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You can exercise to tone up the muscle but it does not tone up the skin. If you have lost weight from your upper arms, the skin will shrink a bit in time, but it will never be the way it was when you were younger as it loses elasticity with age.
I do resistance training at the gym with strengthening and toning upper arms and chest being the main aim, and I swim too. I’ve only just started so can’t tell you if it works or not, but I’m going to do it three times per week for three months and then decide if it is worth continuing.
I’ve always had flappy arms (since puberty) and never expected to lose them to be honest but they are finally starting to go. It hasn’t been one particular exercise I’m afraid. I lost 4stone on my first 2 years on 5:2 just with the diet and then joined a gym. The massive increase in exercise has totally stopped any weight loss but I am definitely improving tone. I mostly swam to start with, then introduced Pilates & Yoga (Pilates especially is great for toning the limbs and both are great for the core). I now also do Body Combat and BoxFit and I’ve really noticed better tone in my arms since starting with those. I think my biggest recommendation to anyone would be to find some classes that you’re going to find fun and/or sociable and get hooked on them. Good instructors will vary the exercises fairly regularly, which will help stop your body getting too complaisant and used to the exercise anyway, so the main thing is to keep doing it until the tone comes in. It’s taken me a year though, and I was big to start with but I am in my 30s, so don’t expect overnight miracles. It’s like the fasting itself – slow & steady will get you there in the end and help keep it off.
Push ups are a great exercise for toning the upper arms. For an easier variant try doing your push up against a kitchen work surface or on your stairs at home. Practice keeping your whole body straight and lowering and raising slowly. Maybe start doing 2 sets of 6 then increase repetitions and sets.
Wow – if anyone knew the miracle cure to this I’m sure the word would be on the street…! I have always had big arms, and even at my thinnest (around 7st 12lb) I remember disliking them!! I have always anecdotally moaned this is where Id have plastic surgery (I never would!). HOWEVER, that been said, like Tracy, a good proportion of my 5:2 weight loss (20lb since January 13th) has been from my arms. Noticeably! I doubt they’ll ever be my best feature but I’m sure no one else notices them, definitely not now!
Hiya LittleWing. Pre-5:2 I would definitely have had surgery on my arms if I could ever justify the expense. Even though I was quite toned & not a wobbly fat person (I WAS fat – I accept that now, although then I just thought I was ‘big boned’ & that’s just how I was SUPPOSED to be) my arms and the fronts of my legs were my big bug-bears. I have NEVER (since puberty) had the confidence to wear a sleeveless, or even just short sleeved, top out in public. However, I am already wearing short sleeved tops now and can definitely see a time when sleeveless is an option. Even my stretch marks on my arms seem to be less noticeable these days bizarrely. It’s so liberating.
Literally the only bit of me I’m bothered about others accidentally seeing now is my belly and even that is proportionally smaller than it was of course. Still another stone before I’m comfortably within range of a ‘good’ BMI so maybe that will just be the last thing to go. If it wouldn’t mind taking that last little bit of arm wobbliness with it I’d certainly be very grateful 😉
I am hopeful that my arms will tone up with time and tbh they aren’t that bad, but my age makes that less likely, and I think that is really Lesnic’s query. It seems to be the one thing that is the bugbear of many older women who have recently lost weight because we all would like to wear short sleeves or sleeveless clothing without thinking about how our arms look.
When I’m in the gym using the resistance equipment and struggling, I think of my upper arms jiggling and it helps me complete the set!
As Little Wing alluded to, if I find the cure I’m going to register the patent before telling anyone 😉
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