It happens at my gym like clockwork. A few weeks into training, right around the time squats start feeling heavy and the honeymoon phase of the linear progression begins to fade, a new lifter – always a dude – will corner me with a nervous-ish look on his face and ask, “Hey Steve, um...when are we going to add some in some arms?”

It’s not a dumb question, it's actually an honest one, and something I hear pretty often. I’m sure my fellow SSCs hear it too. Hell, while I can’t remember for sure, I probably asked it myself when I first started training seriously. You walk into the gym, commit to something hard and unfamiliar, start moving serious weight and then suddenly notice something is missing. The pump – the one Arnold famously said is more satisfying than cumming with a woman – just isn’t there.

That familiar feeling you used to get every time you trained at Basic Fit®, after finishing your fourth set of 12 on cable curls, is nowhere to be found. Surely that should be there, right? I mean, the burn is how you knew you were making progress. And now? Now all that’s there is just more weight on the bar than last time. Panic sets in, and you start wondering if all this squatting and pressing is somehow making your arms smaller.

Let me reassure you: it’s not. And more importantly, you’re training your arms right now. You just don’t understand it yet.

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And here’s the thing: this usually comes from guys who’ve been to gyms in the past and have done bro splits that most certainly had an arm day. They might’ve spent years following something like: chest on Monday, back and bis Tuesday, shoulders and tris Wednesday, and legs some other day or not at all. But now it’s not there. Actually, a lot of that bullshit isn't there. After a few weeks in, they can eventually wrap their heads around what happens to them when you add a bunch of weight to your squats and deadlifts. The strength gains, the muscle mass, the systemic growth starts to make sense, but “Where the hell is the arm work?” starts to rise to the top of their list of priorities.

The Novice Phase: The Best Time to Grow

If you’re doing the Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression, you’re in the best phase of your training life ever. You are making progress on every lift, every workout, which is an absolute gift. When I make progress now, for example, it's either very rare or the fluke of a good day. But a novice? Being a novice is The Shit. You don’t need fancy splits, periodization, conjugate programming, or targeted isolation movements. You just need to eat, sleep, show up when you're supposed to and keep adding weight to the bar.

And when you do that – when your bench press goes from 60kg to 100kg, your press climbs from 35kg to a plate on each side, and when you start knocking out sets of chins – something magical happens: your arms grow. Because they have no choice.

You think your triceps aren’t working during heavy pressing? You think your biceps and forearms aren’t under tension when you’re cranking out chin-ups? You think holding onto a loaded barbell for deadlifts or heavy barbell rows isn’t training your grip, elbow flexors, and triceps like crazy? This is the stuff that actually builds real arm size. And unlike endless sets of curls, it carries over to literally everything else you’ll ever do with your body.

Compounds Work Best

Here’s the funny thing – and I see it play out in real time with clients all the time: the more you focus on getting stronger at the compound lifts, the more your arms start to look like you actually lift. As a matter of fact, it kind of sneaks up on you. The people themselves sometimes don't notice it until we show them a day-one deadlift and then another one a month later and they can't fucking believe it. Everything, and I mean everything, looks noticeably bigger and stronger.

You grind your press, add meaningful weight to the bar and build up to that 2 plate bench press and then you bang out your chins and their gnarly cousin – dips – and suddenly someone says, “Jesus, dude, you’re looking bigger.” What, my friends, do you think they mean? Your shoulders look broader, your forearms are thicker and your back is wider and meatier. And the whole thing is sitting on top of hips that don’t fit in your old jeans anymore.

That’s what people notice first. Not your biceps peak and not the vein on your brachialis. They see the whole package – the width, posture, and density that you cannot fake and that you do not get from curls. You get it from lifting progressively heavier weight – standing on your feet, with a barbell.

You’re Worrying Too Early

So why does the question “What about arms?” come up so often? Because we live in a world that sells shortcut aesthetics. Instagram, TikTok, and even most gyms are full of people chasing the pump, not real strength. Bicep curls are easy to understand and they deliver a nice sensation. It’s visual, it’s instant gratification and this is why most gyms are full of douchebags in tank tops hanging out by the dumbbell rack. The press, on the other hand? Not so much, because it’s fucking hard. The path to big arms through compound lifts is less obvious, but it’s also real, and it lasts.

That said, I get it. You’re insecure, you want to look like you lift and the arms are one of the first places we look to “verify” that. But trust me: if you just stick with the program and get stronger first, everything else follows because strength lays the foundation. If you skip that step and jump straight to arm day, you’re just trying to inflate balloons without air.

Yeah Dude, You Can Do Arms. After You Deadlift

Now here’s where I’m going to surprise you: I actually don’t really give a shit if you want to train your arms. Once you’ve done the work that matters, go ahead and get your pump on. I mean it. Once you’ve squatted, pressed, benched, and deadlifted – once you’ve earned your keep under the bar – knock yourself out. Do your curls, skullcrushers, hammer curls, tricep pushdowns, kickbacks – whatever the fuck you want. You can even hit them on your off-day, or if you’re clever, time it about an hour before heading to the club on Friday night. That way, your douchey tight V-neck will fit just a little better, drastically increasing, I’m sure, your chances of getting laid. I know that some folks will want to do this, and that's the reason I put a bunch of extra shit like this in our gym – little accessories that folks can use to blast their arms when they get the itch, because I knew this issue was going to come up. The only rule, however, is this: Big stuff first. Always.

That’s how you build a body that works and looks the part. The compound lifts don’t exclude arm work – they just make it secondary. Supplemental. Even optional. The big stuff is the meat and the arms are the seasoning. If you want to be one of those guys who skips the heavy stuff to do cable curls and call it a workout, that’s your business. But don’t pretend to be confused when you haven’t gotten stronger, haven’t added size, and still look exactly the same as you did last year. Don't complain when, like most dudes, you haven't changed after a year of your “hypertrophy-focused” program.

What Really Gets Noticed

Let me say it again, because it’s worth repeating: when people look at a man’s physique and say, “He looks strong,” they’re noticing four things:

1. Shoulders: Broad, capped, and with some definition. Built by pressing.

2. Forearms: Thick with some veins. Built by pulling heavy deadlifts.

3. Back: Wide lats and visible traps. Built by chins, rows, deadlifts.

4. Hips: A prominent ass and deeper hips built by squats and deadlifts.

Nobody walks past you thinking, “He must preacher curl pretty heavy.” They see posture, size, and presence – all things that come from full-body barbell strength.

And think about it – really think about it – the guy you actually notice in public, the one you do a double take for, is not the skinny dude with a vein-y arm. It’s the big motherfucker with broad shoulders and a thick back that you can just tell that he trains. That’s the guy people remember and that’s the guy you’re trying to become. So get there first, and then add your curls.

Final Thoughts

If you’re new to lifting – if you’re doing the Starting Strength NLP, showing up three days a week, grinding through squats, presses and pulls – I promise, you are already training your arms. More effectively than most of the people spending an hour a week doing curls. So relax, trust the process, and earn your strength. Once you've done that, grab a dumbbell, hit some curls and knock yourself out. Just don’t ask about arm day until you’ve done the real shit first.

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