My Arms Are Not Cooperating

StephanieWilliams91
StephanieWilliams91 Posts: 10 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So I have a big weight loss of about 130 lbs. Yay for me... with that being said I have lost weight every where except my arms which I am super self conscious about. They are a lovely mix of bat wings and loose skin. Any workouts in particular other than the usual ones to tighten and tone? I do arms 3 days a week and my biceps are getting bigger that's all I have noticed. Normally for this I do tricep dips, pull and tricep work with the free weights. Any suggestions would be super helpful!
Thanks folks!

Replies

  • Joanna2012B
    Joanna2012B Posts: 1,448 Member
    First off CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! That is a super awesome loss!!!

    Now I am no expert, but I don't think there is much you can do about the loose skin. I have loose skin around my belly and no amount of ab work is getting rid of that.
  • StephanieWilliams91
    StephanieWilliams91 Posts: 10 Member
    Thank you so much! I am never going to stop trying! You work so hard and are then left with a constant reminder :(
  • sanrdj
    sanrdj Posts: 18 Member
    Wow.. congratulations! I'm in the same boat as you where I have lost but my darn bat arms just don't want to go away. I work my arms 3x a week at gym and I too see my biceps growing and I think there is a tricep in there somewhere! I think we just keep plugging away. I am hoping with a bit more fat loss that I will see the skin tighten around my arms and by then the muscles will be big enough to poke through!! keep at it.... ! I'm not much help but just thought I'd let you know you are not alone.
  • StephanieWilliams91
    StephanieWilliams91 Posts: 10 Member
    This feedback is awesome! I hate to say it but I am somewhat glad other people have this same problem. I really appreciate you folks. And keep up with the full body program for sure!
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    Something else to keep in mind moving forward, as your skin tightens up. What many women think of as "bat wings" are actually their untensed triceps muscle. If you hold your arm out to the side and have a "wing" but then tense up to make a muscle and it totally or partially disappears, you don't have bat wings, you have a normal woman's arm with a normal triceps muscle :smiley:

    i used to not like my upper/under arms. then you or someone else said that. not a whole lot to pinch there. feel better about my arms now
  • Phirrgus
    Phirrgus Posts: 1,894 Member
    StephanieWilliams91 wrote: »
    So I have a big weight loss of about 130 lbs. Yay for me... with that being said I have lost weight every where except my arms which I am super self conscious about. They are a lovely mix of bat wings and loose skin. Any workouts in particular other than the usual ones to tighten and tone? I do arms 3 days a week and my biceps are getting bigger that's all I have noticed. Normally for this I do tricep dips, pull and tricep work with the free weights. Any suggestions would be super helpful!
    Thanks folks!

    Congratulations on the weight loss! That's fantastic, and I see some good news in your post. If your biceps are getting noticeably bigger, and you're doing dips, then you're in better shape than you think you are. ;)

    Patience is hands down the hardest part. Keep working, don't hate your genetics (they're also giving you the biceps and triceps) and know that the closer you get to your goal(s) the slower progress can appear to be.

    Hang in there :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,955 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    Something else to keep in mind moving forward, as your skin tightens up. What many women think of as "bat wings" are actually their untensed triceps muscle. If you hold your arm out to the side and have a "wing" but then tense up to make a muscle and it totally or partially disappears, you don't have bat wings, you have a normal woman's arm with a normal triceps muscle :smiley:

    So much this! ^^^^

    OP, in your profile photo, your triceps are not fully engaged.

    Try doing something like a dumbell triceps extension. (Look it up for proper form if you don't know, but just for clarity of this message it's loosely that thing where you lift the dumbell straight up, then bend at the elbow so the weight lowers behind you.) It doesn't need to be a super-heavy weight for this purpose, just something that creates a manageable engagement of the muscles in the back of your arm (triceps). At the lowest point of the weight, take your opposite hand and explore the "batwing". Anything that's tight is muscle. You can even use the opposite hand to grab a handfull of "batwing" while it's relaxed (fingertips up pretty close to the bone), then hold on as you lower the weight. That will help you feel the muscle, too

    Even in quite fit/strong women (not to mention men!), the relaxed tricep is mobile and "floppy". Every woman I've ever led through this kind of experiment in real life has been mis-identifying muscle as fat or loose skin!

    Can there be fat or loose skin there, too? Sure. Continuing weight loss or recomposition will gradually reduce the fat. Once the fat is depleted to the point where any loose skin is thin wrinkles (like wrinkles in fabric), the skin can shrink, too. Skin shrinking is much slower than weight loss, IME. My loose skin kept shrinking well into year 2 of maintenance, maybe longer (and I was age 59-60 at the time).

    Continuing exercise and passage of time will generate improvement, I predict. Hang in there! :flowerforyou:
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    @AnnPT77 I'm pretty sure you're where I learned that from!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,955 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 I'm pretty sure you're where I learned that from!

    I'm on a "women should love their nice triceps muscles" crusade. ;)
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 I'm pretty sure you're where I learned that from!

    I'm on a "women should love their nice triceps muscles" crusade. ;)

    And like I totally didn't believe it, until one day at barre. Because I couldn't figure out how on earth my arms looked so *scrawny*, yet I had this floppy stuff going on. So during one section of exercises, I completely flexed the triceps while holding my arms out.

    Boom. Suddenly nope, no wings, but actually a concave arm. That was actually a cool discovery.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Congrats on your loss! Although you might not be thrilled with how your arms look, you’ve definitely lost fat in your arms as part of that 130 loss. Or else you had skinny arms to start with. Are you wright training regularly? I lost 140 over 2.5 years and wright trained the whole time. There is no doubt in my mind that it helped me look better upon reaching goal. I’ve continued weight training another 2.5 yr into maintenance. Based on recent pics, I feel I look better than when I reached goal, including those upper arms. Just keep it going!

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