How do your arms look when hanging relaxed?

[scrappydappydoooooo]

I have fairly muscular arms and shoulders, as a result of my weights routine and inversion yoga. This is most clear when I flex them, or if doing anything with my arms up like tying up my hair. But if I'm just standing or sitting with my arms relaxed against my body, I think they look big and flabby. As soon as I move them or put my hands on my hips you can see the muscle again.

I've gained a little bit of weight this year as a result of months long illness and I'm wondering if that 'flabbiness' is a result of a little excess body fat or just what relaxed muscle looks like and I never noticed before. (Because I was doing a lot less workouts in my bedroom in front of a mirror.) I lost muscle too while ill but I've built that back up. I'm not overweight now by any means, BMI of 22.5 with plenty of muscle, but I am carrying about a half stone more than I like best for me. And it's very stubborn about shifting.

I read your post earlier and just checked my arms while getting changed.

I am a healthy weight but fairly high body fat still and some loose-ish skin from a large weight loss a few years ago.

If I relax my arms you can still see that my delts are muscle. They look obviously firm (but not delineated like you would see on a fitness model or body builder as I have too much body fat for that). Lower down, my arms look flabby. If I flex my muscles you can see the belly of the triceps and biceps bulging out from under the fat but otherwise you can't see anything other than soft flesh.

Thanks for the reply. I've looked again and can see my delts too, as in you can see my arms curve in under the delt and out again over the tricep. If I look carefully, I can kind of see a tricep shape through the softness in my arm. I know you say your arm doesn't look like a fitness model's but tbf, I haven't ever seen any photos of fitness models with their arms relaxed and hanging by their sides or pressed loosely against their body. They all have their arms engaged in the photos, so it's hard to know if they'd have a somewhat flabby look when relaxed.

Between being ill, lockdown and the weather I'm badly missing so, so much of the cardio I normally do. I'm doing lots of strength and flexibility but my main at home cardio work is incredibly high intensity and I'm nowhere near close to the same ability I had to maintain it as I was before getting sick. So I have about a half stone of body fat that I doubt I'll lose until at least late spring when normal life has mostly resumed.

Well, be kind to yourself. Build up the cardio slowly would be my advice (which it sounds like you're doing anyway, possibly due to not having a choice). It's tough when you lose ground, but you know you got there once and can do it again. I'd made great progress before the last lockdown, then just about got back to where I left off when the gyms opened back up and now locked down again. Gah. And I've not even been ill. At least winter means we won't be going around in vest tops and seeing our arms in the mirror every 5 minutes!