Best exercises to tone upper arms?

ajc1309

I recently went from 13 stone to just over 9 stone but my upper arms have hardly shrunk at all. I have dumbbells but am not sure what kind of exercises to do to tone my arms. Any help would be great.

jemhh

You will not be able to spot reduce by targeting your arms. You can, however, strengthen them and may be able to build muscle.

Dumbbell bench or floor press and overhead press will help, as will rows. You can also do pushups and pullups (modified or assisted are fine, and dips without dumbbells.

AmyRhubarb

As above poster said, can't spot reduce. The idea of "toning" generally refers to losing fat that's covering the muscle we've got, revealing the shape of the muscle underneath. A small calorie deficit, strength/weight/resistance training of some sort and a bit of cardio is a great way to lower body fat percentage while maintaining the lean muscle.

47Jacqueline

What does toning mean? If you mean you want to build muscle - look on bodybuilding.com

AllanMisner

Two aspects of this:
1) You may have to lose more fat to see it come off your arms.
2) You may have loose skin on your arms. This might correct some over time,or depending on how much weight you’ve lost, may require surgery to fix.

As to what to do to help with the process. Squat, deadlift, bench press, pull ups, and overhead press. I know not all of these directly address the arms, but all of them matter.

foursirius

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/awesome-arms-workout-arms-by-labrada.html there ya go. As others have said it sounds like you may need to lose a bit more to see definition in your arms. However, here are some arm workouts if you're just looking to add in some additional exercises.

AllanMisner

foursirius wrote: »

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/awesome-arms-workout-arms-by-labrada.html there ya go. As others have said it sounds like you may need to lose a bit more to see definition in your arms. However, here are some arm workouts if you're just looking to add in some additional exercises.

Please don’t do this. This workout is designed for well trained bodybuilders, not new trainees who need a good strength foundation first.

kristinegift

I'm not in quite the same situation, but my arms are mostly devoid of muscle, but I've gotten some decent definition in the last few weeks just by doing push-ups and planks. Body weight exercise is always easy to work into a routine!

foursirius

AllanMisner wrote: »

foursirius wrote: »

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/awesome-arms-workout-arms-by-labrada.html there ya go. As others have said it sounds like you may need to lose a bit more to see definition in your arms. However, here are some arm workouts if you're just looking to add in some additional exercises.

Please don’t do this. This workout is designed for well trained bodybuilders, not new trainees who need a good strength foundation first.

This was more to illustrate various exercises than a set routine.

ninerbuff

There is "toning up" the muscle underneath (increasing it's firmness), and there is "toning" (which was a word created by the fitness industry to soften the definition of weight lifting to females) where the understanding is reducing fat off an area but not looking "muscly".
Unfortunately there are no "toning" exercises that address reducing body fat from any part of the body. Fat loss happens systematically and genetic predisposition will dictate where one may retain more fat in an area versus another. Consistent calorie deficit will eventually help.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

jdornfeld

I had great results with seeing definition in my arms with this circuit. Plus it's a great printable poster. It didn't take long either.
http://www.fitsugar.com/Printable-Workout-Full-body-Dumbbell-Circuit-33387453