3 Routines to Tone Your Arms
Abandoning your sedentary lifestyle and becoming more active is essential for good health. When it comes to slimming (or rather, toning) the arms, it’s important to incorporate certain exercises into your daily routine. In doing so, you can reduce any unwanted “flab” and slowly improve the appearance of your arms.
Remember, as well as doing physical exercise on a daily basis, you’ll also need to maintain other healthy lifestyle habits. Talk to your doctor for further information and advice.
How to tone your arms
Fat that’s flabby, especially in the area of the triceps, can become a real aesthetic issue for some people. Therefore, you need to work it through the regular practice of some exercises.
1. Watch your diet
You need a balanced diet made up of high quality ingredients with real nutritional value. This kind of diet will slowly allow you to reduce your intake of saturated fats, fried, processed, or sugary foods, as well as refined sugars, all of which can put your health at risk.
In order to maintain a balanced diet, it’s important to consume a little of everything – in the right quantities, and in moderation.
Forget fad “miracle” diets. All these will do is make you lose fluids and muscle mass, rather than fat. Instead, talk to a dietitian to discuss the best diet for you so that you can reach your goals in a safe way, without putting your health at risk.
In some cases, a doctor may recommend reducing your food portions and eating 5 times a day (3 main meals and 2 snacks) instead of three main meals.
Losing weight often means making some simple changes to your everyday habits. For example, eating earlier and lighter in the evenings, taking regular walks for at least half an hour, etc.
Discover: 5 Recipes from the Mediterranean Diet to Help You Lose Weight
2. Get moving
Before you start working on your triceps and biceps, it’s extremely important that you work on your body as a whole. So, start walking, jogging, or running for at least 30-40 minutes a day to get yourself in shape.
Remember that, in order to eliminate fat from one particular area, you’ll need to maintain an active lifestyle that will allow you to lose weight (and later, one that will allow you to maintain a healthy weight, as indicated by your BMI).
3. Burn more energy
Burning more energy will allow your body to burn more calories and reduce fat quickly.
The best thing to do is go for a walk 20 or 30 minutes per day. This will activate your metabolism and, together with a good diet, yield faster and more effective results.
Before subjecting your body to any training, it’s best to get a general medical check-up. That way, you can carry out your exercise regime safely.
According to a study conducted at Harvard University, doing an activity for 30 minutes helps burn several calories. Of course, the number of calories burned will vary, depending on the type of activity. This means that the same amount isn’t burned while walking as swimming.
This article may interest you: Do Vitamins Provide Energy?
Routines to tone your arms
When it comes to toning your arms, the best option is to use weight, either dumbbells or weights, which allow you to exercise your muscles. However, it’s also possible to do exercises without weights.
In this next section, we’ll show you three exercises to tone your arms that you can incorporate into your daily exercise routine, or do them on independently, alongside a balanced diet.
1. Biceps
Strengthening the biceps is the most important and also one of the simplest exercises.
- Fill two water bottles, preferably ½ liter or 1 liter ones.
- Grab one in each hand and position them with your elbow bent towards you.
- Extend your arms until the elbow forms a 90° angle.
- Do about four series of 15 repetitions.
2. Triceps
This is very similar to the bicep exercise, with the difference being that, in this case, you will lift upwards.
- Hold two ½ liter or 1 liter bottles, one in each hand, and raise your arms above your head.
- Lower them backwards, bending at the elbow.
- Extend the arm again and repeat the movement about 15 times.
3. Combination of abdomen and arms
This exercise will allow you to exercise your shoulders along with your back and abdomen.
- Join your elbows at chin height and then join your hands, with your palms facing up.
- Sit upright.
- Lift the elbows until you reach the level of the forehead without separating them. Repeat the movement about 20 times.
- Several yoga poses can help strengthen and slim your arms. Try them out! They’re good alternatives that will help you vary your routine.
Are you ready to strengthen and tone your arms?
Now that you have the tricks to start toning your arms, try them out and use them to get closer to your goal!
Remember that, if you have any doubts about your exercise routine, you can always consult with a professional trainer.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Cordero, A., Masiá, M. D., & Galve, E. (2014). Ejercicio físico y salud. Revista Española de Cardiología. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.recesp.2014.04.007
- Marques-Lopes, I., Russolillo, G., Lopes-Rosado E., Bressan, J. (2002). Dietas adelgazantes. Anales del Sistema San Navarra. 25 (Supl. 1), 163 – 173 https://hdl.handle.net/10171/64459
- Subirats Bayego E, Subirats Vila G, Soteras Martínez I. Prescripción de ejercicio físico: indicaciones, posología y efectos adversos. Medicina Clínica. 2012; 138(1): 18-24. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025775311000947?via%3Dihu
- WebMD. Strenght training: building arm muscles. https://www.webmd.com/men/features/strength-training-building-arm-muscles#1
- Harvard Health Publishing. Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights. Disponbile en: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/calories-burned-in-30-minutes-for-people-of-three-different-weights
