Arm Exercises For Women: Get Sleek, Sexy Arms

From Women's Health Online - emailed article...

Score beautifully toned arms with this muscle-shaping upper-body workout - Jen Ator

Here's something you'll love to learn: Your shoulders and upper back tend to carry less fat than the rest of your body, so the right arm exercises can give this area a nearly instant makeover, says Ramona Braganza, a celebrity trainer who has worked with stars such as Anne Hathaway and Jessica Alba. Braganza's upper-body workout, below, hits every major muscle and will help stabilize your shoulder joints, improve your posture, and build that strong, toned look you're after.

Using five-to eight-pound weights, perform 15 to 20 reps of each exercise and go from one move to the next with little or no rest between. Do two or three sets three times a week.

Move 01
Reverse Fly

Grab a pair of dumbbells and stand with your feet hip-width apart and your knees bent. Bend forward at the hips and let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders, palms facing. Raise both arms out to the sides as you squeeze your shoulder blades together. Return to start. That's one rep.

Move 02
Biceps Curl

Hold a pair of dumbbells at your sides, palms facing forward, and keep your back straight and chest up. Without moving your upper arms, bend your elbows and curl the weights toward your shoulders. Slowly lower the weights back to the starting position, straightening your arms completely. That's one rep.

Move 03
Dumbbell Cross Jab

Stand with your feet a bit wider than hip width and knees slightly bent. Hold the dumbbells at chest height with elbows bent and palms facing each other. Extend your left arm across your body until the weight is in line with your right shoulder. As you return to start, repeat with the right arm. That's one rep.

Move 04
Lying Triceps Extension

Lie face-up on a bench and hold a pair of dumbbells above your head, arms straight and palms facing each other. Without moving your upper arms, bend your elbows to lower the dumbbells until they are at either side of your head. Pause, then lift the weights back to the starting position. That's one rep.

All of you on the LIFT HEAVY band wagon - YES, we get you. We know that is the ideal. However, I think you are forgetting that there seem to be a lot of women on here who perhaps have never lifted weights AT ALL. You need to start slowly and work your way up. I've seen too many people try to start with VERY heavy weights, get injured and/or discouraged, and go back to doing NOTHING. I've been lifting for over 20 years, and yes, I started with cans of soup. I'm not ashamed of that, and I am happy to say that I have progressed over the years to heavier and heavier weights, but you have to start somewhere!!!

I just see all the negativity on here and think it's similar to yelling at someone beginning a walking program after being sedentary that they should "skip the baby girly two mile walks" and immediately sign up for a full marathon. Yes, that might be the ideal goal for some people, but in reality they might need a little time to work up to it.

Off my soapbox now.

Does anyone else think it's strange when men leave endless comments rebutting a post that is actually for women?

I find it particularly strange that 3-5 men keep coming back to say the same exact thing. Concern trolling at its finest.

There's a wide range of responses from smart and fit women on this thread. Thanks dudes, but we're smart enough to figure this out for ourselves.

If this advice was for men, we'd be laughing our *kitten* off because the advice would be ridiculous. But when the exact same advice is put into some article tailored towards women, it' suddenly becomes some accepted and legit.

Why would advice be rejected by men but apparently works for women? Well because it doesn't. Women want to hear that they can "sorta lift weights" and have it be the means to their general goals. They also want to hear that they don't have to do the bigger main lifts in order to "tone up". Well it won't work. At the very least, you'd have to really get your diet on point. THAT would do MUCH more than these so called toning exercises

In fact, yesterday, I started some light exercises with 8 lb dumbbells and today I'm actually a little sore. I also did 1.5 pushups. yes, my upper body strength is lacking, but I have fantastic biceps.I build muscle quite easily but I still have a lot of weight to lose.

Does anyone else think it's strange when men leave endless comments rebutting a post that is actually for women?

I find it particularly strange that 3-5 men keep coming back to say the same exact thing. Concern trolling at its finest.

There's a wide range of responses from smart and fit women on this thread. Thanks dudes, but we're smart enough to figure this out for ourselves.

If this advice was for men, we'd be laughing our *kitten* off because the advice would be ridiculous. But when the exact same advice is put into some article tailored towards women, it' suddenly becomes some accepted and legit.

Why would advice be rejected by men but apparently works for women? Well because it doesn't. Women want to hear that they can "sorta lift weights" and have it be the means to their general goals. They also want to hear that they don't have to do the bigger main lifts in order to "tone up". Well it won't work. At the very least, you'd have to really get your diet on point. THAT would do MUCH more than these so called toning exercises

In fact, yesterday, I started some light exercises with 8 lb dumbbells and today I'm actually a little sore. I also did 1.5 pushups. yes, my upper body strength is lacking, but I have fantastic biceps.I build muscle quite easily but I still have a lot of weight to lose.

That's good that you're doing a challenging weight for your particular strength level, however, saying 5-8 pounds for all women is irresponsible because everyone will have different strength levels and so while 5-8 lb. dumbbells may be challenging and the proper weight for some, it may be nothing for others; or could even be too much for a few. It all depends a lot on what exercise is being done. Addressing just this article let's say. I can do Lying Tri Extensions with more weight than I can do Curls. Why would I use the same weight for both?

Then there is the argument of high reps and low reps. High reps tend to train you to be able to gain endurance. There's this constant bull**** being thrown at women over the years that doing lower reps with higher weights will make them look "bulky", but if they use less weight for lots of reps that will somehow "tone" the muscle. Toning seems to be synonymous to spot reduction (losing fat from one specific area because an exercise targeting those muscles is performed); spot reduction is a myth.

Do you really think they would put advice like this in a men's magazine?