Huge in a Hurry: 30 Minute Muscle Building Arm Workout for Mass

Get ready for another entry in our Huge in a Hurry: 30 Minute Workout for Mass series! 

If you survived our 30 minute leg workout for mass, then you’ll be relieved to see that the next workout for you to tackle is one that you won’t have any trouble getting amped up for -- ARMS! This 30 minute muscle building workout is perfect for your arms!

This huge arm workout consists of 3 supersets for the bis and tris, with each exercise being performed for 3 sets!

Be forewarned, this arm workout for mass may seem brief, but with the right intensity, you can make gains while getting a savage muscle pump! 

LET’S GO!

30 Minute Arm Workout for Mass

Note: Perform one exercise right after the other with no rest between exercises. Rest 1-2 minutes between each superset.

Workout Pointers

Just as we did in the 30 minute leg workout for mass, we’re going to take advantage of some time-saving muscle-building techniques to help maximize every minute that you’re in the gym for optimal muscle gain.

For this 30 minute arm workout, we’re basing this workout around supersets.

Supersets involve performing two exercises back-to-back with no rest between. After both exercises are complete, you rest and then perform another superset.

This arm workout will involve 3 supersets each one containing an exercise for the biceps and triceps.

Rope Hammer Curl

Whereas most arm workouts begin with a standard barbell or dumbbell curl, we’re flipping the script and starting with the rope hammer curl. This exercise is easy on the joints and the hammer curl helps emphasize the brachialis -- a muscle that isn’t emphasized enough in most biceps workouts.

The brachialis is a muscle that lies between the biceps and triceps and when fully developed looks like a giant knot in the middle of your upper arm, creating more definition, separation and the appearance of overall size.

Rope Pushdown

We like to lead off the triceps portion of the arm workout with tricep rope pushdowns since they’re easy on the elbows and serve as a great warmup for the heavier work to come. Pushdowns are great for establishing the mind-muscle connection, and they pump a lot of blood into the tissues surrounding the elbow joint, providing a better “cushion” for the elbow.

Perform slow, controlled reps with a strong squeeze at the bottom position. This helps reinforce the mind-muscle connection and helps ensure your triceps are doing the work, and not the chest and shoulders.

Additionally, make sure to keep your elbows close to your sides during the pushdown. Allowing them to flare out reduces tension on the triceps and shifts it to the chest and shoulders.

Incline Dumbbell Curl

The incline dumbbell curl is superb for emphasizing the long head of the biceps, which is often inadvertently neglected by most gym rats due to poor form.

In order to effectively recruit the long head of the biceps, your elbows must be drawn back behind the body.

To further emphasize the long head of the biceps even more, create a break in your wrist by bending it back. This reduces the contribution from the forearm and brachialis which often can take over during curling movements.

Overhead Rope Extension

To get the beefiest triceps possible, it’s imperative to work all three heads of the triceps. In order to do that, you need to include at least one movement that gets the arms up and overhead. The reason for this is that the long head of the triceps crosses the shoulder joint and attaches to the scapula.

And, in order to get a maximum contraction on the long head, it needs to be maximally stretched, which only occurs when the arm is up and overhead.

Therefore, if you want to get as much growth as possible on the long head of the triceps, you need to perform exercises where your arm is overhead. The added benefit of performing the overhead extension with the cable column (as opposed to the dumbbell version) is that the cables create constant tension on the triceps whereas you lose tension at certain points of the movement with free weights.

Chin Ups

For your final biceps exercise, you’ll perform one of the best bodyweight exercises for mass -- the chin up. By this point in the workout, your biceps are probably pretty torched (at least they should be if you’re really pushing your sets). With chin ups, your back muscles also pitch in to help which will help you get more reps and expose your biceps to greater levels of tension than would otherwise receive if you were only performing isolation exercises.

Make sure to focus on pulling your body up explosively to the bar and lowering under control. Don’t bounce out of the bottom of the chin up like so many people do. This creates strain in places you don’t want it -- elbows, shoulders, wrists.

Dips

Last but not least, we have the king of bodyweight triceps exercises -- dips.

As with chin ups above, use a complete range of motion and perform smooth, controlled reps.

No half reps, no bouncing.

If you want to get the most from the exercise as well as get a savage pump, use good form and milk every rep for all its muscle-building potential.

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