How to build arm muscles at home

Yolanda1604

Hello,
I am 5'4 and 208 lbs (down 9 lbs in 4 weeks). I am looking for a way to increase the muscle in my arms. I do a 60 minute training program on the elliptical 6 days a week. My legs have always been very toned from dancing, cheering, etc but my arms have never been strong. I have access to a gym but I don't have the time to go since I am busy with my toddler and grad school program. My husband is very supportive but he doesn't know much about fitness besides push ups which my arms are too weak to do. All of my friends are either skinny or too lazy to care about exercise so they aren't much help. Can someone PLEASE give me advice on what kinds of exercises I can do at home in order to bulk up these flabby arms of mine?

Art63

Get a set of dumbells (the plastic kind that are just one weight). You can stand or sit and simply hold them at shoulder height (sort of resting them with your arm crooked). Then lift one straight up to the sky. Slowly lower it to that shoulder starting position and then lift the other up. Alternate over and over. Nice and easy bicep build.

Then, start getting creative...being careful not to overdo it. Lift both dumbells up to the sky and slowly rotate/twist your arms allowing the weight and position dictate to you how far you can go. You can slowly move your arms out to the side, or slowly let them go in front of your body (kind of hard), slowly let them go a wee bit behind you. What you always need to be careful of is not to go beyond what is reasonable. You don't want to strain or pull a muscle.

Anyway, these are some nice simple easy to do exercises that will slowly build and tone muscles. Enjoy. Great time passer while watching TV.

Nopedotjpeg

You can do push-ups from knees, push-ups on a counter/desk, etc. in order to modify the exercise.

maryjay51

planks, push ups , get some free weights... i put out news to everyone i knew tht i was looking for workout equipment to keep at home ..i have a full size gym at home now and didnt pay for not one thing except my gloves ..everything was either given to me as a gift or a giveaway because they were cleaning house .

galegetsthin

WOW!!!! That is amazing! I may have to try that and see what I can come up with!

rinnismom

i don't go to a gym, but i bought some 5 lb dumbbells and i use them after my push-ups so i get the max burn. since you can't do push-ups, it's gonna burn for you, so no worries. my arms were terribly flabby. i mean, c'mon, 29 and i have those.... wings?.... things that just jiggle if a slight breeze blows by...

anyhow, with the free weights, i just do what i can. i do two sets of 30 bicep curls and tricep curls. i haven't decided to take on any extra exercising with my arms but those. i don't start really feeling it until the end of each set, so soon i will be ready to up the weight.

i'm not tooting my own horn, but my arms are noticeably firmer. i can touch them and see a change. i can look in the mirror and notice some definition starting to show, too. this is the easiest way, i promise you.

i'll tell you a secret... when i first started working out, i didn't want to spend the money on dinky pair of 1lb weights, so i just took a can of green beans from my cabinet and used them for a little while. it's not pretty, but it works.

good luck!

jtcc91

I need a little structure to my workouts, rather than just trying to do them on my own. I really like these DVD's:
http://the10minutesolution.com/series/index.html

I have the one for "Target Toning for Beginners"m, which has a great 10 minute arm workout. I have a set of 3lb hand weights and a set of 5lb hand weights. I just used the 5lb weights to do this workout on Saturday and I am a tad sore today!

I like these DVD's because they offer short workouts that you can customize for what you want, and you can do them at home in even a small space!

Yolanda1604

Thank you for all of your help and support! I am going to try the modified push ups and get a set of dumbbells. I will let you guys know my progress.

bbarton62

I do push-ups off the back of the couch. I don't have great upper strength for doing push-ups off the floor, but I can do these. I can tell I've really worked my arms, chest and some upper back when I do these! 3 sets of 10, but I'm working up to 3 sets of 20.

addisondisease

>5'4
>208 lbs
>My legs have always been very toned

Unless you are a body builder, at your height and weight, i don't believe your legs are toned even in the slightest.

That aside, knee push up, curl some milk jugs, push those milk jugs above your head, up-right row that milk jug.

31prvrbs

I work out strictly from home. Keep an eye out on Craigslist, for free weights and start slowly collecting some dumbbells, and other weights. With some dumbbells, you can do bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, overhead pressing motions, rowing movements, etc.

Without them, you can do modified pushups (on your knees) until you get better at them (the only way to get better is to keep doing them). You can also do tricep dips off of the edge of your table or chair.

Workout DVDs can help, but if you want to gain muscle stick to DVDs from instructors that are lifting heavy, like Cathe Friedrich (Cathe.com)

There are also websites like bodyrock.tv which provides workout plans for the home exerciser.