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5 Best Exercises for Arm Strength

June 11, 2023

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By the end of this article, you will learn the five best exercises for arm strength guaranteed to get you fast results. To be clear, you must be willing to perform each exercise consistently and follow the sets laid out for maximum effect.

These are also excellent exercises to get bigger arms because athletes must have strength in their arms to maximize performance.

You won’t get the results you want without following the sets properly. With that said, let’s keep going…

Best Exercises for Arm Strength

Before we dive into strength training exercises to get bigger arms and their working sets, I want to give you an overview of what the exercises for arm strength are:

Barbell Curl
Barbell Skullcrusher
Close-Grip Bench Press
Barbell Preacher Curl
Overhead Dumbbell Extension

To those of you without barbells, here’s what you can do I want you to do…

Modify Best Exercises for Arm Strength

You can use dumbbells for the preacher curl, you can also use dumbbells for Skull Crushers. Here’s the all-important point, you must pick a weight that you will fail on with the last few reps of each working set. These strength training exercises to get bigger arms can benefit athletes to perform better.

More importantly, do not overtrain, here’s what overtraining is…

You essentially want to jump into the next set without finishing the scheduled recovery time.

This is not ideal, you can and you will hurt yourself doing this. Listen to your body and start the working set when the timer goes off. Delayed onset muscle soreness can happen if you get impatient and want to jump in too soon.

Barbell Curl

Barbell Curl Exercises for Arm Strength | Deep Fitness

This exercise is very fun. Not only does it improve arm strength but you are guaranteed to gain size when you do the following sets to a tee.

Set 1 – 20 Reps
Set 2 – 15 Reps
Set 3 – 10 Reps
Set 4 – 08 Reps

I recommend you maintain the same weight you can handle starting throughout the working sets and I’ll go over what to do when it gets easier later in this article.

Recovery time in between sets is going to be 60-90 seconds. Don’t start under 60 and don’t start over 90 Seconds.

How To Perform This Exercise With Proper Form

Standing straight up, grip a barbell with an underhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart.

Curl the bar toward your chest in an arc, with your elbows locked and close to your sides.

Bring the weight up as high as you can and then lower the weight slowly until your arms are straight.

Barbell Skull Crusher

strength training exercises for arms — Exercises for Arm Strength

Barbell Skull Crushers are hands down one of the most effective exercises to get bigger arms. This is an essential exercise all athletes do for the triceps.

Here are the working sets I want you to follow my friend:

Set 1 – 20 Reps
Set 2 – 15 Reps
Set 3 – 10 Reps

Notice how the reps decrease. This is why we have a minute of recovery time. Your body needs the rest. This is what optimal training is all about.

How To Perform This Exercise With Proper Form

Start by pressing up the barbell with your grip less than 12 inches apart. Slowly lower the barbell towards t your head, pause, and raise the barbell again.

You are going to really feel this exercise like crazy! That is if you pick the right weight and you do NOT ego lift. That’s how you get hurt.

Close Grip Bench Press

One of the most effective strength training exercises to get bigger arms is the classic bench press but there is a close-grip variation.

Not only is it a fantastic chest exercise, but the close grip variation also makes this an excellent tricep exercise. Lighten the barbell if you must because this will be a challenge and highly unsafe to ego lift.

Modification if you have no barbell, use two iron dumbbells and bring them together, more importantly, the elbows must be against your lats just like in the picture above.

Start out small, then as you improve, ask someone to spot you and perform this exercise properly and safely. Here are the sets my friend:

Set 1 – 12 Reps
Set 2 – 10 Reps
Set 3 – 8 Reps
Set 4 – 8 Reps

The reason for the lower reps for every set is because this exercise is a compound lift and this is your time to shine and lift heavy. You got this!

How To Perform This Exercise With Proper Form

Lie on a flat bench and grip the barbell well with both hands in a close-grip fashion. Lower the bar until it touches your chest, right below in the lower pec area.

Then press the bar back up. Focus on the triceps my friend. Get that mind-muscle connection down, and you’ll feel it more. Repeat that till you reach the desired amount of reps.

Barbell Preacher Curl

Classic lifting exercise that must be incorporated into an athlete’s workout program for best strength training exercises to get bigger arms.

Set 1 – 15 Reps
Set 2 – 10 Reps
Set 3 – 8 Reps
Set 4 – 8 Reps

This is the one time where I will suggest that the heavier you want to lift on the preacher curl when reaching set 3, have a trainer spot you because I’ve seen all too many times people ego lifting on this particular move. Don’t do that. Safe train my friend. The recovery time of 60-90 seconds for this exercise helps the muscles to recover.

How To Perform This Exercise With Proper Form

Using a grip parallel to shoulders, hold a Straight or an EZ curl bar with palms facing up. Curl the bar upward. Lower the bar to the starting position.

A couple of notes on this move, you honestly, should NEVER pick an extremely heavy weight if you’re uncertain that you can complete it.

Although it’s one of the most popular strength exercises to get bigger arms, it may seem easy with a light barbell, but it creates a false sense of security which makes everyone think they can handle more. But remember this major tip my friend, ego lifting is never a good idea.

Overhead Dumbbell Extension

Last but not least, overhead dumbbell extensions are hands down one of the best exercises to get bigger arms as this is the exercise that doesn’t just hit the triceps but can also stabilize your core. Let me explain.

When you tighten your deepest core muscle on top of keeping your posture anatomically neutral, your body is forced to engage your core.

This move will definitely get you bigger triceps, so here are the sets:

Set 1 – 20 Reps
Set 2 – 15 Reps
Set 3 – 10 Reps
Set 4 – 8 Reps

You’ll definitely feel the effects of this sequence as it can and it will hit the triceps if you pick the right weights and train with the right intensity but always stay safe.

Such an important exercise to build arm strength, but more importantly, get you looking better and better!

I cannot recommend this exercise enough for you to get ready to go out to the beach and feel more confident in your body!

How To Perform This Exercise With Proper Form

For this particular exercise, keep your elbows pointing straight up to the ceiling and in line with one another.

Your arm must be parallel and in line with your ear when you extend over the top of your head as well as in the downward position.

Let’s bring everything all together…

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Recap: Best Exercises for Arm Strength

Here’s what you can expect from performing all of these exercises, you can and you will achieve your goals. There’s no way you can’t unless you ignore recovery time and you don’t listen to your body.

There’s something to be said about supplementation, however, that is optional and an extra, just understand that each exercise has its place. More importantly, I want to mention this bodybuilding strategy to get even more results.

When you get comfortable maintaining the standard weight that you are using, it’s time to start adding more weight as the reps decrease.

The purpose of working out is for you to not get too comfortable, you must embrace the suck and look for ways to challenge yourself and grow.

How you do that is you start with a light weight for 20 reps, then go to a medium weight for 15 reps, then to the 10 reps for a heavyweight and when you reach the 8-rep set, find the heaviest weight you can handle for the last set!

Remember that strength is relative and don’t compare yourself to anyone else as that doesn’t matter at the end of the day, compete with yourself!

Try these 5 best exercises for arm strength and let us know about your experience with them, also feel free to leave comments.

5 Best Exercises for Arm Strength