No one wants to feel uncomfortable when wearing a sleeveless top, especially when summer is just around the corner. Obviously, I would love for everyone to feel comfortable in their skin. but I understand that some may want to focus on improving the physical appearance of their arms to increase confidence.
I think most people understand that we can’t ‘spot reduce’ fat. Meaning we can’t choose to lose fat in one area over others. When you start losing fat, the chances are it’ll reduce on the areas you’re not all that bothered about first, and sometimes our arms and stomach can be the most stubborn areas.
However, so long as we are in a state where we are losing fat (a caloric deficit, achieved either by dieting or introducing more exercise), we can use weighted excercises to build muscle and create a more toned appearance.
Here are some of my favourite arm exercises, targetting your biceps and triceps:
Skull Crushers
Use either a dumbell or an EZ bar. Keep your upper arms as still as you can. For even more of a burn, on the last rep, hold at the bottom of the movement and pulse for a few counts.
Assisted Dips
Some of you may not be aware that tricep dips can be performed on the assisted pull up machine. Remember, the lighter the weight you put the pin in, the more challenging it will be. Really focus on the mind muscle connection to your triceps here and generate force to push yourself up.
Cable Pushdown
Use either the straight bar or the rop attachment here and attach it to the cable machine above your head. Starting with your ars at a 90 degree angle and keeping your elbows tucked in, push the attachment down to your thighs. Make sure you control on the way back up to your starting position and keep that constant tension on the muscles. If you really want a good burn out, encorporate ‘drop sets’ here. Meaning, start at a weight you can perform for 10 reps, then drop the weight down and perform more reps until you hit failure. You can drop again if you want to push yourself even further.
Hammer Curl
One for the biceps here – hold the dummbells upright, rather than the traditional underhand grip. Start with the dumbells at the side of your thighs. Keeping your elbows tucked into your sides and keeping the upper body as still as possible, contract your biceps and perform one rep by bringing the weights towards your shoulders. Resist the want to drop the weights quickly down to starting position and control the downwards movement.
Cable bicep curl
Again, you can use either the rope of bar attachment for the cable machine here. This time we are position the cable attachment at the lowest point on the machine. Plant your feet into the ground shoulder width apart and pull the cable up to your thighs with your arms extending. Then, pull the cable towards the chest, keeping the elbows tucked in and upper arms as still as you can. You can incorporate drop sets in here too!
Push ups
Either position your hands wide to target the chest and biceps more, or adopt a more narrow hand position to force the triceps to take more of the load. If you struggle with push ups, try as many as you can off your feet before dropping to your knees to complete the set. Everytime you do them, try to push one more rep off your feet than you did in the previous session. If you focus and practice, the strength will come!
If your goals include transforming your arms and shedding fat, drop me an email at josephinechristie14@gmail.com. I am based at Brighton London Road Pure Gym and can get you booked in for a consultation to see how we can smash these goals 🙂