Toning my upper arms - help!

[RosieLig]

I'm a bit despairing at my upper arms. I'm slim, size 8/10 and do body pump 2 or 3 times a week and a kettle bells class plus Pilates.

They are still untoned! My shoulders and biceps are good but the area between my armpit and round the back is awful.

I don't like wearing sleeveless tops because of it.

Can anyone help with some specific exercises? I don't really want to lose weight (I'm 5 foot 7 and 9 stone 4).

Thanks!

Tricep dips should help.

Yep- tricep dips on a bench or something. I was driven a tip by a trainer to hold the dip down at the lowest point for 2 seconds and do them slowly ( hurts like hell) in sets of 10. And tricep kick backs too.

Tricep dips as said above + push ups but full on ones done on your toes NOT on your knees! If you struggle to do them start at an angle eg against a worktop and gradually lower yourself. 3 sets of eight with a couple of minutes break inbetween. The last set should be a struggle so that your muscles are fatigued.

Can you swim? Front crawl is great for those areas and general toning /fitness.

Pole fitness is brilliant for your upper arms and for building strength :)

Claybury is right- front crawl is brilliant for toning upper body and especially those bits you mention. Just make sure you get your technique right (You tube) to work your back n arms, or you will just injure your shoulders - lead the stroke with your elbow n not your hand

kondicallanetics.com/video/under-arm-tightener/

Great toning exercise, deceptively easy but highly effective. I do 100 in the morning and 100 in the evening, I have lost 2.5 inches from each arm doing this for the past 3 weeks.

kondicallanetics.com/video/under-arm-tightener/

MrsJF -thanks for posting that, I'm definitely going to give it a go, how easy have you found it, the model seemed to be having a bit of trouble doing the full 100

Thanks that's brilliant! I will give them a shot. I do sometimes have a bit of wrist pain so I struggle with the dips and push ups.

Not easy!

The first time I tried it, I got to 23 and gave up. But Gradually I built it up and now I do 200 daily (split in to 100 x 2)

Arms still ache, but in a good way now.

Just looking for advice on this after seeing a pic of my arms from Christmas . That YouTube video looks good. 2.5 cm !!

I've noticed a massive difference in my arm tonedness since starting the Seven minute workout, arm exercises are tricep dips, push ups and push ups with rotation. I've only been doing it for 16 days but arms are definitely less wobbly! Also helps other areas if you do the full workout.

I have to say I've been doing Callanetics on and off for ages and my arms are one of the areas I've not noticed any difference in, to be honest, and my programme does include the under arm tightener in that video but I manage the 100 without much difficulty so wonder if I'm not stretching far enough back I'm going to restart Callanetics next week so will see how that affects my arms!

Oops sorry just seen your post about wrist pain, that'll teach me for rushing through the thread the seven minute workout probably won't be suitable then, sorry! Hopefully the Callanetics thing will help. I expect I've not seen results as I never manage to do the full five weeks she recommends in the video

I agree the callanetics is great.