Best Advice for Women that want to tone arms

[Epersonaltrainr]

Around this time of year, the gym is flooded with people looking to tone up. The 3 most popular things that women say they want to work on are their waistlines, their legs, and their triceps.

However, they never say triceps they just wave their arms and point to an apparent jiggle on the underside.

All jokes aside, I just always want you to remember that it would be wise to focus on chest and back exercises. You are working larger muscles, burning more calories and working your arms anyway. Ditch the bicep curls and the rope pulls for a while and focus on your lat pulls and chest presses. Every time you pull you are using your biceps anyway. Everytime you push, you are working your triceps. If you'd really like to define the back of your upper arms, try some pushups. If you're not at a strength level where you can do standard pushups, start small. Stand 2-3 feet from a wall place your hands shoulder width apart and allow your chest to come towards the wall and push back (it's a wall push up). As you progress try doing pushups on a desk or bench. Work your way down until you can do it on the floor, your triceps will thank you later.:action11:

 

[Epersonaltrainr]

Just want to point out that this top three list is from my personal experience.

 

[BrianCollins]

Epersonaltrainr,

Great call. Working larger muscle groups definitely do a better job of improving overall tone and definition. Too often folks jump straight to the minor muscle that they want to see improve, not realizing that those small muscle are a part of a larger scheme of locamotion.

You nailed it.

 

[Slushie_Adored]

Good to know! I prefer working larger muscle groups, it saves me some time.

 

[Goldfish]

It's good advice. Compound movements, and especially wholebody training, burn the most energy. Back when I was doing Cert III in Fitness, I remember my Resistance Training lecturer making the argument that if you want to decrease tricep flab, squats will do more for you than tricep extensions, because of the massive difference in energy expenditure. I believe that ideally, every resistance training session (at least for beginners) should incude a deep knee bend, a pull (preferably from the floor), and an upper body push (such as push ups, as you recommended). This combination will burn lots of energy, while developing the muscles of the legs, back, arms and torso.