If bigger arms are at the top of your training goals, Jeff Cavaliere says you don’t need to overhaul your entire routine or spend hours in the gym doing curls. Instead, the Athlean-X founder has created a 22-day arm-specialisation programme designed to slot onto the end of whatever training split you’re already following.

Rather than dedicating one marathon session each week to biceps and triceps, Cavaliere spreads your direct arm work across three sessions for each muscle group every week. Each workout has a different focus, while progressively increasing the challenge over the three-week block. Better still, on Day 1 you don’t even need to train.

Week 1

Day 1

Day 2: Biceps

• Incline waiter curls x 4 sets of 9 reps to failure

Day 3: Triceps

• Bench dips x 4 sets to failure

Day 4: Biceps

• Cross-body hammer curls x 4 sets of 12 reps

Day 5: Triceps

• Triceps pushdowns or thumbs-up dumbbell bench press x 4 sets of 12 reps

Day 6: Biceps

• Cheat curls x 4 sets of 8 reps, focusing on a slow three-second lowering phase

Day 7: Triceps

• PJR pullovers x 4 sets of 8 reps, using a slow three-second eccentric

Day 8: Rest

Weeks 2 and 3

Weeks 2 and 3 follow the same six-workout structure, but each session becomes progressively harder:

• On the incline waiter curls and bench dips, add three contraction pulses to every rep in Week 2, increasing to six pulses per rep in Week 3.
• On the cross-body hammer curls and triceps pushdowns (or thumbs-up dumbbell bench press), increase the weight by 2.5kg (5lb) in Week 2 and 5kg (10lb) above your starting weight in Week 3, using rest-pause reps if needed to complete all 12 reps.
• On the cheat curls and PJR pullovers, increase the eccentric (lowering) phase from three seconds in Week 1 to four seconds in Week 2 and five seconds in Week 3.
• On Day 22, remeasure your arms to track your progress.

Cavaliere says the aim is to increase your training frequency without simply cramming more work into a single session. Rather than completing all of your direct arm work at once, he recommends spreading it across three workouts per week.

He explains that the programme should be ‘divided more frequently over the course of three different training sessions separated by 48 hours a piece, which research will show has an ability to increase muscle synthesis and stimulus, especially for those stubborn muscle groups.’

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