Getting Ready to Go Sleeveless…………How to Tone Your Arms When You're Time Short | Updated

I've updated this post because the challenge of late spring, summer and the sleeveless dress is pretty much here, and because I love to go sleeveless.  There are plenty of long sleeved and three quarter sleeved options out there, but how much more enjoyable to be able to bare it all and show off toned arms. 

There are three ways to tone your arms quickly, with swimming probably being the easiest no kit option, but not everyone has a pool nearby.  If you do, use it.

Then how to tone your arms is easily solved with the above Pilates Perfect Body Arms video (from YouTube), but it’s important to start as early as possible and give a few minutes each day to get results (the arms section is just 10 minutes long and all you need is a small pair of dumbells).


There’s also a five minute 5lb dumbell workout for arms (also on YouTube).  My advice is to get a set of handweights featuring 1, 2, 3 and 5lb dumbells then you’ll have no excuse and you can vary what you do.

These are the best ways I have found for arm toning.  Of course you can use much heavier weights and do other exercises instead but these seriously works, they don’t take a lot of time and you can do it them at home.  The most important thing is to keep doing something.

Don't think this is difficult, nor that age bears any relation to whether or not you can have sleek smooth sexy arms and shoulders - all it takes is a bit of time and motivation - after all, who wants to cover up all of the time? 

Toning up your arms is easy and doesn’t have to take a lot of time, however you need to take a run at it so it's well worth starting now and where you used to have to buy a DVD to get a great arms workout now you can just click on one of the pictures above.

Going on diets, cardio at the gym or anywhere else, resistance training - all are great.  Spot toning is what will succeed on those areas that you specifically want to improve, be they arms, waist, core, bum or thighs.  Don’t listen to anyone who says they don’t work, they do. And I know these things.

I go to a gym when I travel, and work out at home when I’m in the UK.  It’s worth building up a small amount of kit to use at home, in this case particularly hand weights, then there are no excuses, you don’t have to go out and you can use any spare moments you have. I use 1.5kg weights to do the arms Pilates section and they get really heavy after a short time.  I suggest if you're a beginner you start with .5kg but get a couple of weights up as well.

Be aware that what seem to be light weights to start with get heavy very quickly as you do a lot of repetitions, so start with something easy. You'll probably be surprised how quickly, if you do one of these routines regularly, you can do a heavier weight.  John Lewis have hand weights that go up to 4kg (pictured above) and they go up in 1kg rises.

Also

Cindy Whitmarsh 10 Minute Solutions Arms
Pilates Perfect Body Arms
Rapid Results Pilates Arms Workout

And if you need any more motivation – think of yourself going sleeveless in just a very few weeks, and that great feeling when you know you don’t need a cardigan, shrug or wrap to cover anything up………,

You can also look at something like these Fitness Mad neoprene dumbells (delivery is free).  Needless to say they last for ever, so a set of dumbells is an excellent investment, and you can of course keep adding to them.