As you go about your arm workout training, do you find yourself relying on the same exercises over and over again? Do you do bicep curl after bicep curl and finish off with tricep kickbacks? If so, you aren’t alone. These are the standard go-to’s that most people tend to lean on.

While they can deliver good results, the fact is, they aren’t going to give you optimal results. If you're looking for superior progress, you need to keep a few other overlooked arm movements in mind.

Let’s look at the top 5 arm exercises you aren’t doing so that you can begin incorporating these into your workout routine.

Barbell Curls

If you often grab a set of dumbbells when it’s time to perform your curls and figure that’ll be good enough to get the job done, you may want to reconsider. While dumbbell curls can be good, they aren’t going to give you the kind of strength gains that you’d get from doing barbell curls.

Barbell curls are what will help you get greater gains in muscle strength overall, ensuring that you make the progress you’re after. Once you get strong with barbell curls, then go back to dumbbell curls and you should find that you can lift more weight.

Cable Tricep Overhead Extensions

Another good movement to do is overhead cable tricep extensions. The nice thing about these is that the cables keep constant tension on the muscle at all times, therefore you get better overall strength development.

When doing these, slow and steady needs to be the name of your game. The slower you can move through the exercise, the more you’ll feel it in the triceps being worked. Also, remember to squeeze the muscles at the top of the move for best results.

Dips

Dips are another excellent choice for anyone looking to build stronger arms. You can either do these off a dip machine or do them right off the back of a chair depending on your current strength level.

Dips are good for working all heads of the tricep muscle and will even call the shoulders into play to a slight degree as well.

Close Grip Bench Press

Close grip bench press is next on the list for hitting the tricep muscle. This compound movement will hit the triceps with more force than your average tricep isolation exercise, so it’s a great movement to do when you are looking to build more size in this muscle group. Keep in mind that since the tricep makes up the greatest portion of the arm as well, it’s the one that you should be focusing on if getting bigger arms is your goal.

Reverse Grip Bent Over Row

Finally, just as the close grip bench press is a great compound exercise for the triceps, the reverse grip bent over row is a great compound exercise for the biceps. By changing the grip position like this, you’ll get better overall bicep stimulation while still targeting your back to some degree.

So keep these five moves in mind as you go about your workout program. Are you overlooking any of them? Give them a try during your next arms workout session.

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