Arm Training with Calisthenics: A Guide For Biceps, Triceps, and Forearms

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raykay

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Intro

Here is my guide to training the biceps, triceps, and forearms with bodyweight movements. While upper body compound movements already stimulate the arms, below I have posted some ideas on how to supplement your primary compound movements and further develop them.The focus of these exercises is primarily for strength and hypertrophy.

For Best Results Use Bands & Rings

Optimizing your arm training with resistance bands and gymnastics rings can give much better results.
  • Resistance bands can be be used to alter the resistance curve of an exercise, allowing for a stronger lockout for the triceps and stronger flexion for the biceps. This is particularly important for many horizontal calisthenics exercises where the top of the movements can be much less challenging than the bottom.
  • Gymnastics rings are also a huge asset. They provide more versatility in exercise selection, are more forgiving on wrists and elbows, and force the upper body muscles to work harder to keep the rings stable.
Triceps

I recommend ALL tricep exercises be band resisted, as that fixes the resistance curve issue and trains a better lockout.

2 Options For Triceps (or use both options)

Option 1: Use a band to add resistance to your primary pressing compound movements.

Pike Pushup:
  • Load band slightly below hips and anchor under hands.
Standard Pushup:
  • Instructions included in the video clip. This is also how you load with the band for similar horizontal tricep movements like diamond pushups.
Dips
  • Load at the shoulder or you can attach the bands to a dip belt and wear it normally (good option if your bands are stronger/less elastic)
Option 2: Use accessories to train for some extra tricep volume.

- Forward Tricep Extension (Lateral Head Emphasis)
- Overhead Tricep Extension (Long Head Emphasis)
- Downward Tricep Extension (Medial Head Emphasis)
Biceps

You can use a mix of supinated and neutral (hammer) grip for some variation with all the bicep exercises except pelican curls.

- Narrow Grip Chinups
  • https://youtu.be/na7MaK-Powg?t=693
  • Narrow grip chinups emphasizes the biceps more than traditional chinups. They are great because of their high load, and having tension throughout the movement (no need for resistance band). However, they also a compound movement that may be more fatiguing. Ideally done on rings.
  • Trains both shoulder & elbow flexion
- Pelican Curls/Reverse BW Curl https://youtu.be/na7MaK-Powg?t=780
  • Intense stretch on the biceps, hits them from a very different angle than the other bicep variations. Strong focus on elbow flexion, bottom of rep when biceps is fully extended. Add bands for resistance at top You need to make sure you have conditioned your biceps tendons for the load and have good mobility before attempting.
  • Make sure to band at the hip so the top of the movement is also challenging.
  • Train elbow flexion
- Bodyweight Curls (Hammer, Standard)
  • Very akin to a classic curl, great ROM, easy to do, and you load with weight vests and Band at the hip for a better resistance curve at the top of the curl.
  • Single Arm Variation: https://youtu.be/1_pEpneYv6w
  • Trains elbow & shoulder flexion
-Bodyweight Preacher Curl (Curl Row)
  • https://youtu.be/na7MaK-Powg?t=750
  • Really this feels much more like a preacher curl and is not much like a row at all, hence me renaming it. Adjust your grip in a similar way to narrow grip chinups. However, this movement needs bands as there is less tension at top of movement (horizontal). For best outcome put rings close together (less than shoulder width, narrower than for standard BW curls). In the video they supinate, but I prefer a neutral hammer grip, which I find hard to do with normal BW curls.
  • Trains elbow flexion, some shoulder flexion
  • Band at hip like a BW curl.
Forearms

Save your forearm work for the end of your upper body workout, as many bodyweight exercises use the wrists and forearm muscles. You want to fatigue the forearms after you do your other movements, not get them tired before you need to use them.
  • Rope Climb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na7MaK-Powg&t=79s
    • The most taxing on the grip, but also a compound movement that could interfere with your other pulling work
  • Towel Pullup: https://youtu.be/4zhhuFq-104?t=325
    • Towel pullups put a lot of stress on the hands and forearms, plus you get some bicep/brachialis development. Like the rope climb they are compound movements and more fatiguing potentially. Somewhat advanced.
  • Hangs, Pronations, Supinations
    • The bread and butter of bodyweight forearm training. These are You can increase the difficulty by increasing the time of hangs/number of reps, decreasing rest times, adding load, or switching to a more challenging variation. For hangs, I recommend to build up to several 1 minute sets and then progress.
    • Rings are needed to do supinations and pronations.
    • Hangs:
    • Pronations/Supinations:
      • Superset after hangs. Do one of the easier hanging variations, you must do it with rings instead of a bar.. Then instead of hanging, start to supinate and pronate your arms like this movement https://youtu.be/lrAWfBOMbMI
  • Reverse Grip BW Curls
    • Exactly the same as the bodyweight curl, you just curl in a pronated position to change the emphasis to the brachialis and brachioradialis muscles. The forearms have a lot of tolerance for fatigue so I like to do these for high reps (10+ per set) to make it challenging.
    • Recommended as a finisher or secondary exercise after rope climb, towel pullups, or hangs.
  • Fingertip Pushups
    • https://youtu.be/RSviH0GvVjc
    • This is a movement to train the antagonist muscles of your forearm, and balance out your hands and fingers from all the gripping.
    • Vary intensity by doing different pushup variations (knee, standard, pike, etc.)
    • Do many sets, but with low reps for each set, it is more comfortable on your fingers that way. Remember they are very small muscles and joints.
 
@raykay Tbh after I used weights(db) for my arms , I got them growin'
P.S:Trained arms with all bw stuffs for 1 year(no significant results)
 
@markdg I always had lackluster results myself, until I started incorporating bands and rings. Particularly for the triceps, I found with a strong enough band even trivially easy exercises became challenging enough to train my arms to failure.

I'm glad the dumbbells are working for you though! Any progress with any tool is valuable.
 
@raykay All good if it workd for you, me also felt great muscle mind conn. when i did ring tri extension but thats it!, as for hypertrophy very low proggression was goin on, until incorporated basic db extensions
 
@natalie223 On push days I would do 4 sets of lying db tri extensions and 4 sets lateral raises-supersetted with shrugs. On pull days I would do preacher curls of 4sets and Rear Delt raises of 4sets. Recently included, a full dedicated arms day too. All the exercise I perform tends to go till failure.
 
@raykay It seems like all bodyweight bicep exercises have a terrible strength curves, so I opt for bands. Triceps on the other hand, I've never needed isolations if I am doing diamond pushups and floor work. But if you have short arms, I don't think you need any isolations for decent arms.
 
@elnatk Agreed about the strength curves, loading bands at the hips adds accomodating resistance to offset that terrible strength curve. The biceps actually contract at the top instead of just barely needing to curl. The only exception seems to be the narrow grip chins, since they are vertical rather than horizontal.
 
@raykay I was just thinking could you replicate wrist curl with rings where you curl your own body instead? You hang the rings from pull-up bar, lean back a little and curl with your forearms/wrists.
 
@dawn16 You could if you want, but most of the forearm exercises listed are targetting those muscles more intensely than a wrist curl. It may be redundant.
 
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