Good Arm Exercises?

squirrell79

Er, pull-ups and chinups are great, but if you're a total beginner, it's probably gonna take you loads of training to accomplish even one pull-up. BUT, you can start on that road by strengthening your upper body with the great suggestions already made on this thread. Also, check out Nerd Fitness; there are many bodyweight exercises and routines there.

Also, the OP didn't say "5 lbs are all I ever want to lift." She said "5 lb dumbbells are what I have at this time." Everybody's gotta start somewhere. 5 lb weights may not do anything for Joe Jock or Suzy Superathlete, but for Betty Beginner, they may jolly well be a fantastic starting point.

Best of luck to you on strengthening your upper body!

BEERRUNNER

Pushups
Pullups/chinups

5 lb weigths are pointless for pretty much everything but cardio with weights and rotator cuff rehab.

5lb weights are really good for women, such as myself, who don't have much upper body strength to begin with!! I remember when the 3lb weights seemed too heavy for me after a few reps haha I like to do those chair squats to work on my arms, and a lot of yoga. Holding a yoga pose is much easier than lifting weights and if you do proper breathing can be just as effective; especially since you're using your body weight as resistance for many of the poses. Good luck!

Most women can do more than they think they can. I agree that 5 Lb weights are pretty much pointless. My wife used to think she couldn't lift either...now she squats 1.5 times her body weight and benches around 95 Lbs.

OP...personally I would do full body body-weight routine if you don't have access to heavier weights...isolating your biceps/triceps, etc with a 5 Lb dumbbell is a waste of training time unless you are a much more advanced lifter.

I agree!!!!!! DING DING DING!

AmbyrJayde

Er, pull-ups and chinups are great, but if you're a total beginner, it's probably gonna take you loads of training to accomplish even one pull-up. BUT, you can start on that road by strengthening your upper body with the great suggestions already made on this thread. Also, check out Nerd Fitness; there are many bodyweight exercises and routines there.

Also, the OP didn't say "5 lbs are all I ever want to lift." She said "5 lb dumbbells are what I have at this time." Everybody's gotta start somewhere. 5 lb weights may not do anything for Joe Jock or Suzy Superathlete, but for Betty Beginner, they may jolly well be a fantastic starting point.

Best of luck to you on strengthening your upper body!

Thank you (: I really am a total beginner with the upper body, for some reason I have a lot of leg strength (well being that I was almost 400 pounds I guess my legs had to be strong to put up with that) Now that I've lost the 120 and have another 80 or 90+ to go I want to start working on the top half as well.

_DaniD_

Bench press, curls, pull ups

Erin0164

Resistance band rows while seated - to target upper back and lats!
Isometric arm exercises with 1 lb weights. Tones really well!!!! I have gotten rid of that little bit of bra bulge that way.
Skull crushers with 3 to 5 lb weights in each hand. - works the triceps.

fakeplastictree

Kettlebell or dumbbell snatches. ouch.

AmbyrJayde

thanks everyone for all the help, it looks like saturday I'm gonna pick up some heavier weights, and possibly some resistance bands and maybe a kettlebell too (:

murphy612

thanks everyone for all the help, it looks like saturday I'm gonna pick up some heavier weights, and possibly some resistance bands and maybe a kettlebell too (:

I vote for resistance bands and kettle bells too Some of the suggestions are a little out there for a beginner! Pull ups? Pushups are good, you'll probably have to do modified ones, but those are more core strength to me. And plank? for the arms? That confuses me but I'm not an expert, that again is core strength. Resistance bands are great to start with because they are inexpensive and can really get you started in the right direction. Some even come with a video workout as well. And don't throw out those 5lb weights yet, they can be a useful in the beginning. Use them while working the smaller muscles like triceps or even some shoulder muscles like the deltoids. They won't do much for biceps but they are not useless. You don't have to go out and buy a gym, that can come later

dbmata

Pushups
Pullups/chinups

5 lb weigths are pointless for pretty much everything but cardio with weights and rotator cuff rehab.

^This.

Keep in mind a gallon of milk or a decent iron pan weighs more than those 5lb weights. If all you have is some five pounders though, toss them and do bodyweight stuff. Also do some Sun A's from yoga. Those will wreck up your arms something fierce.

LoraF83

Pushups
Pullups/chinups

5 lb weigths are pointless for pretty much everything but cardio with weights and rotator cuff rehab.

5lb weights are really good for women, such as myself, who don't have much upper body strength to begin with!! I remember when the 3lb weights seemed too heavy for me after a few reps haha I like to do those chair squats to work on my arms, and a lot of yoga. Holding a yoga pose is much easier than lifting weights and if you do proper breathing can be just as effective; especially since you're using your body weight as resistance for many of the poses. Good luck!

Most women can do more than they think they can. I agree that 5 Lb weights are pretty much pointless. My wife used to think she couldn't lift either...now she squats 1.5 times her body weight and benches around 95 Lbs.

OP...personally I would do full body body-weight routine if you don't have access to heavier weights...isolating your biceps/triceps, etc with a 5 Lb dumbbell is a waste of training time unless you are a much more advanced lifter.

To add to this - 5lbs will be heavy for anyone after a gazillion reps. But you're not actually building any strength when you curl 5lbs 100 times. To gain strength, you need a progressive loading program (like Otterluv suggested). There are some people here who know what they are talking about - and they're all telling you to lift heavy. Biggest bang for your buck. Why lift 5lbs 100 times when you could lift 50lbs 10 times and get a better result?

dbmata

thanks everyone for all the help, it looks like saturday I'm gonna pick up some heavier weights, and possibly some resistance bands and maybe a kettlebell too (:

If you get a kettlebell, message me and I'll send you a couple links to some great arm exercises with them.

kklemarow

I've have great success with resistance bands. I liked them because you could easily adjust the difficulty level without having to switch equipment (way cheaper too).

Good luck with whatever you choose!

FitnessRXusaAnna

Remember you can not "tone" muscle.

Muscle cells only get bigger or get smaller.

The "tone" you speak of will only come when body fat levels are low enough to see the "muscle-y" arms you speak of.

Yes you will eventually need to up the weight if you are starting with 5 lbs.

Remember your body only adapts to the stress that you put on it. So if you sit in front of the couch all day your body is very EFFICIENT

ef·fi·cient
/iˈfiSHənt/
Adjective
(esp. of a system or machine) Achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense


So it won't really need to put on any muscle because you wouldn't be demanding anything from it.

Body weight is GREAT for a starting FOUNDATIONAL base to get familiar with the exercise and gain experience and confidence. However eventually the progress you make will plateau because your body will just say "Oh she is doing this again I've adapted and I'm strong this isn't challenging anymore"

Challenge yourself.

That is why I say

#Push It

wordyroo

I can barely move my arms today after an arm workout with my trainer last night.

We did:

Tricep dips
Side Arm Pushups: http://www.fitsugar.com/Equipment-Necessary-Side-Arm-Push-Ups-3413289
Modified push ups
Modified pull ups.

And I'm probably missing stuff. But the side arm pushups you can do without equipment.

waldo56

Pushups
Pullups/chinups

5 lb weigths are pointless for pretty much everything but cardio with weights and rotator cuff rehab.

yeah, pullups are a great option for a woman who is hovering around where her ticker says she is...

Use a chair in order to use your legs for assistance.

#notrocketsurgery

Liz_Mfp

Bump for later

AmbyrJayde

I can tell you one thing I was doing some arm exercises and some push ups yesterday and even though those weights I have are apparently useless my arms are sore as crap and I could barely do the 20 reps I set for myself (not of the pushups of the other curls and what not, the push ups I couldn't do more than 5 at a time did 13 altogether). So I'm thinking 5 pounds was a good place to START. Of course I'll go up.

missADS1981

My arm workout:

bicep curls
bicep hammer curls
bicep bar curls with cables
tricep bench dips with plates
skull crushers
tricep push down machine
tricep rope pull downs
pushups

i only included bis and tris in this

waldo56

I can tell you one thing I was doing some arm exercises and some push ups yesterday and even though those weights I have are apparently useless my arms are sore as crap and I could barely do the 20 reps I set for myself (not of the pushups of the other curls and what not, the push ups I couldn't do more than 5 at a time did 13 altogether). So I'm thinking 5 pounds was a good place to START. Of course I'll go up.

Assuming your ticker is somwhat accurate (~260) and you were doing somewhat reasonable form full pushups, the force on your upper body was roughly 173 lbs (pushups = 2/3*BW) or 87 lbs PER ARM.

20 reps is more about the lactic acid buildup, you aren't really getting any stronger. Chances are your starting point is a tiny capacity to handle lactic acid buildup, doing lots of reps tends to increase your efficiency at clearing it from your muscles and your tolerance high amounts of it. This is a short lived and transient adaptation, generally it won't make your muscles much bigger, and if you stop doing it you'll rapidly lose the adaptations. Doing 20 reps curling 5 lb DB's is one of the most useless ways you could spend your workout time, it barely burns any calories and yields almost no useful adaptations. A hard compound pull like an assisted pullup or an inverted row, as difficult as the pushups you were doing, would be much, much, much, much more effective. A 2 year old can row a 5 lb weight withouth issue.

Soreness is a very poor indicator of the quality of work. It tends to be a better indicator of workout entropy/novelty. Do new things and you'll get sore.

ArchangelMJ

So like, I have extremely weak upper body strength, I'm talkin' disabled kitten status. Somebody posted this Tracey Anderson vid in another thread and people were making fun of it. However, while it does look humorous, I found that it's a really good workout for my arms. It really starts to hurt after a while and yet I enjoyed it. I typically loathe arm workouts, especially push-ups, but I really liked this! Seems like a great beginner's workout to me. I'm gonna try to do it every day. And you don't need any weights! It's even better with your own music, I love anything 'dancey".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGv6BM9YTRs

This one's a few minutes longer, I haven't tried it yet but I will. ^_^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW_mO_OtJIE