Three Excellent Exercises For Building Arm Strength
By: Am Costanzo
Tags: Motivation, Weight Loss, Workout, Exercise, Fitness

These three moves singlehandedly allow me to have strong and toned arms, and I’m certain of this due to the mere fact that I don’t do much else when it comes to arm workouts.

Now I’m not guaranteeing similar results as to mine, but I’m confident that if you do these moves on a regular basis (read: daily or every other day) you will notice a difference in the look and feel of your arms after one month.

That’s the beauty of exercise: It really freaking works!

It doesn’t take much time to perform these exercises either, so even if you only have 5 minutes in your day to spare, hit the floor and get to it. (Yes, it will make a difference! I just feel like I had to say that again.)

1. Tricep Dips

This move directly targets your triceps. I like to do at least 3 rounds of these with my legs fully extended in front of me. If you can’t quite get there yet, keep your knees bent, but be sure to not use your legs to lift you up… then you won’t be getting the most out of the move.

Here’s what you do:

While sitting on a chair or bench, place hands next to your hips on the edge of the chair, with legs stretched out before you, or knees slightly bent and feet flat on the floor.

Scooch your butt off the seat so you’re holding yourself up.

Slowly lower your body by bending your elbow to a 90˚ angle (or as low as you can go.)

Push yourself back up by straightening elbows

Repeat for 10 reps, 3x. Rest between rounds.

2. Push-Ups

These are the OG of arm exercises and you get a lot of bang for your push-up buck since it also works to strengthen your core.

Every day I try to get in at least 10 push-ups since you can literally do them anywhere. I’ll hit the floor next to my kid playing Legos and if he doesn’t take that as an opportunity to climb on my back I consider it a success. #momlife

Here’s how to properly perform a push up:

Palms on the floor, shoulder-width apart, directly below shoulders. Toes tucked under and body fully extended, making sure shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles are aligned in a plank position and your back is flat

Slowly bend your elbows and lower your chest as close to the floor as you can, keeping the body straight (no butts in the air!). Hold for a count and then push your way back up to starting position.

Tip: Pay attention to your elbows, you want them bending behind you, not out to the sides. This helps target your triceps even more.

In my experience, performing a push can be a difficult exercise to master, so don’t give up on them if you’re struggling. You can easily modify this exercise to help work your way up to a full push up.

Remember, it’s all about progress so even a small step toward achieving a big goal is always better than doing nothing at all.

Push-Up Modification:

To make it easier:

Perform the move from your knees or do the move standing about 1 foot in front of a wall and place hands on the wall. Slowly lean in towards the wall (your face coming awkwardly close to the wall), and then push away from the wall back to your starting position. Both variations will lighten the load that you’ll have to push against, making it much easier. Make sure to keep your body aligned.

To change it up:

A variation of the push up is a plank push up. This can build incredible strength and can help you to become much better at push-ups.

Start in full push up position with hands shoulder-width apart, shoulders right above palms. Check to make sure shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles are in alignment. You can also do this move from your knees, but make sure you’re still in a plank position- meaning your body is in a straight line from shoulders to knees. (No butts waving in the air!)

From either position, slowly lower one elbow to the floor, followed by the other elbow, so now you’re in a low plank.

Hold for a count and then place one palm back on the floor and push up to place the other palm back onto the floor so you’re back to your starting position. Repeat, alternating arms lowered, or do 5 with the right elbow coming down first and then switch to 5 with the left elbow coming down first.

3. Planks

So many variations this move cannot get boring.

There’s the crossover plank, x-plank, bear plank, push-up plank (from above), rotational plank, side plank, downward dog plank, jack plank and thread the needle plank just to name a nominal few.

The extra added bonus to this move is that it also strengthens your core and I know this because I don’t do a ton of sit-ups, I do a ton of planks and my core is stronger because of them.

This is a staple for any workout and they’re so simple to perform (at least I can easily advise you how to do them, but the actual process of doing them, well you know, that’s the hard part!)

Here’s the breakdown:

On the floor, come into a full push-up position. (Hands are directly under shoulders, elbows locked, toes tucked under, legs straight, making sure shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles make a straight line diagonally down from head to feet.)

Hold that position for as long as you can and each week try adding on a few more seconds. The key is to always be improving!

Planks are basic, simple and effective. Change it up by adding side leg taps, or bring one knee to the opposite elbow alternating legs… so many variations!

Adding these three moves to your routine, or starting a new routine with just these moves will make a difference in the shape and strength of your arms. Anyone can do these, just be safe, don’t overexert yourself and stick with it! Consistency is key! Skip a day, that’s ok, skip two that’s on you! Skip three and it’ll be a long time until you come back. Don’t let it get to that!