toning arms

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Lyndsay_Love
Lyndsay_Love Posts: 15
in Fitness and Exercise
Hopefully someone can help me out, I know there is no way to lose weight in one spot, but I would really like to tone my flabby under arms. My arms look huge! I am doing cardio to burn fat all over, but what are some strength training exercises I can do…. I like to use the weight machines at the gym, will any of those help me get rid of my flabby arms? Thanks for any help.

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  • seansquared
    seansquared Posts: 328 Member
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    Building muscle is the only way to "tone", since there's no such thing as "toning" it's "building muscle".
  • Lyndsay_Love
    Lyndsay_Love Posts: 15
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    then I need help figuring out what will help me build muscle…
  • birdlover97111
    birdlover97111 Posts: 346 Member
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    Me, too..... :flowerforyou:
  • rlv2680
    rlv2680 Posts: 289 Member
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    pushups:)
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    Lift heavy weights. Compound lifts in the free weight area. You do this to maintain the muscle you have. Maybe some minimal gains if you are a new lifter though. In order to actually build you need a calorie surplus.

    Just keep doing what you are doing, add in lifting, get enough protein, and give it time
  • akjmart2002
    akjmart2002 Posts: 263 Member
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    bench press
    "shoulder" press (usually just called the "press")
    dips
    pushups
    pullups
    chinups
  • Crystal_Pistol
    Crystal_Pistol Posts: 750 Member
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    Triceps specific exercises include pulldowns, skull crushers, kickbacks and dips. You could have wonderful triceps beneath it, but you won't know until you get rid of the fat covering them. Good luck!
  • seansquared
    seansquared Posts: 328 Member
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    Here's Jamie Eason, the "fittest woman in the world", rocking the seated overhead press.

    Do these.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFC-_Ka8nY4
  • nutandbutter
    nutandbutter Posts: 447
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    Lift weights that are heavy for you, 6-8 reps 3 sets. By the last couple reps, it should be difficult to do. Focus on compound lifts: squad, deadlift, pullups/lat pulldowns, bench, overhead press, and rows. You already know you can't spot reduce. Check out Starting Strength, Stronglifts 5x5 or New Rules of Lifting.

    Edit: Dammit I'm slow. Sunshine beat me!
  • Ely82010
    Ely82010 Posts: 1,998 Member
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    http://503strength.com/2012/02/13/womens-training-guide/
  • lizard053
    lizard053 Posts: 2,344 Member
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    Yoga. It has stripped down my arms, giving me nice lean looking upper arms. It's helped all over, but I can really see it in my arms.
  • ErinsAvon
    ErinsAvon Posts: 72 Member
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    For women that want to tone I would recommend dumb bells, cause that is what I have used... I started light and worked my way up. Curls, Tricep kickbacks, Shoulder presses, Flys. You can see toning workouts with dumb bells one youtube. I started with 2 sets of 10-15 reps.... If I can do more, the weight isn't heavy enough. If less than 10 rep, the weight is too heavy. My arms look 100% better. the jiggle is gone, and I still have 30lbs left to lose out of 60.
    ETA- don't forget about push ups..... they really work those arms.... :)
  • SmallerBecky
    SmallerBecky Posts: 177
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    My arms come from P90X so far. I'll be starting on The New Rules of Lifting for Women in a couple weeks when I finish P90X. I use 10s, 15s, 20s, and occasionally 35s (heavy pants and lawnmowers). Oh, and lots of push-ups and pull-ups (I use bands for pull-ups, as I still can only do one regular one with a bar).
  • 86_Ohms
    86_Ohms Posts: 253 Member
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    To build muscle, you want to lift a fairly heavy weight. I'm going to say something that works for men, but I'm sure it will work for you too since it's a fairly simple principle:

    You want to eat a little more than maintenance with whole foods and a good amount of protein and carbs. You'll probably want to stop doing much cardio, or at least keep it separate from your strength training on different days, stripping off excess calories if you ate way too much. Do not go down to your BMR as you need calories to feed growing muscles, and your body will want those valuable calories first before partitioning them to muscle mass.

    When you do lift weights, make sure you're only able to do about 8-10 reps (until failure, or not being able to do another rep in good form) of the heaviest weight you can lift. Then, go down by 2 reps per after each rest (ie. 10 reps, then 8 reps, then 6 reps, then 4). Do this for about 4 sets on the muscles you're working on that day and only have about 8-10 seconds of rest between doing reps, and no more than 5 min of rest between sets. At the end, you want the muscles you're working on to feel tender, and perhaps even sore the next day. Wait at least 72 hours before working those same muscle groups again.

    You want to do this until you can do 12 reps of that weight fairly easy and then increase by about 5 lbs until you're back to 8-10 reps until failure.

    This has worked for me since reviewing vids on YouTube from "sixpackshortcuts" and I've noticed quite a difference. Do it until you're happy with how big your muscles become. A whey protein shake within 20 minutes after strength training will help you along, too. Protein should be your first priority while you're getting that muscle up.

    Edit: here's a decent article for women's fitness: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/pauline5.htm
  • suziecue66
    suziecue66 Posts: 1,312 Member
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    Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy by JJ Virgin is good and can do it at home.
  • Love_Cat
    Love_Cat Posts: 10
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    http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Health/fitness-best-upper-body-exercises-women/story?id=12964170&page=2

    Upper body excersises. :)
  • CallmeSbo
    CallmeSbo Posts: 611 Member
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    bump
  • Lyndsay_Love
    Lyndsay_Love Posts: 15
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    Thank you so much for a lot of the wonderful advice.

    I guess I've been doing a lot of the right things anyways, but I definitely have some new ideas to work with.
  • seansquared
    seansquared Posts: 328 Member
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    Keep in mind too that gains for women come much more slowly than they do for men, who can (generally) pack on literally pounds of muscle per month. Just keep at it, keep lifting, and you will see results.

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