[mauvaisroux]

Any advice on what exercises to do to help increase arm strength and tighten up arm flab? I know that the bat wings won't magically disapear but if there is anything that I can do to reduce it a bit that would be great!

I don't go to the gym but I do yoga and bellydance so I would like to be able to do some simple exercises at home.

Thanks!

[Tina30]

I would recommend getting your self some dumbells and doing arm exercises with them. You can go online and find a bunch of different exercises for your arms. Good luck!

[2frustrated]

Press-ups/push-ups (same thing different name)

Pull-ups, but they are HARD, try "pulling up" with your feet out infront of you

Tricep dips on a chair. Sit on a chair with your butt right on the front edge. Grab the front lip of the seat of the chair with your knuckles facing forward. Stretch your legs out in front so that your heels sit on the floor and your legs are straight. Your butt should be off the seat by now. Gently lower your butt to almost touching the floor, then raise to seat height, this lowering and raising is one rep, repeat!

Tricep dips on parallel bars / a banister or two chairs back to back (but you will probably need people to sit on the chairs to keep them from toppling over). Grab a rail / banister in each hand whilst standing. Straighten arms and take weight of your body on arms. Lift your feet up to keep them off the floor, then bend your arms to 90 degrees then straighten them. I find this REALLY hard, but it's a good workout

Also you could use bottles of water or cans of beans as hand weights - a nice army exercise is hold your makeshift weights in each hand. Stand normally with your hands by your sides, then keeping your arms straight, raise your arms out to the side. Still keeping your arms straight bring them so that they are straight out in front of you, then lower. Repeat. You can reverse this so you lift up at the front and down at the sides.

www.stumptuous.com click weights and there's an article in the training section I think about how to train with household objects.

Good luck

[mauvaisroux]

Thank you!

I have some small weights at home but don't really know what I'm doing.

[sierra_ttw]

Both the Self and Shape websites have a bunch of exercises on them - some of them are streaming video, so you can do it along with the video on the screen, and they're all free. All the ones 2Frustrated suggested should be on there, and there will be pictures of what to do. The nice thing about arms is that the muscles in them are fairly small, so they tone up pretty quickly. Hope this helps!

[MaryKate'sPillStash]

Isn't this kind of analogous to "you can't spot reduce"? The only way to get rid of your bat wings is to eat fewer calories and lift weights, which is what you should be doing, anyway?

[3fcuser1058250]

I know that you watch what you eat Mauv and sometimes "batwing" arms are hereditary or if someone has lost a lot of weight there is excess skin there that cannot be removed except by surgery, but here are some great arm exercises to try...
Dips

Tricep extension:

SkullCruchersWithDumbells

TricepKickBacks

LyingTricepLifts

LyingOneArmDumbellTricepExtension

[mauvaisroux]

Thanks Ilene.

I do watch what I eat and have lost weight so right now I am focusing on exercise.

As I pointed out in my first post I'm not expecting a miracle as I know that you can't spot reduce, I just want my arms to look a little better.

I hate the gym so getting into serious lifting is not something I'm interested in.

I will take everyone's advice and check out those sites. I think yoga will help me too as I am finding a lot of the poses stretch your arm muscles so combining the small weights and exercises with the yoga should do me some good.

[aphil]

Mauvais-I have the same trouble. Part f it is hereditary, and part of it is extra sking from ahving extra fat on my arms when I was at my heaviest.

I found that the bicep, shoulder, and tricep weight and resistance exercises have worked the best for me.
The tricep dips, tricep kickbacks, and so forth have been really great-along with basic bicep curls, hammer curls (where there is a positioning change in the arms) and so forth.

I know you do belly dance dvds between classes at home, would you do better with a good video for the arms using your hand weights? There is a really good one called "I Want Those Arms" by Tamille Webb, and there are 2 workouts on it for the arms-and I have often alternated the two. They are about 10-15 minutes each-and really good. They do these three main areas-but differently. One will have more kickbacks and such for the triceps...and the other has the chair dips. One will have a couple kinds of shoulder exercises-and the next workout will do a few different ones. It is nice, because your body doesn't get "used" to one same ol' series of exercises.

The extra skin, if you have some, will never go away...but having some shape underneath does help a lot.