BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, CSCS
Just like that, sleeveless season is here. Year-round, there’s little downside to bigger, stronger arms (and they help your longevity, too), but now they’re more on our minds.
The result: Many of us head to the gym and bang out hundreds of standing dumbbell curl reps. But recent research has shown us there are better ways: A certain style of arm exercise will yield better gains.
To build arm muscle efficiently, science has established this: you need to force your muscles to face tension as they are stretching. This doesn’t happen on that standing biceps curl: As you stretch your biceps near the bottom, the muscle feels next to no tension. And while that doesn’t mean classic curls are useless, it does mean you have better dumbbell options for building your arms.
Make these three exercises (all of which challenge your biceps and triceps in stretched positions) the backbone of your arm training. You can do them as a full workout too: Just do 2-3 sets of 8 to 10 hard reps for each move, and enjoy the arm growth.
JM PRESS
No move will build your triceps like this one. The dumbbell JM press forces your upper arm and triceps to get parallel to the floor. Then, as you shift the dumbbells toward your shoulders, you wind up with a heavily loaded stretch on your triceps. Bonus challenge: Each rep takes a few seconds to do, maximizing time under tension.
SINGLE-ARM PREACHER CURL
Bodybuilders have loved preacher curls for years, and the science is showing why: Preacher curls challenge your biceps most when the muscle is stretched out. That means you won’t always be able to lift your heaviest – but you’ll always get great training stimulus. To get the most out of these, lower slowly, and glue your upper arm to the bench no matter what.
INCLINE CURL
We typically think of the biceps as the muscle that drives our elbow to flex. It has another purpose too: It helps us raise our arm toward the sky, an act called shoulder flexion. Incline curls stretch the biceps at the shoulder, setting us up for growth. For best results, fight to keep your elbows behind your torso at all times.