5 Most Effective Arm Workouts You Can Do at Home

What are the most effective ways to do arm workouts?  If you’re thinking weight lifting and resistance training, then you’re right. 

For women over 40, especially, it’s even more important to start doing weight lifting because helps increase the bone density that prevents you from getting osteoporosis. Unfortunately, many women don’t do so (or stick to the light weights) because they’re afraid of getting bulky.

Regardless of gender, arm workouts will help you build strength and toning, and you can learn how to do it time-efficiently.

5 Arm Exercises to Work Out Arms You Can Do at Home

“You cannot grow your muscle by lifting light weights and doing lots of repetitions,” explains Ronan Oliviera, Head of Health and Fitness at Mindvalley. “You can only reach failure with light weights at 30 or more repetitions, which is only good for muscle endurance.”

By lifting heavy weights, you reach muscular fatigue faster (this is what time-efficient fitness is all about). 

Instead, the last set should be challenging to perform, but you want to perform it correctly.

When you lift heavy weights, you will reach it with 12 repetitions. It’s a sweet spot for building strength and toning. So when you work out arms using weight lifting, adjust the weight accordingly.

1. Lateral Raise

Benefits: A lateral raise works your shoulder muscles as well as your triceps.

Equipment: A pair of dumbbells

How To:

1. Stand with knees slightly bent.
2. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing in with a slight bend in your elbows.
3. Raise your arms out to the sides until the dumbbells reach the same level as your shoulder, keeping your palms facing the floor. 
4. Lower your arms.

2. Tricep Extension

Benefits: Tricep extensions are an excellent exercise to build and shape the upper posterior arm muscles.

Equipment: Resistance band

How To: 

1. Stand on one end of the resistance band.
2. Keep your feet in a slight split stance, with your legs about hips-distance apart. 
3. Grabbing the other end of the band, pull directly overhead. 
4. Extend both arms fully, then exhale.
5. Slowly lower the band down, bringing the band behind the head by bending at the elbows.
6. Inhale and reverse the movement. 
7. Once you reach a 90-degree bend at the elbow or slightly further, lift the weight back to the starting position.

3. Resistance Band Pushdown

Benefits: This exercise is great for building the size and strength of your arms specifically as it works all 3 heads of the tricep.

Equipment: Resistance band

How To: 

1. Place a resistance band around the hook above your head.
2. Grab the resistance band with both hands (palms facing in) just below chest height.
3. Keep your elbows tight into your side and drive your hands down towards your waist.
4. Lock your arms out and rotate your hands slightly outward as you do.
5. Hold for a second and then bring your hands back up to just below chest height.

4. Incline Push-Up

Benefits: Push-ups build your upper body strength. They work the triceps, pectoral muscles, and shoulders. 

Equipment: Any surface higher than a floor 

How To:

1. Stand in front of your bench, then squat or bend down and place both hands on the chosen surface in an elevated plank.
2. Bend your arms to help you slowly lower your chest toward the bench. Straighten your arms to bring yourself back up into a straight line.
3. Ensure that your core is engaged.

5. Banded Biceps Curl

Benefits: Biceps curl is a weight-training exercise that works the muscles of the upper arm, and to a lesser extent, those of the lower arm.

Equipment: Resistance band

How To:

1. Stand upright with feet shoulder-width apart on a band, holding the band long next to your sides.
2. With your palm facing forward, flex your elbow and pull the band up towards your shoulders, keeping your shoulder blades retracted. 
3. Keep your lower back straight and your spine in a neutral position.
4. Lower your arm by extending your elbows.

Level Up Your Workouts

From a pure fitness perspective, a toned muscle is a ratio between the size of a muscle and the body fat covering it. In other words, having toned arms is the result of a larger muscle with little fat covering it. 

So there are two things you need to do to have toned arms:

• Increase your muscle mass
• Decrease your body fat

In essence, if you want to tone any part of your body, you cannot do it by exercising alone — you need to adjust your diet to lose your body fat. 

Remember: when it comes to fitness results, consistency is key.