Plenty of men and women want to boost their upper body mass. It’s tricky to find the right exercise routine or methods to make this happen. But, there are definitely specific paths and techniques you can use to get ripped like Hollywood’s biggest stars.
How to Get Bigger Arms and Chest
Bigger arms and chest muscles are important for overall health and fitness. In addition, they can add convenience to your life in a variety of ways. You will be able to lift heavier objects without help, for instance.
We’ll explain how you can add muscle to your arms and chest through a proper diet, specific, targeted workout routines, and proper resting days.
Eat More Protein
You won't get more arm and chest muscle without consuming more protein to match. As your body tears up your arm and chest muscles, it will also need more calories. These are necessary to maintain metabolism and more protein is needed to form new muscle fibers. The obvious solution is that you’ll have to eat more.
You’ll be expending more energy than usual. To encourage muscle growth, you’ll need to give yourself a calorie surplus.
To easily add these calories into your diet, add an extra meal at the end of your workout when you are likely to be hungry. Eventually, your stomach will become used to the extra food and start to be able to handle it a lot more easily.
Use Targeted Workouts
Obviously, cardio isn’t going to do anything for your arms and chest. You’ll need to do targeted muscle workouts for these muscle groups to make your arms and chest grow in size and become more toned.
There are plenty of different workout routines you can use. Many of them use the arms and chest in tandem.
You should definitely do these workouts since you'll be working out both muscle groups of the same time. It's also a good idea to do arms specific or chest specific exercises and alternate between the two.
This will ensure that both muscle groups get the same amount of attention. They can assist each other as you move up the weight classes.
Good Workout Ideas
One of the best joint exercises you can perform is the dumbbell bench press. This involves using a pair of dumbbells and performing a standard bench press exercise while lying flat on your back. This exercise will work the muscles in your arms and those in your chest at the same time.
You should also do push-ups as a warm-up exercise. These are relatively easy and use your arms and chest muscles together to accomplish the task. A few sets of these before you move on to the harder exercises is a great way to wake your body up and prepare it for the more strenuous routines.
For arm specific exercises, there are plenty of curl variants you can use to target your biceps or triceps. You should focus on both muscle groups equally to avoid your arms becoming unbalanced. There are also pull-ups and all of their variants you can draw on to strengthen your arms.
Chest specific exercises are a little harder to accomplish. Most gyms have various machines that work your pectorals or back shoulder muscles exclusively. These can be great options if your arms need a rest day but you still have enough energy to exercise your chest.
Do Hard Workouts
You can’t just stay within one weight class and expect your muscle definition to grow. You need to constantly be pushing yourself and adding more weight to your limit as soon as you can.
Your muscles grow as a result of being torn through stress from working out. This tearing stops as your muscles become big enough to handle your current weight amount.
Add Additional Weight
To ensure that the tearing continues and all the protein you’re consuming is being put to good use making new muscle cells, you’ll need to constantly add more weight.
A good idea is to add 5 pounds for men, or 2.5 pounds for women. Do this on each side any time you are able to do all of your assigned reps during a given exercise day without as much difficulty as before.
This will keep your body on its toes. It will also force your arms and chest to keep up with the increasing weight amounts. They will grow or fall behind.
Rest Periodically
While all of this working out is the primary vessel for you getting bigger arms and chest, you’ll also need to give your body plenty of rest time. This ensures that all the work being put into your body is having its maximum effect.
Your muscles need time to regenerate and add new muscle cells. This is because of the tears you’ve put in your arms and chest.
If you overwork your muscles, you’ll run the risk of injuring yourself or hampering your ability to grow new muscle mass. This can actually slow down your overall progress. That means, don’t work out your arms and chest every single day of the week.
Instead, it’s a better idea to rotate which part of your body you exercise as the week progresses. You should have a few days where you focus on cardio or your legs. This is to let your arms and chest rest. You want to make sure the rest of your body keeps up with your overall fitness.
It’s a bad idea to neglect the rest of your body in favor of your upper body.
Cardio is particularly important since it plays a huge role in ensuring adequate blood and oxygen flow throughout your body. Good cardio leads to a better heart rate and a better ability for your body to provide fresh blood to your hard-working arm and chest muscles. This will help you work out more effectively and form a positive feedback loop.
Conclusion
Getting a bigger upper body has nothing to do with genetics and has everything to do with your discipline and exercise routine. Eating more protein and keeping a healthy diet while using the right exercises in the right amount is the best way to grow your chest and arm muscles together.