Why Won’t My Arms Grow? How I Got Big Arms With The Big 3 Trick

Asking “Why won’t my arms grow?” after hitting the gym hard with little to no results can be frustrating, but don’t worry because I’ll explain exactly how I got big arms with the big 3 trick.¹⁷

Of course, every guy wants big arms since they’re the most cherished muscle group among gym-bros, but by utilizing the 3 big lifts (squats, deadlifts, and bench press) anyone can get an insane, natural hormonal response that is a sure-fire way to grow your biceps. 

In addition, I’ll cover every reason why your biceps, triceps and forearms aren’t growing and lay out a fool-proof game plan to tackle those stubborn arms through exercise selection, adequate volume, nutrition, intensity techniques, proper technique, and even show you how to overcome bad arm genetics if that’s the case. 

So before hitting the gym without results again, let me show you how to grow those guns into something you’re truly proud of.

Why Aren’t My Arms Growing? Why Won’t My Arms Grow?

This is a commonly asked question facing many frustrated gym goers since everybody wants big arms, but the reasons that arms are not growing usually comes down to a few factors such as not working them out enough, using bad technique and form, not using the most ideal exercises or just down to having bad genes.

Whatever the reason, fitness enthusiasts must understand that when it comes to arms, they are already in an uphill battle as the biceps that make up a third of the arms are among the hardest muscle to grow with the triceps making up almost 60% of the arm.¹ Growing both these muscles and the forearm is key to getting big arms. 

Source: iulianvalentin via Canva.com¹⁸

Even though the triceps muscles are the bigger muscles and are often touted to be the most distinctive muscle that makes an arm look massive, having large biceps is equally important not only for aesthetics but to ensure a well-balanced arm. 

The two muscles are antagonistic to each other meaning that when one muscles relaxes, the other one contracts therefore complement each other in function and this could work to the advantage of those seeking to grow their arms which will be touched on in a later section.²

Your Stubborn Arms Won’t Grow Because You’re Not Doing Enough Volume

Performing compound movements like pull-ups, bench presses and dips are excellent for growing arms and can strengthen them and achieve hypertrophy (muscle growth) but to really stimulate more growth, it is a good idea to have isolation exercises that target the arms in addition to compounds. 

Compound movements have long been touted as excellent for increasing upper body strength, and rightly so—however ignoring isolation movements that target the biceps and triceps means that lifters can leave gains on the table as isolation movements are just as effective at growing muscles.³

Adding an extra day for arm work or including a routine to target the biceps and triceps will allow a lifter to increase the volume workout on arms. Also, isolation movements work the biceps and triceps in ways that compound movements may not which will lead to variation in the workout. 

It should be noted that one of the harder muscles to grow on the arms can be trained everyday. This is helpful and agreeable news, since many people struggle to get their guns to bulge and is touched on in the sections below.

You Need to Be in a Caloric Surplus & Get Enough Protein to Get Giant Arms

An important component of any exercise regimen and indeed weight loss program is diet and when the arms are trained and worked, they need sufficient fuel to recover and grow. The common adage goes is that ‘you are what you eat’ and this serves true when training to grow arms, the body must be in a calorie surplus to fuel the workouts and to build muscles.

A calorie surplus is a state where the body is consuming more calories that is expended in daily activities, normal physiological processes and workouts. An accurate way of computing the required calories for a workout is to multiply the body weight by 20. As an example, a lifter weighing 170 lbs. will need 3400 kcal on workout days.

The recommendation for the energy surplus to gain 1 kilogram of skeletal muscle mass (SMM) is between 1500 and 2000 kcal per day.⁴ However, this should be reduced on rest days. 

There should be a well-balanced intake of protein, carbohydrates and fats to ensure that the arms have enough fuel to power through a workout and to achieve growth. 

Choose the Right Exercises to Grow Your Arms (Exercise Selections’ Affect on Arm Size)

The type of exercises done will have a significant impact on whether they will grow or not. A lifter must have an understanding and knowledge that the biceps and triceps are composed of different heads. 

Source: Rido via Canva.com¹⁹

To put this into perspective, the triceps are composed of three heads which are the medial, lateral and long head.

The bicep muscles on the other hand are made up of a long head and short head.

Logic dictates that if a lifter wants the whole muscle to grow, then each individual component must be stimulated to achieve hypertrophy (muscle growth).

For the biceps, the American Council on Exercises defines the best exercises that sufficiently target the biceps are those that involve curling and lifting the weights towards the shoulder.

Exercises outlined below should all be used to target both heads:

• The cable curl
• Chin ups
• EZ curls (narrow and wide grips) which are ideal for individuals wondering why does my forearm hurt when I curl
• Preacher curls
• Incline curls 

The triceps should also be targeted in such a way that all 3 heads are stimulated and a 2012 study by the American Council on Exercises showed the following as the best isolation exercises to completely work the triceps with the triangle push up being the most effective for working all 3 heads of the triceps.

• Dips
• Overhead triceps extensions
• Rope pushdowns
• Triangle push-up
• Kickbacks
• Bar pushdowns
• Close-grip bench press
• Lying barbell triceps extensions

Varying the grips, planes of motion and angles of all the exercises will ensure proper and balanced stimulation of the muscles. Curls can be done when seated, leaning forward or inclining in different degrees. Small changes will lead to recruitment of different heads of the muscles ensuring a balanced workout.

Lastly, consider the big 3 trick of doing deadlifts, bench and squats because bench press will load the triceps with the most weight, and deadlifts and squats offer the most hormonal benefits of any lift. 

Why Won’t My Arms Grow? Your Technique is Trash

Form and technique are the very core and foundation of any exercise especially when it comes to muscles that are challenging to grow.

Why won’t my arms grow? Ego often gets in the way of many gym enthusiasts sacrificing good form for heavy weights that the muscles are not ready for, which often leads to under stimulation of the muscles leading to little growth and increasing the risk of injury. 

While it is true that to build and grow muscle, heavy weight needs to be used to cause the muscle to adapt and grow to meet the demands placed on it, it is equally important to first master the correct form with a lighter weight and then progressively build on that. 

Good form will also allow the joint to move in a correct range of motion (ROM) that is natural to the movement which will lead to efficient lifting, maximize muscle growth, unlock immense strength and power, prevent other muscles from taking the load off the target muscle and reduce the risk of injury.

Other than researching the most ideal way of doing an exercise, using a personal trainer can help achieve this objective.

You Might Just Have Bad Arm Genetics: But Don’t Let This Be an Excuse

Some lifters simply don’t have the genes to grow big arms—their genetics map for poor structure of muscles that will not grow with ease.

This could be due to factors such as having short muscle bellies for the biceps—muscle bellies are the fleshy part of the muscles and individuals with smaller muscle bellies will have a harder time growing them as they are limited by this size. 

Similarly to those who have bad chest genetics or even those with bad ab genetics, some lifters with bad biceps genetics, bad triceps genetics or bad forearm genetics will have insertion points that are too close to another which means that the muscles are limited in how much they can grow when compared to those wider insertion points. 

This should however not be an excuse for anyone trying to grow their arms.

While it is true, other lifters may have an advantage over them, putting in hard work, technique and dedication can never be replaced and this will allow these lifters to ‘work’ with what they have; there have been many successful bodybuilders and powerlifters with bad arm genetics that have overcome their shortfalls.

Your Not Progressively Overloading 

It is imperative to grow the arm by stimulating them by incrementally increasing the exercises with more weight. The muscles need to be challenged to grow whether it’s by increasing the weight, volume, frequency or employing techniques such as periodization. 

Why won’t my arms grow? They don’t because more than often the arms reach a state known as plateauing. Plateauing is a condition where the muscle has adapted to the load placed at it by becoming more efficient at lifting the weight typically occurring 4-6 months of following the same workout routine—resulting in the lifter getting stronger but not bigger as the muscle doesn’t grow.⁵

While this is an indication that muscle growth is to follow, the period can be shortened with techniques named. 

Mind Muscle Connection

Dialing in on the mind muscle connection is one technique that lifters don’t pay mind to and underestimate its importance in exercising even as they strive to maintain good form and perfect technique.

In a nutshell, mind muscle connection is pretty much ‘feeling the exercise’, that is paying attention to feeling the muscle as it is worked in its range of motion during exercise.

Establishing a mind muscle connection is really a chink in the armor and mastering it by perceptively focusing on the arms during contraction results in greater activation of the target muscles, while decreasing any contributions from secondary muscles to help take the load which results in increase in size in the target muscle.⁶

Getting Enough Rest In Between Sets

Whenever a lifter is always short of breath while working out and in between sets, it is a sign that not enough rest is being had in between sets. There should be at least a 1 minute rest in between sets which has been shown to increase muscle growth by up to 40%  when compared to those who rest for under a minute.⁷

For isolation movements that are single joints, which is the case for arm workouts, there should be a 2 minute rest to boost strength and achieve maximum growth.⁸

Specific on Why Biceps, Triceps, Forearms Won’t Grow

The best way to grow arms is to include both compound and isolation movements. A good number of lifters simply choose to concentrate on isolation movements that work the biceps such as preacher curls and dumbbell curls. So, why won’t my arms grow?

Arms don’t grow because lifters end up overdoing them by focusing solely on isolation movements; while these are good for activating the biceps, they are not sufficient for properly growing the biceps. 

The same applies with triceps although to a lesser degree since most gym bros don’t ignore the bench press which is a compound movement targeting the chest, shoulders and triceps. But in these cases, many individuals then fail to set aside a day or workout for the triceps. 

Source: carlesmiro on Freepik²⁰

Then there are other instances where lifters isolate the triceps after completing a bench press session, almost like a side note. By this time, the muscles are completely spent and can therefore not be stimulated enough for growth.

In fact, the opposite needs to happen—research shows that it is more beneficial to work the biceps, triceps or forearms alone before proceeding to the compound movements.⁹

Forearm muscles are one of the most neglected muscles as much as the lower body is. Most lifters simply don’t isolate the movements that target the forearms and since many people don’t do deadlifts, they are robbed of building massive forearms that deadlifts give those who often engage in it.

What To Do if Your Arms Won’t Grow No Matter What (6 Tips to Fix Skinny, Stubborn Arms)

The good news that there are some changes and tweaks that can be made to an exercise regimen to weed out the reasons outlined earlier and allow those pesky arms to blossom into brawny hulking arms—these include ensuring they receive adequate volume, correct form is employed and proper nutrition is observed. 

1. Get Adequate Volume

Volume is one of the key foundations to building muscle strength and growing muscle. Muscles simply won’t grow without enough stimulation. The key to growing arms comes down to volume and volume landmarks. Increasing volume enhances muscle hypertrophy more than it does strength.¹⁰

Training volume is considered the intensity of the workout and is a product of the number of reps, by the weight load and the total number of sets.¹¹ In regards to volume landmarks, there are 4 principles that pertain to this and briefly are:

• Maintenance volume (MV)—training volume needed to maintain muscle growth
• Minimum effective volume (MEV)—the minimum volume needed to achieve muscle growth
• Maximum adaptive volume (MAV)—this is the amount of weights the body can handle before becoming desensitized to the load.
• Maximum recoverable volume (MRV)—this is when the volume becomes greater than recovery which leads to progress being hindered.

Paying attention to someone’s landmarks will enable them to effectively grow their arms. They will need to ensure that they are at MEV to stimulate the muscles to grow and once muscle growth initiates, to maintain the MV to prevent any plateauing.

Feeling sore after a workout, getting the pump or the effort to get through an exercise are some ways in which a lifter can measure their volume landmarks. 

To get a detailed understanding on how to determine and estimate volume landmarks, the video below will be a helpful resource.

Doing a lot of isolation movements without compound work will often lead to exceeding the MRV due to overtraining. Even when combined with compound movements, this is critical to ensure that the arms are not receiving too much volume which ends up becoming counterproductive except in the case of biceps.

A lifter can choose an isolation movement they prefer for biceps like barbell curls as the choice to do everyday and they will not do any other bicep exercise. This regiment will consist of 10 sets with the first being a warm up. 

They can do 6 reps for a weight they are comfortable with doing 10 reps followed by 3 sets with as much weight as possible and 3 more loose sets with the same heavy weight but with some form of cheating and assistance. The last set should be done with 50% of the weight in as many reps as possible.

Isolation movements should not be considered an afterthought, rather they should be penned in the workout days focusing on them which will increase overall volume that they are receiving from the compounds.

The same applies to those lifters who are not including compound movements such as deadlifts; adding these will also increase the overall training volume.

2. Choose Compound Exercises (The Big 3 Trick) & Isolations for All Heads

The big 3 trick and key to building big arms and indeed developing overall body strength and mass is executing the 3 compound movements—deadlifts, bench presses and back squats.

The deadlifts are great at activating the biceps and the forearms. To increase muscle activation for the forearms and biceps which are seldom exercised, it is recommended to use a fat gripz device or a wider grip tool that attaches to the bar.¹²

A fatz grip device enlarges the diameter of the barbell or dumbbell making them harder to hold, which in turn enhances grip strength by stimulating the smaller muscles in the hands and forearms that are often neglected.

They do wonders to build biceps and forearms and have been used by elite bodybuilders and elite athletes—they are available at Amazon for $30.

Bench presses will help develop the triceps muscles as will overhead presses that target all 3 heads of the triceps muscles.

In addition to compound movements, a lifter should always include isolation movements mentioned earlier that will target the individual muscles and increase volume that they receive for activation. 

Even though squats are a lower dominant exercise, the muscles of the shoulders and arm also get an activation since they help stabilize the bar on the back. By building a strong core, exercises such as the bench press and overhead press will become more efficient and powerful, which in turn will lead to stronger arms.

Including the big 3 compound movements and isolation movements that target specific muscles is key to developing an all rounded strong body that will lead to bigger arms. 

3. Correct Your Form

Compound and isolation movements must be done with correct form to ensure that the exercise is efficiently completed which means that the muscle is maximally activated.

When exercise is done with bad form, it leads to an inefficient workout that wastes countless and unproductive hours spent in the gym leading to no results and setting up joints for injury. 

It is therefore best to master the technique of the exercises by first using weight that the lifter can handle, because more often than not, lifting weights that are too heavy compromises form making the exercise counterproductive.

Source: Lacheev via Canva.com²¹

Lifters have to have both compound and isolation movements forms down to the tee, especially compound movements since they employ multiple muscle groups and joints which make them more prone to being done with incorrect form. 

Deadlifts are usually not done by many not only because they are challenging, but because they are hard to master but can be learned by grasping 10 cues for deadlift setup perfection in seconds cues shoulders for good deadlift form or perfecting the bench press by knowing where should the bar touch on bench press.

4. Dial in Your Macronutrients 

It is important to ensure that the body is in a state of calorie surplus to fuel the workout and allow for recovery—all the macros should be had in adequate quantities. Protein is required in sufficient amounts to ensure that muscles can grow and become stronger after a round of workout.¹³

The amount of protein needed daily intake should be between 1.4-1.8 grams for every pound of body weight; therefore an individual weighing 160 lbs. should aim for roughly 240 grams. High quality sources of protein include whey protein, chicken breast, eggs, fish and milk.¹⁴

Carbs should amply be consumed with slow digesting and low-glycemic (don’t spike blood sugar levels) sources being the preferred choice such as sweet potatoes, whole grains and fruits.

A goal of twice the body weight should be obtained for carbs, a 150 lbs. lifter should consume roughly 300 grams. 

In addition to these macros, healthy fat should be eaten as these can raise testosterone levels which are great at catalyzing up to 30% more muscle growth.¹⁵

The amount of fat needed is computed by dividing the body weight in half; a 140 lbs. lifter should aim for 70 grams of fat. In short, the arms require a balance of all macros to fuel taxing workouts.

5. Try Different Intensity Techniques 

Reaching plateaus and doing the same techniques over and over not only makes the workout boring, it often leads to the body adapting to the same routine which leads to no overall real gains. The body needs to be challenged with new variations and techniques to prevent complacency and constantly adapt to the demands placed on it.

It is imperative to introduce techniques such as drop sets, super sets and daily undulation programs. 

Superset—Super-setting is working opposing muscle groups like the biceps and triceps which leads to more activation of muscle fibers. When a lifter is working the biceps heavy with curls, then proceeds to work the triceps with a set of triceps extensions, this will result in an increase of muscle fibers activation in the triceps.

When more muscle fibers are recruited, the more the damage to the muscle leading to growth. 

Drop sets—drop sets are excellent to induce muscle growth and they are simply working a weight to failure, say, bicep curls. Thereafter, remove a percentage of the weight, then do another set with this lighter weight until failure, and repeat this until there is no more weight or the lifter is completely spent.

For example, curl comfortably with good form for 7-11 reps. Whilst resting between sets, progressively reduce the weights by 10% to 20% and so forth for a total of 3-5 sets in total. 

Periodization—this is simply deliberate manipulation of training variables including weight, repetitions and sets which prevents overtraining, while maximizing training adaptations.¹⁶

For example, a lifter may squat 220 lbs. for 8-12 reps for 3 sets, then change it to 255 lbs. for 4-7 reps for 3-4 sets, then in the last week, go heavy and do 290 lbs. for 2-5 reps for 3-6 sets.

Daily undulating periodization programs are safe for older individuals and those in pain and are a proven strategy to maximize gains utilized by elite athletes.

6. Attempting New Ranges

Many lifters fail to grow their arms because they repeat the same rep range routine like doing 3 sets of 9-13 reps, even sometimes for years. Plateauing can also be brought on by reaching the MAV and not progressively overloading and constantly challenging the muscles to more weight to stimulate growth.

If a lifter wants to maximize muscle growth by stimulating as many fibers as possible, they can introduce high rep ranges. 

They may get the muscle pumped up with high reps thereby creating growth for substrate storage (like Adenosine triphosphate [ATP] which is energy for muscles derived from carbohydrates) and low reps with heavy weight to create muscle damage. One program may have the lifter doing heavy supersets of 5 reps heavy hammer curls, proceed to rest then do 5 reps of heavy barbell curls.

The subsequent program can have the lifter do 20-30 reps of fairly light cable curls while ensuring a mind muscle connection to feel the squeeze, then rest for a minute and repeat.

There are a number of reasons that answer the question why won’t my arms grow, fortunately the using the big 3 trick—including compound movements such as deadlifts, bench press and squats as well isolation movements will bestow on any lifter gunners they can be proud of.

Frequently Asked Questions About Why Won’t My Arms Grow