A Five-Day Workout for a Woman's Arms

A Five-Day Workout for a Woman's Arms
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Women can develop and tone their arms with just a few specific exercises. Strength training not only helps you develop an attractive body, it also increases the number of calories you burn. Use free weights and your body weight as resistance to perform toning and conditioning exercises for your biceps, triceps and forearms. Use lighter weights and complete more repetitions for arm toning, or use heavier weights and fewer reps to build larger arm muscles. Accomplish a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise every week to help burn any excess fat from your body. Choose any two days a week to rest from your arm-strengthening workouts. Complete two to four sets of eight to 15 reps of each exercise.

Day One

On day one of your five-day arm-strengthening regimen, focus on your biceps. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and perform dumbbell curls, hammer curls, concentration curls and underhand chinups. Keep your palms facing your body during hammer curls to target the lower head of the bicep. Perform concentration curls one arm at a time, holding your elbow on your inner thigh and raising and lowering the dumbbell. Point your palms toward your body while implementing chinups to concentrate on your biceps.

Day Two

Target your triceps on the second day of arm-strengthening. Begin with close-grip pushups, in which you place your hands 4 to 6 inches apart on the floor and lower and raise your chest by bending and straightening your arms. Move on to triceps kickbacks by pushing the dumbbells behind your body as you stand bending forward at the hips. Finish your triceps workout with double triceps extensions. Hold a dumbbell with both hands and lower the weight behind your head, then straighten your arms to raise the weight above your head.

Day Three

Take a break from training your upper arms halfway through your five-day workout schedule. Instead, target a muscle group often forgotten during workouts: the forearms. Use a barbell or two dumbbells to perform wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. Flex your wrists to move your hands toward your body with your palms up for wrist curls and your palms down for reverse wrist curls. Perform reverse curls with a barbell to further strengthen the tops of your forearms. Keep your palms facing down throughout this exercise.

Days Four and Five

Use days four and five to retrain your biceps, triceps and forearms. On day four, target your biceps by repeating day one's workout. On the last day of your five-day arm-strengthening workout, concentrate on your triceps and your forearms by combining the workouts from day two and three.

References

Article reviewed by RandyS Last updated on: Aug 7, 2011

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