diff --git a/mem/src/arena/mem_arena.c b/mem/src/arena/mem_arena.c
index 13a1bca..a2d10ba 100644
--- a/mem/src/arena/mem_arena.c
+++ b/mem/src/arena/mem_arena.c
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
   { 0x57, 0x41, 0x41, 0x52, 0x4e, 0x48, 0x44, 0x52 }
 #define MAX_HDR_SEARCH_LENGTH 256
 
+#define ARENA_MINIMUM_CAPACITY 1024
+
 typedef struct arena_alloc_hdr ArenaAllocHDR;
 struct arena_alloc_hdr {
   u8 magic[HDR_MAGIC_BYTE_COUNT];
@@ -282,12 +284,15 @@ internal bool base_arena_init(BaseArena *arena, u64 capacity) {
     return false;
   }
 
-  arena->buf = (u8 *)calloc(capacity, sizeof(u8));
+  u64 arena_capacity =
+      capacity >= ARENA_MINIMUM_CAPACITY ? capacity : ARENA_MINIMUM_CAPACITY;
+
+  arena->buf = (u8 *)calloc(arena_capacity, sizeof(u8));
   if (!(arena->buf)) {
     return false;
   }
 
-  arena->capacity = capacity;
+  arena->capacity = arena_capacity;
   arena->offset = arena->buf;
   arena->prev = arena->next = NULL;