Achieving Toned Arms for Women

Its important to remember that work outs should be customized to each body type and shape. Arm workouts designed for men will likely not give women the results they are looking for. While men typically seek to gain inches, women look to loose them. Think about the results you want to achieve. If your goal is to loose weight in your arms, light weight with frequent reps is the way to go. If your goal however, is to tone, then approaching weightlifting with heavy weight and shorter reps will work for you.

There aren't any specific exercises that will reduce the fat in one particular area, burning fat and building muscle will happen overall the entire body. Therefore the best and proven way to achieve slimmer and tighter arms is to lower your entire body fat with cardio. 60 minutes walking on the treadmill won't do the trick. You can actually cut the time in half with a more effective approach. Try a moderately intense cardio workout for 30 minutes, five days a week. Cut the time some more, by increasing the intensity and you can complete your cardio portion in 20 minutes just three times a week. Even if your ultimate goal is just the upper body, you need to train all your major muscles. Failing to strengthen the entire body limits its lean mass, which hinders its ability to decrease fat. Here are some important workout elements to consider to successfully turn flabby arms into defined muscles:

Just like a healthy diet is needed to compliment an ongoing workout routine to achieve better results, both cardio exercises and strength training are needed to speed up metabolism and burn body fat.

Balance your workouts with cardio and strength training. Focus on weight lifting twice a week, on nonconsecutive days to allow muscles to repair themselves.

Make sure you are executing exercises that target both major muscle groups, the tricep and the bicep. You don't have to bother with fancy machinery. Basic exercises are simple and to the point, achieving the same great result. For triceps, try dips, skull crushers, tricep kickbacks, and cable pushdowns. There are a variety of different curls designed to target the bicep specifically.

Still one of the most effective and classic workouts for arm toning is the push up. Changing your grip during a push up will target the two different muscles. While a regular pushup will work out your chest, shoulders and arms. A closer grip will target the triceps, the area which tend to be the flabbiest of all.

Keep in mind that everyone's body is different and the definition in the arms can take a while to show. Don't get discouraged so quickly and keep the momentum going. Just know that each day you a step closer to owning Michelle Obama and Madonna arms.