Arm Exercise

Arms look unsightly when they are flabby and not in shape. There are various exercises that can make your arm look great and give it a good shape. You need not shy clear of sleeveless clothes anymore for fear of exposing your flabby arms. You don't necessarily have to go to the gym for exercising your arm… there are simple exercises that can be done at the comfort of your home it self.

Exercising the arm does not mean simply exercising the triceps and the biceps but also includes exercising the shoulders and the forearms as this gives a balanced overall muscle tone. While exercising the arms, make sure that all the muscles are exercised equally as there are exercises that concentrate on a particular muscle group alone.

Exercising the arm can be done in sets, exercising the upper arms and exercising the forearms. The upper arms include the biceps and the triceps and are exercised more vigorously than the forearm, as the forearm is usually worked out on its own. Try out these simple arm exercises.

Arm exercise

Pull-ups

Push-ups: Concentrates on building strength for the entire upper body. Keep your arms straight and elbows a little bent, allow your knees and hands to touch the ground. Lower your body to the ground level until you remain four to five inches above the ground. Then pull yourself up. Repeat ten times.

Dumbbells are an inexpensive and easy way to shape your arms.

Dumbbells curl: Stand with the dumbbells in your hand, hold your arms straight down and let the palms face you. Hold your elbow in a locked position and curl the dumbbell towards your shoulder, now lower the dumbbell and repeat.

Triceps crusher: Lie flat on the floor and hold a light weight dumbbell, stretch your hands at shoulder width and spread out the palms. Bend your elbows to a right angle and lower the weight towards your head. Compress your triceps and repeat, for changing hands hold the palms facing each other.

Triceps dip: Sit on an exercise ball or bench; hold your hands close to your hip. Move your hips towards the front and bend your elbows to less than ninety degrees. Pull yourself up without locking the elbows. Repeat ten times.

Balls: Have fun exercising with balls, play ball games like volleyball, throw ball etc this will strengthen and shape up your arms. Tennis is a great way for overall fitness and arm strength.

Boxing is another fantastic way to strengthen and reduce flabby arms.

Stretching the arms: Another effective way to strengthen your arms is to stretch it out for about ten seconds. Stand and stretch your hand one by one above your head and hold for ten seconds, get back to normal position, relax and repeat.

Lateral shoulders raise: Sit straight on a chair, hold a dumbbell in each hand and leave your hands down by your sides. Lift your arms upwards and stretch it outwards to the side, lift your arms up to your shoulders. Get back to normal position, relax and repeat.

Triceps extension: Spread your feet apart and hold weights in each hand; raise your arms above your head. Lower your arms behind your head, as much as you can, get back to normal position, relax and repeat.

Hammer curl: Hold dumbbell in each of your hands, let the weights face outwards; allow your arms to form a right angle. Hold your elbows close to your body and slowly curl the weight up to your shoulder. Lower the weights and repeat.

Popular arm exercises

Triceps

• Standing triceps extensions
  
• Lying triceps extensions
  
• Kick backs
  
• Close grip bench presses

Biceps

• Incline dumbbell curls
  
• Standing barbell curls
  
• Machine dumbbell curls
  
• Seated alternate dumbbell curls
  
• Hammer curls
  
• Preacher curls

Forearms

• Barbell wrist curls
  
• Dumbbell wrist curls
  
• Reverse barbell wrist curls
  
• Reverse curls