There are 3 main factors that we need to consider when it comes to toning arms or getting them in the shape you desire.
- Extra body fat in that area making arms appear bigger.
- Lack of muscle tone and volume.
- Sagging and aging skin, loss of elasticity.
Let’s cover all those things one by one and how to tackle them.
The first 2 factors are something we can work with. The last one unfortunately not so much. Stretched or loose skin can occur due to the aging process or losing a lot of weight, especially if you do so rapidly. Once the elasticity in the skin is lost it can’t really be regained no matter how many lotions or potions you apply. This is the same as the loose skin around the tummy after pregnancy or a lot of weight loss as well.
The good news is that you can fill out that skin with muscles so the loose skin won’t be as obvious.
But let’s discuss that later.
1. Extra body fat – reduce the size of the upper arms by losing fat in the body with good diet.
Let’s talk about fat loss first, why? Because it’s often overlooked and the 1st most important thing we need to tackle in many cases since for a lot of women who are looking at how to tone arms the 1st issue to tackle is to lose fat around that area. How can you spot-reduce fat around your arms? You can’t, sorry. But you can reduce overall fat in your body first and foremost by sticking to a healthy balanced diet and some help of cardio, the key is to be in a caloric deficit, meaning that you burn more calories than you consume.
Once you start losing overall body fat your fat in the arms will shift as well, be prepared that if you are prone to hold more fat around that area then it can be the most stubborn and last to budge. So be very patient, and don’t expect results in a few weeks, you might need to shift 5-10kgs before you start seeing your arms reduce in size if that is your main problem area. So, trust the process and if you are progressing on fat loss then keep it going, the arms will follow along once you lose enough body fat.
I want to be completely honest with you as a coach with over 12 years of experience helping women with this exact problem that I had to deal with myself personally as well. Those of us who are predisposed to carry more fat in our upper body will have a more difficult time creating Madonna’s lean arms. The reason why her arms look like that is genetics, plus diet and training of course. Don’t get me wrong she works her booty off to have a body she does at her. But her genetics dictate how lean she can get her arms.
But don’t despair, there are definitely things you can do to improve the tone and leanness of your arms substantially and re-composition the look of your arms.
When I competed in bodybuilding, I dropped 7% of body fat and went from around 22% down to 15% to be ready to step on stage in the Fitness division in 2016. At that point is where I saw that my arms were super lean and defined. However, for me to maintain 15% body fat I had to be very restrictive with my diet leading up to the competition and I did excessive amounts of cardio. Although it’s a fun challenge to try now and then I would not recommend attempting this as a lifestyle, it’s unsustainable and could even be damaging to health if done for prolonged periods of time or too often.
There are women out there who are naturally lean and whose muscle tone will show quickly with some consistent work, but there’s a smaller population of people who are that lean naturally in comparison to those who tend to struggle with fat loss. I won’t call them lucky because they have other issues to deal with like having a difficult time gaining muscles or gaining weight. Everyone has their struggles. But having a naturally lower body fat percentage is an advantage in that way.
The reason why I am telling you all of this is not to discourage you, but rather to build a realistic expectation of what is possible and what you may need to do if you want to see a certain result.
Toning arms is not as simple as doing a few exercises for a few weeks and boom, the results are here. It takes time and consistently working on it through diet and exercise, especially in those stubborn areas.
2. Lack of muscle tone – how to tone arms with exercises targeting specific muscles.
Now let’s talk about exercises and the types of workouts you can do to build defined arms. This is the fun bit. I think training arms can be fun, it’s all about how you look at it and how you challenge yourself.
So, what are the best arm workouts for women, when I say for women, I am assuming most of my blog readers don’t like to bulk up their arms so they are not looking to really build big muscles or thicken their arms. However, there is a small percentage of women who do want to build boulder shoulders and big guns. Although that percentage seems to be growing in the past decade or so, or at least in the fitness industry. And I am here for it. I will write a separate article for those of you who want that, but in this article, I want to address women who want to tone and tighten their muscles and get rid of flabbiness rather than increase muscle mass significantly. After all, we all have different goals, right? Just because I want to get bigger doesn’t mean you do.
So, from here on, the exercises and styles of training that I will be recommending are focused more on toning rather than building mass.
Ok, so here is the thing. A lot of people think the exercises differ for the above-mentioned two groups of people. Let’s call them the ‘tone and slim’ group vs. the ‘big gains group’.
The types of exercises I would normally recommend for both types of my clients would be very similar. Why? Because it’s not the exercises per se that need to change a lot, it’s the structure of the workouts, repetitions per each set and frequency, or how you put all those exercises together that will make a difference.
Let me give you a quick rundown of the two main types of exercises so you understand the structure a little better when it comes to training. I promise to keep it simple.
Type 1: Compound exercises; mean that you work more than one muscle at a time.
Examples; push-ups, pull-ups, assisted pull-ups, row variations, and shoulder and chest press variations. With these exercises, you work at least 2 or even 3 muscle groups. For example, push-ups work your shoulders, triceps, chest, and even core. Pull-up works your back and biceps.
These types of exercises would always be the foundation of most of the training programs I prescribe for most of my clients regardless of their goals, but I will offer different variations, rep ranges, and weights depending on the goals. There are variations and modifications of these for all strength levels.
With these exercises, because you work multiple muscles it’s more exertive, meaning your heart rate would elevate more during those and help you burn more calories. That is why those exercises are generally harder and many people try to avoid them. But they shouldn’t. These arm workouts really give you a bang for your time and effort. Also, I must make a note, I recommend you perform them first, and add a few accessory movements later. What are accessory movements? They are isolated exercises.
Type 2: Isolated exercises; are often also called accessory movements because, at the end of the day, they should be exactly that, an accessory to the main compound movements above. They are helpful, but should not be relied on solely.
Examples; tricep extensions with cables or dumbbells, bicep curls, lateral raises, tricep kick-backs, and skull crushers. These are less exhausting and target specific muscles. Your heart rate generally will stay lower during these exercises than during the compound movement I mentioned above, as they take a little less effort to complete.
So how do I make sure that women who just want to tone up and slim their arms don’t end up bulky even though they are performing similar exercises?
It’s all about weight, rep range, and frequency. Of course, it will vary for each individual which is why I write customized training plans for each person when I work with people one on one. But here is a general guideline of what I would recommend if you want to tone up the muscles without bulking them up.
For your compound exercises, I would suggest performing around 3 rounds of up to 15 repetitions per round. Then you can add 2-3 accessory exercises where I would suggest focusing a little more on the triceps rather than the biceps because this is where more of the loose tissue tends to sit and also this is the area that we don’t use as much as our biceps in our daily life. So, 3 rounds of overhead tricep extensions and perhaps 3 rounds of scull crushers with dumbbells, and 3-4 sets of bicep curls.
I recommend doing a full upper body workout at least twice a week to start seeing results in around 6-8 weeks’ time. Results will vary from person to person.
Whether you can see the muscle tone or not will depend on how thick the layer of fat sits on top of the muscle. If you don’t notice any visible changes that mean you need to work on getting leaner through diet and adding a bit more cardio like HIIT, daily steps, or combination to speed up the fat loss process.
Just because you don’t see noticeable changes doesn’t mean your muscles are not getting more toned, it just means you can’t see it yet through the layer of fat. Don’t give up as it is a common mistake many make. They hyperfocus on arm workouts and if after a couple of months, they don’t see the difference they think it’s not working. I promise you if you are doing these exercises right and consistently the changes are happening, it’s just that some people may need more time than others to get leaner and lose more body fat to show the results. Remember our muscles are underneath our fat layer. The thicker the fat layer the harder it is to see muscle definition.
I thought it would be a good idea to share with you a full arm toning workout that you can start doing this week, you can repeat this workout a couple of times per week for the next 3-4 weeks.
Here is the full workout with instructional videos for each exercise. It does require some basic equipment, but no need for a gym. You will need some type of bench or chair, a pair of dumbbells, and either a resistance band or ideally a suspension strap like a TRX. And yep, you can definitely do this workout at the gym as well, there are no machines involved.
1. Assisted TRX pull ups, feet on the ground 3 sets x 12 reps
2. TRX rows 3 sets x 12 reps
3. Push-ups elevated on the bench if needed 3 sets x 10 reps
4. Dumbbell shoulder presses 3 sets x 12 reps
5. Dumbbell bench presses 3 sets x 12 reps
6. Bench dips 3 sets x 10 reps
7. TRX tricep extensions 3 sets x 10 reps
8. Dumbbell hammer curls (palms facing each other) 3 sets of 10 reps
Complete each exercise individually for 3 sets before moving on to the next one.
I recommend doing this workout twice a week to see results.
Below is a short video with all of the exercises in order.
Shorts are from Ryderwear NKD collection.
Disclaimer; I may earn commissions on some of the products sold throught the links on this page.
3. Sagging & aging skin – filling out the muscles will reduce the appearance of loose skin.
And just to quickly touch on that last point of the loose skin, don’t worry about that too much, once you see your muscles tone up and the fat reduce, if need be, the skin will appear a little bit higher too, it’s just that we can’t completely snap it back to what it was when we were 21 unfortunately. So, let’s build the best version of ourselves now and focus on progress and being stronger and fitter than ever. Of course, keeping your skin moisturised and keeping your body hydrated all the time by drinking enough water will have an impact elasticity of your skin. So, drink your water, and your skin will thank you later.
