There’s a myth that it’s hard to tone your arms. And that after a certain age you shouldn’t go sleeveless. Both are nonsense as perfectly toned arms can go happily sleeveless whatever your age, and your arms are like any other muscles in your body. Use them or lose them. If you know how to tone your arms and put a bit of effort into it you, like everyone else, will be going sleeveless this summer.Although every gym nut will tell you something different, and every trainer will give you a different set of exercises (not to mention the ‘skin firming’ lotions and potions out there) there is a really simple routine that takes no more than a few minutes each day and that you can do at home at any time of day or night. You’re going to need two things. A very good DVD that gets things done in a short time, and a set of light weights.
My favourite DVD that I’ve never got bored of and that I use whenever I don’t have time is Pilates Perfect Body. It’s a Pilates DVD (well it would be, wouldn’t it?) that contains a full body workout broken down into ten minute segments. It’s worth doing the whole thing as Pilates is great for toning up everywhere, but worth investing in just for the arms segment, which is seriously good. You’ll be amazed at how tired your arms become if you go through the whole routine without stopping, even with the lightest of weights.
Then you need the weights. Start with 1kg weights and build up to 1.5. USA pro hand weights on Amazon are very well priced so you have no excuse, you can get the DVD and the weights for less than a tenner. These are not investments to make you feel guilty if you don’t use them – they’ll just make you feel great if you do. And you can do this in ten minutes a day – if you can resist the rest of the exercises.
I realise that this is written with suspect timing (you may think) as there’s snow on the ground and still cold weather to come. However there’s no doubt that it will warm up, and you will want to ditch the sleeves, shrug, wrap and cover-up and go sleeveless. Well now you can. But start now. It won’t take long to notice a difference, but totally toned arms will take a little longer.
