10 Best Compound Exercises for Arms (Ignite Huge Gains)

In my years of coaching, I've always regarded the bench press as the king of upper-body exercises. It not only directly works your triceps, shoulders, and pecs but also engages the lats, upper back, and biceps for stability, as I've observed in numerous client transformations.

It directly works your triceps, shoulders, and pecs while working the lats, upper back, and biceps for stability. The close grip bench press variation emphasizes the triceps, shoulders, and upper pecs.

Here’s how you do them:

1. Lie down on a flat bench and grab the barbell; both your arms should be parallel to each other.
2. Lift the weight off the rack and ensure the barbell is in line with your neck and arms straight.
3. Lower the bar down and touch it to the middle of your chest. Hold this position for a second.
4. Explode up back to the starting position, your arms fully extended.
5. Repeat for reps.

3. Incline Press

From my experience, the incline press is a favorite among clients for its effectiveness in targeting the upper chest. It's one of the most popular bench press variations I recommend for those looking to enhance their upper body aesthetics.

To do the incline press, follow the same steps as you would for the close-grip bench press, except use an incline bench and grip slightly wider than the width of your shoulders.

4. Decline Press

Having trained a variety of clients, I've found that the decline bench is particularly effective for focusing on the lower pec muscles and is generally easier to perform than the flat and incline bench press.

Performing the decline press follows the same steps as doing the incline press, except you’d use a decline bench.

The single-arm dumbbell row is a great compound movement that targets many large muscle groups, such as your traps, rhomboids, rear delts, lats, biceps, and forearms.

A study featured on the Pubmed website examined the differences between unilateral dumbbell row (DR), a multiple-joint exercise, and unilateral biceps curl (BC), a single-joint exercise, in terms of their impact on strength and muscle thickness (MT) of the elbow flexors.

The findings revealed that after 8 weeks of resistance training (RT), the single-joint exercise led to more significant hypertrophy in the elbow flexors compared to the multi-joint exercise, while strength gains were more pronounced in exercises specific to the training [2].

Here’s how you do them properly:

1. Find a dumbbell that's right for your fitness level.
2. Place your left knee and hand on a flat bench with your right leg extended away from the bench.
3. Pick up the dumbbell with your right hand.
4. Lean forward, keep your back straight, and have your right foot firmly planted on the floor.
5. Let the dumbbell hang at arm’s length, and then pull it up by driving your elbow towards the ceiling, keeping your elbow close to your body, and squeezing the shoulder blades.
6. Lower the dumbbell back down, repeat for reps, and switch sides.

Also Read:

• Best Arm Workout for Mass
• High-Volume Arm Workout for Massive Gains
• Underhand vs Overhand Rows

6. Barbell Bent-Over Row

The barbell bent-over row is a double-handed barbell variation of the single-arm dumbbell row. It works the same muscles.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Stand in front of a barbell loaded with the appropriate amount of weight.
2. Bend down to pick up the barbell by hinging at the hips and keeping the back straight and chest up (your upper body should be nearly parallel or directly parallel to the ground).
3. Grab the barbell with your shoulders directly above your hands using an overhand grip.
4. Engage your core, lift the chest slightly, and pull the barbell off the floor by straightening your legs and extending your hips (the barbell should hang at arm’s length in front of your knees). This is your starting position.
5. Keeping the core engaged, pull the barbell towards your lower chest/upper abdomen by driving your elbows toward the ceiling (focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together).
6. Lower the barbell back down to the starting position and repeat for reps.

Diamond push-ups are a variation of the traditional push-up. In addition to working the chest and triceps, they heavily focus on your shoulder muscles.

The imbalance from doing diamond push-ups also engages your core for stability.

Here’s how you do them with perfect form:

1. Get into a push-up position, and place your hands together so your thumbs and index fingers touch to form a diamond shape.
2. Keep your core engaged and lower your body till your chest touches the floor.
3. Push yourself back to the starting position and repeat for reps.

8. Underhand Grip Pull-Ups

Underhand grip pull-ups are a highly effective biceps exercise that build upper body strength and stability.

Here’s how you do them with perfect form:

1. Grab onto a pull-up bar with a shoulder-wide underhand grip and get into a dead hang.
2. Pull yourself up (without kipping your legs) until your chin goes above the bar.
3. Hold this position for a second, and then let yourself down back to a dead hang.
4. Repeat for reps.

While doing an overhand grip pull-up has its benefits, it won’t work your biceps as well as an underhand grip pull-up.

Chest dips are one of the best chest compound exercises that target your pecs, upper arms (shoulders and triceps), and core.

You’ll need to do these on a parallel bar.

Here’s how you do them:

1. Get to a dead hang by placing your arms on the two parallel bars (the bars should be wider than your shoulder and tall enough to let you dip down).
2. Push yourself up and straighten your arms so that they’re fully extended.
3. Lower yourself by bending the elbows and slightly leaning forward (which will emphasize the chest muscles).
4. When your shoulders are slightly below your elbows (which should be slightly flared out), pause for a second and return to the starting position.
5. Repeat for reps.

10. Farmer’s Walk

Farmer walks are considered a functional strength and compound exercise. Often done by strongman athletes, they’re notorious for improving grip strength.

They primarily work the forearms, traps, shoulders, legs, and core muscles.

Here’s how to do them:

1. Grab a pair of dumbbells, kettlebells, or a pair of two equally heavy objects you can grip and carry (you should be able to walk without the objects obstructing your path).
2. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with the weights on either side of you.
3. Engage your core, lift your chest up, and pick up the weights, holding them with a firm grip.
4. Walk at a brisk but controlled pace (keep your core engaged, shoulders back, and posture straight).
5. Walk for the desired distance, take a quick break, and repeat for sets.

You should choose a compound exercise over an isolation exercise because it uses more than one muscle group, which leads to a higher heart rate, more calories burned, and higher fitness levels [3].

However, if your goal is to build and sculpt a certain muscle, then you can add some isolation movement after performing a compound exercise.

For example, if you want a stronger chest, you can perform dumbbell flys after bench presses.

We recommend doing a combination of compound and isolation movements to get the most out of your fitness routine.

Related: Upper Body Compound Exercises

Benefits of These Exercises

Here are some of the benefits of doing compound arm exercises:

• Builds muscle: Compound arm exercises work on more than one muscle group per movement. So, they’re highly effective at building more muscle.
• Burns fat: Because compound arm movements work your arms, core muscles, and other muscles at once, they demand higher endurance levels. The result is a higher heart rate and more calories burned.
• Increases strength: Doing compound movements requires a combination of raw power and technique from multiple muscles — both of which increase your overall strength.
• Builds joint strength: Compound movements are multi-joint movements. So all the joints involved in a compound exercise will benefit from your lifts, leading to stronger and more flexible joints.

“A lot of the most popular gym exercises are compound exercises, and doing them as you get older can help maintain and increase muscle mass and keep you strong and coordinated.”

- Dr. Mike Bohl, MD, Nutrition Coach