GETTING BIG ARMS: 5 reasons you can use to convince yourself it's important

Lets be honest, having big arms is awesome, but unfortunately with the current fitness climate, and things like Crossfit being such an influence on what people see as 'cool' or 'healthy' (I'll get back to that in another post) your noble quest for big guns is sometimes frowned upon. In this post I will give you 10 arguments you can use when another 'functional training' twerp gets up in your grill about 'being too focused on your aesthetic goals' or telling you "it's not useful for everyday life". Some of these arguments make sense, and a few are a little out there, but if you say anything with the right tone of voice people will believe you, I'm sure.

Reason 1: Decreased risk of injury. For example during mixed grip deadlifts, if you have bigger, stronger biceps, you are much less likely to tear them when you go for a heavy max. To paraphrase Mark Bell, if you can handle a 70 lb dumbbell when doing preacher curls, your bicep is anchored in more than someone who can't, therefore, you are less likely to pop a bicep. What's the point of being strong enough in the lower body to pull the house when your arms can't handle the strain. You will also find that if you have spent a decent amount of time training arms at a high volume, you tendons will also be a lot better conditioned, so when benching or working heavy chins, the chance of an elbow pain restricting your strength gains is reduced. I have heard of people doing what is known as 'Poundstone curl' style training, which involves rep ranges up to and beyond 100 reps, which help condition the bicep as well as the tendons in the arm.

Better lockout strength on bench-press. This movement sometimes also falls into disrepute among new school fitness wangs, but lets be honest, a strong bench-press = a strong upper body. In the top half of the bench press, the triceps are heavily recruited for the lockout. So if you have big, strong triceps, the lock out of the movement will never be an issue. Another thing that people won't know, is that if you have big biceps, they act as a cushion and help you spring out of the bench-press. However insignificant this may seem, it's that small difference that decides 1st and second in a power-lifting meet. 

Stronger, more effective choke hold. Whether you're in a cage, a bar or in the woods fighting a bear, bigger, stronger biceps will make your choke hold much more powerful and intimidating. When dabbling in MMA, I found choke holds to be my favourite submission, because of the force I could apply to it. Choke holds is an elbow flexion, so the more powerful your biceps, the more force you can apply, and faster you are able to make the new age fitness dong pass out.

Higher work capacity. If you are used to doing 100s of curls and tricep extensions at a high frequency, guess what? they are going to be able to go harder for longer when it comes to training heavy compound movements. So if you choose to train heavy overhead press or rows, your arms will be able to go for longer, and you can train longer and have a more effective training session.

Makes you look more aesthetic at a healthier body fat %. If you enjoy being strong, cutting down to the single figures and staying there is not going to be a place you want to be. I remember hearing somewhere that if 2x your arm size is bigger then your waist measurement, then you will look lean and muscular. Much like the ladies have massive clutch purses in order to make there waists look smaller, having big arms will dwarf your waist and give the impression of having a lean and muscular physique (which you will have if your arms are that big in comparison to your waist).

Hope you found this helpful.
Enjoy the gains
Alex