| Stephanie Mansour’s tips for toning arms
Bringing out the sleeveless tops and summer dresses can cause anxiety when it comes to the shape of our upper arms.
Fear not — the following tips and exercises can help you start an arm workout routine or improve your current one. Toned arms are achievable!
First, start with lighter weights than you think. I often see people using improper form with dumbbells, and lifting weights that are too heavy is often a key reason. I recommend starting with 5-pound weights for women and 10-pound weights for men.
Next, pay attention to your grip. You don’t want your wrists to curl as you’re doing a bicep curl. You want to keep your wrist out of the exercise except to support the hold on the weight. If you find that you’re getting wrist pain while using dumbbells, check your grip to make sure your holding the weight tightly but keeping your wrist in a neutral position throughout the exercise.
Now, let’s move on to the actual exercises. Two basic exercises are bicep curls and tricep extensions. These exercises have a smaller range of motion, so I recommend keeping the elbows tucked into your sides for the entire exercise.
Bicep curl
Hold the weights and tuck the elbows in to your sides. Exhale as you curl the weights (but not your wrists!) and bring the weights up towards your shoulders. Inhale as you lower the weights back down to your sides. Repeat 10 times.
Tricep extensions
Hold the weights at your sides and then bend your knees and hinge forward at your waist. Tuck your navel in toward your spine. Pull the arms up so that the elbows are bent, and then exhale as you extend the arms straight back to work the back of your upper arm. Then bring the arms back to the starting position and repeat 10 times.
For extension exercises, be sure to work the muscles around the shoulder but avoid pain by overextending at the shoulder joint. For example, the side extension exercise should lift the arms up just as high as the shoulders — not higher than the shoulders.
Side extension
Hold the weights by your sides, relax the shoulders, and exhale as you bring the weights out to the sides and up just as high as the shoulders. Inhale as you lower them back down to your sides. Repeat 10 times.
Anytime you do an arm exercise with the weights over your head, make sure that you’re protecting your neck. You can achieve this by making sure to keep the weights slightly in front of you so that you can see them in your peripheral vision.
Overhead press
Start with the weights up to the height of your ears. Bend the elbows at a 90-degree angle. Exhale as you press the weights up in front of you toward the ceiling. Make sure you can see them in front of you and that they aren’t behind your head. Then bring them back to center. Repeat 10 times.
Repeat each of these exercises 10 times, and then repeat the whole circuit 3 times. You can do this every other day to get tightened and toned arms sooner than you think.
Stephanie Mansour wants you to ‘“step up” your fitness regimen. Mansour coaches private clients in weight loss, provides fitness/health/ lifestyles advice on national TV shows, and offers her free “21 Day Challenge” online. Visit her website at stepitupwithsteph.com.