Women: Tired of Your Noodle Arms?

Women’s Guide to a Sexier Upperbody. Words by Chad Washington, Fitness Editor.

“I don’t wanna be too bulky, I put on muscle real quick” or “I don’t wanna look like those bodybuilder women”. These are phrases women often use when asked about working their upper body.  But let’s look at the facts first.  Women don’t naturally produce enough testerone for this to even take place and as for those bodybulder women, most are using a supplement that decreases estrogen and increases testerone to allow that effect to happen.  So let’s not allow this to discourage you from getting a tighter toned upper body. Also remember the more muscularly fit you are the lower your bodyfat percentage.

Women normally have problem areas that tend to hold more bodyfat than others such as: back, triceps(back of arm) and lower abs.  Careful attention must be paid to these areas.   When trying to tone your body you must also keep in mind that you also need to keep constant movement. You need to superset your exercises: meaning pick two exercises and perform one right after another until you reach 3 sets of both exercises. Now when it comes to abdominals, remember that women’s abs respond a lot slower than men.  The focus should be on the contraction of the exercise rather than the number of reps.  Focus on squeezing your abs through the whole motion of the exercise.

Also keep in mind that multiple joint exercise prove to involve more muscles at one time which is better for overall fitness.

Below is a sample workout to follow to erase those problem areas:

Workout- Perform 3 sets of 15-20 reps of each superset

Stability Ball Pushups to tucks/tricep pressdowns

Dumbbell rows/front raises to lateral raises (perform front raises and immediately perform a lateral raises)

Core twists/V-ups

Seated resistance band rows/dumbbell curls

PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

Stability ball: Great for working your core and also great for exercises that challenge your stability.  This helps you have a more difficult workout without raising weight.

Medicine ball: Easy to carry and tote. The medicine ball has many uses and you will more than likely only have to purchase one for a very long time.

Resistance Bands: The provide excellent resistance to your workouts and are very different than the type of resistance you may get from a dumbbell or machine.  They take a very long time to wear out and are very cheap.