Even if you are not considered overweight, you may have excess fat in your arms. Along with a nutritious meal plan and consistent aerobic exercise, strength training is necessary to tone the underlying muscle. To build lean muscle in your arms, use slightly less weight than you would use to fatigue your biceps, and perform more repetitions. Follow your weightlifting routine as well as a daily aerobic exercise regimen to lose any excess fat from your arms and strengthen your biceps.
Biceps Curls
Biceps curls are a popular exercise for strengthening the biceps because of the effectiveness of the exercise. This exercise may also be modified in various ways to use different strengthening equipment and to target different areas of your biceps.
Start your biceps workout with a traditional biceps curl using either a barbell or two dumbbells. Move on to inclined curls, in which you raise the back of a weight bench to a 45-degree angle and rest your back against the incline to perform curls. Flip over on the inclined bench for your abdomen and chest to rest against the inclined bench to perform prone biceps curls. To tone your biceps, perform three to four sets of 12 to 15 repetitions of each biceps exercise.
Hammer Curls
Hammer curls are performed much like biceps curl, but in this exercise, your hands face the trunk of your body. Because of the position of your hands throughout this exercise, hammer curls are performed with dumbbells. This exercise, like dumbbell biceps curls, may be done with both arms simultaneously or by alternating arms between repetitions or sets. Perform three to four sets of 12 to 15 repetitions.
Chinups
Body-weight resistance exercises are also efficient for strengthening multiple muscle groups in your body, including your arms. Chinups strengthen both your biceps and your latissimus dorsi muscles in your back. Grasp the chinup bar with your palms facing you at shoulder-width. To add resistance to this exercise, hold a dumbbell between your feet, keeping your knees bent. However, if you need to make this exercise easier, consider resting your feet on the floor for several counts between repetitions. Perform three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
Aerobic Activity
Strive to institute at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity every day of the week to ensure fat loss during your arm-toning program. If you are not able to perform 30 minutes at a time, do two or three short sessions to get your calorie-burning time for the day. Jog up and down stairs at work or in your home to help achieve your daily aerobic activity goal. The more time spent burning calories, the more successful you will be at losing body fat.
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