Going to attend an important event, but are embarrassed about your flabby arms? Then follow these exercise for 14 days to tone them up.
It almost sounds like another advert on the television, but getting from flab to fab is actually just 2 weeks away! Every woman wants a well-toned body, and having beautiful arms only accentuates it. Here’s a small list of simple everyday exercises to do to get those shapely arms, without sweating it out at the gym.
These exercises are both fun to do and extremely effective. All you need is a little motivation and some dedication, and we’re good to go. Grab a pair of dumbbells and let’s get started. If you can’t find a dumbbell, you can always use any other object like a bottle of water of roughly the same weight, or if you were the captain of your school sports team, even one of your sports trophies from school would do!
Given below are 7 arm toning exercises. However, perform any of the 4 exercises per day. Before you perform these exercise do a cardio workout of jogging or running for 20 minutes.
Concentration Curl
» Sit upright on a chair, and keep your legs apart.
» Hold a dumbbell in your right hand. Place your right arm on your right inner thigh and place your left arm on your left thigh for balance.
» Bending your right forearm, raise the dumbbell slowly up toward your shoulder as much as you can, without bending your wrist inwards or out.
» Now slowly lower your hand to the starting position. Remember that only your forearm must move.
» Try to do at least 20 reps before moving onto the other arm.
Complete 3 sets of 20 reps, each alternating between the arms after each set.
Do not rush with the exercise, and concentrate on your breathing, inhaling each time you move your arm up, and exhaling every time you go back down. You should feel the tension building in your arms by the last set. It’s all about pushing yourself to complete all the reps in the set to achieve best results.
Alternate Dumbbell Curl
» Stand upright, keep your arms by your sides.
» Fix your elbows, tucked by your sides, and hold a dumbbell in one hand.
» Lift your forearm up towards your shoulders, and then bring it downward to the initial position.
» Perform 20 reps and move on to the other arm to perform the dumbbell curl.
» Perform 3 sets for each arm.
It’s important to maintain your posture, keeping your back straight all along so as to avoid any injury. Again remember to keep breathing, and push yourself to complete all the reps.
Triceps Dips
» Sit on the edge of the chair or bed. Place your arms comfortably on the sides of your body and rest your legs together on the floor.
» Press your arms to lift your body and bring it forward. Now let yourself come downward by bending your elbows.
» Push back your body upward; keep the arms close to your body.
» Push until your arms are in vertical position. It should feel like a very natural movement like trying to push yourself up from the floor and onto the bed with your arms.
Perform 15 reps and 3 sets of this exercise to perfectly tone your arms without using any weights. Rest for about 1 minute after each set.
This is one of the best exercises to tone your arms and your triceps in particular. It works on both your triceps and shoulders. All you need is a bed or a sturdy chair to do this exercise, and of course your motivated self!
Push-ups
» Lie flat on your stomach, bend your knees, and keep the ankles crossed in the air.
» Place your palms on the floor just beside your chest, bend your elbows so that your palms and shoulders are touching the floor and upper arm is parallel to the floor. The head and neck must be at the same level.
» Start by pushing yourself up to straighten your arms, making sure that you do not lock your elbows and remember to keep your core tight.
» Now only your palms and knees should be touching the floor.
Crab Walk
» Sit on the floor with your feet spread out, shoulder-width apart, and place your arms behind you, just the way you sit while relaxing.
» Start by pushing yourself upward. Now make sure that your palms and feet are touching the floor, fingers facing outward, and your head facing the ceiling.
» Keeping your core tight and pulling in your butt muscles, move ahead by moving your left leg a little forward, followed by your left hand.
» Do the same with your right side and keep moving forward.
Finally, all the twisting and turning playing twister at your sleepovers is going to be put to good use! You are going to be crawling around like a crab in this one. You can perform this exercise on the floor or out in the lawn.
As silly as it may look, this exercise will really help in toning your arms, and at the same time will also help strengthen your core.
Standing Barbell Curl
» Stand with your feet slightly apart, chest high, shoulders down, upper arms at your sides. Hold a barbell, placing your palms shoulder-width apart over it.
» Curl the barbell toward you, so as to form a wide arc up to the shoulder level, lower your shoulder and raise your chest.
» Keeping your knees slightly bent will help take off the stress of your lower back. Ensure that your posture is right, back straight, and concentrate on your breathing.
» Now lower the barbell and again curl it back.
Dumbbell Raises
» Grab a pair of dumbbells which aren’t too heavy. Stand erect, making sure your back isn’t arching.
» Hold the dumbbells straight down in front of you with your hands pointed down.
» Keeping the wrist straight all along and in line with your forearms, slowly raise both the dumbbells without bending your elbow, and bring them straight ahead up to about shoulder level. Then slowly lower it back to its original position.
Make sure that you do bend forward, bend your wrists or bend the elbows as you do this exercise to avoid injury and to best work those muscles.
Quick Tip
A simple tip to make arm exercises either easier or difficult, depending on your level of fitness, would be to decrease the resting period between the sets to about 30 seconds if it seems too easy, or rest for a maximum of about a minute and a half to make it easier. But always push yourself to complete the entire set before resting.
End your exercise by stretching as it helps to loosen the muscles and helps them recover quicker. Remember to choose weights that aren’t too heavy, and you should ideally feel the strain by the time you do the 10th or 12th rep of the exercise. Breathing is of utmost importance while doing any exercise, and is going to be the difference between stopping at the 10th rep or pushing yourself to complete the entire set.
Breathe in when your muscles contract or when you lift a weight. Breathe out when your muscles lengthen or while you return to the starting position and relax.
Follow these exercises and you should be well on your way to going sleeveless and flaunting about those beautiful toned arms. Remember, giving up is easy, but motivate yourself through this and the results as you have seen them will be all the motivation you need to push yourself further and get that body that you have always wanted. It’s about taking those small steps rather than worrying about the size of the task at hand. Firmer and beautiful arms are just 2 weeks away, what are you waiting for?
