Big Guns - Bicep and Tricep Training For Novice Lifters

Big Guns - Advice to Novice Arm Trainers

Suddenly, I find myself working with three teenage boys, ages 13 through 16. Like puppy Labrador retrievers, they are beside themselves with their gains in muscle and strength. They find the process magical and the lifting itself fun and challenging. After working with each for a while, they are no longer scared or intimidated by me, as they were initially. Interestingly, and not surprisingly, each has individually expressed an interest in arm training.

“I wanna do extra work to grow BIG GUNS!” as the 13-year-old eloquently put it, this after he had been inspired by seeing Arnold in the movie Predator.

Core Four First, Arm Work Second

I have fed them a steady diet of squats, bench presses, overhead presses, and deadlifts, the Core Four, and now they are hungry for more. I am all for it.

“The four lifts are the meat and potatoes,” I drill into their heads. “If after eating your meat and potatoes, you want dessert — arm training — then by all means, have at it!”

The 16-year-old asked, “How about a second arm day, Coach? All we do is pump them up.” And he was right. We take the Core Four deadly serious and periodize each lift. While each of the four lifts, or their variants, are trained once each week, biceps and triceps can be trained more often. Arm work involves doing a series of isolation exercises. The Core Four are compound multi-joint exercises.

Arm work is comparatively lower-load: the poundage is lighter, the muscles smaller, and the exercises more localized. That does not mean arm work is automatically risk-free. Novice and teenage lifters still need clean form, adult supervision, pain-free range of motion, and enough restraint to stop intensity techniques from turning into sloppy circus tricks.

Arm training uses higher reps and can add intensity enhancers: forced reps, drop sets, supersets, giant sets, and the like. These tactics are useful only when the lifter already owns the basic movement. Arm training also uses a wide variety of exercises that can and should be rotated. Here is a classical two-day-a-week beginner arm training program, perfect for my young trainees to sink their teeth into.

A Classical Two-Day Beginner Arm Program

The idea is simple: biceps and triceps are alternated, or supersetted. Perform a biceps movement, then a triceps movement, then rest until breathing normalizes and the pump settles just enough to attack the next round.

The goal is not to see how many exercises a novice can survive. The goal is to teach the muscles how to contract under control, build the mind-muscle connection, strengthen the elbows and shoulders over time, and make the young lifter excited about training without losing sight of the big lifts.

Day 1 - Biceps and Triceps Supersetted

Standing barbell cheat curls: Arnold’s favorite arm exercise. A slight jolt is used to get the barbell moving and a slight lean-back is used at the finish of the final reps of the top set. Arnold allowed his wrists to bend backward as he curled. Try it; it makes curling harder. Top set: six strict reps with two controlled cheat curls to end the set.

Dips and weighted dips: dips are “squats for the arms.” Dip down until the upper arms are roughly parallel to the floor, or to the deepest pain-free depth the shoulders and elbows tolerate. Push upward as explosively as possible to an exaggerated hard lockout. Many dip benefits reside in the lockout. When you can do 3 sets of 10 with clean form, consider adding weight conservatively with plates such as weight plates. Weighted dips can build gigantic triceps when the movement agrees with the lifter.

Seated incline dumbbell curl: to make strict dumbbell curling even stricter, do them while lying back on an inclined weight bench. Most incline curls are done at a 45-degree angle; we recommend an even steeper 22-degree lower incline when the shoulders tolerate it. Keep the elbows back. Do not let them rise up and forward through the sticking point.

Single-dumbbell overhead triceps extension: a fabulous exercise if done correctly. Position both hands around the handle under one end of the bell, clean it to one shoulder, then get it overhead. Lower the lone dumbbell behind the head under control. Relax the arms and shoulders enough to let the dumbbell stretch the triceps, then push to a hard lockout.

If lacking a dip apparatus, substitute lying nose-breakers, lowering a barbell in a controlled semicircle only if the elbows and shoulders tolerate the movement.

Day 2 - Three Days Later

Standing alternate dumbbell curls: alternating dumbbell curls allow for maximum poundage with some purposeful looseness. Each arm gets worked in turn. Toward the end of the set, some looseness in technique is recommended to squeeze out one or two more reps. Ridiculous looseness destroys any biceps benefit.

Narrow-grip bench press: use a slightly narrower than shoulder-width grip. Too narrow a grip strains the wrists. Lower and push the bar as you would a touch-and-go bench press. Exaggerate the lockout, as that is where the triceps are maximally stimulated. Try one or two forced reps only with a competent training partner and only after the novice has proven control.

Strict barbell or dumbbell curl leaning against a post or wall: to create the ultimate in biceps isolation, perform light curls leaning against a pole, post, or doorframe. Keep the glutes, back and head in contact with the post throughout the set. Want to squeeze out two more reps? Allow the head to come off the post, but do not let the set become a convulsion.

Cable pushdowns: this is a nice finishing exercise. Use different handle and rope styles to stress the triceps in slightly different ways. Straight and angled handles create different muscular effects. A rope attachment is effective when the poundage is light enough for a full lockout and hard contraction. High-rep sets pump the triceps to the bursting point.

If lacking a cable pushdown device, substitute bench dips or incline-bench dumbbell triceps extensions, provided the shoulders and elbows remain pain-free.

How to Perform the Arm Work

The procedure is to work up to a top set in each exercise, ending in the 6- to 12-rep range. Poundage is not the point. Arm work is about feeling the biceps and triceps contract in real time. Each rep is raised and lowered in continuous-tension style. No technical slop allowed.

Some looseness is used in the barbell cheat curls and standing dumbbell curls, but this is controlled looseness, just enough layback to complete one or two more growth-producing reps.

Arms are worked using precision techniques, moderate to high reps, moderate poundage, and continuous tension. Biceps exercises and triceps exercises are alternated. Rest until breathing normalizes. The arms should be pumped after a session.

I leave you with the words of Arm God Bill Pearl: “It’s not which curl you choose, it’s how you do the curl you choose.”

Ten Curl Types

1. Cheat curl: more aptly named “barely cheat curls.” Use the bare minimum heave and backbend to keep the set going. Do not start cheating on rep one. Hit positive failure curling strictly, then begin cheating.
2. Concentration curl: the opposite of a cheat curl. Usually done seated, often braced against one leg, the idea is to isolate the biceps by back-bracing the curl, ensuring more strictness and isolation.
3. Incline dumbbell curl: classically done using a 45-degree angle, lying back on a weight bench while curling dumbbells enforces strictness and creates greater biceps isolation. Keep the elbows back throughout.
4. Preacher bench curl: originally called the Larry Scott curl. Vince Gironda advised, “Lean back at the bottom of the rep; lean forward at the top of the rep.” This tip amplifies results when done under control.
5. Spider curl: while the preacher curl has most resistance and tension at the bottom of the curl rep, the 90-degree back-braced spider curl stresses the topmost portion of the rep.
6. Drag curls: this type of curl is simple to understand and hard to master. Once the standing barbell curl begins, the athlete keeps the bar in contact with the body, raising the bar to the pecs. Highly isolative.
7. Cable curls: low-angle cable curls are favored by IFBB pros to finish an arm session. Cables lend themselves to continuous tension and full range of motion. Curl from a low angle to the chin.
8. Braced curls: before there were preacher curl benches, machine curl machines, cable devices, and benches that inclined, men isolated their biceps by leaning against a post or pole when curling.
9. Chin-ups: deprived of a barbell and seeking to work the biceps? Get good at various versions of under-grip chin-ups. Experiment with different grip widths to target inner or outer biceps emphasis.
10. Machine curls: machine curls rank lowest on the curl totem pole in my world because machines reduce the need to control side-to-side motion. Free-weight barbells excite stabilizers and dig a deeper muscular inroad.

Where Arm Training Fits

Triceps have a tremendous performance impact on both the bench press and overhead press. Training triceps in conjunction with bench pressing is natural. Elite athletes have traditionally placed triceps after bench pressing: train them together, rest them together.

Curls are related to nothing in the Core Four. None of the Core Four lifts, or any Olympic lift, is improved in a direct way by improving the biceps or getting better at curling. On the other hand, while sitting around waiting to recover from a set of weighted dips or a forced-rep set of close-grip bench presses, why not do a set of curls?

While bench pressing and triceps go together like ham and eggs, triceps and biceps go together like shrimp and grits, or Mick and Keith. The logical place for one weekly arm routine is after benching. On the second arm day, place arms behind overhead pressing, or give arms their own separate training day.

The 16-year-old feels himself “growing into a Massive Man,” as he related while crashing through the 150-pound bodyweight barrier. He was 130 when we started. He now has his gunsights set on growing big guns and I shall do everything in my power to assist him in his muscle quest.

Equipment Notes for Beginner Arm Training

Novice arm training does not need a circus of machines. A simple setup built around barbells, dumbbells, benches, plates, cables, and a few arm-specific tools is plenty.

For free-weight arm training, lifters and facilities can compare barbells, dumbbells, weight plates, and weight benches. A setup might include an IRON COMPANY urethane barbell set, American Barbell rubber Olympic grip plates, or a bar such as the CAP Barbell 7-foot chromed Olympic weight bar, when those tools match the lifter, facility, and stated specifications.

For preacher curls, machine curls and direct biceps / triceps work, compare plate-loaded leverage gym equipment and selectorized gym equipment. Specific examples include the TKO Signature preacher curl weight bench and the Body-Solid cam-series biceps and triceps machine.

The equipment does not build the arms. The lifter, technique, effort, food, recovery, and consistency build the arms.

Safety Note for Novice and Teenage Arm Training

Novice and teenage arm training should be supervised, technically controlled and pain-free. Young lifters should have parent or guardian approval and appropriate coaching before adding intensity enhancers such as forced reps, drop sets, heavy cheat curls, weighted dips or nose-breakers.

Dips, narrow-grip bench presses, overhead triceps extensions, nose-breakers and heavy curls can irritate shoulders, elbows, wrists and connective tissue if load, volume or technique outruns recovery. Stop or scale back for sharp pain, numbness, unusual joint pain, repeated form collapse, dizziness or pressure to finish a rep at all costs.

For teenagers, the priority is learning how to train, not proving how tough they are. The Core Four are still the foundation. Arm work is dessert. Dessert is great after the meat and potatoes; dessert becomes a problem when it replaces the meal.

This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW coaching perspective and firsthand arm-training advice. It is not individualized medical, pediatric, rehabilitation, nutrition, or programming advice.

Related Arm Training Reading

For another beginner-friendly biceps and triceps article, read Bicep and Tricep Training. For old-school arm specialization after the novice phase, read How to Build Big Ass Arms Old School Style and Arnold Schwarzenegger Arm Training.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.