Ever found yourself standing in front of the mirror, flexing your mighty guns... and nothing really happens? You go to the gym, hit the weights hard, but the measuring tape and the mirror tells the same old story despite your efforts.

Don't be discouraged - some people aren't genetically blessed with freaky-thick arms, but there are plenty of things you can do to make the most of the cards you were dealt.

10 Steps To Freaky Arms!

Here are 10 concrete steps you can take to get the most out of your arm training. The first five deals with training, while the last five addresses secondary issues that remain critical to your bodybuilding success.

1. Know Thy Anatomy

When you're thinking about your arms, the centerpiece is probably the good ol' BISEPS. There's a good reason for this, as it tends to be among the most visible muscles you have (the double-bicep flex is, after all, the classic bodybuilder pose.)

However, were you to get a cross-section view on your upper-arm, you'd quickly realize that the real player is TRISEPS. In simplified terms, your triceps makes up about 2/3 of the muscle mass while biceps and brachialis, biceps' little helper, make up the remaining 1/3.

Right there we see why it is folly to put all your effort into hammering biceps while doing a few sloppy tricep pushdowns as an afterthought before hitting the showers. If you want to beef up your arms, make triceps at least as much of a priority as biceps.

2. Hit'em Hard, But Briefly.

The whole point of lifting weights is to trigger a growth response. Anything else is maintenance at best and a waste of time at worst. In order to hit the sweet spot, you must first push yourself beyond your comfort zone.

POWERMAN

www   Our body is composed of many different groups of muscles and each person has a unique composition of muscle tissue in their body. Read on here to learn more about the 3 different muscle fibers and how they build differently depending on the type of sport. [

To achieve this, you must lift heavier and/or do more reps than you're used to. The former is primarily what stimulates fast-twitch muscle fibers, while the latter targets slow-twitch fibers.

Some muscles have a high ratio of slow-twitch muscle fibers and may benefit from more reps with lower weight. Biceps and triceps aren't among them. For best results, focus primarily on fairly heavy training in the 6-8 rep range (using strict form) with just the occasional couple weeks of lighter training thrown in to keep the muscles guessing.

Explosive as biceps and triceps may be, they also tire quickly. Doing set after set of bicep curls for hours may be downright counterproductive, while just a few, high-intensity sets where you really wring every ounce of juice out of the muscles, is enough to trigger the growth response mentioned earlier.

And once you've done that, what's the point of continuing? You've won the game - time to collect the trophy and go home.

3. Mix Things Up.

Always doing the same exercises with the same weights won't push your muscles out of the comfort zone once the novelty has worn off. Keep'em guessing - make changes every couple workouts! These don't have to be earth-shattering changes.

Sometimes just moving the order of exercises around, replacing a cable-movement with free weights, or why not do a crazy set with half the weight you normally use - only this time to do 50 reps?


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Standard Barbell Curl.

True, there are only so many variations on BISEPS CURL you can do. That's why there is a bunch of bars to try, from your standard EZ-bar to hammer curl bars with half a dozen widths and angles.


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EZ-Bar Curl.

Likewise, cable-based and plate-loaded leverage machines provide a wide variety of angles and resistance grooves. With some imagination, even sparsely equipped gyms can provide plenty of variation.


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Cable Curl.

4. Target Specific Parts Of Each Muscle.

As the name implies, biceps and triceps consist of two and three distinctly different sections, respectively. In order to maximize development, you should make an active effort to target each part in every workout. So how do you accomplish this?

If you're serious about your training, this is where you go back to the anatomy chart and use deductive reasoning based on biomechanics, coupled with practical experimentation to learn the right "feel" of stimulating specific parts.

5. Use Intensity-Boosting Techniques - Wisely.

As mentioned in step two, intensity is the magic key to growth. One way to up the ante and potentially speed up your progress is to throw in the occasional intensity booster. These include forced reps, partial reps, negative training and drop sets.

But here's the thing: all of the above taxes your muscles and your nervous system by essentially circumventing the body's natural limitations. Sure enough, that will send it into overdrive in beefing up the muscle fibers, but you also dance closer to the edge of INJURI

The biggest risk, however, isn't necessarily that of a snapped tendon or ligament. If you make it a habit to consistently boost intensity using the techniques mentioned above, you are all but guaranteed to slide into OVERTRAINING

In a nutshell, this is the state where you cause more damage than your body is able to repair between workouts - taking one step forward, two steps back with every workout. Limit yourself to one or two exercises every other week, at most.

6. Get Plenty Of Rest.

This ties in with the overtraining aspect - the body must be allowed sufficient time to fully rebuild itself and then some in order to grow. The easiest way to address this issue is simple: get a good night's SLEEPWhile we're all a little different in our need for sleep, the good old eight hours a night is a good starting point, while many benefit from nine or even more.

Mid-day napping can be a great way to recharge the batteries. Some metropolitan areas have places offering "powernaps" in special sleeping pods, but most of us get by just fine lying down on the couch or flipping the car seat back with a cap over our eyes for half an hour.

Why is sleeping so beneficial? Not only does it make you mentally refreshed, you also have a bunch of naturally occurring growth hormones being released as you sleep. All things considered, it just makes sense to let the body get the downtime it needs to recover and overcompensate, aka. building new muscle mass.

7. Eat Plenty.

The foundation of growth is simple: consume more calories than you burn. If you barely eat enough to break even, where is the extra bodyweight going to come from? Think of it as a leaking bucket of water, where the leak is how much you burn each day by sleeping, walking, training and whatnot. If the water level in the bucket is to rise, you must pour in more than leaks out. It's that simple.

However, this is not a perfect analogy in that massive overeating won't make you grow faster. In fact, once you've hit break-even and some 500 calories or so beyond that, you run the risk of gaining body fat.

This varies by size, age, diet and a bunch of other factors, but the bottom line is that it's a game of consistently eating a little more than you burn every day. Talk to a local nutritionist or certified personal trainer if you need help customizing a meal plan suitable for you.

8. Use Supplements.

Taking in enough calories is important, but most of us can benefit from a little extra help. Your basic PROTEIN POWDER is a given staple, as is the daily MULTI-VITAMIN. For extra power, consider doing a few cycles of CREATIN

9. Stretch.

STRETCHING decreases soreness and may help prevent injury. By flushing out the byproducts of hard training and getting fresh blood and nutrients into the muscle, you'll recover faster. Stretching also prevents shortening of the muscles, which can make you more prone to injury down the road.

Another reported benefit of stretching is that it may help expand the fascia that the muscle fibers are encapsulated in. If you're wearing a SHIRT that is one size too small, your range of motion is compromised. The muscle fibers work the same way -- if there's not room to grow, they're less inclined to do so.

10. Lose Body Fat.

Finally, one reason your arms may not look very freaky is that you have a thin layer of FATobscuring the lines. Make no mistake; this seemingly small detail can make all the difference in the world.

Ever notice how some pro bodybuilders can look fantastic one show, and then be just blah a week later? That often has to do with water retention mishaps, meaning there's a thin film of water buildup under the skin which makes them look all flat and sorry despite being in just as good shape as they were a week before.



A thin layer of body fat has the exact same effect -- except it's not just a temporary mishap. So if your MEASURING TAPE shows you've made some arm progress but the mirror doesn't show it, losing a few pounds may help. There's no need to go nuts aiming for the low single-digit body fat percentage that the pros do; just get rid of the love

                                         

Anatomy Of The Biceps

Biceps Brachii:

The biceps brachii is a muscle on the upper arm that acts to flex the elbow. It is given the name biceps because it has two heads, and brachii comes from the Latin word for arm.

The short head of the biceps attaches to the coracoid process of the scapula. The tendon of the long head passes into the joint capsule at the head of the humerus, and attaches on the scapula at the supraglenoid tubercle.

Distally, biceps attaches to the radial tuberosity, and because this bone can rotate, the biceps also supinates the forearm. The biceps also connects with the fascia of the medial side of the arm, at the bicipital aponeurosis.

Brachialis:

The brachialis muscle is the main flexor of the forearm. It arises from the distal, anterior half of the humerus and the intermuscular septa. It inserts into the coronoid process and tuberosity of the ulna over the elbow joint.

Here is an anatomy picture with each of the upper arm muscles:


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Biceps.

Bicep Exercises

Here are the most common bicep exercises along with how to perform each exercise:

Standing Barbell Curls:

Standing Barbell Curls: are a basic movement that work the biceps and forearms. Grab a barbell with an underhand grip. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Let the barbell hang in front of you at arms length. Keep your elbows close to your torso at all times.

Moving only your forearms, use your bicep strength to curl the barbell up to shoulder level. Hold this position for a second to maximize the peak contraction in the biceps. Slowly lower the barbell to the starting position. Repeat.

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Barbell Curls.

Tips:

• Do not lift excess weight and use momentum to swing the barbell up.
• Use a lighter weight and keep the movement slow and controlled.
• For variety you can use different types of barbells (i.e. an ez curl bar) to work the muscles at different angles.
• You can also do this exercise with a bar attached to a low cable pulley.

Standing Dumbbell Curls:

Standing Dumbbell Curls are similar to the barbell curl. It works the biceps and forearms. Grab a pair of dumbbells. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Let the dumbbells hang at arms length on each side of your body. Keep your elbows close to your torso at all times.

Moving only your forearms, use your bicep strength to curl the dumbbells up to shoulder level. Rotate your hands so that your palms are facing upwards at the top. Hold this position for a second to maximize the peak contraction in the biceps. Slowly lower the dumbbells to the starting position. Repeat.

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Standing Dumbbell Curls.

Tips:

• Do not lift excess weight and use momentum to swing the dumbbells up.
• Use a lighter weight and keep the movement slow and controlled.
• For variety you can do this exercise with one arm at a time.

Dumbbell Hammer Curls:

Dumbbell Hammer Curls:are similar to the dumbbell curl. It works the biceps, brachialis, and forearms. Grab a pair of dumbbells. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Let the dumbbells hang at arms length on each side of your body. Keep your elbows close to your torso at all times and keep the palms of your hands facing each other.

Moving only your forearms, use your bicep and forearm strength to curl the dumbbells up to shoulder level. Do not rotate your hands as you curl the dumbbells. Hold the top position for a second to maximize the peak contraction in the biceps. Slowly lower the dumbbells to the starting position. Repeat.

Tips:

• Do not lift excess weight and use momentum to swing the dumbbells up.
• Use a lighter weight and keep the movement slow and controlled.
• For variety you can do this exercise with one arm at a time.

Incline Dumbbell Curls:

 Incline Dumbbell Curls:are similar to the standing dumbbell curl. It works the biceps and forearms. Grab a pair of dumbbells. Sit back on an incline bench with your feet shoulder width apart. Let the dumbbells hang at arms length on each side of the bench behind your body. This exercise isolates and stretches the biceps more then standing dumbbell curls so you will have to use less weight.

Moving only your forearms, use your bicep strength to curl the dumbbells up to shoulder level. Hold this position for a second to maximize the peak contraction in the biceps. Slowly lower the dumbbells to the starting position. Hold this position for a second to really stretch the biceps. Repeat.

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Incline Dumbbell Curls.

Tips:

• Do not lift excess weight and use momentum to swing the dumbbells up.
• Use a lighter weight and keep the movement slow and controlled.
• For variety you can do this exercise with one arm at a time.

Preacher Curls:

Preacher Curls: isolate the biceps. Secondary stress is applied to the forearms. Sit on a preacher bench with your upper arms lying flat on the pad, palms of your hands facing up. Have a training partner hand you a barbell.

Lower the barbell until your elbows are almost straight and you feel a good stretch in the biceps. Moving only your forearms, use your bicep strength to curl the barbell up to shoulder level. Slowly lower the barbell back to the starting position. Hold this position for a second to really stretch the biceps. Repeat.

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Preacher Curls.

Tips:

• Since this is an isolation exercise use lighter weights and really focus on using perfect exercise form.
• For variety you can do this exercise with dumbbells instead of a barbell.
• You can also do this exercise with a bar attached to a low cable pulley.

Dumbbell Concentration Curls:

Dumbbell Concentration Curls: isolate the biceps and are good for getting a peak contraction in the muscles. Sit at the end of an exercise bench with your legs spread. Reach down between your legs and pick up a light dumbbell with one hand. Brace your elbow against your knee and fully straighten your arm. Place your other hand on your opposite leg to support your upper body.

Moving only your forearm, use your bicep strength to curl the dumbbell up to shoulder level. Hold this position for a couple of seconds to maximize the peak contraction in the biceps. Slowly lower the dumbbell to the starting position. Repeat for the desired number of reps. Do the same for your other arm.

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Dumbbell Concentration Curls.

Tips:

• Since this is an isolation exercise use lighter weights and really focus on using perfect exercise form.
• You must make sure you use proper form not only to help prevent injuries but to also make sure you aren't cheating yourself out of lean mass gains by using incorrect form and by bringing other muscles into the lift.

Since everyone is different, not every exercise mentioned will work for everyone. The best thing to do is to try different exercises and see what works for your body. Some people find that working the muscle directly (specific bicep exercises) gives them the best gains while others find that working it indirectly (working the back muscles which uses the biceps in the exercise as well) they get the best gains.

Anatomy Of The Triceps

The TRISEPS has three heads which connect the humerus and scapula bones to the forearm bone called the ulna. These three heads are known as the Lateral, Medial, and Long heads.

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Triceps Brachii.

For More Triceps Anatomical Information,

The primary function of the tricep is to extend the elbow (straightening the arm). The secondary function of the tricep is fulfilled only by the long head of the muscle, which brings the arm down towards the body (adduction).

Triceps Exercises

Here are my top 4 favorite tricep exercises that I compiled from other various Bodybuilding.com ARTICLES

Pulley Pushdowns

This basic movement stresses the entire triceps muscle complex, particularly the outer and medial heads. Grip the bar overhand with your index fingers no more than 3-5 inches apart in the middle of the handle. Your feet should be SHOULDER  width apart, about 10-12 inches back from the handle.

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Pulley Pushdowns.

Fully bend your arms, pressing your upper arms against your torso, where they should stay through the duration of the set. Leaning slightly forward, move your FOREARMS down, slowly straightening your arms. Hold the straight-arm position momentarily, while flexing your triceps intensely. Slowly return to the starting point.

A good variation is the ROPE HANDER You can also do this exercise with an undergrip on the bar and with different width grips.

Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions

These fundamental favorites isolate intense stress on the triceps, particularly the medial and outer heads. Taking a narrow overgrip in the middle of a moderately weighted barbell, lie on your back on an exercise bench. Keep your feet on the sides of the bench to provide balance.

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Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions.

Extend your arms straight up above your head. With your upper arms remaining motionless throughout the set, bend your elbows allowing the barbell to travel downward in a semicircular arc until it slightly touches your forehead. Reverse the direction of the movement of the bar using only tricep strength to slowly straighten your arms.

There are many effective variations, such as using different grip widths, doing them seated, using an undergrip, or using a decline or incline bench.

One-Dumbbell Triceps Extensions

This movement stresses the entire triceps muscle complex, particularly the inner and medial heads. Take the dumbbell and grip it so that your palms are facing the inner-top plate and the dumbbell is hanging straight down (perpendicular to the GYM floor). To keep the weight from slipping, encircle your thumbs around the dumbbell handle.

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One-Dumbbell Triceps ExtensiON

Lift the dumbbell straight up above your head. This is the start position. Lower the weight slowly behind your head until your arms are full bent. Without bouncing in the bottom position, slowly raise the dumbbell back to the start position.

You can increase the strictness of this movement by sitting at the end of a flat exercise bench, or on the floor with your back braced against the bench.

Standing Barbell Triceps Extensions

This is a fundamental triceps exercise, stressing the inner and medial heads of the triceps muscle complex. Take a narrow overgrip in the middle of a moderately-weighted barbell. With feet about shoulder width apart, stand erect, and extend your arms straight up from your shoulders.

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Standing Barbell Triceps Extensions.

Keep your upper arms in the same position, while you lower the weight slowly behind your head until your arms are completely bent. Without bouncing in the bottom position, slowly raise the bar back to the start position.

You can vary the width of your GRIP on the bar or use an undergrip to isolate different parts of the muscle. You can also do these seated to isolate your legs from movement, making the exercise somewhat stricter.

Top 3 Tricep Workout Plans

Here are the best of the best tricep workout plans, gathered from other Bodybuilding.com articles:

Beginner Exercise Routine:

• Close-Grip Bench Presses - 3 sets x 2-6 reps*
• Pulley Pushdowns - 2 x 8-12

Intermediate Exercise Routine:

• Triceps Parallel Bar Dips - 3-4 sets x 12-6 reps*
• Incline Barbell Triceps Extensions - 2-3 x 8-12

Advanced Exercise Routine:

• Pullover-And-Presses - 4 sets x 12-6 reps*
• Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions - 4 x 8-12
• Dumbbell Kickbacks - 4 x 8-12