How Can Skinny Guys Get Big Arms Fast?

Mix isolation moves like curls with multi-joint, compound exercises.

If you've been naturally skinny your whole life, building muscle can seem like a real uphill struggle. With time, effort and dedication, however, bigger arms are within reach. You won't be able to build big muscles in days or even weeks -- it will take months to notice a difference, and you'll need to gain around 10 pounds in total for your arms to increase an inch. With the right training program and diet plan, you can kiss skinny arms goodbye for good.

Training Priorities

You might want big arms, but arm-isolation exercises shouldn't be at the top of your gym-priorities list. The best exercises for beginners to add upper-body muscle mass are pullups and chinups, dips, bench presses and rows, writes trainer and bodybuilder Ron Harris in "Real Bodybuilding." While these don't isolate your arms, they work multiple muscle groups, which leads to greater overall muscle gain. One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a skinny guy is trying to do too many exercises in your workouts -- less is often more.

Arm-Specific Exercises

Your arms are made up of two main muscles -- the biceps on the front and the triceps on the back. After rows and chinups, the next-best biceps builders are dumbbell hammer curls with your palms facing inward and reverse-grip curls using an EZ bar, claims strength coach Chad Waterbury. For triceps, trainer Charles Poliquin of the Poliquin Performance Center in Rhode Island advises focusing on triceps extensions with a barbell or dumbbells and overhead cable pressdowns as well as dipping and pressing compound movements.

The Routine

Avoid the temptation to focus purely on your arms -- not only will this leave you with an unbalanced physique, it also isn't optimal, as training larger muscle groups like your chest, back and legs can aid arm growth by boosting your levels of muscle-building hormones. Perform two upper-body and two lower-body workouts each week. Start your upper-body sessions with three compound exercises for five sets of six to eight reps each and then add in one biceps isolation and one triceps isolation for three sets of 10 to 12. Increase the weight you lift or your sets and reps each week.

Diet

Training is only half the battle -- to win the war for bigger arms, you need to eat right. As a skinny guy, you probably have a fast metabolism, meaning your body processes calories quickly. To build muscle, you need to eat more. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends that active men eat 2,400 to 3,000 calories to gain weight, but you might need more than this if you're naturally skinny. Increase your calories until you're gaining 1/2 to 1 pound per week and base your diet around healthy muscle-building foods such as chicken, lean steak, eggs, oats, pasta, fruits, nuts, oily fish, vegetables, brown rice and bagels.

Safety Considerations

Start every workout with five to 10 minutes of light cardiovascular training to warm up. Before hitting the weights, get your arms warmed up too by performing some dynamic upper-body movements. Knee pushups, arm swings or biceps curls with a light resistance band work well for this -- perform each for 30 seconds with no rest in between. Don't go straight into your heavy sets -- start with two to three light sets of each exercise for 10 to 15 reps before moving on to a more challenging weight. Cool down after your workout with another five to 10 minutes of cardio, along with stretches. For your triceps, take your left arm behind your head and try to touch your right shoulder blade to get a stretch. For biceps, place your left hand on a weight bench behind you and drop your torso down until you get a stretch in your biceps. Hold each stretch for 20 to 30 seconds on each side. If you're not sure of any exercise techniques, ask a qualified trainer for help.

References

• Real Bodybuilding: Muscle Truth from 25 Years in the Trenches; Ron Harris
• Chad Waterbury: The 3 Best Biceps Exercises
• Charles Poliquin: Best Exercises and Tips for Building Large and Strong Triceps
• USDA: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010
• American College of Sports Medicine: Basic Injury Prevention Concepts