I’m going to get this out of the way right now: YOU DON’T NEED AN ARMS DAY.
In talking with friends and clients, one of the most common programming questions I get from guys is regarding working out their arms. Now I recognize the fact that your arms are aesthetically one of the most important body parts, along with your abs, chest, shoulders and butt. When people think serious weightlifting and bodybuilding, one of the first images most people conjure up is of a huge guy in tiny shorts and a tank top curling a huge dumbbell on Venice Beach. Walk into any gym and you’ll see 5 skinny guys doing some form of curls (in bad form, some wasting the precious space that is my squat rack, grrr….) and admiring their burgeoning "pythons" in a mirror.
But if you can’t do 10 full body-weight pull-ups with good form (all the way up with the bar to your chest, and all the way down arms fully extended hanging), 50 real pushups, or bench press your body weight, you certainly don’t need an “arms day”.
A much better use of your time would be to focus on the big complex exercises that use your arms - think pull-up, dip, bench press, overhead press, and yes, deadlift. If you are doing these exercises correctly and using heavy weights, you are going to get all the arm work you need to make those guns illegal in your state. These exercises will maximize your time by working multiple body parts, forcing your body to work as a system. You will stimulate your metabolism exponentially more than you can with simple curls. Challenging your body with real work is the way to get real results.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of room in a good program for supplemental arm work, but it should never be the focus of your workout. I recommend throwing those curls in between sets of the big exercises, or at the end of the workout after you have exhausted your core with big movements.
For those who can’t resist, a quick tip for bigger and better looking arms: work on improving your grip strength and forearm size. Using a tool such as EZ-Grips/FatGripz or even just wrapping a towel around a bar with any push or pulling motion will help, as will mixing in various hangs and exercises like reverse curls (palms facing down) or rope-grip pull-ups. You can also carry around a Dynaflex Gyro Power Ball or Gripmaster in your pocket/bag for use in class or at your desk or while walking around on the street. And last but not least, when you do use arm exercises, make sure you get real bang for your buck and use good form.