How to pump up your biceps at home without dumbbells or barbells. Reverse grip biceps pull-ups. Biceps push-ups

How to pump up your arms without dumbbells?

Do you want strong and beautiful hands? There is absolutely no need to spend time and money on training in the gym. If you have enough motivation and self-discipline, it is possible to pump up your arm muscles without a barbell at home. The presented complexes are a good alternative to iron.

Anatomy of arm muscles: what makes triceps and biceps grow

Basically, working out the arm muscles is aimed at increasing the mass and volume of the biceps (biceps) and triceps (triceps). Regular load promotes muscle development, pumps tone and increases strength and endurance. For beginners, it is recommended to work on the whole body and overall physical fitness, including arm exercises in your fitness program.

What makes biceps grow?

Exercises that specifically use this muscle will help you pump up your biceps without iron. The key task of the muscle is to flex the shoulder and elbow. Accordingly, to increase the mass and growth of the biceps, you need to perform traction-type exercises.

What makes triceps grow?

Triceps makes up 2/3 of the volume muscular frame hands. It performs the function of abduction and extension of the limb. Pumped triceps are the key to beautiful relief and the absence of fat “jelly”. To develop the triceps muscle, it is enough to perform exercises 2 times a week as part of a general strengthening complex.

Sport equipment

The following equipment will help you pump up your arms at home without dumbbells:

» Sports mat
» Bench
» Rubber expander
» Latex elastic bands and loops
» Jump rope
» Fitball
" Horizontal bar
» Bars

Elastic bands and expanders have different levels of resistance, which allows you to adapt the exercises to your personal fitness level. Color coding depends on the manufacturer. The best decision– buy one set with three resistance levels.

The horizontal bar and parallel bars are an excellent alternative to dumbbells and barbells. However, such sports equipment may not be available in every home, but is most often available in outdoor areas. Street workout and calisthenics programs are an excellent option for pumping up your arms for those who don’t want to work out in the gym.

Exercises for pumping up biceps

1. Alternate bending of arms with an expander

IP: standing, heels in the projection of the shoulders, knees slightly bent. Secure colored elastic tubes under your feet. Grasp the handle sports equipment reverse grip. You can bend your arms slightly at the elbow joints, maintaining a slight tension in the expander.

Alternately pull the expander towards your shoulder, bending your arm at the elbow joint. While performing the exercise, maintain tension on the tubes in your other hand. Return to IP with an inhale. You can perform simultaneous arm curls.

2. Overhand Curl

IP: grab the handles of the projectile from above, pointing your palms down, and thumbs to each other. Secure elastic bands under your feet. The feet are in the projection of the shoulders, the knees and elbows are slightly bent.

As you exhale, bend your arms ONLY at the elbow joints and pull the expander up. Don't push your elbows forward. The maximum level of the hands is the top of the chest. Return to IP while inhaling.

3. Biceps row

Attach the expander with an anchor to the wall, to the door handle, wall bars or cabinet at chest level. Grab the holder neutral grip so that your palms are directed towards the floor. As you exhale, pull the expander towards your head. Secure your torso and try not to stretch your core.

4. Hammer Grip Curl

Grasp the elastic band with a neutral grip. Central part elastic band secure under your feet. As you exhale, bend your arms at the elbow joints.

5. Horizontal bar

Pull-ups with a direct and reverse grip will help pump up your biceps at home without dumbbells. The most effective is considered to be a reverse grip with narrow setting hands It is recommended not to extend your arms at the elbow joints all the way in order to maintain isometric tension in muscles and reduce the risk of injury.

Exercises for pumping triceps

1. Push-ups

Various types of push-ups are the most effective type of load for developing and pumping triceps. They do not require any special equipment to perform them. sports equipment, a gymnastic mat or some kind of blanket is enough.

Reverse push-ups

The exercise is aimed at strengthening all three heads of the triceps and partially the thoracic segment. Bench push-ups are considered the optimal type of load for beginners, allowing you to move on to dips over time.

IP: take a chair or bench and place it behind your back. Place your palms on the seat, placing your palms in the projection of your shoulders. Performing push-ups with bent knees or with emphasis on the floor is considered a lightweight load option.

Bend your elbows until the angle is 90 degrees. Do not spread your elbows to the sides. As you exhale, push your body upward using your triceps, being careful not to engage your leg and core muscles.

Options:

» supported by two benches;
» with feet resting on a hill;
» with weights on the legs;
» with crossed legs;
» with two support points.

2. Diamond push-ups

IP: take a lying position with support on the toes of your feet and palms. Place your palms under your chest so that the index fingers and thumbs of both hands touch and form a triangle. The back from the crown to the tailbone should be flat, without bending.

As you inhale, bend your elbows without touching chest fingers Exhale as you rise up.

3. Triceps row

IP: standing, feet shoulder-width apart. Take the elastic band in one hand and place it behind your back. With your other hand, grab the other end of the elastic from above, above your shoulder.

As you exhale, stretch the band up above your head. The hand behind your back should remain motionless. Return to IP.

4. Triceps extension with elastic band

IP: standing, feet in the projection of the shoulders. Secure the elastic band with the fingers of one hand on the shoulder of the other hand. Place the fingers of your other hand through the loop of the ribbon.

As you exhale, straighten your arm at the elbow joint, keeping the band in place. As you inhale, return to IP.

5. Triceps extension with expander

IP: standing, feet in the projection of the shoulders, legs bent at the knees. Secure the expander tubes under one foot. Grab the handles with an overhand grip. Bend your torso forward.

As you exhale, move your arms back, stretching the expander. Do not spread your elbows to the sides. As you inhale, return to IP.

6. Pull-ups on the bar

» Before doing any sports complex, a warm-up is required. Warming up will help prepare joints and muscles for more serious loads and reduce injuries. At the end of the workout, a cool-down with stretching elements is performed.
» It is better to perform training for biceps and triceps no more than 1-2 times a week. To pump up your arms at home without iron, it is better to include isolation exercises in the overall complex.
» It is recommended to change the training program every 2-3 weeks. Diversity will eliminate muscle adaptation to stress and accelerate growth. muscle mass and will help you overcome the plateau.
» Pumping your arms requires patience and regularity. The first results will be noticeable in 4-8 weeks, and to create a beautiful relief, at least 6 months of training are required.
» Over time, the frequency and intensity of exercise should increase. To start, it is recommended to perform 8-12 repetitions of each exercise. And the whole complex should include no more than 2-4 exercises for each muscle group. Over time, increase the repetition rate to 15 in 3-4 sets.
» To increase the resistance of expanders and bands, special color markings have been created. Books, blocks, suitcases, and vests can also be used as weights.
» Proper nutrition and regimen determine the effectiveness of training by 70%. Muscle growth requires sufficient protein and fluid, and energy requires an adequate percentage of carbohydrates and fats.

Training with your body can replace training with iron and on machines, especially in the first three years strength training without loss of muscle growth rate, especially in the upper shoulder girdle.

An example of training the lats, biceps, rear deltoids and forearms:

Chest workout

Do you think you need to bench press to train your chest? For many, push-ups, and even more so, dips, do not allow you to go beyond the repetitions in which muscles effectively grow.

Muscles grow over a wide range of repetitions. If the set lasts less than one minute, this is an effective time power load, - then you can perfectly grow your breasts.

The effective repetition time is 2-3 seconds. In a minute you can do 20-30 push-ups cleanly at a fairly slow pace. Can you do 5 of these sets and get them done in 10 minutes? No? Why do you need iron and exercise equipment for training then?

Do simple push-ups and build up your chest muscles.

To the treasury of knowledge:

Lat training

You don't need a barbell or block to train your lats. Pull-ups are quite enough, especially if you do not do 20-30 repetitions in a working approach. But we already figured that out with push-ups. After all, pull-ups are twice as hard to do as push-ups.

For lat pull-ups It’s enough for those who already consider themselves pros.

Delt training

Of course, deltoids are great for training with push-ups and pull-ups. But if your deltoids are lagging behind for some reason and you really want to shift the load to them, then you don’t need standing presses with a barbell or dumbbells. You can perfectly load your shoulders with handstand push-ups. I’m not even talking about twenty repetitions in a working approach.



Biceps workout

Biceps work great in any type of pull-up with good amplitude, when the angle at the elbow is as sharp as possible in the upper position. But if you want to shift the load specifically to the biceps, then this can be done without iron and exercise equipment.

If you do a pull-up with your knees bent and your heels behind your back, the load falls on your lats. If you pull your palms towards you and bend your knees in front of you or generally hold a corner, then the load falls on the biceps.

Abs workout

You probably already know that the abs, even in the gym, are trained by leg lifts and body lifts without iron. Therefore, I will not describe in detail the possibility of training the abs without iron and exercise equipment.

To the treasury of knowledge:

Simple conclusions:

If you don’t see any noticeable imbalances in your body composition, then you can safely do a simple workout:

Push-ups: 25 sets per week
Pull-ups: 25 sets per week
Pistol: 25 sets per week
Running: 10 km per week

If you see a distortion in some muscle, then shift the load in push-ups or pull-ups as described above.

If you are a supporter of hassle-free training without hardware and machines, then be my friend

In this article we will tell you a technique on how to pump up your arms at home without dumbbells and barbells using your own weight for girls and guys. Guys want to pump up their biceps and triceps to make their arms bigger. Girls need to train their arms to be slim and keep them in good shape.

These hand exercises at home are suitable for both women and men. To make the complex universal, each exercise is offered in different variations to increase the load for men and reduce it for women, respectively. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments and get an answer.

Muscular arms, just like pumped up abs, make a huge impression on others. That is why their development is so important.

Developed biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms - you are not born with them (unlike calf muscles, the size of which is largely determined by genetics), this is achieved through long training.

The owners of fitness rooms know this, so everything there is equipped for convenient arm training.

But if you travel or work somewhere far away, you will have to use a trick. In addition to regular classes in the gym, you will need to do arm training without exercise equipment.

Luckily, there are a number of at-home arm exercises that you can do almost anywhere. They mainly use your own body weight.

To understand how to build up arm muscles at home without dumbbells, you need to study the anatomy of the arms and understand what makes them what they are.

Arm muscle anatomy

The main muscles of the arms are the biceps and triceps. These are the areas we will focus on to improve the appearance of our arms and increase their strength.

You should reconsider your attitude towards training with light weights and a large number of repetitions (15+). This is suitable for both women and men.

To make the muscles grow (which gives them shape and relief / makes the muscles toned) you need to load them with exercises that can be performed with excellent technique 6-12 times per approach.

It is normal for you to focus more on training one muscle than others if you are faced with such a task (for example, if that muscle is lagging). But provided that the remaining muscles are sufficiently developed to avoid disproportion and injury.

Triceps

Men often neglect the development of the triceps muscle, which is located on the back of the arms. They prefer to pump their biceps because its shape is clearly defined and visible to the eye.

But triceps are big in size muscle group than biceps, and if you want bigger arms, you should add a little more emphasis on pumping them up.

Triceps training is important not only for men. The fact is that women are genetically more inclined to accumulate fat than men. And their fat is located in different places. As a rule, in men in the upper part of the body (hence the “beer” bellies), and in women on the thighs and arms.

Most effective method Losing fat is a diet. But it is also important to combine it with training to strengthen the arm muscles, in particular the triceps, to give your arms beautiful shape and "fitness".

Biceps

Although it is a relatively small muscle, this does not mean that it should receive little attention. Located on the front of the shoulder, it is perhaps most commonly associated with strength and power - just ask any child to imitate the training process of a bodybuilder and they will start doing a bicep curl.

Strong biceps are needed in back exercises. They help maintain a straight posture and help avoid injury.

Now let's get down to the main thing - how to pump up arm muscles at home. And for this we have prepared the best exercises with varying degrees of difficulty.

The best triceps exercises without dumbbells and machines

With these exercises you can pump up your arms at home without dumbbells, barbells or even exercise machines.

The great thing about triceps (and chest) exercises is that they can be done anywhere. This requires nothing more than the floor and walls. Here are the 3 best exercises:

1. Push-ups with narrow arms (diamond or diamond push-ups)

Push ups narrow grip(here we are looking at their variation called diamond push-ups) - not an easy exercise, but with correct execution is one of the best for triceps.

In regular push-ups, your arms are placed slightly wider than your shoulders, so the load is distributed between the chest and triceps. And with a narrow grip, only the triceps are loaded, because in it the palms are placed together and the elbows are kept close to the body.

Here's how it should be done:

  • Place your hands on the floor, connecting the thumbs and index fingers of both hands, creating a “diamond” (triangle) shape.
  • Keeping your elbows as close to your body as possible, lower yourself down until your chest touches outside palms.
  • Keep all muscles (abs, buttocks, thighs) tense
  • Raise your body up to the starting position. Then do it all over again.

Lightweight options (if the usual method is too difficult):

  • Close-grip wall push-ups
  • Close-grip push-ups with emphasis on a bench (or any other elevation)
  • Regular push-ups

Complicated options (if the usual method is too easy):

  • Close-grip push-ups with feet resting on a height (for example, a chair)
  • Close-grip push-ups with weights (such as a backpack)

2. Triceps push-ups

This is another exercise that works the chest and triceps to varying degrees, depending on the variation you choose.

For most people, this exercise will be a good start to initial stage, but your goal should be to progress to dips (these include more muscles to work).

The only downside to dips is that you have to find something suitable to do them. On playgrounds, bars are most often present, but instead of them, you can use the corner of a table or two strong chairs.

Here's how to do this exercise according to the video above:

  • Maintain balance between two benches or chairs, keeping your feet on one and your hands on the opposite side.
  • Push your chest forward and keep your back straight.
  • Lower yourself until your elbows are bent at about a 90-degree angle.
  • Then rise up, straightening your arms.

Lightweight options:

  • Triceps push-ups with bent knees (feet on the floor)
  • Bench push-ups for triceps with feet on the floor

More complicated options:

  • Triceps push-ups with weights. Place your backpack or suitcase on your hips.
  • Dips

  • Weighted dips (hang a heavy backpack or use something that can be secured between your legs).

3. Triceps extension

All of the previous exercises are great because they work multiple muscles at the same time. But single-joint, or isolated, exercises are very useful for working out lagging muscles.

The video above shows the exercise using a TRX machine and a weighted vest, but you can use a wall or other surface.

Here's how it's done:

  • Stand in front of the TRX, table, or wall and place your hands about 15 centimeters apart.
  • Place your feet about a meter from the wall. Maintain tension in your abs and glutes to keep your body in a straight line.
  • By bending only your elbows, lower your entire body so that your head drops just below your hands.
  • Do not make any movements with your elbows other than flexion and extension.
  • Lift your body using only triceps strength.

Lightweight version:

  • Triceps extension from the wall (the position of your hands and the smaller the angle between your body and the wall, the easier)

Complicated option:

  • Triceps extension from the floor

The best biceps exercises

Unfortunately, you'll have to find some equipment to train your biceps (and your back at the same time). If there's no one nearby playground with a horizontal bar, you need to find something to hang on. And another table (for horizontal pull-ups).

1. Reverse-grip biceps pull-ups

It is mine favorite exercise after the deadlift.

Here, as in regular pull-ups, the back works. But thanks to a different grip, a lot of the load falls on the biceps.

I have always believed that pull-ups are better than dumbbell curls due to the inclusion of more weight (your own body weight) and a greater range of motion.

This is another exercise that can be difficult for beginners, so some modifications are given below. But if you think you can handle it, here are the instructions:

  • Grasp the bar with both hands. The grip width is narrower than shoulder width. Palms pointing towards you.
  • Do not relax your abs and buttocks so that your body in profile resembles a straight line.
  • During execution, bring your shoulder blades together and, as it were, pull them down.
  • When your chin reaches the bar, stop and slowly lower yourself down.

Lightweight options:

  • Negative pull-ups

  • Isometric holds on the horizontal bar

Complicated option:

  • Regular grip pull-ups

  • Bicep pull-ups with weights

2. Horizontal pull-ups

Even when I'm working on my back at the gym, I choose horizontal pull-ups.

You may have heard of the bent-over barbell row. You grab a barbell, bend over, and pull the barbell toward your chest. This good exercise, if executed properly. But if the weight is heavy, it becomes difficult to perform the exercise with proper technique.

Horizontal pull-ups solve this problem. The technique of performing this exercise is difficult to spoil; weights can be added without the risk of increasing the risk of injury.

In addition to the back, they are also a great workout for the biceps and core.

Watch the video training for this exercise and follow these instructions:

  • Lie on the floor under a bar or table.
  • Grab the bar or edge of the table so that your palms are facing away from you.
  • Maintain tension in your abs to keep your body in a straight line.
  • Pull your body up until your chest touches the bar or table.
  • Then lower yourself.

Lightweight options:

  • Pull at the doorway

  • Pulling with a rag

More complicated options:

  • Horizontal pull-ups with increased leg support

  • Horizontal pull-ups with weights (for example, a backpack)

3. Biceps curl with expander

For the last exercise in our series you will need a resistance band orTRX.

This isolated exercise Great for completing a biceps workout. Honestly, you probably won't need it if you regularly perform reverse grip pull-ups and horizontal pull-ups.

Instructions for working with the expander:

  • Step on one handle with your foot. Take the other one in your hand.
  • Allow your arms to hang freely so that there is no tension in the resistance band.
  • Push your chest forward.
  • Bend your elbows, raising your arms to your shoulders.
  • Slowly lower your arms.

Instructions forTRX:

  • Grab the handles and lean back. The further you bend, the harder the exercise will be.
  • Bend your elbows. Inner side your palms should be facing your direction.
  • Slowly straighten your arm to the original position.

Summing up

I have combined in this article exercises that can be done anywhere.

These are great for a day when you're working out. top part bodies. But they should only be part general complex exercises (I do not recommend training exclusively your arms, no matter how attractive it may seem!). If you are interested in how to quickly pump up your arms, then I will say that here you need to focus on increasing your overall body weight and complex training all muscles. Because our body does not tolerate imbalances and it is difficult to pump up huge arms with small muscles throughout the body.

I've combined these exercises into a superset to save you time. Everything will take you 30 minutes.

A superset, or super series, is when, after finishing one exercise, another immediately follows (without rest). This system works because while the muscles involved in the previous exercise are being restored, others are already working.

The order in which supersets are performed will be denoted by a number, and the combination of exercises into a superset will be denoted by a letter. In this workout, for example, the first superset includes bicep pull-ups (1A) and diamond push-ups (1B). You do 1 set of pull-ups, then immediately a set of push-ups. The superset is over. Rest and start a new superset. Follow next exercise from the series for triceps, and the next from the series for biceps. Rest. The same goes for the third superset.

When all the exercises in the program become easy for you, make them more difficult.

How long do you pump your arms? Write in the comments what helped you in this matter and what did not.(3 ratings, average: 3.67 out of 5)

Big and pumped up arms have always been the first and main goal any guy who starts doing iron. After all, the arms are always in sight, the developed biceps, effectively protruding from the sleeve of a T-shirt, always attracts the attention of others and indicates that its owner takes care of himself and plays sports.

Now it has become fashionable to visit Gym and more and more often people are interested in how to pump up this or that part of the muscles. But there is a trainer in the gym who can tell you and help you on what to do when you can’t go to the gym, and your arms hang out in your T-shirt like a cow’s tail.

How to pump up your arms at home

There are many videos on YouTube where athletic-looking guys tell how to pump up their arms at home without using a barbell or dumbbells using all kinds of utility equipment. The most cunning say that to acquire big hands It is enough to do push-ups from the floor and pull-ups, the more righteous recommend doing push-ups from the back of a chair with a backpack or pumping your biceps with bottles of water, there is no limit to the flight of their imagination, but whether their arms will grow from such manipulations is another question.

Young guys often comment on such videos and wonder why my arms don’t grow, since I do 200 push-ups and 100 pull-ups every day. But they won’t grow, because this training approach is fundamentally wrong and you shouldn’t be fooled by the carrot of being able to pump up without iron and weights, it’s all a myth.

Of course, there are guys who have built good muscles by training exclusively with own weight, but in their case genetics and the characteristics of the body are to blame. For example, a tall guy with thin arms will never pump them up with pull-ups and push-ups.

Muscles are made up of several types muscle fibers, hands are no exception. These are fast muscle fibers, which are responsible for speed and strength, and slow muscle fibers, which are responsible for endurance. Fast muscle fibers increase in size best in response to exercise; slow muscle fibers can also grow, but not as significantly. Also, a significant part of the muscles is made up of intercellular fluid, sarcoplasm.

So, you can increase the muscle mass of your arms by developing muscle fibers and increasing the volume of intercellular sarcoplasmic fluid.

The best option for developing muscle mass in the arms is considered to be working in 6-12 repetitions per set, this is due to the time spent under load. So, with a lower number of repetitions and larger weights, the maximum number of muscle fibers of different types is activated; with a high number of repetitions, the volume of intercellular sarcoplasmic fluid increases.

By performing 6 to 12 repetitions per set, we create a universal load on the arm muscles. The muscle fibers receive the stress necessary for growth, and the sarcoplasm receives the time necessary for hypertrophy under load.

This explains why 300 push-ups will never give you much volume, as you will only waste energy. High-repetition training, although it has its benefits for muscle growth, but only as an addition to the main strength work in the average number of repetitions.

Therefore, no matter what they tell you, you cannot do without a pair of heavy dumbbells and working for 6-12 repetitions per set.

We decided to train at home, then run to the nearest sporting goods store behind a pair of dumbbells, for effective training hands at home you need to have dumbbells with an adjustable weight from 5 to 20 kg, it is also ideal if you have a horizontal bar and parallel bars at home.

We have decided what equipment is needed to train your arms at home, now we will look at what arm exercises you can do at home.

Arm exercises

In order to pump up your arms at home, you need to have three elements: sports equipment, this is a horizontal bar, parallel bars and a pair of heavy dumbbells. In the first case, the ideal option would be to purchase Swedish wall with a hanging horizontal bar included.

If it is not possible to install a sports wall at home, then there is a place for dumbbells in any apartment.

The best basic exercise for biceps is a close-grip pull-up with a weight on your belt. This exercise perfectly develops the total mass of the biceps, while using several joints and muscle groups, so it can rightfully be considered basic, especially at home.

You need to perform biceps pull-ups with weights, which can be dumbbell plates that can be hung on your belt using a chain purchased at a hardware store or a strong rope.

Next we work with dumbbells, there are only two options, this is a hammer exercise for biceps and lifting dumbbells for biceps in different styles. Both options are effective, but hammers are a priority, as they allow you to work with a large working weight, and also involve the muscles of the forearm in the work. You can perform biceps exercises with dumbbells while standing or sitting; this is not of fundamental importance, but when performed standing, the working weights are slightly higher.

For triceps training best exercise Push-ups on parallel bars are rightfully considered, but only if they are performed with weights on the belt. In order to shift the emphasis to the triceps when doing dips, you must not tilt your body forward when lowering, your torso should be perpendicular to the floor.

For effective development triceps and to avoid injury, dips on uneven bars with weights should be performed in an incomplete amplitude. You need to lower yourself to a 90-degree angle at your elbows, and at the top point do not straighten your elbows completely.

There are a lot of triceps exercises with dumbbells, but the best among them is considered to be overhead extensions with a dumbbell. This exercise engages all three heads of the triceps, while elbow joint is in a more advantageous position than when performing French press with dumbbells.

Hand development program

In our training program we will consider two options when we have all necessary equipment and when there are only dumbbells.

First basic exercise we will perform in a strength style for 6 repetitions, the second exercise for 10-12 repetitions, and the third for 15-20 repetitions. This training method allows you to effectively distribute the load across all types of muscle fibers, as well as increase the volume of sarcoplasm.

For arm muscle growth, it is also important to recover sufficiently after training, so one arm workout per week will be enough. You can train biceps and triceps on the same day, or you can divide them into different training days.

The weight in the exercises must be selected in such a way that the last repetition is performed at the limit; if 10 repetitions are planned, but you can only do 7, the weight must be reduced.

Complex 1 (horizontal bar, parallel bars, dumbbells)

The first number is the number of approaches, the second is the number of repetitions, rest between approaches is 1-3 minutes. Warm-up approaches not taken into account. Before starting the complex, a general warm-up of the whole body is required.

Workout 1

Pull-ups with a narrow reverse grip - 3x6

Biceps hammer – 3x10

Lifting dumbbells for biceps with supination – 3x20