Strong arms seem to be a biological signal to females that a male might make a good sexual/reproductive partner. It's primitive, a sign of power, vitality, and virility.
Well, all guys want strong arms for either signaling or functional purposes, but curls are not the most sensible way to approach strength: they are more about hypertrophy. We prefer compound exercises over single-muscle exercises. More time-efficient. After all, the hands are connected with the arms, the arms to the shoulder, and the shoulder to chest and back.
I'll assume that few of our readers are Body Builders who focus mainly on the size and definition of muscles, but are, rather, regular, function-oriented fitness people.
What about the ladies? All of our exercises are valuable to ladies' fitness, but ladies can not develop bulging muscles under ordinary circumstances. Big muscles do not equate with strength.
However, we do single-muscle-group exercises as accessory exertions when there is time for them. Thus hand and forearm exercises, calf exercises, upper arm exercises, leg raises and leg contractions, etc.
Let's list both focused and compound exercises which can build stronger arms while mostly stressing other muscle groups at the same time:
- Pullups and cable pull-downs (biceps, forearms, back)
- Bench press (triceps, biceps, chest, shoulder)
- Cable push-downs and skull-crushers (triceps)
- Dumbell and barbell curls (biceps and brachioradialis)
- Pushups (triceps, chest, shoulder)
- Overhand curls (forearms and biceps)
- Grip exercises like rope climbing, grippers, farmer walks, deadlifts
NB: Sometimes you will see a guy in the gym with muscles bulging all over the place. That guy is juicing. A bad fitness plan.
