Having flabby arms can make anyone feel self-conscious. You can’t wear sleeveless nor can you even wear tight long-sleeves without feeling like a tightly-wrapped German sausage.
Indeed, having flabby arms is every woman’s bane. If you want to wear want you want to wear and look damn good in it, you’ve got to tone your arms. Besides the aesthetic benefit that can be derived from it, well-toned triceps, biceps and shoulders are also stronger and more able to perform daily tasks more efficiently.
The best way to tone your arms is through resistance training. And you have to work it by challenging it with exercises that it is not used to doing. This is the only way to make the muscles respond. And don’t worry about bulking up– girls just don’t have enough testosterone to build muscles the size of watermelons. Now, if you are a bit on the chubby side, you can’t show off your muscles when a layer of body fat covers it. So before you go ahead and do arm toning exercises, reduce your overall body fat first by following a sensible eating plan and cardiovascular exercise on most days of the week even if it’s just for thirty minutes a day,
When you’re ready to take your training to the next level and start working on your arms, you can begin with only a couple of sets using light weights- you know that a weight pound is enough for you if you can comfortably lift it for up to 16 repetitions. Tone your arms for at least thirty minutes and no more than an hour at most for three times a week on alternate days. When you have gotten more used to this exercise, you can increase the weight. Strive to do 10 to 12 repetitions of two sets for each exercise and later on, increase the weight so that you are now able to do at least eight repetitions of three sets for the prescribed exercise.
Here’s a sample workout to tone your arms:
- Do incline push ups. Find a sturdy bench or chair that is at knee level with your body. Spread your arms shoulder-width apart supporting your body on the bench. Make sure that you keep a straight line from head to toe. Keeping your abs contracted, bend your arms to lower your body to the support. Hold for a couple of seconds before going back up again. Do floor push ups for more intensity.
- With a weight in your left hand, stand with your right hand and knee on a low bench. Keep your back parallel to the floor and your left arm handling down. Without twisting your moving anything else, bring the weight up in front of the shoulder. Repeat on the other side.
- Holding a weight in each hand, keep your arms down by your sides. In a standing or sitting position, bend the elbows so you can bring the weight to the front of the shoulders. Pause for a couple of seconds before lowering the weights. You can do this at the same time for both arms or alternate one over the other.
Sourced from: Prevention
Photo: Thinkstock/Samo Trebizan
