So you’re here because your arms won’t grow, and I’m going to take a random guess that you’ve been working out your arms INTENSELY doing countless curls and pushes till your arms go limp, and then left there wondering “Why won’t my arms grow?”.
You’ve followed every little tip you could find… Got your diet in check and have tried several different arm training routines, all to no avail.
If this sounds like you, then you’re in luck. I’ve definitely been there before and I hated the feeling of growing hopelessness – but not growing arms…
However, I’m happy to announce that after nearly a decade of experimenting, and trying what felt like every routine on the internet, I’ve figured out the secrets that turned my arm muscles from a weakness to a strength!
Today, I’m going to teach you how to add several inches to your arms by doing the RIGHT things, and taking out all the things that are hindering your overall muscle growth.
Arms Won’t Grow?
Before we get into why your arms won’t grow, take a moment to look at the picture above…
That transformation only took about 2-3 months after applying the advice that I’ll be providing in this article.
I remember after applying the tips in my article, watching my arms grow insanely fast, which left me surprised, to say the least…
When you’ve been lifting for about a decade as I have, you don’t usually expect INSANE muscle growth like when you were a newbie.
This is due to the law of diminishing returns.
I know what it’s like wondering why your arms won’t grow, and maybe even feeling like “it just isn’t in my genetics” which is total B.S.
But the whole point of this section was to show you that in the picture on the left I had been training for about 6 years and my arms were STILL tiny.
But after applying the lessons I’m about to give you, my arms BLEW UP… in a good way.
If I can do it, then you definitely can… if you’re willing to put in the work.
Arm Training For MASS
One more thing before we move on is that if you want to get bigger arms and maximize muscle growth, then make sure you don’t OVERTRAIN.
The routine and exercises presented in this article should be scaled to YOUR level of fitness.
I see a lot of guys lifting weights in the gym who seem to do curls from dusk till dawn thinking they’re doing effective arm training to get bigger arms…
What they don’t realize is that they’re actually overtraining the biceps and not even giving them a CHANCE to recover.
Don’t let this be you… Focus on long-term muscle growth over short-term arm training annihilation.
Brief Anatomy Of Your Arm Muscles
Before we move on, understand that your biceps and triceps are both made up of 3 separate arm muscles.
Each of these muscles plays an important part in the development of your arms.
| Bicep Mucles | Tricep Muscles |
|---|---|
| Short Head | Long Head |
| Long Head | Short Head |
| Brachialis | Medial Head |
Throughout this article, we’ll be looking at the best exercises that will target each of these heads.
If you want the most bang for your buck however, then focus on building the long head of the triceps, and the short head of the biceps.
Those are the two main muscles in your arms that will make up for about 80% of your entire arms mass.
If you’re wondering why your arms won’t grow then it’s likely because those muscles aren’t being targeted properly.
Here’s the main reasons why your arms won’t grow:
- You aren’t doing the classic exercises properly
- You lack mind-muscle connection
- You aren’t giving your arms enough rest
Notice how none of those reasons for why your arms aren’t growing were “you need to use more weight!” or “you’re not doing enough exercises, sets, reps, whatever”.
Throughout this article, I’ll teach you how to easily fix these mistakes so you can start to add size to your arms.
So, for your own sake… Pay attention!
Maximizing Muscle Growth & Mind-Muscle Connection
This article is going to teach you some easy-to-follow tips that yield some BIG results.
We’re going to go very in-depth on how to hit each head of the muscles and ATTACK the muscle fibers with laser-like precision, but for now, understand the basics.
Develop your mind-muscle connection, follow the tips on how to make SURE you’re doing the arm exercises properly, and be consistent.
Also make sure that you’re doing everything else to pack on tons of muscle like getting enough protein, sleeping 8-9 hours a night, optimizing your hormones, etc.
If you follow all of these tips in faith, then you’ll never have to wonder why your arms won’t grow ever again!
So, with that in mind, let’s dive into how to get MASSIVE arms.
Biceps Won’t Grow: The Cure
Ah, biceps, many a man’s kryptonite and half of the equation for MASSIVE arm growth.
But just because in the past they were hard to grow, doesn’t mean that your biceps WON’T grow… you just got to give them the right “push”.
If your biceps won’t grow, then you need to focus on developing these three parts:
- The Short Head
- The Long Head
- Brachialis
That’s all there is to it. If you want to add some mass to your biceps then focus on the short/long head and brachialis.
We’re about to dive into some of the best resistance training exercises for developing each of these heads effectively.
However, once you understand how these parts of the bicep work, then you’ll be able to target them effectively and experience a surge in your bicep gains.
Most times when your arms aren’t growing, it’s usually due to a lack of understanding as to how the muscles work and how to target them effectively.
Either that, or you don’t have the foundations down like a good muscle-building diet.
The Short Head
The first head is the short head of the biceps, which is on the inside of your arm, and is what gives your bicep a “thick” look to it.
No matter what exercise you perform, the best way to grow this head of the biceps is to supinate your arms when you curl.
This means if you’re doing a dumbbell bicep curl, try to turn your pinky and have it touch the outside of your shoulder.
This will cause an INTENSE contraction in the short head and will lead to significant gains over time.
Besides that, here are several exercises that will annihilate the short head of the biceps:
- Lateral bicep curls w/ supination
- Wide grip barbell curls
- Wide grip preacher barbell curls
Essentially any bicep curl can target the short head more effectively by adding supination and widening the grip.
Take lateral bicep curls for example, what’s the difference between a lateral bicep curl and a regular curl?
With regular curls, your arms are in front of you, but with lateral curls, you keep your elbows close to your body but externally rotate your shoulders so that your arms are facing opposite directions.
The benefits of lateral curls with supination are the INTENSE contraction you get on the short head of the biceps, and if you want to add width to your arms – lateral bicep curls with supination are a great way to do so.
The Long Head
The other reason why your biceps won’t grow is an underdeveloped LONG head of the biceps.
The long head is what gives your biceps that “mountain peak” type shape, and is why they’re called bicep “peaks”.
The best way to remember what the heads of the bicep do is to keep this in mind: short head for thickness, long head for peaks.
The best way to target the long head is with exercises that allow us to put the most tension on the outside of the arms for maximum muscle hypertrophy.
Here are some great long-head bicep exercises to grow your bicep peaks:
- Concentration curls
- Side Curls
- Incline Curls
- Chin Ups
If you were looking at a mirror in front of you, you’d want to be able to see your bicep peaks as you exercise them.
This means that the best way to isolate the long head would be to curl to the other side of your body, like a side curl which is a great long-head bicep exercise.
Side curls are when you curl ACROSS your body.
So if you were doing a side curl with your right arm, then you would curl up and almost touch your left clavicle (while also getting good supination of course).
Chin ups, whilst usually a back exercise are also a great option. Doing chin ups with proper mind-muscle connection is one of the best exercises out there, due to it essentially being a compound exercise for your biceps.
Research has also shown that during an incline curl, the long head of the bicep remains in tension throughout the ENTIRE range of motion, which causes the GOOD kind of muscle damage (AKA hypertrophy).
The Brachialis
Lastly, we have the brachialis which is a muscle on the outside of your biceps, underneath the long head.
The benefit to training the brachialis is that it will help develop your bicep thickness from the outside of the long head – or in simpler terms… It’ll help your arms to EXPLODE your shirt sleeves.
The brachialis also connects to your forearms, so not only will it develop your biceps but it’ll also help you get strong and vascular forearms also.
With that being said, there’s one main exercise that I highly recommend for the brachialis, and that’s hammer curls.
However, you can make the exercise MUCH more effective by combing it with the principles of the side curl, meaning by hammer curling across your body, you’re putting WAY more tension on the brachialis.
Seriously, give it shot and you’ll likely experience a contraction in your arms that you probably haven’t felt before.
Doing this over time will lead to some serious sleeve-busting arms.
Do You Need A Bicep Superset Or Tri-Set Routine?
Supersets and tri-sets seem to be all the rage these days, and for good reason – they pump your muscles full of way more blood than just performing a singular exercise.
For those of you that don’t know – a superset is when you take two exercises that are performed with no rest in between.
This leads to a greater pump and more tension on your muscles which over time can lead to increased gains.
This then begs the question do you need a bicep superset or even a tri-set?
In my opinion, not for the average person.
As I said earlier, many people train their arms too much in the first place and don’t give their arms enough rest causing significant muscle damage that they can’t recover from.
So upping the intensity of your workouts is rarely the answer.
When Would Or Should You Add A Bicep Superset?
With that said, a bicep superset can be very beneficial if you’re at an advanced level and need that extra little push towards building muscle mass.
However, if you were to do a bicep superset, I’d recommend you superset your bicep exercise with a tricep exercise for MAXIMUM arm growth.
By doing a bicep superset WITH a tricep superset, you are pumping blood into opposing muscles with causes a greater stretch AND a greater pump which leads to more muscle gains.
In fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger 7x Mr. Olympia winner, once claimed that you cannot fully develop any muscle unless you superset it with its antagonist in your training.
Personally, if one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time told me that to fully develop my muscles I needed to do a bicep superset along WITH a tricep superset, I’d probably take his advice.
To make your own bicep superset or tricep superset, perform one of the bicep exercises listed earlier for your prescribed number of reps, and then immediately perform one of the tricep exercises in the next section.
If this is your first time trying an antagonist bicep superset, then you’re in for a treat… and yes, that treat is having a crazy pump and massive arms for the rest of the day.
How To Get Horseshoe Triceps
Alright, now we’re gettin to the good stuff.
If you’re wondering why your arms won’t grow, then chances are it’s the fact that your triceps themselves aren’t growing – because the triceps make up 2/3 of your entire arm.
Now, if you already have a bangin diet, and your recovery is in check then learning how to get horseshoe triceps will be a piece of cake.
The exercises listed below will with no exaggeration, absolutely blow up your arms.
If you follow the tips and perform the exercises with proper form, I guarantee you’ll be surprised at just how MASSIVE your triceps can get.
That being said, let’s break down the three heads of the tricep:
- Long Head Of Triceps
- Medial Head Of Triceps
- Lateral Head Of Triceps
Developing all of these heads will help to develop MASSIVE horseshoe triceps.
However, for the sake of if your arms aren’t growing, then you’ll want to target your efforts towards the long head because it’s by far the biggest of the three.
The medial head of the triceps is at the bottom of your triceps and will help add a bit of “length”.
The lateral head is arguably my favorite one. It’s one of my favorite exercises to get jacked because it’s the head that helps to create horseshoe triceps.
Horseshoe triceps just means you have massive triceps but with a heavy emphasis on the lateral head of the triceps, which I’ll show you how to do shortly.
Long Head Of Triceps
When people say their arms won’t grow, or that their triceps aren’t growing, then they usually end up targeting the long head of the triceps in their workouts… and for good reason.
As I said earlier, the long head of the triceps is by FAR the biggest part of your upper arm and what will usually be activated the most when lifting heavy weights like in a weighted dip.
Here’s 3 great exercises to develop the long head of the triceps:
- Skullcrushers (Incline or Flat)
- Close Grip Barbell Bench Press
- Weighted Dips
The reason why specifically something like incline skullcrushers works so well is that you can load it up pretty damn heavy.
Weighted Dips are great for this reason too. It’s also incredibly satisfying every time you’re able to add more weight.
If you can’t do the weighted version, then dips with your own body weight will work for now.
As a side note: if you’re using a preworkout that gives you a crazy pump, expect your arms to feel like they’re about to POP when doing resistance training with these exercises.
Medial Head Of Triceps
The medial head is an often neglected head when building muscle and getting horseshoe triceps.
The best way to develop the medial head is to choose exercises that will allow you to get a FULL contraction of the triceps.
Meaning we’ll be selecting exercises and using a lighter weight that you can essentially lockout on.
These exercises are great for growing the medial head of the triceps:
- Rope pushdowns
- Underhand tricep pushdowns
- Tricep Kickbacks
Ultimately, when it comes to developing the medial head of the triceps, just do your best to reach FULL triceps extension, which is damn near lockout.
Most guys leave like 3-4 inches of extra extension/contraction and this is one of the WORST mistakes when trying to grow your triceps.
Most men don’t realize that those last few inches of contractions are an easy way to recruit more muscle fibers leading to more gains.
Lateral Head Of Triceps
Alright, lastly we have the lateral head of the triceps.
This head is definitely the one you want to target in your workout routine if you’re trying to get horseshoe triceps, as it’s the MAIN MUSCLE with creates that look.
In my opinion, you really only need one exercise for this and that’s rope pushdowns with PERFECT form.
The key is in the name – perfect form rope pushdowns.
Most people use WAY too heavy of a weight, and end up doing more of a “pull THEN push” but it’s called a pushdown for a reason, you’re supposed to be pushing.
Not only this, but to get a FULL contraction of the triceps, then at the bottom of the rep you’re going to want to point your knuckles directly towards the floor.
This will ensure you get a FULL contraction, and if you stick with this one exercise, your lateral head will blow up in size.
Again, research has shown that not only are rope pushdowns when done with proper form are one of the best isolation exercises for ALL heads of the tricep, not just lateral.
Start with a MUCH lighter weight, and work your way up from there until you fail around 8-12 reps with perfect form.
Tricep Superset Routine For Horseshoe Triceps
This is where we’ll treat the triceps differently than your biceps because this time I actually recommend adding a tricep superset to your workout routine.
The reason why a tricep superset is beneficial is because your triceps are WAY bigger than your biceps, and will benefit from a tricep superset.
Here’s a great tricep superset involving both single and multijoint exercises to get you started:
- Perfect Form Rope Pushdowns 3×10-12
- Weighted Dips 3×8-12
The weighted dips will be the mass builder for your triceps, and the rope pushdown will allow you to attack your triceps with laser-like precision to help sculpt out that horseshoe look.
Again, you can also combine this tricep superset with a bicep superset of your choice for even crazier arm gains.
Just make sure you’re getting enough rest between workouts, and you’re following a good diet with supplements that can boost muscle protein synthesis and whatnot.
Why Your Arms Won’t Grow: FAQ
Lastly, we’ll take a look at some of the frequently asked questions when it comes to getting bigger arms.
If you’re wondering why your arms won’t grow, then you’re in the right place.
Overall, I hope that you found this article helpful and that you’ll be able to grow a “second pair of legs” haha.
Why Won’t My Arms Grow?
Your arms won’t grow because you’re likely not doing the right exercises properly.
If you want your biceps to grow, then do some EZ Bar Curls, Lateral Curls Side Curls/Hammer Curls with the form tips provided.
Another bicep growth tip is no matter what exercise you’re doing for the biceps is to bend your wrist backward, this will make it so that your forearm doesn’t try to take over and dominate the movement.
And if you’re trying to get horseshoe triceps, then perform the tricep superset listed above.
When doing the dips a good tip is to pull your shoulders down and back. This will keep the tension on the chest and triceps, and minimize trap involvement.
“My Arms Won’t Grow Even Though I Work Them Everyday”
If your arms won’t grow even though you’re working them every day, then you’re likely doing WAY too much volume and not giving your arms enough time to rest.
Remember gains are made at home while you rest and NOT while you’re at the gym.
Train hard. Go home and eat a great muscle-building diet. Get 8-9 hours of sleep and then try to keep at least 2-3 days before you work your arms intensely again.
Your arms are made up of small muscles compared to your back, chest, legs, etc. and so they’ll need slightly less volume and more rest than the bigger muscle groups.
How To Get Horseshoe Triceps
To get horseshoe triceps, you’re going to want to target the lateral head of the triceps.
In my experience, the absolute best way to target the lateral head and get horseshoe triceps is to do perfect form rope pushdowns.
When I doubled my arm size in less than 90 days, perfect form rope pushdowns were one of the main exercises that I used.
If you’re willing to master that one exercise then you’ll get horseshoe triceps guaranteed.
Want A Full Arms Building Blueprint?
If you enjoyed this article and found the advice helpful, then I’d HIGHLY recommend taking a look at my ebook “Alpha Arms 2.0.”
It’s got everything I’ve learned over the past decade of training arms, including my EXACT routine that I used to double the size of my arms in less than 90 days.
As of right now, you can get it as a free bonus to my main program “The Aesthetics Blueprint“.
The Aesthetics Blueprint is designed to give you the scientifically most attractive physique in as little time as possible.
It’s the ultimate culmination of all my knowledge and is the routine that I use to this day.
Don’t just take my word for it though, because it also comes with a 60-day money back guarantee.
So if you do not get results that you are stoked about within 60 days or less, shoot me an email or DM me and I’ll refund your money for you.
Overall, I genuinely hope that you enjoyed this article and will be able to use this knowledge to achieve the body of your dreams.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email me at matthewcarter@hardgainerbodybuilding.com or shoot me a dm on Instagram @realmatthewcarter.
And as always, I’ll see you guys next time!
Cheers,
-Matthew