. You must wait for the bar to reach your hip level before using your feet to generate extra momentum.
Not Warming Up
The cluster is a full-body exercise, meaning a lot can go wrong while performing this exercise. Many people increase their odds of injury by not warming up before a workout. You must spend 10-15 minutes warming up before a training session for optimal performance.
Furthermore, compound lifts like the cluster require a decent amount of mobility. You must work on improving your flexibility and mobility to get better at the Olympic lifts.
Going Too Heavy
This is one of the most common mistakes lifters make while doing the cluster. Since this exercise is a combination of three lifts, many people load the bar with more weight than they can handle, assuming that they can muscle through the lift. However, letting your ego get the better of you jeopardizes your form and puts you at a greater risk of injury.
Variations and Alternatives of CrossFit Cluster
Use the following cluster variations and alternatives to add variety to your training regimen:
Dumbbell Cluster
This cluster variation uses dumbbells instead of a barbell. Although many lifters might think it is easier than the conventional cluster, it is not the case. The dumbbell cluster requires a different skill.
Steps:
Grab a dumbbell in each hand and stand upright with a shoulder-wide stance.
Push your hips back, hinge at your hips, and bend your knees to lower the dumbbells to your floor. Place the dumbbells on the outside of your feet at the starting position.
Lift the dumbbell to your knees by driving through your quads and midfoot.
Drive your hips forward and extend your knees as the dumbbells cross the knees.
Generate momentum by lifting your heels off the floor when the dumbbells reach your hip level.
Drop under the dumbbells and catch them over your shoulders.
Explode out of the hole and push the dumbbells overhead as you complete the movement.
Pro Tip: Ensure you’re using your quads to power off the floor by getting your hip crease below your knee crease at the bottom of the movement.
Thruster
The thruster is a great exercise to forge a more robust cluster. It is just like the cluster, minus the cleans while doing multiple reps.
Steps:
Take a shoulder-width stance and stand upright with a barbell against your shins.
Grab the bar at shoulder-width using a hook grip.
Clean the bar into a front rack and get into a squat.
Explode out of the hole by driving through your midfoot.
Press the bar overhead as you extend your knees.
Lower the bar into a front rack.
Perform a squat.
Repeat for recommended reps.
Pro Tip: Hold the bar in the front rack position using a full grip. Balancing the bar using only your fingers can make the lift unstable.
Clean
The clean is an Olympic lift, which needs a lot of practice to master. However, sticking with this exercise will make you better at most other CrossFit compound lifts, as it will help develop a stronger base.
Steps:
Stand with a shoulder-wide stance with a barbell placed against your shins.
Grab the bar with a hook grip.
Maintaining an open chest and flat back, pull the bar to your knees using your quads.
Drive your hips forward and extend your knees to bring the bar to your hip level.
From here, lift your heels off the floor to pull the bar toward the ceiling.
Get under the bar and catch the bar in a front rack position while jumping your feet out.
Stand upright.
Pro Tip: Drive your knees outward during the initial phase of the lift, as it will help engage your legs to generate power.
Front Squat
The next two exercises on the list are among the nine basic movements of CrossFit. The front squat is a compound exercise that primarily works your quads.
Steps:
Start with the bar in a front rack position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
Use a shoulder-wide stance and turn your toes slightly outward.
While maintaining an upright torso, lower into a squat and go as deep as possible.
Return to the starting position.
Repeat for reps.
Pro Tip: You must have decent upper body, overhead, hip, and lower body mobility to perform a front squat with an upright torso.
Push Press
The push press is a basic CrossFit movement that will help you build upper body strength and explosiveness.
Steps:
Start in the front rack position and a shoulder-width stance.
Drop into a shallow stance.
Extend your knees rapidly and push the barbell overhead while raising your heels off the floor.
Lock out your elbows at the top and drive your head through your arms.
Lower the bar to the front rack position.
Repeat.
Pro Tip: Your elbows should be under the bar at the starting position, as it will help you generate power.
Wrapping Up
CrossFit is a high-intensity sport that combines weightlifting, gymnastics, and cardio. Olympic weightlifting exercises form the basis of the CrossFit resistance training WODs and help work your entire body in a short time.
The CrossFit cluster is one of the most effective functional exercises to help you build strength, muscle, endurance, and balance. Use the cluster alternatives and variations listed in this article to take your WODs to the next level. Best of luck!
References
Krzysztofik M, Wilk M, Wojdała G, Gołaś A. Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Dec 4;16(24):4897. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16244897. PMID: 31817252; PMCID: PMC6950543.
3 Arm Workouts For Women To Build Strong and Sculpted Guns (Featuring 22 Killer Exercisers)
Whether you want to get ready for the summer or build strength to boost your functionality and perform better at daily activities, you must train your arms. Furthermore, strong arms can help you do more in other workouts that require pulling and pushing strength.
Due to hormonal differences, women are more likely to develop bat wings than men. Arm workouts will not only make you look amazing in that sleeveless top, but you’ll also be able to carry those heavy grocery bags with ease.
Arm workouts are an essential part of any fitness routine, especially for women. Besides making you look stunning in sleeveless dresses, arm workouts, provide numerous benefits, including improved strength, posture, and metabolism.
In this article, we cover the 22 best arm exercises to help you carve the perfect arms. We have also programmed these 22 movements into three workouts for women at different experience levels to help maximize the results. This article has something for everyone. So, let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into the world of arm workouts for women — trust us, your arms will thank you!
22 Best Arm Exercises For Women
The arm workouts for women article compiles the most effective biceps and triceps exercises that women can incorporate into their workout routine to achieve beautifully sculpted arms reminiscent of Greek goddesses. Here are the lifts that should be a part of your exercise arsenal:
Barbell Biceps Curl
The barbell biceps curl is an isolation exercise that is incredibly effective for building size and strength. Follow a strict form on this movement for optimal muscle fiber recruitment.
Steps:
Stand upright with a hip-width stance while holding a barbell with a shoulder-wide underhand grip.
Keep your elbows pinned to your sides, and curl the bar to your shoulder level.
Pause and contract your pythons at the top.
Slowly return to the starting position.
Repeat for recommended reps.
Pro Tip: Grab the bar as tightly as possible to engage your forearms. Alternatively, use a false (thumbless) grip to limit forearm recruitment.
Check out our complete barbell biceps curl guide here!
Dumbbell Biceps Curl
The dumbbell biceps curl is a unilateral exercise that can help fix muscle and strength imbalances.
Steps:
Stand erect with a shoulder-wide stance while holding a dumbbell in each hand using a neutral (palms facing your thighs) grip.
While keeping your left arm in place, bend your right elbow to curl the bar to your shoulder level. Twist your arm to the outside during the concentric (upward) motion. Your palm should face your shoulder at the top.
Slowly return to the start position.
Alternate between sides for recommended reps.
Pro Tip: Beginners can hold the dumbbell in front of their thighs with a supinated (palms facing forward) grip. It will help improve your mind-muscle connection.
Check out our complete dumbbell biceps curl guide here!
Dumbbell Hammer Curl
The dumbbell hammer curl helps improve your biceps thickness by working the brachialis muscle.
Steps:
Stand erect while holding a dumbbell in each hand with a neutral grip.
Keeping your elbows pinned to your side, curl the dumbbells to your shoulder level.
Return to the start position.
Repeat for recommended reps.
Pro Tip: Ensure you are not using momentum to lift the weight by swinging your torso back and forth.
Check out our complete dumbbell hammer curl guide here!
Barbell Reverse Curl
The barbell reverse curl engages the forearm muscles, which helps improve your arm symmetry and balance.
Steps:
Stand upright with a hip-width stance.
Grab the bar with a shoulder-wide overhand grip.
Keeping your elbows pinned, curl the bar to your shoulder level.
Rinse and repeat.
Pro Tip: Use a thumbless grip for greater forearm muscle recruitment.
Check out our complete barbell reverse curl guide here!
Underhand Pull-Up
Contrary to what most lifters believe, you don’t always need weights to train your biceps. The bodyweight underhand pull-up will set your pythons on fire.
Steps:
Grab a pull-up bar with a supinated shoulder-wide grip.
Bend at your elbows to bring your chest to the pull-up bar level.
Pause and contract your pythons at the top.
Return and repeat.
Pro Tip: Ladies that cannot perform a bodyweight pull-up can use an assisted pull-up machine. You could also ask your training partner to spot you or use a resistance band.
Check out our complete underhand pull-up guide here!
Cable Biceps Curl
Unlike the free weights, the cable keeps constant tension on your muscles throughout the range of motion, helping induce hypertrophy.
Steps:
Set the cable pulley at the lowest setting and attach a straight bar attachment.
Grab the bar with a shoulder-wide grip.
Keeping your elbows pinned, curl the bar to your shoulder level.
Rinse and repeat.
Pro Tip: Ensure the weight is engaged throughout the range of motion. The weight should not rerack at the bottom of the movement.
Check out our complete cable biceps curl guide here!
21s
This exercise is a must-do for women that have never experienced a biceps pump.
Steps:
Grab a barbell with a shoulder-wide underhand grip.
Keeping your elbows pinned, curl the bar until your forearms are parallel to the floor.
Repeat for seven reps.
After completing the seven reps, curl the bar to your shoulder level.
Slowly lower the bar until your forearms are parallel to the floor.
Repeat for seven reps, then lower the bar to the start position.
Perform seven full reps.
Pro Tip: Use an EZ bar to make this exercise easier on your wrists.
Check out our complete 21s guide here!
Incline Dumbbell Curl
This exercise eliminates momentum since you’ll be lying on an incline bench.
Steps:
Adjust the back of an incline bench at a 45-degree angle with the floor.
Lie with your back on the bench while holding a dumbbell in each hand with a neutral grip.
Curl the dumbbells to your shoulder level. Turn out your wrists during the eccentric motion.
Lower the weights.
Repeat.
Pro Tip: Lowering the back of the incline bench will make the exercise more challenging, whereas lifting it will make it easier.
Check out our complete incline dumbbell curl guide here!
Preacher Curl
Since the preacher curl involves keeping your arms on an incline bench, it allows optimal biceps brachii engagement. It is an excellent exercise to improve your biceps peaks.
Steps:
Place the back of your upper arms on the preacher curl bench.
Hold an EZ bar with a shoulder-wide grip.
Bend your elbows to curl the bar.
Slowly lower the bar to the start position.
Repeat for reps.
Pro Tip: Using a cable preacher curl machine helps keep constant tension on your biceps throughout the ROM.
Check out our complete preacher curl guide here!
Squatting Biceps Cable Curl
This exercise locks your elbows in place and removes the possibility of using momentum by swinging your torso.
Steps:
Set a cable pulley machine at the lowest position and attach a straight bar.
Grab the bar with a shoulder-wide underhand grip and take a step back.
Sit in a deep squat and place your elbows on the inside of your knees.
Curl the bar toward your head.
Slowly return to the start position.
Pro Tip: Keep your chest up throughout the exercise. Rounding your shoulders will limit your range of motion.
Overhead Cable Curl
Ladies, if you want to look dazzling while hitting the front double biceps pose, you must add the overhead cable curl to your exercise arsenal.
Steps:
Set the cable pulleys at the highest position and attach D-handle bars on both ends.
Grab the handles with an underhand grip, position yourself in the center of the machine, and assume a shoulder-wide stance.
Your arms should be extended at your sides at the starting position.
Keeping your elbows pinned, perform a biceps curl.
Rinse and repeat.
Pro Tip: Maintain the natural curvature of your spine throughout the range of motion. Rounding your back will throw you off balance during the set.
Check out our complete overhead cable curl guide here!
Diamond Push-Up
The diamond push-up is a bodyweight triceps exercise that works your triceps through its full range of motion.
Steps:
Get on all fours.
Place your hands together on the floor so your index fingers and thumbs touch. Your hands should form a triangle.
Extend your legs behind you.
Get into a push-up position.
Slowly lower your chest to the floor by bending your elbows until your chest touches your hands.
Pro Tip: Your body, from head to heels, should be in a straight line throughout the exercise. Lifting your hips or letting them drop will remove tension from your triceps.
Check out our complete diamond push-up guide here!
Cable Triceps Pushdown
The cable triceps pushdown is a staple in most triceps workouts, and for a good reason.
Steps:
Set the cable pulley at the highest position and attach a straight bar.
Grab the bar with a shoulder-wide overhand grip.
Extend your arms while keeping your elbows pinned to your sides.
Pause and contract your triceps at the bottom for optimal muscle fiber stimulation.
Repeat for reps.
Pro Tip: Use different grips, such as a straight bar, V-handle bar, and ropes, to train your triceps from different angles.
Check out our complete cable triceps pushdown guide here!
Overhead Triceps Extension
This exercise engages your lateral and long triceps head, helping develop a chiseled horseshoe muscle.
Steps:
Stand upright with a shoulder-wide stance.
Hold one end of the dumbbell with both hands and lift it overhead.
Keeping your elbows pinned, slowly lower the dumbbell until the other end touches the back of your neck.
Return to the start position.
Repeat for reps.
Pro Tip: Perform this exercise on a cable machine to keep constant tension on your triceps.
Check out our complete overhead triceps extension guide here!
EZ Bar Skull Crusher
The EZ bar skull crusher is an incredibly effective exercise to tone your arms and build strength.
Steps:
Lie supine (facing the ceiling) on a flat bench.
Hold an EZ bar with a narrow grip over your shoulders. Your arms should be perpendicular to the floor at the start position.
Keeping your lower arms pinned, bend your elbows so the bar is a few inches away from your forehead at the bottom.
Rinse and repeat.
Pro Tip: Beginners and those lifting heavy should perform this exercise with a spotter.
Check out our complete EZ bar skull crusher guide here!
Dumbbell Kickback
You must perform this exercise with a picture-perfect form for optimal triceps engagement.
Steps:
Grab a dumbbell in each hand with a neutral grip.
Slightly bend your knees and lower your torso toward the floor by bending your hips and pushing them back.
Lift your elbows above your sides. Pull back your shoulder blades and lift your shoulders to your ears.
The dumbbells should be next to your chest at the start position.
Extend your arms.
Pause and contract your triceps.
Slowly return to the start position.
Pro Tip: Do this exercise on one side if you are struggling to establish a mind-muscle connection in the bilateral variation.
Check out our complete dumbbell kickback guide here!
Reverse-Grip Cable Pressdown
Some exercisers find the reverse-grip cable press-down more effective at targeting the triceps than the conventional pushdown.
Steps:
Set a cable pulley at the highest position and attach a straight handle.
Grab the bar with an underhand grip.
Keep your elbows pinned slightly in front of your body and extend your arms.
Rinse and repeat.
Pro Tip: You could also use lifting straps if you have difficulty holding onto the bar with a reverse grip.
Check out our complete reverse-grip cable press-down guide here!
Close-Grip Bench Press
This compound (multi-joint) exercise primarily works the triceps. Use a weight that allows you to follow a full ROM and complete between 8-12 reps.
Steps:
Lie with your back on a bench.
Grab the bar just outside your chest width.
Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest.
Lower the bar to your chest by bending your elbows.
Explode to the start position.
Repeat for reps.
Pro Tip: Avoid flaring your elbows while performing this exercise, as it can put unnecessary strain on your shoulder rotator cuffs.
Check out our complete close-grip bench press guide here!
Dips
The parallel bar dips are an excellent exercise to target your triceps. Beginners could perform this exercise on a flat bench.
Steps:
Grab the parallel bars with a neutral grip.
Your arms should be extended at the starting position.
Slowly lower toward the floor while keeping your elbows close to your sides and maintaining an upright torso.
Your chest should be at your hand level at the bottom.
Repeat for reps.
Pro Tip: Avoid bending forward while performing this exercise, as it will result in pectoral muscle engagement.
Check out our complete dips guide here!
Tate Press
The Tate press is an underutilized exercise. However, its unique range of motion will help you tone your arms.
Steps:
Lie supine on a flat bench while holding a dumbbell in each hand using a neutral grip.
Your arms should be above your chest and perpendicular to the floor at the start position.
Turn your arms so your palms are facing forward.
The inside plates of the dumbbell should be touching each other. Your elbows should be pointing outward. This will be your starting position.
Initiate the movement by bending at your elbows and bringing the dumbbell inner plates toward your chest.
Touch the dumbbell to your chest at the bottom.
Return to the starting position.
Pro Tip: Ensure that the dumbbells are in contact throughout the range of motion.
Check out our complete Tate press guide here!
Cable Triceps Kickback
This is an excellent dumbbell kickback variation if you have trouble establishing a mind-muscle connection during the conventional exercise.
Steps:
Set the cable pulley at hip height and attach a D-handle bar.
Grab the handle with a neutral grip.
Step back and bend over so your torso is almost parallel to the floor.
Lift your elbow so your upper arm is parallel to the floor.
Extend your arm.
Pause and contract your triceps.
Repeat for recommended reps before switching sides.
Pro Tip: Holding onto the cable directly will help ensure better stability.
Check out our complete cable triceps kickback guide here!
Resistance Band Overhead Triceps Extension
You’re in for a surprise if you’ve never tried the resistance band overhead triceps extension before. Use a loop resistance band for this movement.
Steps:
Place one end of the loop resistance band around your right foot.
Wrap the other end around your right hand.
Bring your hand to your shoulder level and point your elbow toward the ceiling.
Keeping your elbow pinned, extend your arm.
Pause and contract your triceps.
Slowly lower to the start position.
Repeat for recommended reps before switching sides.
Pro Tip: Start with the lightest resistance band in your gym and focus on contracting your triceps at the top of the movement.
3 Effective Arm Workouts For Women
Given below are three arm workouts for women at different experience levels. These workouts will train your arms from different angles using various equipment to ensure overall growth.
Beginner Arm Workout For Women
The arm workouts for women in this article include four exercises each for the biceps and triceps. Although we have listed the biceps exercises first, you must start the workouts with your weaker muscle group. For example, ladies with lagging triceps should begin these workouts by training the back of their upper arms.
Exercise
Sets
Reps
Biceps Cable Curl
3
8-12
Preacher Curl
3
8-12
Dumbbell Hammer Curl
3
8-12
Overhead Cable Curl
3
8-12
Cable Triceps Pushdown
3
8-12
Dumbbell Kickback
3
8-12
Resistance Band Overhead Extension
3
8-12
Dips
3
8-12
Dumbbell-Only Arm Workout For Women
You can perform the following workout with just a pair of dumbbells. Keep your training intensity high by limiting your rest duration between exercises to 60-120 seconds. You must complete these workouts within 60 minutes.
Exercise
Sets
Reps
Dumbbell Biceps Curl
3
8-12
Incline Dumbbell Curl
3
8-12
Dumbbell Hammer Curl
3
8-12
Dumbbell Reverse Curl
3
8-12
Overhead Triceps Extension
3
8-12
Dumbbell Kickback
3
8-12
Dumbbell Skull Crusher
3
8-12
Tate Press
3
8-12
Advanced Arm Workout For Women
In this workout, you’ll use two advanced training techniques, supersets and dropsets.
#
Exercise
Sets
Reps
1
Barbell Biceps Curl
3
8-12
2
21s
3
21
3a
Machine Preacher Curl
3
8-12
3b
Underhand Pull-Up
3
8-12
4a
Reverse-Grip Triceps Extension
3
8-12
5
Tate Press
3
8-12
6a
Close-Grip Bench Press
3
8-12
6b
Diamond Push-Up
3
8-12
The machine preacher curl (3a) and underhand pull-up (3b) are super set exercises for the biceps. After performing 8-12 reps on the machine preacher curl, start doing the underhand pull-ups without stopping for rest. You are allowed a 60-120 second rest after completing the recommended reps for the underhand pull-up. Similarly, the close-grip bench press and diamond push-up are super sets for the triceps.
The reverse-grip triceps extension (4a) is a drop-set exercise. Perform 8-12 reps on this exercise, then immediately lower the weight on the stack and perform another set to failure without stopping for rest.
Wrapping Up
Whether you are a fitness enthusiast or a beginner, these three arm workouts for women can help you feel stronger, more confident, and ready to take on any challenge that comes your way.
Stick to these workouts for at least 12 weeks to allow them the time to work their magic. Feel free to tweak the workouts to fit your needs. However, you must progressively overload your muscles to ensure strength and muscle gains. Best of luck!