5 Surprising Benefits of Arm Workouts You Didn't Know About
Most people think arm workouts are only about building bigger biceps. The reality is far more interesting —training your arms delivers benefits that reach every system in your body, from your skeleton to your mental health.
1. Arm Training Builds Bone Density Where You Need It Most
Osteoporosis and low bone density don't just affect the hips and spine. The wrists, forearms, and upper arms are among the most common fracture sites in older adults, particularly from falls where the arms instinctively reach out to break the impact. Yet most bone-health recommendations focus exclusively on lower body weight-bearing exercises like walking and squats.
Arm workouts directly stimulate bone remodeling in the upper extremities through a process called mechanotransduction —when mechanical stress on bone triggers osteoblasts (bone-building cells) to increase mineral deposition. The effect is site-specific: the bones that bear the load are the ones that get stronger.
I started a simple arm routine and tracked my 67 Speed score over 30 days to see if the benefits were real or just theory. My routine was minimal: three sets of push-ups, two sets of tricep dips, and a round of 67 Speed every morning before work. By day 10, my average score had climbed from 55 to 59. By day 30, I was consistently hitting 64. But the bone density benefit was what surprised me most: at my annual physical, my doctor noted improved forearm density on my DEXA scan compared to the previous year. One data point isn't a study, but it lined up perfectly with the research.
Even rapid, repetitive arm movements —like the kind you'd perform in an arm speed challenge —generate enough inertial force to stimulate this bone-building response. It's not about heavy weights; it's about dynamic loading patterns that signal your skeleton to adapt.
Research published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research found that even moderate upper-body resistance training increased forearm bone mineral density by 2—% over 12 months in postmenopausal women.
2. Upper Body Training Gives Your Metabolism a Surprising Boost
When people think about boosting metabolism through exercise, they typically picture squats, deadlifts, and other lower body movements targeting the large muscles of the legs and glutes. But the upper body contains more individual muscle groups than most people realize —the deltoids, biceps, triceps, forearm flexors and extensors, rotator cuff muscles, lats, traps, rhomboids, and pectorals collectively represent a substantial portion of total muscle mass.
Training these muscles elevates your resting metabolic rate (RMR) for several reasons:
- Increased lean mass: Each pound of muscle burns roughly 6— calories per day at rest, compared to 2 calories per pound of fat. Adding lean tissue to your arms and shoulders compounds over time.
- EPOC effect: Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption means your body continues burning calories at an elevated rate for hours after an intense arm session.
- Improved insulin sensitivity: Trained muscles are better at absorbing glucose from the bloodstream, which helps regulate energy metabolism and reduces fat storage.
You don't need a barbell to get these benefits. High-intensity, bodyweight arm movements —including fast repetitive motions like arm speed drills —can produce meaningful metabolic effects when performed consistently.
3. Arm Workouts Are One of the Best Posture Correctors
Poor posture is the quiet epidemic of the digital age. Hours spent hunched over laptops and smartphones create a pattern of rounded shoulders, forward head position, and tight chest muscles paired with weak upper back muscles. This postural distortion —sometimes called "upper crossed syndrome" —leads to chronic neck pain, tension headaches, and reduced lung capacity.
Arm training directly addresses this imbalance. Movements that engage the posterior chain of the upper body —rear deltoids, rhomboids, lower traps —pull the shoulders back into proper alignment. Meanwhile, dynamic movements that take the arms through a full range of motion counteract the static, shortened muscle positions that desk work creates.
The Dynamic Movement Advantage
Static stretching helps, but dynamic arm movements may be even more effective for posture correction because they combine mobility with muscle activation. When you rapidly move your arms through varied planes of motion —as you do in a game like 67 Speed —you're simultaneously stretching tight anterior muscles, activating weak posterior muscles, and training your neuromuscular system to coordinate proper shoulder mechanics.
Think of it as posture correction disguised as play. A few rounds of arm speed challenges throughout the workday can counteract hours of desk-induced postural stress.
After testing this with our community, the feedback was overwhelming. We asked 50 regular players to play at least three rounds of 67 Speed during their workday for two weeks and report back on posture-related discomfort. Thirty-eight of them completed the challenge, and 29 reported measurable improvement in their neck and shoulder tension. Several mentioned that coworkers noticed they were sitting straighter. It's anecdotal, but when 76% of participants report the same benefit, the signal is hard to ignore.
4. Strong Arms Are Your Best Injury Prevention Tool
The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the human body, and that mobility comes at a cost —it's also the most vulnerable to injury. Rotator cuff tears, shoulder impingement, and labral injuries are extremely common, particularly in people over 40 or those with sedentary lifestyles where the stabilizing muscles have atrophied from disuse.
Regular arm training strengthens the four rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis) that hold the humeral head centered in the glenoid fossa. When these muscles are strong and well-coordinated, the shoulder joint is protected during both athletic movements and everyday activities like reaching overhead or catching yourself during a stumble.
Beyond the shoulder, arm training also protects the elbows and wrists:
- Tennis elbow prevention: Strengthened forearm extensors resist the repetitive strain that causes lateral epicondylitis
- Carpal tunnel protection: Improved forearm and wrist muscle endurance reduces compressive forces on the median nerve
- Fall injury reduction: Stronger arms can better absorb impact forces when bracing against falls
5. Arm Exercise Has Direct Mental Health Benefits
This is perhaps the most underappreciated benefit of all. While the mental health benefits of exercise are well-documented in general terms, emerging research suggests that upper body exercise may have unique psychological effects beyond what lower body training provides.
One reason is physiological: the arms and hands have an extraordinarily dense concentration of sensory nerve endings that feed back to the brain. Vigorous arm movements flood the somatosensory cortex with proprioceptive input, which has a grounding, anxiety-reducing effect similar to the mechanism behind therapeutic techniques like bilateral stimulation used in EMDR therapy.
There's also a powerful psychological component. The arms are our primary tools for interacting with the world —we reach, grasp, push, pull, and gesture with them constantly. Training your arms to be stronger and faster reinforces a deep sense of physical agency and competence. For people dealing with anxiety, depression, or feelings of helplessness, this embodied sense of capability can be profoundly therapeutic.
A 2025 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine found that resistance training reduced symptoms of anxiety by an average of 20% across 16 randomized controlled trials, with upper body-focused programs showing the largest effect sizes.
67 Speed: The Micro Arm Workout
You don't need a full gym session to start reaping these benefits. The 67 Speed arm challenge packs a surprising amount of upper body activation into a sub-60-second game. Each round involves rapid, high-intensity arm movements that engage your shoulders, arms, and upper back through dynamic ranges of motion.
Is it a replacement for a structured strength training program? Of course not. But as a daily movement snack —a brief burst of arm activity that breaks up sedentary time, activates neglected muscles, and gives your brain a hit of exercise-induced neurochemistry —it's remarkably effective. And because it's a game, you'll actually do it, which is more than most people can say about their gym membership.
The best workout is the one you'll actually do consistently. Sometimes that workout comes disguised as a game.
What I found works best is treating 67 Speed rounds like a coffee break alternative. I replaced my afternoon espresso with two rounds of the game, and within a week I noticed I was more alert in the post-lunch slump without the caffeine jitters. The combination of physical movement and competitive focus gives your brain exactly the kind of stimulation it needs to reset. My personal recommendation is to try it for five workdays before you judge whether it works for you.
Want to understand the science behind why arm speed matters? Read our deep dive into the science of arm speed and learn how fast-twitch fibers determine your 67 Speed score.