We might not like to admit it, but we ladies do flex in the mirror just like the guys. We want to see the curves of the bicep and the nice little cap of the deltoids. We absolutely do not want to see the tricep waddle!
Perhaps that is what we fear the most. We have the pictures of our grandmothers in sleeveless shirts and muumuus (okay maybe just me) and know what we don’t want our arms to look like. We don’t want them to keep waving in the breeze long after we have actually stopped waving. Yet endless curls and kickbacks are not really the most efficient use of our time. So how does a girl build fabulous arms and shoulders?
First, I will tell you how it’s not accomplished.
Not with infomercial gadgets that promise you fantastic muscles in only 10 minutes a day.
Not with endless curls with soup cans or water bottles.
Not with starvation diets or packaged meal weight loss systems.
Now, here are my top 3 tips to get those fantastic arms you want to show off in your summer sleeveless tops and dresses.
- Compound body weight exercises are your best friend when comes to shapely arms and shoulders. My arms and shoulders look their best when my workout includes pushups, chin ups and bench dips. Don’t worry if you can’t do a standard push up or unassisted chin up. You can do incline or knee pushups to work up to the standard toe pushup. Use an assisted chin up machine or do negatives (hanging and slowly lowering yourself down) to work up to unassisted chin ups.
- Superset those compound body weight exercises with a barbell or dumbbell exercise targeting the same muscle group(s). For example, pair you bench dips with overhead dumbbell presses. Or try military presses after your pushups. Feel the shoulder burn!
- Eat clean. Building gorgeous muscles means nothing if you can’t see them for the fat layer on top. You also need good nutrition to help the muscle repair and rebuild. Clean out the junk food and make sure you eat enough. Again, starvation diets do not build strong and shapely muscles!
Give me your action plan. What are you going to change in your upper body routine?
