When Khloé Kardashian recently took to Instagram with a photo showing her incredibly strong arms, the comments section went off with requests for her training routine. So we went straight to the source. Her trainer Joel Bouraima is the mastermind behind her sessions, known for his no-nonsense approach that prioritises strict form and targeted muscle burnout. He’s trained Khloe since 2013, with regular sessions for ‘around ten years’.
‘We train together at least three to five times a week – sometimes more when Khloe is getting ready for a photoshoot or a specific event,’ Joel explains. ‘In these cases, we might do two workouts a day.’
When we ask about her specific workout split, he says they almost always do ‘full-body workouts, unless Khloé wants to target a specific body part’. But those arms didn’t appear by accident – they’re the result of heavy strength work and showing up consistently.
‘The way we target the muscles in her arms is very localised and specific,’ Joel shares. ‘We often use specific hand grips to target different parts of the arms. For example, with the biceps, we use a hammer grip to avoid developing the short part of the biceps – the part that gives you the “bump” which Khloe doesn’t want.’
Is it just about arms that look good, then? ‘No, it’s first and foremost about workouts that help Khloé stay as functional as possible,’ Joel says. ‘She trains to be able to keep playing with her kids and to be able to do whatever she wants, for as long as she wants.’
Below, he shares his go-to arm workout with Khloé for you to try, plus the three arm exercises he believes are most effective for building arm muscle – and which Khloé never skips.
Khloé Kardashian’s 45-minute arm workoutWarm up:
Superset: 4 rounds of 10 pushups + 10 plank shoulder taps. Rest for 30 seconds after one set of each.
Workout
Superset A: Perform 4 rounds of:
Superset B: Perform 4 rounds of:
- 15 secs pull-up hold, supinated grip (palms facing you), elbows at 90 degrees
- 10 x seated incline dumbbell bicep hammer curl (7kg dumbbells)
- Rest for 30 seconds after completing both exercises, then repeat.
Superset C: Perform 4 rounds of:
- 10 x dumbbell bench press (7kg dumbbells)
- 10 x close-grip (hands positioned close together) dumbbell bench press (9kg dumbbells)
- Rest for 30 seconds after completing both exercises, then repeat.
Superset D: Perform 4 rounds of:
Ab finisher:
‘We always finish with a variation of medicine balls, plank variations, crunch variations.’
Khloé Kardashian’s 3 go-to arm exercises
- Cable tricep extensions
- Close-grip dumbbell bench press
- Seated incline bicep hammer curl
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.