Reasons to Never Skip Arm Day – A Complete Guide

Some great advice for staying motivated to work out regularly is to dedicate each day of your workout week to exercises for specific muscles. Sometimes though, you’re just not feeling it.

It’s important to take breaks from your WOD when you need to, but then there becomes a dilemma…for the next day, do you resume from where you paused, or do you skip that WOD and keep to the schedule?

The answer might depend on the workout you’re doing that day. There are some reasons to never skip arm day that you might not be aware of and skipping arm day can set back your progress significantly.

We’ll be answering some common questions about arm day in this complete guide such as what the benefits of arm day are, what workouts should you be doing, and more!

Reasons to Never Skip Arm Day – A Complete Guide

Let’s start by understanding the goal of arm day. Everyone wants to train their arms. Even if you’re not looking for great muscle growth in these areas, it’s essential to keep your arms strong, otherwise, it could lead to injury when doing even simple exercises.

The main muscles in your arms such as the biceps and the deltoids also help us to perform basic everyday functions such as lifting and stretching. By focusing on these muscles, you’ll find that daily tasks become easier.

Skipping arm day can sound tempting…maybe the next workout day has some arm exercises. Maybe your arms are big enough already, and you don’t want to build more mass in this area. Maybe… you just don’t feel like it today. You’ll do it tomorrow.

Skipping arm day isn’t a physical barrier. Your arms aren’t telling you that you need to skip it…it’s all mental. Overcoming this mental barrier is one of the biggest obstacles to effective and productive training. It’s where a lot of argument for skipping arm day comes from.

Is Arm Day a Waste of Time?

There are a couple of arguments for arm day being a waste of time. For example, some people think that by training the small muscles in your arm through arm day exercises, you’re not having any effect on your body.

The arm is a complex part of our body and to make it work, our muscles need to work together. By focusing on these small muscles, you could be helping your bigger muscles by taking the pressure off them when you’re doing exercises or regular daily tasks.

Because of this, arm day can be great for giving attention to these muscles that are neglected when doing regular arm workouts like lifts and curls.

 

What to Work out After Arm Day?

When you’re building a weekly schedule for your training, figuring out what to work out after arm day can be a challenge. You could keep it simple and do leg day, but just switching between leg day and arm day can get pretty boring.

Having an individual day for each part of your body could also get confusing, and you could be spreading yourself too thin and trying to prioritize quantity over quality; this is one of the most common mistakes people make when doing workout routines.

A good recommendation is to have arm day as the last step of your routine before your rest days. The reason for this is that arm exercises can be lower intensity, and you can do a lot of them from a sitting or standing position.

This will allow you to focus solely on building muscle strength rather than having to control your breathing and stamina.

You can also do the opposite and have arm day as the first exercise at the beginning of your schedule. This might be an especially good idea if you do 5 days of exercise, then 2 whole days of rest after. Doing arms first when you get back at it will ease you into the routine again, and you might feel better than if you throw yourself in at the deep end.

The risk of injury from working out is a lot higher after an extended period of rest too, so arm exercises can be an easy and low-risk way to warm up your body for the week ahead.

Should You Do Shoulders After Arm Day?

Everyone is different and maybe you’ve found that doing arm day last in the week doesn’t work for you. This puts you back to square one with asking what workout to do next, and you might be considering: should you do shoulders after arm day?

It makes a lot of sense in theory. Your shoulders are the next most connected muscle to your arms, and building strength in your shoulders can help you with arm exercises, making building strength there easier.

Some people will train the shoulder muscles along with their back or chest muscles. This can kill two birds with one stone, as muscles such as the trapezius also control your posture and the stability of your spine and back…but it can once again lead to the problem of quantity over quality.

In truth, because there are so many smaller muscles in your shoulder, it’s always a good idea to focus a day of workouts on this area specifically if you think you would benefit from it. That’s one of the most important pieces of advice we can give when you’re planning out your schedule.

If you feel that you’d benefit from doing shoulders after arm day, you should do it. If you think it might be worth trying, then it can’t hurt to schedule it in and then change it if you’re not feeling it.

Reasons to Never Skip Arm Day – Closing Thoughts

So, at the end of the day, there are plenty of reasons to never skip arm day. Physically it can be a big setback to any progress you’ve made training your biceps and other arm muscles…and mentally, it’s so important to keep a schedule.

By keeping consistent and disciplined with yourself, then you’ll be building the habit of working out every day. And building these habits is key to effective, productive workouts that make you feel good while doing them and after.

Want to transform your workout program? We have tons of tips, recommendations, diet plans, and more to help you reach your maximum potential in 2022.