Upper Arms Exercise

One of the most important parts of creating a muscular upper body is building up your arms. Building strong, athletic arms is essential for almost every upper body exercise you will do.

The muscles in your upper body help to carry out most of the movements involved in various exercises. This includes not only punching and throwing but also lifting weights and pushing over distances such as on a bicycle to jump over something.

While there is no single-best upper arm workout that works for everyone, here are the five best exercises for building muscle mass in the upper arms which will add size and definition to your arms.

1. Bicep Curl

The bicep curl is one of the most popular upper arm exercises. It’s a movement that involves a host of smaller muscles working together to accomplish a single goal. With the correct technique and form, you can achieve one to two times more than average muscle growth using bicep curls. Let’s take a look at the steps needed to perform the bicep curl properly.

How to do this exercise:

1. Start by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent.
2. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing forward and your arms straight down at your sides.
3. Keeping your upper arms stationary, curl the weights as close to your shoulder as you can.
4. Pause at the top of the curl, and then slowly lower the weights back to the starting position.

The bicep curl is a movement that involves the use of coordinating smaller muscles to carry out a single, powerful task. It effectively targets your upper arms, or biceps, and allows you to maximize your workouts by getting more bang for your buck while stimulating multiple muscle groups at once.

2. Tricep Pushdown

The tricep pushdown is one of the most classic exercises for strengthening your arms. It targets all three heads of your triceps muscles and has been used by bodybuilders for decades to build separation in their arms. The use of a dumbbell makes this an ideal exercise for beginners.

To do this exercise:

1. Attach a bar to the highest setting on a pulley system.
2. Stand up close to the pulley so that the cable is vertical, and grab the bar with your hands shoulder-width apart using an overhand grip.
3. Pull the bar down so that the top of your arms align with your body and your elbows are close to your torso.
4. Bend your knees slightly and lean your torso forward so that your shoulders are closer to the bar.
5. Brace your core, then extend your elbows to bring the bar all the way down to your thighs.
6. Squeeze your triceps at the bottom, then slowly raise the bar back to the starting position.
7. Repeat for the desired number of reps.

The tricep pushdown might be the most basic of arm exercises, but that doesn’t mean it’s not effective. If you want to strengthen your arms and begin working on those biceps, this basic exercise is ideal for beginners. Like most arm exercises, it’s even possible to superset it with other tricep exercises like kickbacks and extensions.

3. Barbell Drag Curl

A barbell drag curl is one of the more advanced bicep movements but isn’t as difficult as it looks. It’s really just four small movements that give your biceps noticeable strength and size. If you want a muscle-building workout that you can do in the comfort of your own home and is effective, then this is the movement for you!

Here is how you do barbell drag curl:

1. Start by holding a barbell with your palms facing down and your hands shoulder-width apart.
2. Keeping your upper arms close to your sides, curl the barbell up towards your chest.
3. As you curl the barbell up, drag it along your body so that it ends up in front of your face.
4. Slowly lower the barbell back to the starting position.

The barbell drag curl is a challenging movement that encompasses four bicep exercises. You can do it at home with a set of dumbbells and a barbell, but its results are unquestionable. It hits the bicep from all angles as you work through the different ranges of movement, and its unique setup means that you’ll be able to feel every second of this intense workout.

4. Overhead Tricep Press

The overhead tricep press is a great way to target the triceps. The triceps is one of the most active muscles in your body and it needs a regular workout. Whether you are just starting or a competitive bodybuilder, you wouldn’t want your arms to be weak in any aspect. So make sure that your arms are strong by visiting a gym regularly and doing this exercise regularly.

To do overhead tricep press:

1. Start by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent.
2. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and raise them overhead so that your arms are extended straight.
3. From this position, lower the dumbbells behind your head, keeping your elbows close to your ears.
4. Pause when your triceps are fully stretched and then press the dumbbells back up to the starting position.

Overhead triceps press is a great and helpful exercise for triceps. It is advised that beginners use only bars with lightweight. You can increase the weight once you get stronger. Keep your back straight and do not twist from one side to the other. Your abs and legs should be relaxed otherwise the lower back would be tensed and you will feel pain in it. At the end of the exercise take a deep breath and repeat the same for the maximum number of times depending on your strength.

5. Alternating Dumbbell Curls

The alternating dumbbell curl is a great exercise for strengthening your biceps. It works your middle and lower portions of the biceps but also helps build your larger muscle groups involved in shoulder stabilization like the rotator cuff. You can do these at home by simply placing dumbbells on parallel bars or stacks.

Here is how you do this exercise:

1. Start with your palms facing your thighs and your dumbbells at your sides.
2. Curl one dumbbell up to the front of your shoulder while keeping your elbow and upper arm stationary.
3. Slowly lower the dumbbell back to the starting position.
4. Repeat with the other arm.
5. Continue alternating arms for the desired number of repetitions.

Out of all the different types of effective bicep exercises, alternating dumbbell curls stand out as the best ones. They’re cheap, they don’t take too long to perform, your body doesn’t need any special equipment or setup, and they burn a good amount of calories. If you have time for just one exercise for your arms, alternating dumbbell curls should be at the top of your list.

Functions of the Upper Arm Muscles

The ideal upper arm muscle would attach the humerus to the scapula at a 90-degree angle, providing both stability and mobility. Additionally, this muscle would allow for a full range of motion while keeping the arm close to the body. Unfortunately, reality does not always match up with our ideals. In order to maintain some semblance of functionality, we have several different muscles working together to keep our arms stable and mobile.

The deltoid is probably the most well-known upper arm muscle; it attaches the humerus to the clavicle and provides stability during motions such as lifting or pushing overhead.

The rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis) work together to stabilize the shoulder joint; without their help, our arms would simply fall out of their socket every time we raised them above our head!

Finally, there are several small muscles (biceps brachii & triceps brachii) that attach from either side of the humerus and help with fine motor control of the arm.

Conclusion

Essentially, there is no single exercise that hits every muscle in your arms. Instead, a variety of upper body movements—some for your arms and shoulders and others for your chest—are required to continually build up the muscle mass of your upper body and give you a definition in your arms.

Many times, these exercises are barely thought of when it comes to arm building, but they all have their place in the mix of adding size and definition to one of the most defining parts of a man’s body.