To achieve health and body shape goals, you don't have to eat healthy food all the time. Nor do you have to exercise every day. Photo / Getty
To achieve health and body shape goals, you don't have to eat healthy food all the time. Nor do you have to exercise every day. Photo / Getty
Does the thought of wearing singlets and sundresses this summer have you worried about drawing more attention to your arms than you'd like?
You're not alone. "Turkey Wobble", one of my favourite terms for saggy arms, is a concern endured by many women. And it's something that's often relative to how much overall body fat you are carrying as well as the tone and condition of the area.
So how do you get rid of the wobble? Before you home in on this problem area, you need to get the basics right.
To achieve health and body shape goals, we don't have to eat perfectly healthy all the time. Nor do you have to exercise every day. But you do have to have a base of good habits practiced most of the time. These include drinking water daily, eating plenty of fresh, natural foods, aiming for good sleep habits and minimising sugar consumption where you can.
Once this is in place you can focus on specific areas of the body you want to show a little more love to.
I'm not talking about "spot reducing" but, rather, "target toning" and applying specific exercise protocols or exercise selections to areas to elicit different responses.
Have you ever found yourself making excuses about doing weights such as: "It's because I don't want to look bulky"?
I'm here to tell you that your "bulky" concerns stem from a complete myth. There is no better exercise discipline for actually changing your body shape than weight training - and your arms are no different.
So why not give weights a go for at least three weeks and see what you think.
Time to get toned
Remember, you don't have to use heavy weights. Start off light but focus on your form. Photo / Getty
There are plenty of exercises you can do to tone up your arms. The muscle groups you'll want to be targeting are your triceps, biceps, and shoulders as they give you a great frame.
Getting "fab" looking arms is about firming up with muscle mass but it's also a lot about getting some visible definition between all these muscle groups. Therefore, your priorities need to be:
1. Targeted weight training (arms/shoulders) 2. Burning fat
For a great home circuit combination of targeted weight and fat burning training try the following:
• TRICEP DIPS - Three sets of 20
• PRESS UPS - Three sets of as many as you can do (three is fine, five is great, 12 is fantastic) Start on your knees if you need too and ensure your hips are down and in line with the body.
• TIN CAN BICEP CURLS - Three sets of 20 using tin cans, drink bottles or any other similar weight.
• DUMBBELL PUNCHES - Three sets for 45 seconds Use 2-3kg dumbbells. While standing, punch up above your head or out in front of you. This is also excellent for increasing your heart rate and helping to burn body fat.
• SKIPPING - Two minutes If this is a little too advanced, try stepping up and down some steps or simply walking on the spot with high knees. Repeat 2-3 times every second day for three weeks. If you want to add something to your gym routine, try sets of triceps dips alternated with sets of tricep press downs (using a rope) between each. This targeting technique will really hit the spot. Expect some stiffness and maybe a little pain after the first few times you do this but you'll soon notice things firming up!
Remember, you don't have to use heavy weights. Start off light but focus on form - you should feel the muscle squeezing up and down rather than gravity doing the work.
Your gym instructor or Personal Trainer can design a comprehensive arm toning programme for you using these exercises. Most importantly, they'll help make sure your technique is correct. A little done with perfect technique will give you better results faster than a lot of exercise done poorly.
