Health and Fitness/Workouts

7 Arm Exercises That Significantly Toned My Arms/Shoulders

Since December of 2016, I have been on a healthy obsession of getting my entire body toned, well, mostly my upper body and stomach as my legs are, have been, and always will be, bird legs.  They are just naturally so skinny that I never have to work on them.  But the other parts of my body have always been a bit, “fluffy”.  My arms were never toned, my stomach was always poking out, and I have always had those dreaded and annoying love handles.  These may be a part of my genetics, which is likely why I have always had such a difficult time even just reducing their appearance.  And, I hate to put this out there, but this was also something I was so self-conscious about-my huge boobs! As a short person, big boobs look terrible.  Here is a picture (of a picture) of me Christmas a couple years ago, which is what I looked like before I began this weight loss journey:

SO BIG!

I needed a change-quick! So, since last December, HIIT and circuit workouts have been that healthy obsession I previously mentioned.  Before December, I would only run and walk as part of my workout regime.  I hated every second of both.  The motivation prevented me from putting in optimal effort in my workouts.  In fact, sometimes when I would run, which was always on a boring treadmill because having little kids prevented me from leaving my house, I would literally count the seconds down to the last one.  My eyes were always so glued to the screen, making the runs even less bearable.

I knew something had to change because I was becoming so unmotivated that I simply stopped working out.  Thus, I gained weight.  I was up to 130 pounds on my short 5 ft 1 frame.  I was desperate to slim down and get toned, to have that body I have only seen others have and felt could never be my own.

After my best friend introduced me to Pinterest, I encountered an insane variety of HIIT and circuit workouts.  I said, “What the hell?” and tried one.  I have been doing these workouts ever since because after that first workout, I felt sore over my entire body for the next week! I knew this would be the change I needed!

My favorite exercises were ones I did with my arms.  I wanted so badly to tone my arms because I hated how chunky they looked whenever I saw myself in a picture.  It caused me to have such low self-esteem and prevented me from going out in the summer heat with a tank-top on.

The arm workouts that I started to perform included the following: 

  • Tricep dips (40 reps, 3 sets)
  • Push-ups (20-30 reps, 3 sets)
  • Tricep extensions (30 reps, 2 sets)
  • Burpees (10 reps, 3 sets)
  • Renegade rows (20 reps, 3 sets)
  • Push presses (20 reps, 3 sets)
  • Bent over rows (20 reps, 3 sets)

I started doing the last three and the tricep extensions with only 10 pound weights.  I worked myself up to 20 pound dumbbells for each of those exercises.  Before I switched to the 20 pounders, my arms became very toned.  Now, I am just working on maintaining that tone! My shoulders are toned and muscular and you can see my triceps without me flexing-something that never happened to me before! Here is a picture of me at a fair so you can see my arms:

Here is another picture of me wearing a dress-something I have never done since I was a little girl and was forced to wear dresses for church:

You know your exercises are working when you wear something you never wear or have never felt comfortable in!

I highly contribute the renegade and bent over rows to my newly toned arms. These are more than likely the two best arm workouts of my routine.

Now, I wear tanktops every day and love every second of it! My clothes have definitely gotten more revealing since I love my arms, but this just shows my confidence and happiness with myself.