Upper arms - HELP!

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  • Flixie00
    Flixie00 Posts: 1,195 Member
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    I am really happy with my arms and achieved my results with strength training and swimming (front crawl). I regularly use the rowing machine as well which may also have assisted.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,695 Member
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    Hi everyone!

    I'm new here but have been dieting and eating healthier since March of this year. I've managed to lose 20 pounds on my own, and now that I have my fitbit and am diligently tracking I've lost 2 pounds just this week. Yeah!!

    I managed to lose inches all over as well...when I started my waist was 40.5 and now it's down to 36, my thigs were 25 and now they're 22...

    Everything on my body has lost inchest EXCEPT my upper arms! THey're still exactly the same at 13 inches. What the heck?!

    I do step aerobics 3 or 4 times a week and use a resistance band for toning a few times a week.

    Does anyone else have any major trouble spots that are NOT budging? So frustrating...any ideas on how to slim down my arms? They're starting to look funny with the rest of my body! :)
    Time to hit the weights for higher resistance. Don't be afraid to train them heavy and hard.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • prov31jd
    prov31jd Posts: 153 Member
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    Sounds like you need to hit the weights. My trainer has me doing Cable Tricep Pushdowns. It is supposed to help with getting rid of what us women like to call wings. I have noticed a tremendous difference in mine in just 2 weeks of doing this exercise.

    NaomiDollar, can you describe a Cable Tricep Pushdown? Or do you know of some website that shows how it's done?

    Thanks!
  • dewgirl321
    dewgirl321 Posts: 296 Member
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    I found this book to be helpful when I got started lifting:

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Womens-Health-Book-Exercises/dp/1605295493#_

    Now instead of NEVER wearing sleeveless shirts, I wear them as much as I can. There's a great arms workout in the book, going by memory:

    Choose 1 bicep exercise (such as hammer curls) and 1 tricep exercise (such as overhead triceps extension), choose a weight you can lift 15-20(?) reps. Start with the bicep exercise, and do reps to failure. Switch to the tricep exercise, and do reps to failure. Switch back to biceps, go to failure. And so on, for 10 minutes, resting as little as possible. Keep track of your rep totals and aim to do more each time. Do this twice a week.

    If you don't get the book, you can always get youtube or bodybuilding.com videos to show you how to do these and other exercises, but the book has great detailed color pictures.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    You can't choose where your body loses fat, unfortunately. But you can work your arm musles to build muscle under the fat adn keep them looking firm. The only way I know of to spot reduce fat is through liposuction.
  • alisiaendris
    alisiaendris Posts: 213 Member
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    I googled arm exercises for women and there was a nice article from fitness magazine that explained how to do four different exercises that help women to tone this problem area. I tried three of the exercises last night and did 3 sets of ten reps. Took 15 min.s and I could really feel it when I was done.
  • ItsMeRebekah
    ItsMeRebekah Posts: 910 Member
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    cleans, pool punches, rows, overhead swings, snatches.
    that should do the trick.

    pull not pool LOL and also clean presses! my fav
  • goldfinger88
    goldfinger88 Posts: 686 Member
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    My suggestion is to tone your arms with resistance training. Use weights or resistance bands but get to as heavy a weight as you can use. Lift for about ten minutes using a heavy weight and move slowly through the eccentric part of the lift --- from six to ten seconds.

    If you don't, your arms with go totally to flab.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    My husband is a tai chi instructor and has the most AWESOME, lean, muscly arms.

    Very simple exercise - I do them too. Put your two hands in front of your chest, palm down with the elbows bent (like chicken wings).

    Straighten your arms, moving your hands forward now back to back. They will be straight out in front of you.

    Twist your hands around so the palms are down, then facing each other.

    Pull your hands towards yourself, back to chicken wing position.

    Push your hands up to the ceiling, palms up.

    Stretch them out.

    Go back to original position.

    You can do it other ways, but essentially you just want to keep twisting and stretching your arms. You will SO see the difference really fast. It doesn't do anything about fat deposition, but it really tones those muscles so your arms will look great.
  • dolly3186
    dolly3186 Posts: 81 Member
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    Wow everyone! This is so inspiring. I haven't been doing enough strength with my arms, that's for sure. I'm going to really focus in on them with my next workouts.

    Whoever asked me about a low-carb diet...I haven't really specifically tried anything too fancy with my diet. I eat carbs but usually in the beginning of the day with lots and lots of veggies (tons of salad!) and no empty calories. (Snacks, sugary drinks, etc.) I seem to have the diet part down, but was getting frustrated with the lack of loss in my arms.

    What a great idea to google different arm exercises or look on pinterest. I'm going to do that tonight for sure. I've been doing some of the same exercises for so long, maybe I just need to shake things up.
  • cupcakes4breakfast
    cupcakes4breakfast Posts: 1
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    Did you ever have any luck? I have the same problem. I am very small everywhere except for my arms. My waist is 24.5" and my arms are 11", which is just disproportionate to the rest of my tiny body. I know you can't choose where you lose fat from. No amount of bicep or tricep workouts will make the fat melt from your arms. It burns calories, but those calories randomly burn from anywhere on your body based on your genetics. . I have been doing cardio and weight lifting for over a year now and my arms are the exact same lol. I'm scared to lose too much more fat because I will look stickly everywhere else on my body. So let me know if you ever found a solution!!!
  • ellygolightly
    ellygolightly Posts: 61
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    Youtube Tracy Anderson - she used to be a ballet dancer who has a heap of arm workouts. I tried one for 2 minutes, no weights required and couldn't lift anything the next day haha.

    Try this: http://tinyurl.com/bvdu8es

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