diff --git a/polymake.spec b/polymake.spec
index 1669fd0..c8f4bf3 100644
--- a/polymake.spec
+++ b/polymake.spec
@@ -215,6 +215,13 @@ sed -i.orig "/global variables/i\$ENV{'PATH'} = \"\$ENV{PATH}:%{_libdir}/4ti2/bi
 touch -r perl/polymake.orig perl/polymake
 rm perl/polymake.orig
 
+%ifarch %{arm}
+# The ARM builders almost always run out of memory while building polymake.
+# Reduce the optimization level and make garbage collection more aggressive for
+# the problematic files in an effort to avoid this.
+sed -i '/Local Variables/irel_int_point$O : ExtraCXXFLAGS += -O1 --param ggc-min-expand=0 --param ggc-min-heapsize=524288\n' \
+  apps/polytope/src/Makefile.inc
+%endif
 
 %build
 export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8