The Active Habitat

A Sculpting Arm Workout and Tips for Beginners

This past weekend, when writing this post, we saw the royal wedding at a morning viewing party (take a look at our instagram for our cheesy tea party) and admiring how beautiful Meghan Markle look. I particularly loved her second look for the reception. Those toned shoulder and arms, looked amazing in the white dress from Stella McCartney. Beautifully sculpted arms are an extra touch to any look. Many people hide their arms, embarrassed they are too loose or too skinny. Regardless, we can do something about it. We can perform sculpting arm workouts to build muscle on the arms.

I wanted to share three tips to working out arms and a workout that incorporates these tips. So get your gym gear on and get started on this sculpting arm workout.

Tip 1: The arms consist of the bicep (as you can imagine that’s TWO muscles, that lie on the top of the arms) and triceps (THREE muscles below the arm.) Best way to incorporate all these muscles is to mix hammer (a neutral or wide grip lifts) and regular bicep curls. For triceps, perform overhead triceps lifts and pulling motions, such as rope pull-downs. Also incorporating single arm exercise to ensure one arm does not compensating for the other.

Tip 2: Unlike the larger muscles, arms don’t need much weight. As the goal for these exercise is not how strong you are, but contracting the muscle properly. Go for 10-15 reps, with a weight that is manageable.

Tip 3: Focus on the form, arms tucked on your side, with elbows facing straight ahead. Fully extend the muscles, and with control, contract the muscle. Letting go of the contraction with the same control as the lift.

This workout is sweet and short, and can be done twice to three times a week, mix with other workouts or alone:

Superset #1

12-15 dumbbell bicep curls
12-15 dumbbell hammer curls

Superset #1

12-13 reps of seated overhead dumbbell
15 reps of bench dips

10-12 reps of single arm preacher curls

Superset #3

12-15 reps rope triceps straight arm pulldown
12-15 reps rope overhead pull-downs

10-12 reps of close grip push-ups (easier drop to knees) with slow four second drop

Sculpting Back and Bicep Weightlifting Workout

Arm Exercises Back Exercises Resistance Training

I always enjoy looking at Youtube videos and Instagram for inspiration and workout ideas. It pushes me to switch up my usual workouts and work on different muscles. Especially for the back and biceps muscles, where there are countless exercise for these muscle groups. However every now and then, I go back to the classic exercises. These are the exercise, if done correct, have sculpted and shape bodies in bodybuilding for years.

Here is a sculpting back and bicep weightlifting workout to add to your workout routine:

1) Wide Grip Lat Pull-down – 2 warm-up sets of 5-8 reps and 3 working sets of 8 repetitions

2) Superset: 4 sets of 8-10 repetitions

Cable Rope Hammer Curl

Close Grip Lat Pull-down

3) Assisted Chin-ups – 3 sets of 10 repetitions

4) Super-set: 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions

Straight Arm Dumbbell Pull-over

Alternating Dumbbell Bicep Curl

5) Seated Cable Row – 2 dropset to failure (start with 3 rep max and keep dropping weight till no longer cable of pulling)

6) Super-set: 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions

Bent Over Barbell Row

Alternating Standing Close-Grip and Wide Grip Barbell Curl

For a full weight loss and workout routine, check out this blog post.

Shoulder and Arm Workout With Weights

Arm Exercises Exercises Resistance Training Shoulder Exercises

Looking for ways to tone the shoulder and arms to wear that off the shoulder clothing or strapless dress. This is a great workout to grow and define the muscles that we’re eventually will always show…especially in the summer. I know I did for my wedding dress. I wore a strapless dress and workouts like these gave me confidence to wear it. So here is a great shouder and arm workout.

Warm-up the shouders using pressing and and joint rotation movements to prevent injury and stimulate the muscles. Follow with static stretches after performing warm-up motions. If you need a guide to warming-up, read this past post on stretching muscles.

Arnold Press– 4 sets x 15,15,10,8 reps
Alternate Incline Dumbbell Curls– 3 sets x 8 reps (each arm)
Standing Overhead Barbell Triceps Extension– 3 sets x 10 reps
Seated Side Laterals Raises -3 sets x 15 reps
Cable Hammer Curls– 4 sets x 15,10,10,8
Cable Triceps Pushdowns with Curl Bar -4 sets x 10 reps for both overhand & underhand (20 reps total)
Standing Alternate Shoulder Press – 3 sets x 10 reps
Superset: Keep going till you are only capable of doing one rep for both exercise
- Push-ups to failure
- Inverted reverse grip rows to failure

A Dumbbell Upper Body Workout for Beginners

Arm Exercises Back Exercises Chest Exercises Exercises Resistance Training

It can be a struggle for those new to the gym to figure out a workout. Especially one that is easy, but effective. So for those struggling, here is simple dumbbell upper body workout that will give you tone and slim upper body.

These workouts are done as supersets, which means no rest between each exercise in a given workout. After all two or three exercises are completed rest for 30 seconds and move to the next set.

Workout #1: 3 sets of 12-15 sets each exercise.

Workout #2: 4 sets of 10-12 sets each exercise.

Workout #3: 4 sets of 10-12 sets each exercise.

Workout #4: 3 sets of 12-15 sets each exercise.

Workout #5: 3 sets of 12-15 sets each exercise.

Top 5 Arm Exercises and Tips

Arm Exercises Exercises Resistance Training

In these series, we have gone through the best back exercise, best shoulder exercise, and now we move on to something we all want, having well defined arms. These are the top 5 arm exercises and tips to get the most out of every exercises.

Arm muscle consist of both the triceps brachii and the biceps. Triceps consist of three heads, hence the prefix “tri.” These three heads are the long head, lateral head, and the medial head. The biceps has two head, prefix “bi,” which are the short head head and the long head.

Just performing biceps curls will not give you slim, toned arms. It is important to focus on:

All heads of the muscles to provide a well rounded muscle built
Full extend the muscle and contraction to get the most out of every exercise
Flex the opposing muscle to allow the full stimulation on the contracting muscles. In other words, flex the bicep, while doing triceps exercises.
Squeeze and hold at the top of every exercises, this will provide a great blood flow to the muscles.

Lets start with the best bicep workouts:

FullSizeRender 1 - Top 5 Arm Exercises and Tips

1. Dumbbell Bicep Curls: Regular curls, palms facing up, will focus on the long head. Which is the largest head that is normally flexed. So add dumbbell curls, as well as other variations such as cable and barbell curls.

2. Hammer Curls: Curls with the palms facing each other, rather on the cable, barbell, or dumbbell, focuses on the short head of the bicep.

3. Zottman Curls: This exercise focuses on both heads. This is more advance, but great exercise to incorporate. Perform a basis bicep curl to flex the arms and on top switch to a hammer curl while extending the arms.

Now with the with the best tricep exercise:

FullSizeRender 6 - Top 5 Arm Exercises and Tips

1. Tricep Kickbacks: This exercise focuses on the lateral head of the triceps. This is the largest head of the three and is the most often overlooked. Other exercises are close-grip bench press and dips.

2. Overhead Extension: There are many variation of overhead extension, like the skull crusher and dumbbell tricep extension, that focuses on the long head. The long head is the opposite side of the horse shoe.

3. Tricep Pushdown: This exercise focuses on all heads and overall a great exercise. It focuses on the medial head, which is the head that stabilizes the elbow joint. Most exercises will work the medial head, as it is impossible to directly work this muscle.

A Toning Upper Body Workout

Arm Exercises Back Exercises Chest Exercises Exercises Resistance Training Shoulder Exercises

Our workouts these days consist of 4 days of resistant training. Either a lower body or upper body workout. We wanted to share our upper body workout to build muscle while shedding weight. Because the focus is losing weight, we increased reps and added super-sets (exercise done back to back with minimal rest) to keep our heart rate up.

Also something new we have been trying is to start each workout with compound exercises (an exercise that uses multiple muscle groups) and then follow-up with super-sets.

Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 warm-up sets, 5 set for 10-12 reps

Smith Machine Overhead Press: 2 warm-up sets, 5 set for 10-12 reps

Super-set #1: Bent Over Barbell Rows: 4 sets for 12-15 reps
Reverse Dumbbell Flyes: 4 sets for 12-15 reps

Super-set #2: Wide Grip Lat Pulldown: 4 sets for 10-12 reps
Bicep Curls: 4 sets for 8 reps bicep curls & 8 reps hammer curls

Super-set #3: Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 4 sets for 10-12 rep
Triceps Push-downs with Rope: 4 sets for 12-15 reps

Finisher Super-set: Dips (Assisted or Unassisted) 3 sets to failure
Pull-ups (Assisted or Unassisted) 3 sets to failure

Easy Toning Arm Workout Routine

Arm Exercises Exercises Resistance Training

While some people will find it pointless to designate a workout for arms, we and like many others, were not blessed with arms that were lean and define. So when we started assigning one day for arm workouts, they drastically changed. Here is a toning arm workout to build that is great to achieve long and define muscles.

And if you don’t feel the need to focus on just arms, then these exercises can be great to incorporate to any workout.

Super-set #1:
Triceps Kickbacks– 2 warm-up sets* and 3 work-sets* of 10-12 reps
One Handed Dumbbell Curl- 2 warm-up sets and 3 work-sets of 10-12 repsSuper-set #2:
Standing Barbell Curls– 4 sets of 8 reps close grip and 8 reps wide grip*
Lying Down Skull Crushers– 4 sets of 10-12 repsSuper-set #3:
Triceps Press-downs– 3 sets of twenty-ones*
Rope Hammer Curl– 3 sets of twenty-onesSuper-set #4:
Zottman Bicep Curls– 3 Sets of 8 reps
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Extension– 3 sets of 8 reps

*Explanation on Terms:
Warm-up sets: To prepare the target muscle group and the joints in order to avoid injury. It is best to progressively increase the weight to your normal work-set.
Work-sets: The sets where the targeted muscle works to exhaustion by the last rep.
Twenty-Ones: Best explain here
Close Grip: Keeping your arms shoulder length focusing on the inner head of the bicep
Wide Grip: Keeping your arms further from shoulder length (hand placement away) focusing on the outer head of the bicep

Here is a sculpting back and bicep weightlifting workout to add to your workout routine:

It can be a struggle for those new to the gym to figure out a workout. Especially one that is easy, but effective. So for those struggling, here is simple dumbbell upper body workout that will give you tone and slim upper body.

In these series, we have gone through the best back exercise, best shoulder exercise, and now we move on to something we all want, having well defined arms. These are the top 5 arm exercises and tips to get the most out of every exercises.

Lets start with the best bicep workouts:

Now with the with the best tricep exercise:

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