6 Effective Arm Workouts For Women To Get a Firm and Nice Look

A lot of people think that when a woman talks about her “problem area”, she means her hips, bum, thighs and belly. However, women often worry about their arms as well. Through weight loss and aging, they often develop what is often referred to as “bingo wings”. Most fear that bingo wings are incredibly difficult to remove. The reality is, however, that with the following easy arm workouts for women, nobody has to suffer from them anymore.

1 – Standing Versus Raise

The standing versus raise move needs dumbbells. However, if you don’t own any, you can swap by filling plastic soda bottles with sand, or you can use frozen peas or anything else that has a good weight to it. Naturally, the stronger you get, the heavier the weight you should use. This exercise is good for your back, shoulders, chest and arms.

“Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, arms at your sides, palms in. With arms straight but not locked, raise the weights diagonally in front of you, so that your arms form a V shape, until your arms are parallel to the floor. Hold for one second, then return to the starting position. Do 12 to 15 reps.” – womenshealthmag.com

2 – Pushups

Pushups are almost military and often used as a form of punishment. This is because they are hard to do and require quite a bit of upper body strength. However, the reality is that doing pushups, if you do them properly, they are incredibly effective. Best of all, they not only work on your arms, but also on your shoulders and your stomach. Try to do 15 to 20 pushups in each set and repeat several times. If you do not have the upper body strength to do the exercise straight away, push yourself on the wall, which is much easier.

3 – Sun Salutation

The Sun Salutation is the most basic yoga move, whereby you use your entire body (including your arms) to start energy flowing in your body and to strengthen your core. This move isn’t overly difficult and doesn’t need for you to be as flexible as a yoga master.

“The Sun Salutation Pose, also known as Salute to the Sun and Surya Namaskar, is a flowing series of 12 poses which help improve strength and flexibility of the muscles and spinal column. This pose also warms up the body and tones the abdominal muscles. […] As with all other Yoga Exercises and poses, make sure to perform the Sun Salutation Pose correctly to achieve optimum results.” – abc-of-yoga.com

4 – Pilates Boxing

Boxercise is becoming increasingly popular in gyms across the globe and for good reason. It is a great way to train the entire body, but the arms in particular. Technically, when doing boxercise, you are also supposed to use your legs (the “dancing” that boxers are so famous for). However, most of the time, we end up focusing only on our arms. This isn’t a problem at all if your arms are exactly what you are hoping to tone up. However, by doing pilates boxing, you will harness even more benefits.

“Standing with feet a hips-width apart, bend your knees and hinge forward from your waist, maintaining a neutral spine. Raise fists to your shoulders and, keeping elbows up, box your right hand forward, clenching your abs. Bring hands to center and switch. Box on each side 20 times.” – health.com

5 – Close Grip Chin Ups

Chin ups are quite hard to do, just as push ups are. They require a certain degree of upper body strength that not everybody has. However, if you do have the strength, they are great exercises to keep your arms nice and toned. Alternatively, you could decide to go to a gym and use an assisted pull up machine, which most good health centers now have. For the close grip chin ups, you have to put your hands as close together as possible on the bar. You then pull yourself up, getting your chin to the top of the bar.

6 – The Triceps Extension

A lot of people forget that the arm is made up of a range of muscles, the two most important ones being the biceps and the triceps. It is pointless to focus on just one of these, as this will not leave you with a beautiful body, but rather one that doesn’t look quite right. Most exercises for the arms focus on both groups of muscles, but many of those that use a dumbbell actually work on the biceps. This is why you should also perform a triceps workout to make sure your arms will look their best. The triceps extension is best achieved using dumbbells, but as stated previously, you can replace these with various items to replace them.

“Stand with left foot forward, knees bent. Bend slightly forward at the hips and keep abdominal muscles pulled in toward the spine. Place left hand on left thigh for support and hold a 3- to 5-pound dumbbell in your right hand. Keeping elbow bent, pull right upper arm up and back to almost parallel with the ground. Extend arm straight out behind you. (See photo for proper position.) Squeeze and hold before bringing arm back in to starting position. Do 3 sets of 15 reps on each side.” – familycircle.com

By performing each of these exercises, you should be able to build beautiful toned arms. Women are also recommended to spend some time in the gym using kettlebells. Simply holding kettlebells in front of you will already start to workout your muscles. Add some lunges or squats to it, and you will actually work out your entire core, with the added benefit of building the muscles in your arms. As always, the heavier the weight you can carry, the better it is. It is best to increase the weight and stick to the same number of repetitions (10 to 15), then to keep the weight the same but increase the number of repetition. Quality over quantity, in other words.