Change your grip
When doing exercises with a barbell or E-Z bar, try gripping with your thumb under the bar rather than wrapped over it. This reduces the role of the forearm in the move and places greater emphasis on the biceps or triceps, forcing these muscles to work far harder for each rep.

Don't ignore your triceps
It's easy to concentrate on blitzing your biceps, but your triceps are actually the bigger muscles in the upper arm. Focusing on triceps exercises that isolate the muscle, such as dips, narrow-grip bench presses and lying triceps extensions, will lead to bigger gains, so that you fill out your T-shirts in double-quick time.

Perform big lifts
Biceps curls are all well and good, but you'll see better results from big compound moves that involve the arms, such as reverse-grip bent-over rows and chin-ups. These exercises require multi-joint movement and allow you to lift heavier weights, and so flood the body with muscle-building hormones, meaning you get bigger and stronger.

Take your time
The golden rule is one second up and three seconds down for every rep. Three times as many muscle fibres are activated during the eccentric - or downward - phase of the exercise, so lowering the weight slowly and under control will work the biceps and triceps far harder. Taking your time also keeps the muscle under tension for longer.

Work to failure, don't do a Ron Burgundy
To build muscle you need to fatigue the arms, forcing them to grow back bigger and stronger. Each set should last around eight reps, at which point you should reach failure. If you feel like you have a few more reps in you, then the weight is too light. Also make sure you 'squeeze' the muscles at the top of every rep to really work them.

Loads of arms workouts and exercises for you to check out here, you'll also plenty more in the magazine too, so subscribe today – we'll give you five issues for £5.