Why Are My Arms So Skinny? – Reasons Your Arms Aren’t Growing

When people are asked to flex their muscles, 99.9% of the time they’ll bust out a bicep flex, or a front double bicep pose to show off their arms.

For many, a set of large arms is one of the most desirable looks when it comes to overall aesthetics.

When you consider the fact that so many of the best bodybuilders in the world have had the best arms in the world, it’s easy to see why a set of guns is so important.

Phil ‘The Gift’ Heath, Ronnie Coleman, and of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, all have huge and defined triceps with enormous bicep peaks, and all have won multiple Olympia titles between them.

Heck, one of the most iconic scenes in movie history took place in ‘Predator’ when Arnold’s character Dutch, shakes hands/arm wrestlers with Carl Weather’s character Dillon.

Because of the sheer size of Arnold’s biceps, it’s considered the most alpha and masculine bigger hands of all time.

So, Why Are My Arms So Skinny?

If you’re fed up with having spaghetti noodle arms, you may be asking why are my arms so skinny.

While looking to fill out a t-shirt larger than a child’s medium this summer, here are some reasons your arms aren’t filling out.

You Aren’t Taking Genetics Into Consideration

One of the main reasons is the fact that they fail to consider their overall genetics.

Every single person out there is different, and consequently, every single person out there has different genetics and a different body shape as a result of this.

Some pro bodybuilders, for example, have huge chests, boulder shoulders, and backs the size of busses, yet their biceps and triceps are lacking in comparison. This isn’t through a lack of training, it’s genetics.

The simple fact remains that some people just have bad genetics when it comes to building mass on their arms.

That’s not to say that they don’t gain muscle in their arms, it’s just that they find it much harder to build up their biceps and triceps than they do with other parts of their body.

If you find that your arms are looking much skinnier than the rest of your body, even if you are training them extra hard, genetics could be a factor.

Does this mean that you should just give up and resign yourself to a life of noodle arms?

Not, it simply means trying harder and finding new ways of working your guns.

You Aren’t Eating Enough

When it comes to building muscle, especially in/on the arms, people often focus solely on training rather than nutrition.

Now, don’t get us wrong, working out is of course a fundamental aspect of training and is essential when it comes to muscle growth and repair.

With that said, however, without adequate nutrition, you simply aren’t going to build muscle properly and grow, no matter how hard you train in the gym.

Fail to take nutrition into account.

To build muscle, you need to be getting enough protein (more on that next) and enough calories. If you don’t create even the slightest of caloric surpluses, you simply will not grow.

If your arms don’t seem to be getting any bigger, one of the main reasons for this could be a lack of calories. To rectify this issue, try increasing your caloric intake daily and creating a minor calorie surplus of around 200 – 300 calories to minimize fat gain.

You Aren’t Getting Enough Protein

See, we told you we’d look at protein in more detail.

We’ve established that, to build muscle anywhere on your anatomy, you need to be consuming enough calories, but where these calories come from is also vitally important.

You can’t say, consume 3,000 calories per day and get 90% of them from fats and carbs and expect to gain primarily muscle mass as that is not how the human anatomy works.

Protein is a macronutrient that is essential for muscle growth and recovery, so you must get enough protein each day if you wish to grow.

Without sufficient amounts of protein, the human body just will not build muscle, which is the last thing a dude with skinny arms wants to hear. Aim to consume around 1g of protein per pound of body weight.

So, if you weigh 210 pounds, you should be consuming roughly 210 grams of protein each day, though don’t try to hit this number exactly, just use it as a rough guide.

You Aren’t Training Enough

This one should be fairly obvious, but just to ensure that there are no surprises we’re going to cover it anyway.

To gain muscle mass, you need to be lifting weights and working out frequently.

You can’t expect to follow a textbook bodybuilding diet, nail your macros spot on, and gain muscle if you aren’t working out enough, it just won’t happen.

Arm Workout for BIGGER Arms (FIX SKINNY ARMS!)

To build an aesthetic and muscular physique, you need to be training regularly and you need to be working for each major muscle group at least once per week, if not more.

If you just go to the gym when you feel like it, and perform whatever exercises you feel like doing on the day, don’t expect to see any major improvements in your physique and the size of your arms, because that just will not happen.

To maximize your results in the gym, you should be following a training routine that works for you, and you should be training regularly.

You Aren’t Working Your Arms Enough

Another reason! Is down to the fact that they simply do not train them enough.

Forget those articles you read about certain IFBB pro bodybuilders and how they would rarely train their biceps throughout the year because they got enough work on a back day. After all, that is simply not sensible.

To begin with, you aren’t an IFBB pro bodybuilder, and secondly, you don’t have their genetics, their trainers, or their supplements.

The simple fact is that, if you want your arms to grow, you are going to have to train them regularly.

Instead of just doing a few sets of bicep curls at the end of a back workout, why not have a dedicated arm day for a few months and see what happens then?

If you have a dedicated arm day you can perform more volume when training arms and can fit in more biceps and triceps work when you train.

Your arms can handle a lot of volume so aim for around 3 or 4 different bicep exercises along with 3 or 4 different triceps exercises and after a few workouts you should soon begin to notice slight improvements.

Having a dedicated day for arms is also beneficial because it means that the biceps and triceps also get worked on other training days, I.E back day for biceps, and chest day for triceps.

You Aren’t Working Your Forearms

Notice how so far when talking about the arms, we’ve only really mentioned the biceps and triceps?

Well, that’s about to change because now we’re highlighting the importance of working your forearms as well.

If you want to build up your arms and make your arms look bigger, Ottermode, leaner, and more muscular, your forearms also need to be worked to give the arms a well-rounded, aesthetic, and symmetrical appearance.

9 BEST Exercises for Bigger Forearms

EZ bar curls, drag curls, and hammer curls are all great for working the forearms as well as the biceps, some gyms even have machines dedicated solely to working the forearms.

You don’t need to train the forearms as hard as the other muscles in your arms because they’re always being worked anyway, but adding a few exercises into your routine that accurately target the forearms will certainly prove beneficial for anybody trying to grow their arms.

You Aren’t Using Supplements

First and foremost, when it comes to nutrition, there is no substitute for whole foods.

If given the choice between food or supplements, food should win every single time.

With that said, however, if you are looking to grow your arms, supplements can prove very useful indeed.

To begin with, protein powder supplements are useful because they allow you to consume around 20 – 30g of protein per serving.

A couple of shakes per day and you can potentially already hit 1/3 of your daily macro requirements for protein.

Here are a couple of ideas of what to mix protein powder with.

Supplements such as creatine, BCAAs, and pre-workout supplements, however, are useful because they help give you an edge in the gym.

If you have more energy, more focus, and are stronger when training, your workouts will be more productive as a result.

Instead of fatiguing on bicep curls when you hit 8 reps with a certain weight, being able to train heavier or perform more volume means that you can put the muscle under more tension, which means greater levels of hypertrophy.

You’re Doing The Wrong Exercises

Another reason why you might find that your arms aren’t growing, no matter how hard you seem to be training, is that you’re doing the wrong arm exercises.

While any and every arm exercise is going to be beneficial in some form, some people respond better to certain exercises than others.

If for example, you have a decent set of biceps already, but your triceps are lacking, doing endless sets of biceps curls with a couple of triceps extensions thrown in at the end for good measure just won’t do you much good.

When building up your arms, find exercises that work for you, and find exercises that target the muscle groups that you are looking to bring up.

You Aren’t Varying Your Training Enough

Sticking with what we were just talking about, to fatigue your arms and work all the major muscle groups in the arms, you need to perform a variety of different exercises.

As fantastic as dumbbell biceps curls are, they are not the be-all and end-all of bicep training.

By all means, include them in your bicep workouts, but be sure to include plenty more variety, with exercises such as hammer curls, barbell curls, drag curls, EZ bar curls, cable curls, preacher curls, rope curls, etc.

The same goes for your triceps. Don’t just do the same triceps exercises every single time, instead mix things up and include plenty of variety.

Some popular triceps exercises include triceps rope pushdowns, triceps extensions, triceps kickbacks, skull crushers, and close grip bench presses.

Each different exercise that you perform hits a slightly different muscle and to add plenty of mass and definition to your arms, it’s important to include plenty of variety.

You’re focusing primarily On Your Biceps

Another reason is!

Finding that their arms just don’t seem to be getting bigger, is because they’re focussing mainly on working the biceps.

Make no mistake about it, if you want to grow your arms, working your biceps is very important. However, if you’re neglecting your triceps, your arms just will not look as big as they should.

The triceps is a larger muscle than the biceps. It has three heads hence the tri, in the triceps, as opposed to the two heads (bi) of the biceps.

For your arms to look bigger, you’ll need to ensure that you’re doing plenty of triceps work.

The bigger the triceps, the bigger your arms will look.

If you want to fill out a t-shirt, the triceps must not be ignored.

If you focus on your biceps, sure, you’ll have a big bicep muscle, but it will look out of proportion with the rest of your arm because it will look so much bigger.

Put simply, if you want bigger arms, make sure you train your triceps just as hard as you do your biceps.

You Keep On Swinging

When it comes to training the arms, even Arnold himself has stated that it’s okay to cheat a little to gain a little momentum when training.

What you shouldn’t do, however, is lean back and swing the weight with every single rep. If you need to do that, the weight is too heavy.

Arnold stated that swinging the weight a little, toward the end of the exercise, could be beneficial as you approach to fatigue.

As long as your first few reps have been strict and performed correctly, there shouldn’t be much issue.

If however, you lean back and swing the barbell or dumbbell with every single rep, the weight is too heavy, you won’t work the bicep or triceps muscle, and you run the risk of injuring your back as well.

If you swing too much, your back and momentum will do most of the work for you, so your biceps, triceps, and forearms won’t grow at all.

If you find yourself swinging the weights, drop the weight and go with something lighter which gives you more control instead.

Your Wrists Are In The Wrong Position

Another hugely common mistake that people make when training their arms, namely the biceps, is having their wrists in the wrong position.

For you to properly execute a bicep curl and to isolate the bicep, make sure that you have your wrists in line with your forearms throughout your working set.

Failure to do so means that the biceps aren’t being fully targeted or isolated, which means that they’re not being worked as hard as they should.

You Aren’t Doing Enough Isolation Work

Don’t get us wrong, when it comes to working the arms, compound lifts are essential. For adding mass and increasing strength, compound exercises are vital.

A compound exercise recruits several muscle groups at once.

This means that by performing one compound exercise, you can target multiple muscle groups at the same time. Adding mass is very useful.

With that said, however, for your arms to properly grow, you need to make sure that you’re doing plenty of isolation work. Isolation exercises are exercises that isolate specific muscle groups.

A preacher curl machine, for example, will isolate the biceps, whereas triceps cable pushdowns will isolate the triceps.

By isolating muscles you can work them to absolute failure and focus primarily on them.

Ideally, you should include a combination of compound exercises and isolation exercises in your arm training routine.

Final Thoughts On Why Are My Arms So Skinny:

Hopefully, now that you’ve read this and you understand just what it takes to build a set of huge arms, you’ll approach your diet and training with newfound respect and enthusiasm.

Growing your arms won’t happen overnight, but if you follow the advice given above, and correct the mistakes highlighted above, your arms should start improving and will get that little bit better after every workout.

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