When it comes to building muscle, people often focus on their arms because they are a visible part of the body that is often on display. The three muscles that make up your upper arm muscles are the biceps, the triceps, and the brachialis.
The double-headed muscle on the front of your upper arm, called the biceps, is a popular exercise goal for people who want to look good. However, the triceps make up two-thirds of the upper arm, which is why they are sometimes bigger.
You could also not be eating enough to build your biceps, be overworking your arms, or be doing the wrong exercises.
Here, we'll look at 5 reasons why you might have big triceps but small biceps and then tell you how to fix the problem.
Why your triceps are big and your biceps are small
For muscle growth to happen, you need to be in what's called a "calorie surplus," which means that you're eating more calories each day than you're burning. When you build muscle, you gain weight, and to do that, you need to eat enough every day.
So, how many calories you need to eat every day to stay the same weight. Then, start eating about 200–300 calories more than that every day. Foods with a lot of calories, like peanut butter, also have healthy fats and proteins.
Protein is especially important because it helps build and repair muscles.
You work your arms too much
People who want to gain muscle often make the mistake of overtraining the parts of the body they want to work on, in this case the arms. If you work out your arms every day, you won't get the best results because you aren't giving the muscles time to heal.Triceps. No question. Many "young guns" in the gym will do bicep curls over and over again to build huge arms. The problem is that your biceps only make up about a third of the mass in your upper arms. The triceps, on the other hand, make up the other two-thirds. When I was in a powerlifting competition, my arms were 17 1/2 inches long. I did this to increase my bench press. I didn't care how big my arms got. In fact, I was a little embarrassed by how big I was. At 5 feet 6 inches tall and 187 pounds, I realized I looked strange, like a mix between a fire hydrant and a bulldog, neither of which is a good thing. As a side effect of getting stronger, my arms grew to that size. Since the triceps are so important to the bench press, as I benched more weight, they got bigger.
Now, if I had been a deadlifter, my arms wouldn't be almost 18 inches long because deadlifting uses the biceps more than the triceps. If you want more proof, look at pictures of people who deadlift and people who bench press. People who bench press will always have bigger arms than people who deadlift. If you want bigger arms, do bench presses and tris. Want bigger legs, deadlift. Do three-lift powerlifting if you want bigger arms and legs.
Short answer, neither. But there are a few other things going on. First, biceps are more often used, seen, and trained than triceps. Biceps are easier to train because gym equipment and the shape of the arm put a lot of focus on them. Keep in mind, though, that the triceps make up 2/3 of the mass in the upper arm, so a 10% increase in the triceps would lead to twice as much mass gain as a 10% increase in the biceps. In the end, train them the same, unless you notice a difference in how they grow, in which case you should change your routine. My triceps have grown and changed more than my biceps. Even though my arm is 19" long, I don't have biceps like many people with shorter arms.
I worked at a gym for three years and did a lot of research on my own. I also got a nationally certified personal training certification. In general, it would be easier to build up your biceps than your triceps. This is because the triceps muscle has three heads, while the biceps muscle only has two heads. The biceps, on the other hand, need less of a range of angles and movements to fully develop each head of the muscle group. That doesn't take into account genetics.