Michelle Obama, Meghan Markle, and Madonna. These are just a few examples of well-known women known as much for their beauty and intelligence as for their toned arms. These empowered women may also be among your role models for toning your arms but you aren’t making as much progress as you hoped! Perhaps, you will even want to pay the Anytime Fitness prices for personal training to achieve your desired results.
While hiring a personal trainer has its benefits, you may not need it. You should first check whether you’re making these mistakes, and don’t sweat it because we’ve all made these mistakes at one point or another.
Too Many Bicep Curls
If you’re just toning your arms, you don’t have to perform bicep curls most, if not all, of the time. In fact, bicep curls aren’t as necessary as you think – unless, of course, you’re working toward bodybuilder-like size and definition.
Instead of one too many bicep curls, you should switch to other push and pull exercises that also open and close the elbow joint (i.e., develop well-rounded and toned arms). These exercises include chest presses, shoulder presses, and push-ups (push exercises) as well as seated rows, upright pulls, and rowing (pull exercises).
Too Much Focus on a Single Muscle
Keep in mind that the arm has several muscles – the biceps and the triceps. Many people focus on just one of these muscles to the detriment of the others, such as too much focus on the biceps. The mistake here lies in performing the same exercises that challenge either the biceps or the triceps.
The result: An imbalance in the strength of the muscles as well as in their symmetry. Always remember then to adopt a well-rounded arm training program that will develop both the biceps and triceps in eqal measure.
Too Much Swinging
If you’re swinging your arms, then you’re only cheating yourself. You’re taking the easy way by cheating to achieve a full rep, and it doesn’t do anything for your goal. You may be fatigued during the final reps so you swing on the curls to complete a set, an understandable movement but it isn’t good for your arms.
The solution: Just drop the weight if you’re having difficulties completing a full set with correct form. You may also use either a bench or a machine to hold your arm in place and keep your correct form. Remember that it’s important to keep a correct form so as to overload the area and isolate the muscle resulting in more efficient, if not quicker, muscle toning.
You may also be speeding up your reps in your desire to get things over quickly for any reason (e.g., pain in your arms). But you should aim for about 1 to 2 seconds of contraction and eccentric phase to achieve the desired results.
And while you may want to maximize the amount of money paid for the Anytime Fitness prices for membership through frequent visits, you shouldn’t train your arms too frequently. Overloading them too often in a single week will have negative effects on their size and strength.