Struggling to add size to your arms? Five minutes a day might be worth a shot.
Jack Wiltshere, aka @sober.fitness, swapped longer, less frequent arm sessions for one simple daily challenge: 100 dumbbell curls per arm without putting the weights down.
The idea came after he noticed just how quickly his arms seemed to bounce back after training.
'I could absolutely destroy my arms in the gym and 10 minutes later they'd already feel recovered, like I could have done more,' he says. 'This was certainly not my experience after leg day, for example.'
That got him thinking: what would happen if he stopped trying to annihilate his arms in individual workouts and instead gave them a smaller dose of work every day?
So he devised an experiment: 100 dumbbell curls per arm, every day, for 90 days.
The 5-Minute Arm Challenge
There's not much to remember here.
Grab a pair of light dumbbells and alternate between:
- 100 curls on your right arm
- 100 curls on your left arm
The catch? You can't put the dumbbells down until you've finished.
Wiltshere says the entire workout takes him around five minutes, making it easy to fit into the day without programming a dedicated arm session.
And, according to him, it worked.
'One or two months into what ultimately got defined as a 90-day season of fitness dailies, and my arms were already filling up my t-shirt sleeves for the first time ever in my life,' he says.
Do You Really Need to Train Your Arms Every Day?
Not necessarily. Wiltshere's results are anecdotal, and you don't need to hit your biceps seven days a week to make them grow.
But there's something useful in the principle behind his experiment, as Men's Health Fitness Director Andrew Tracey explains:
'The old adage that "muscles don't grow in the gym" – that they need time to recover – does ring true, but not all muscles are created equally, and smaller muscle groups can recover faster, making high frequency phases like this not just possible, but practical.'
Tracey adds, however, that these phases should be kept short, and careful attention should be paid to recovery.
'That being said, muscles mustn't be confused with joints and tendons, which may not recover at the same rate. Overuse injuries and even conditions such as tendinitis aren't uncommon in experiments like this, so pay attention to any aches and niggles that refuse to go away, up your protein, focus on recovery and don't be afraid to call it a day early. All pain, no gain is not a solid strategy for bigger guns.'
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Isaac Williams is Site Editor for both Women’s Health UK and Men’s Health UK, guiding and supporting the content teams to create content across all platforms. Isaac’s love of health and fitness began at Loughborough University, where he graduated with a History and English degree in 2014. His first job was at Men’s Running magazine, where he progressed from Staff Writer to Editor. Among his highlights of those four years include completing a 24-hour track race (never again), just about finishing a multi-day ultramarathon in the Azores, and chugging his way around a ‘beer mile’. Isaac ventured into the world of freelance journalism in 2018, interviewing some of the biggest names in sport – like Anthony Joshua and Ben Stokes – and writing features for the likes of The Guardian, Red Bull, ShortList and BBC Countryfile. He was also a regular contributor to an adventure series called ‘The Man Who’: speaking to some of the world’s most extreme explorers from the wilds of Caffè Nero. In late-2019, Isaac became Editor of Men’s Fitness UK. In his five years there, Isaac was responsible for editing the monthly magazine and managing website content, ultimately helping the brand transition to a ‘digital-first’ approach. He joined Hearst UK as Multiplatform Editor in December 2024, where he manages day-to-day digital output, edits content and writes articles on all things health and fitness. When he’s not hammering at his keyboard, Isaac enjoys exercise and trying – unsuccessfully, so far – to teach his baby son to kick a football. You can follow Isaac on Instagram @isaacw1993.
