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Place adequate stress on the muscle
with exercise.

If you’re looking to work your arm muscles, it helps to understand muscle building in general.

In short, to gain muscle, you need to focus on these three elements:

1. Placing adequate stress on the muscle with exercise.
2. Giving your body adequate nutrition for building muscle.
3. Alternating training with rest time so that your body can repair itself.

From there, you can target specific muscle groups by doing specific exercises. Here are five arm exercises to help you take more control of your fit goals and get the results you want.

1. Arnold overheard press – seated or standing: This exercise works the chest, deltoids, back and anterior delts (front of the shoulders). As a bonus, it works the triceps and encourages more muscle groups to work because of the rotational movement. All in all, it’s an efficient exercise to help your arms get into shape. This exercise is similar to a shoulder press, but you hold the weights as if you’re at the top of a biceps curl with palms facing the body. As you press the weight overhead, you rotate the hands so that the palms are facing forward overhead.

2. EZ bar curls: No doubt you’ve seen people doing this at the gym. It’s a simple exercise that targets the biceps. Adjust the weight and reps at your own pace. Focus on keeping your back straight and your chest up, and as you curl, keep the upper arm stationary which ensures the biceps are doing all the work.

3. Bench press: Although this exercise is primarily for the chest, it’s also perfect for the delts. It works the anterior delts, triceps and even the biceps – that’s a workout efficiency win. Focus on keeping your feel flat on the floor, and to ensure less stress on the shoulders, tuck your elbows toward the body as you lower the bar (75-degree angle). Most importantly, don’t forget to breathe in on the way down and exhale on the way up.

4. Reverse fly: Give your posterior delts some love with this workout. It works the rhomboids (the muscles near the inside of your shoulder blade) and traps, too. Be sure to elevate the arms until they are parallel to the floor and focus on retracting the shoulder blades together. For this move, exhale as you lift and inhale as you lower.

5. Triceps extensions: There are a couple of different variations you can try. One is the lying down skull crusher. The other is a seated overhead extension, which hits the long head of the triceps. Both are great choices, so feel free to switch between them every now and again. Focus on pushing your shoulders into the bench for stabilization and remember that this is a single joint exercise, so the only joint working is your elbows. Limit all other unnecessary movement.

These exercises are a great way to start targeting your arms and hitting your fit goals. Stay consistent and results will follow. You’ve got this. Now, hit the gym!