JJ Virgin breaks down four arm exercises: push-ups, dips, overhead press, and lat pulldowns. He focuses on form cues like keeping elbows at right angles, engaging your core, and lifting your chest on lat pulldowns. Proper technique beats doing more reps.
I get asked all the time, "How did you get those arms?" Well, here's a big hint. It's not by doing that. I'm going to show you exactly what I do. So for push-ups, what's critical is that you really engage your core. It's like you're starting with a plank and then you're doing a push-up, coming down to a slightly breaking a right angle at your elbows and then pushing back up without locking your elbows. What's important with the dip is that you keep pulling your tailbone back towards your bench. It's important The most important thing with an overhead press is that you bend your knees slightly, pull your belly button towards your spine, and really engage your core. Then, when you bring your hands up, make sure your palms are facing each other and you're pushing up in front of you, slightly in front of your body. When you're doing a lat pulldown, you want to think about lifting your chest up towards the sky. As you're pulling down, keep extending your chest up. If you start to crunch at the waist and pull your chest forward, you actually use your traps instead of your lats.
