Building and maintaining muscle at its core is an exercise (pun partially intended) in diligent and repetitive dedication. Everyone has heard of “no pain, no gain” but it’s very important to remember that once you make those gains you have to maintain them through continuous hard work. For plenty of people this can be a very difficult hurdle to overcome as the idea of doing the same activities over and over again holds very little appeal to many; I speak from experience being one of these people.

I used to struggle immensely to maintain an effective exercise regiment to reach my fitness goals due to finding repetitive activities very tedious to engage in. However after doing some research, and talking to the right people, I was able to implement a wide and varied routine of alternative workouts that helped greatly alleviated any feeling of sameness I used to get when I went to the gym.

Today I would like to focus on a few of the alternative arm workouts I’ve been doing that have been helping me build and maintain muscle.

Kettlebell Hammer Curls

This is a great one for working the muscles throughout the forearms and even the smaller muscles in the hand and wrist. While more difficult than other arm exercises it does have the benefit of putting constant tension on the muscles during the entire movement.

Negative Accentuated Rope Pressdown

Here is an exercise that really works your triceps and will really help you get the most out of all three major mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy. This is accomplished by pressing both arms together for maximum overload, and then spreading the rope handles when at the bottom of the movement, holding it for several seconds.

Box jump chin ups

Using a box to create a slight change to a standard chin up workout will make your reps more explosive and really help to work your shoulders, biceps, and forearms (plus your back and calves get some work in here too!)

Simple to do, effective, and easy to learn proper technique.

Miniband Curl Extension

Miniband workouts are great for an alternative exercise to free weights as they allow for an overall much greater freedom of movement. Simply using the resistance and tension created by the band itself you’ll be able to execute more of those curls you might have been struggling with when using physical weights due to the strain they may have been having on your joints.

There is Always More

These are of course just a few alternatives and there is plenty to go over when it comes to the technique and benefits of every possible exercise.  However an excellent way to take the brunt of the research into learning all these alternatives is to enrol at a Prestige Boot Camp where you will   have access to the expert trainers, facilities and equipment needed to learn all of the potential alternative workouts.

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