Want huge, ripped arms? Toss aside those weights and get back to basics with a bodyweight-only workout—at least every once in a while.
Without all those heavy weights, you’ll give your body and joints a much-needed break. By altering your body angle and position and getting creative with the right tools at your gym, you can still get the necessary stimulus for real growth in your biceps, triceps, shoulders, and forearms.
Even if you’re a hardcore lifter, substitute your normal arm exercises with these bodyweight moves for the next few weeks and watch your biceps and triceps grow like weeds.
Dips are a phenomenal exercise to build not only your pecs and shoulders, but also to blast the hell out of your triceps and forearms. Get on a dip bar, keep your chest out, and lower yourself until your elbows make a 90-degree angle. At the bottom, drive back up. To keep pressure off your neck, look at a spot on the ground a few feet in front of you.
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Edgar Artiga
Towel Pullups
To grow bigger arms, you must address the weakest link: your grip strength. If you increase how much you can hold, you’ll increase the muscle-building stimulus on your body. Towel pullups are one of the best — and most badass — ways to develop vice-like strength in your forearms
Wrap two towels around a pullup bar and grab the ends. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull yourself up while leading with your chest. If two towels are too difficult, just use one towel and get equal reps on both arms.
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EDGAR ARTIGA / M+F Magazine
TRX Bicep Curls
Traditional bicep curls are susceptible to all kinds of twisting, leaning, and bending as well as overuse injuries to your elbows because of all the external resistance. However, doing a curl with the TRX will force you to stay rigid, and it will activate all the other muscles in your body while targeting your arms.
Grab a TRX and face the anchor point. Lean away, keep your body straight, and pin your upper arms to your sides. Then curl the TRX towards you. To make this harder, move your feet closer to the anchor point.
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Per Bernal / M+F Magazine
Crab Walk
The crab walk looks weird, but it gets results. It builds total-body stability, but also targets your shoulders and triceps as your arms brace to keep you up. Get into a crab position: hands and feet flat on the ground, chest facing up, knees bent, hips an inch from the ground, arms straight, hands directly underneath your shoulders, and fingers pointing behind you.
Crawl forward by taking a tiny step with your right arm and left leg at the same time, and then another step with your left arm and right leg. Alternate while keeping your hips low and your chest up.
Band pushdowns are a great way to inject a massive amount of volume into your triceps without putting pressure on your sensitive elbow joints. With so many reps, you’ll get the “pump” as well as a significant “time-under tension” for serious hypertrophy.
Attach a light band to a sturdy overhead object and grasp an end with both hands. Pin your upper arms at your sides and extend your elbows to lockout. Grab the band where the level of resistance will take you to about 50 to 75 reps before you fatigue.
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Per Bernal
Narrow-grip Chin-ups
Unlike the pullup, the chinup — palms facing you — increases the effort on your biceps; this will narrow your grip and you’ll skyrocket from that emphasis.
Hang from a chinup bar with palms facing toward you and only a few inches apart. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull yourself up, until your chin is over the bar.
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Maridav / Shutterstock
Narrow-width Pushups
Hammer your triceps, pecs, shoulders, and core by using a narrow width on the pushup. Get into a pushup position with your hands only a few inches apart. Lower yourself by keeping your elbows close to your sides.
The beauty of TRX exercises is that you can quickly dial up or dial down the intensity by moving closer to or farther away from the anchor point.
Grab a TRX and stand facing away from the anchor point. Lean forward and keep your body straight. Now keep your elbows in front of your chest and hands around forehead-height.
While maintaining your body rigid and upper-arms stationary, extend your forearms forward to activate your triceps and push yourself up.
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Jay Sullivan
Pike Pushup
Pushing anything overhead is an awesome way to build thick shoulders and triceps. With bodyweight exercises, it can be hard to find overhead movements — until now, that is.
Pike pushups mimic the overhead plane by getting you upside-down. Get into a pushup position and raise your hips until you have a straight line going from your hands to your hips.
