Good Arm Exercises?

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