Best Beginner Arm Exercises

Building Arm Muscles It can take some time to figure out where to start. Here’s everything you need to know about arm exercises for beginners, including his recommended best exercises.

Benefits of Arm Exercises

Ben says having strong arms can make everyday tasks easier and help with cross-training. He breaks down five key benefits:

• They help you become a stronger athlete. Building upper body strength can make exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, overhead presses, and rows easier. Ben says this may make your training more efficient.
• They improve functional movement by helping with everyday tasks involving lifting, carrying, and pushing.
• They improve athletic performance. “Many sports require upper body strength and power,” Ben says. Stronger arms can “enhance your ability to generate force, control movement, and improve performance,” providing a competitive advantage in rock climbing, swimming, tennis, basketball, and martial arts.
• They help prevent injuries by stabilizing and protecting the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. This can reduce the risk of common injuries like shoulder impingement, tennis elbow, and wrist strains.

But “it’s important to focus on following a balanced training program that targets all muscle groups, rather than just emphasizing arm strength,” Ben says, adding that incorporating leg, core, and cardio exercises will help you boost your overall fitness and prevent muscle imbalances.

Key Muscles of the Arms

The muscles you’ll be working fall into three key groups, explains James Higgins, a physical therapist and co-owner of New York Comprehensive Physical Therapy:

• Deloids, or shoulder muscles: These muscles enable the entire arm to flex, abduct, extend, and internally or externally rotate, helping with everything from reaching for items in tall cabinets to lifting a heavy barbell overhead.
• Elbow Flexors, or biceps: These muscles flex the forearm toward the shoulder, helping with “pulling activities” like door openings and pull-ups.
• Elbow extensors, or triceps: These muscles extend your forearm straight from your shoulder and help with “pushing activities” like get-ups and burpees.

“When you work these three muscle groups, you’re training your body for everyday movement and helping with difficult exercises,” says Higgins.

But don’t overtrain them. Regular muscle soreness can last 24 to 48 hours after a workout; if it lasts longer than that, he recommends not training until the soreness subsides. Rest, heat and ice for up to 15 minutes, and compression sleeves can help speed up the recovery process.

6 arm exercises worth trying

Are you ready to start working on your arms? Ben walks recommends six exercises that cover the three arm muscle groups, and then some.

1. Bicep Curls

These moves are easy to master and work your biceps, triceps, and grip strength.

• Hold the dumbbells at your sides, shoulder-width apart, with an underhand grip.
• Exhale and curl the dumbbells up to your chest, keeping your upper arms still and your elbows at your sides.
• Return your lower back to the starting position.
• To get more advanced, use heavier weights or slow down each rep to increase the tension time.
• Muscles worked: Biceps, triceps

2. Bent-over Rows

This builds strong back muscles because it works your lats, traps, and rhomboids. It also uses your back, hips, and legs to stabilize your body. “Building a strong back and posterior chain is important for improving posture and overall strength,” says Ben.

• Hold a dumbbell in one hand, arms relaxed at your sides, and feet shoulder-width apart.
• Pipe your hips to create a 60-degree angle, keeping your back flat and your core tight.
• Pull the dumbbells up and back, keeping your elbows tucked in your body.
• Lower the dumbbells with control.
• For a more advanced move, hold the dumbbells in each hand at the same time. You can also squeeze your shoulder blades or lift the dumbbells to the top.
• Muscles worked: Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, gluteus maximus, legs

3. Triceps kickback

• This move is also easy to master and helps build strong triceps.
• Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with your palms facing inward.
• Pipe your hips to keep your back flat while rowing the weights back, keeping your bent elbows back. Bring your arms together near the midline of your body. This is your starting position.
• Keep your arms straight and kick the weights back, but don’t overextend your elbows.
• Work your triceps at the top. Return to a 90-degree angle.
• For advanced levels, do triceps pulses and holds.
• Muscles worked: Triceps

4. Push-ups

In addition to your chest, push-ups work your triceps, anterior deltoids, and core muscles. They can help build upper body strength and improve overall body structure.

• Start in a plank position with your hands stacked under your shoulders, your eyes looking at the floor, and your spine in a neutral position.
• Squeeze your shoulders, hips, and core muscles to create full-body tension.
• Bend your elbows and move toward the ground until you are at a 45-degree angle with your torso.
• Push your body back up from the ground to your starting position with your arms fully extended, maintaining tension.
• To make it easier, start by using a bench and placing your hands on it instead of on the floor. Then, gradually kneel down before doing the classic push-up off the knees, which Ben says “takes time and determination to master.”
• Muscles worked: Chest, triceps, anterior deltoids, core

5. Shoulder press

This is one of the best exercises for the shoulders and upper back because it works the front of the shoulder muscles, as well as the deltoids, triceps, trapezius, and pectorals.

• Begin by kneeling or standing. Hold a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height with your palms facing forward.
• Lift the dumbbells up to your full extension. Do not lock your elbows.
• Lower the dumbbells to shoulder height, always keeping your core stable and your back straight.
• To take the exercise further, use strict form to ensure maximum shoulder work.
• Muscles worked: Shoulders, upper back, deltoids, triceps, trapezius, pectoralis

6. Lateral raise

This works the lateral deltoids. You also work the anterior deltoids and upper trapezius due to the rotational motion of the exercise.

• Stand up straight with a dumbbell in each hand. Extend your arms straight at your sides with your palms facing your body.
• Put the dumbbells straight at your sides so your arms form the letter T. Keep your core and glutes tight. Squeeze your shoulder blades. Lift your chest.
• Pause at the top when your arms are parallel to the ground.
• Slowly lower your arms back to your sides.
• To take the exercise further, add a support point at the top to work the muscles.
• Muscles worked: Lateral deltoids, anterior deltoids, upper trapezius

How to Incorporate Beginner Arm Workouts into Your Fitness Routine

Ben recommends starting with lighter weights to perfect your form and technique before increasing the load and intensity to challenge your muscles. Once you feel confident with this, you can decide on your reps and weights. Ben says many beginners don’t progress their weights enough once they’ve nailed their form and technique. Here’s his guide.

If You Want to Build Strength and Increase Power: Low Reps, Heavy Weights
“This stimulates the development of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are responsible for producing power and strength,” Ben says. “By lifting heavier weights for fewer reps, you challenge and overload your muscles, which promotes strength gains.”

If You Want to Build Muscular Endurance and Improve Overall Fitness: High Reps, Light Weights
“This primarily targets slow-twitch muscle fibers, which are involved in sustained, repetitive movements,” Ben explains. “By performing more reps with lighter weights, you build muscle endurance and improve cardiovascular fitness.”

Remember that some parts of your body are generally stronger than others, so you may need slightly different weights for each workout. “Listening to your body and switching weights as needed is key to building muscle and doing strength training more regularly,” Ben says.

He recommends focusing on each muscle group at least twice a week and designating two to three days specifically for arms. So if you follow an upper/lower body split, you could dedicate one or two days to working the arms in your upper body. This gives your muscles enough time to recover and rebuild, he says. And make sure you warm up and cool down to avoid injury and help the recovery process.

Ben’s The Stronger You and The Stronger You 2 offer a four-week, four-day-a-week program that includes one upper-body workout, one lower-body workout, and two full-body days. You can also check out the Arms With Tunde program, which offers three arm workouts per week. “Pairing this program with some lower-body strength training and/or cardio sessions would be a great split,” Ben says.