flabby arms struggle

springlering62 wrote: »

Weight training, upper body strength like push-ups, yoga “flying” arm balances have helped me. However:

Many months ago someone ( @AnnPT77 ?) posted an interesting comment that made me stop worrying about it.

She said that most women have bat wings when their arms are at rest, not flexed, or hanging straight down. That’s normal.

If you do a “Popeye” flex and feel your bat wing and it now feels solid with little or no...ummm...flabbiness (for lack of a better word), then its not a bat wing, it’s actually muscle. This muscle will naturally relax when the bicep is relaxed.

As I’ve progressed with various things, I will occasionally take a moment to test this, and she is correct. My arms are stick thin and muscular now, and wobble like a bowl a jello when not flexed, but tighten up like a drum head when they are.

One less uncontrollable thing in life to worry about. 😊

Endorsed!

With your arm stretched out straight, take the opposite hand and grab that upper arm "fat" "flab" or whatever self-critical (sigh) name you might be using to think of it. Get your fingertips up close to the upper arm bone, so you have a good handful.

Then, curl your extended arm up like a bodybuilder, tightening every muscle you can sense. Raise your elbow above shoulder level, bend your lower arm down toward your shoulder, make a tight fist and curl that over toward your wrist, tighten upper arm/lower arm/grip. Anything that tightens up in your grabbing hand is triceps muscle, not fat or loose skin. Every single woman I've had do this in real life was mis-identifying part of her nice, useful muscle as fat or loose skin, and hating on it. (Can you tell this is one of my pet peeves? )

Long muscles, when relaxed, are somewhat mobile . . . even in very fit, strong people; even men, not just women. If you hold them out, relaxed, where gravity will pull them downward, there will be some droop, and if you wiggle them, some mobility. If your muscles were all tight all the time, how would they contract to move your arms around?

As an aside, any long muscles, like the hamstring muscles in the back of our thighs will do a similar thing: It's just that we rarely stick our leg out horizontally but relaxed, then contort ourselves to look at the back of our leg while we wobble it in the air. It is part of what makes thighs look wider sitting vs. standing (because the relaxed muscles against the chair seat squish out sideways).

Am I saying you have zero upper arm fat or loose skin? No, not at all. i have no idea. But I'm betting it's less than you think.

If you still have pounds to lose, any residual subcutaneous fat that will probably deplete more. If there's loose skin there, losing that subcutaneous fat may (yikes!) temporarily make the loose skin worse, but once there's little/no fat conspiring with gravity to keep the skin stretched out, the skin itself can begin to shrink, and that process will take time, as well. (My loose skin kept shrinking at least into year 2 of maintenance, and maybe beyond - hard to tell as the process is slower the longer it's going on.)

What can you do to improve it? Well, using the muscle in that area will help firm things up a bit, so strength exercise is valuable. What @springlering62 suggested is good. But mostly, what improves it is attaining a healthy weight, doing your best to have an overall healthy body, and allowing skin time to shrink as much as it will

What helps skin shrink? Skin is an organ, so the things that keep other organs healthy are your best bets to keep skin healthy (thus willing to shrink), too. Those are: Adequate calories (fast weight loss creates physical stress and health risk); routine good overall nutrition (enough protein, fats and fiber; plenty of varied, colorful veggies and fruits for micronutrients); regular exercise, both cardiovascular and strength; adequate hydration (not crazy much, but enough fluids daily); enough good-quality sleep; decent stress management in daily life; avoidance of things that damage organs generally and skin specifically (smoking, immoderate alcohol, tanning).

Congratulations, @mandymayela96, on your weight loss: That's a wonderful accomplishment that will pay off for years to come in both health and quality of life. You've achieved a lot, since February. The next phase you're starting is going to be a much slower go, to build fitness and strength (and get the appearance benefits that come with those, if that's your goal). It's going to require new levels of patience and consistency, so put a premium on finding a process that you find practical and enjoyable, to get there. If you're patient and consistent, you'll start seeing some results earlier, but truly meaningful results are going to require many months and even years.

Part of the payoff, though, is that those life-skills of patiently chipping away at complex long term goals - those can be applied in many other areas of your life, from personal finances to education to career to home-making to hobby skils (think painting, playing musical iinstruments, etc.). Overwhelmingly, major life enhancements require patience and persistence.

Wishing you all the best in pursuit of shapely arms, and beyond!