Dont Forget the Brachialis For Massive Arms
One of the most neglected muscles in the arms is the brachialis muscle. The brachialis muscle is in the middle of the outer arm in between the biceps and triceps muscles. By performing specific exercises for the brachialis in addition to your usual biceps and triceps routines you will thicken the arm girth and add some serious muscle mass to the bulk of your arms overall. If you have been neglecting training your brachialis muscles you might find that by incorporating them into your training routine on a regular basis they might respond quite suddenly due to a minimum of previous activity.
Everytime you perform almost any exercise for your back muscles like bent over barbell or dumbbell rows, long pulley rows, lat pulldowns or machine rows you are indirectly hitting the brachialis muscles. The pulling motion and bending of the arm with resistance stimulates the brachialis to grow. Especially when you are performing heavy back exercises when all the muscles in your back, rear deltoids and the specific muscles in your arms like biceps and brachialis need to work together to help move the big weights. So when you work your back you are indeed partly working the brachialis but for big arms you need to train them as a separate muscle group in the same way you train your other bodyparts like biceps, triceps, deltoids etc.
A very effective mass building exercise for the brachialis muscles is the hammer curl. Hammer curls are performed with dumbbells, I like to be seated when doing hammer curls but you can also do them standing. Let’s closely examine the hammer curls in the seated position. Sit on the end of a flat bench with your back straight holding a dumbbell in each arm by your side. When you lift each arm one at a time instead of performing the dumbbell curls with your palms facing upward, for a hammer curl you need to bring the dumbbell up to the bent arm position with your thumbs facing upward. Do the hammer curls alternatively one arm at a time and squeeze the muscle tight at the top of the movement. Although you may not be able to feel your brachialis muscles flexing at first, this is definitely one exercise that will stimulate them to grow.
Another favorite alternative to the hammer curls with dumbbells is the rope curls. Grab a standard rope connection with the big rubber stoppers on each end and connect it to a pulley coming from the floor. While standing with your back straight, hold one end of the rope in one hand and the other end in the other hand and straighten out each arm so both arms are holding onto the rope and facing the floor in front of your body. Now pull or curl your arms up with your elbows facing out to each side. Ideally you should bring both hands up to the point just below your chin. Once again as you bring your hands up to the top position your thumbs will be facing upwards.
One more exercise that is effective in targeting both the brachialis and the upper forearm muscles is the standing reverse curl. The reverse curl is very similar to the standard barbell curl however with the reverse curl the tops of your hands are facing upwards not your palms. Start the movement with your arms straight with a grip on the bar about as wide as your body width front on and curl the bar upwards till your elbows are bent as far as they can go. This curl with the reverse grip is another great way to stimulate growth in your brachialis muscles.
As far as reps and sets go for the brachialis, since they get quite a bit of secondary work when performing back exercises I would stick to one exercise for 3-4 sets at the end of your usual biceps routine. Hit them hard with heavy weights in the 8-10 rep range and perform a different brachialis exercise each week to shock the muscles. If you perform the same exercises week after week your body tends to get used to this and stops growing so I always like to mix the exercises up regularly. Specifically targeting the brachialis muscles is a sure fire way to add to the overall mass of your arms and it has the added effect of pushing the biceps and triceps muscles out as it grows from inside the arm. This is one of the main reasons why professional bodybuilders have such enormously thick and massive arms.