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At 44 years old, and with two young children, Mrs. Obama, the First Lady, has shown the world that you are never too busy to take care of yourself and look good doing it too. The Obama Effect, as it is now being referenced, shows that you can still be the First Lady and have guns too.
Likewise, Madonna, at age 50, is another person who has arms to die for! In recent photos and videos, her arms are chiseled and toned as the statue David. Its as if Michelangelo sculpted them out of stone himself.
Last week in our series we addressed one of the biggest areas that I hear many women clients complain about and want transformation-the legs and lower body. In the second installment of the Summer Dress Series we will focus in on the other area that comes in a close second-the arms and how to tone them.
The first part of this article we will establish a foundation of basics that one needs to know when starting out on the arm toning path. It is important that you take note of these basics and make sure they are etched into your mind. The basics form the core of your training path.
CAUTION:This is not a smorgasbord of advice; muck them up and the rest will be mucked up too!
#1 Diet is still Queen for toning the arms
Just like in previous posts, I talk about how individuals want abs of steel the same applies to other areas that you would want to tone and enhance. If you really want a set of toned and firm arms you need to appreciate the fact that your eating is Queen.
If you get your eating on track the rest of your arm toning progress will come so much easier. The way you eat influences how you train and more importantly affects the effectiveness of your workout. One can of soda (rather diet or regular) with lunch will take you about 30 minutes on the treadmill to burn off. Imagine if you replaced that soda with a bottle of water - it would mean your gym time would bring much faster progress.
Nutrition is also Queen because your body needs a certain type of fuel to function properly. Muscles only grow when there are good amounts of protein floating around so you should make sure you are getting enough every day. Similarly, if you aren’t eating enough quality energy foods you will find your gym workouts are slow and sluggish.
It is most important, however, to realize that it is nutrition that controls how much weight you lose. And this is an important arm toning point as you’ll now see in point number two.
#2 To tone your arms you must lose fat
Point one showed us that nutrition is queen but the reason why it is queen is because you need to burn fat if you want to have toned arms.
When one builds more muscle, that muscle needs fuel to continue to work throughout the day. As a result, this means that you will burn more calories because the needs of the muscle formed.
Many women have the misconception that toned arms are something you get by doing a certain style of weight training or exercise. They think the muscles are becoming tighter and firmer and it is this that makes them toned.
Wrong.
Toned arms come about when you burn the fat that is covering the muscle. The muscles are always toned; they are just hidden at the moment. Now I am not saying weight training and exercise are not important, they are. But it is a healthy eating that will allow you to burn fat the fastest and thus tone your arms like you want.
#3 The right exercise is crucial
When toning your arms you need to make sure you are getting a good amount of the right kind of exercise. For example, you need to have a good fat burning cardio workout and you need to have resistance training that will allow you to develop your muscles. Without a combination of both your arms will not be toned for a long time.
THE OBAMA EFFECT: TOP 10 BICEP AND TRICEPS EXERCISES
Here are my favorite exercises for working the arms and getting them nice and toned. Some are body weight exercises (meaning that the only equipment required is your body) and some you can need some light dumbbells or bar bell weights. I would start out with lighter weights and do more repetitions to be safe. Then increase the weights when you become more comfortable with the exercise and the exercise becomes easier.
1 - Bar Bell Bicep Curls
This should be the core bicep exercise in your bicep routine. It allows you to go heavy and is one of the easiest to do in terms of getting the technique correct.
How to - Stand with feet shoulder width apart and lift up the bar bell. Lift up your chest so that your shoulders are lower than your chest but your back is still straight. Curl the bar bell up to just above your pectoral muscles and slowly lower back down.
It is of paramount importance that your elbows do not move during this exercise. Make sure they stay solid next to your side.
2 - Skull Crushers
This is a tricep exercise that will pack on the progress if you do it correctly. If you don’t, it might pack on the injuries!
How to - Lie on a flat bench and take light bar bell. Lift the weight over your head with your palms facing the roof. Now shift the weight backwards so if you were to drop it it would land on the floor behind your head and so that your triceps are pointing behind you instead of straight up. In this fixed position, lift the weight up until you have a straight arm and then lower it slowly until you get a deep stretch.
3 - Alternate Dumb Bell Curl
The alternate dumb bell curl is a great biceps exercise as it allows you to focus on one arm at a time and gives the other arm a rest. For this reason you can handle more weight and perfect your technique at the same time.
How to - Take two dumb bells and stand with your back straight. Assuming the same position as in the bar bell curl, curl one dumb bell up to your shoulder as if you were trying to curl it PAST your shoulder. This gives a tighter contraction. Slowly lower the dumb bell and rotating it until it is in the resting position by your side; lift the other weight at the same time.
Tip - Make sure this exercise is down slowly and with extra control.
4 - Close Grip Bench Press
This exercise allows you to use a heavy weight in a safe way. However, it is slightly trickier to perform than it looks.
How to - Take a medium bar bell and lie on a flat bench. Push the bar bell up until you arms are locked and then lower it down slowly. Just before it hits your chest push it up quickly with a little bouncing motion for about two inches. This short stops and bounce stops your chest muscles coming into play here and keeps the weight on your triceps. It’s a great secret.
5 - Cable Curls
As you know I’m not a big fan of exercise equipment but the cables allowed me to build my biceps so fast I got stretch marks at one point! This exercise has been core in my biceps routine for a long time.
How to - It is exactly the same as the bar bell curl but there is a constant tension on your muscles because the cable is always trying to pull the weight back down. For this reason you will find it much harder to handle a lot of weight. Remember to keep your elbows still and your chest up.
6- Triceps Dips
Begin sitting on a step or chair with hands next to thighs. Balance on your arms, moving backside in front of the step with legs straight (harder) or bent (easier). Bend the elbows and lower body a few inches, keeping the shoulders down and the elbows parallel to one another and at 90 degrees. Push back up to starting position.
7- Static Arm Curl
Pick a weight that is a bit less than you would normally use for a bicep curl and hold one arm in the "halfway" position while doing 4 reps with the other arm. After 4 reps, hold that arm in the halfway position and do 4 reps on the other side. Repeat until you get to 16 reps total (8 each arm).
8-Side Tri-Rise
While lying on your side, place the bottom arm touching the shoulder and the top arm pressing against the floor. Try to push yourself all the way up until your arm is totally extended, thus giving yourself the maximum range of motion, and getting the most out of the movement. Go to muscle failure on one side, then switch to the other.
This is one of my all time favorite triceps exercises and has allowed me to make some significant growth.
9-One-arm Corkscrew Curl
One-arm Corkscrew Curl takes you through a huge range of movement on the biceps. With a dumbbell in each hand, start with your palms facing backwards, and twist your palms up as you do a bicep curl with both arms at the same time.
10-Overhead Triceps Extension
Hold both dumbbells overhead with your arms completely straight, then unhinge your elbows, bringing both dumbbells down behind your head. Lift them both back up to full overhead extension and repeat. If you have dumbbells that have flat surfaces, you can keep the dumbbells touching during the entire exercise.
Next week we will continue our series for the summer dress by addressing the shoulders. Do these exercises and you will have shoulder's like Halle Berry.
Until then It's A Process!
Charlotte Personal Trainer and Boot Camp
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