7 Amazingly Effective Arm Slimming Exercises for Women

Triceps, when properly weight-trained, make up two-thirds of your upper arm's overall size. 

As such, it's better to do a quick triceps workout than to skip it when your gym time is tight. If it's absolutely necessary to skip a body-part when training arms, better you should skip biceps than triceps if you're looking to develop upper arm muscle mass.

Your triceps brachii muscles have 3 heads - the long head, medial head and lateral head. They run down the back of your upper arm, from shoulder to elbow, and are mostly involved in extending your elbow to straighten your arm. 

The concentric portion of each rep contracts your triceps and fully straightens your arms, while the eccentric portion lowers the weight by allowing the elbow to bend to 90 degrees or more.

While twice the size of your biceps, the triceps are still one of the smaller bodyparts and can recover more quickly that larger muscle groups like legs, back and chest. 

This means you can work your triceps 2 - 3 times per week on non-consecutive days, but be careful not to use heavier weights than you can manage with proper form to prevent damaging your elbow ligaments or joint.

If you're training time is limited during a workout, use these three exercises to work the triceps, doing 3 or 4 sets of 10 reps each. Don't rush the reps - use a cadence of 1 second up and 3 seconds down with no pause or rest at the top or bottom of each movement.

Lying Triceps Extensions 

Also known as 'skull-crushers', lying triceps extensions start with you lying flat on the bench with your arms straight up above you, perpendicular to your body. 

The exercise can be done with dumbbells, a straight bar, a cambered (EZ curl) bar or the specialized triceps bar. 

Start by slowly lowering the weight to your forehead then return it back to the top position at a faster speed. At the end of each set, go immediately into the next exercise with no break.

Narrow-Grip Bench Press 

The second half of this triceps superset is the narrow-grip bench press. 

If you're using a triceps bar then you'll automatically have a narrow grip already, but if not then be sure your grip is about shoulder width or a touch narrower. 

Going any narrower than that places too much strain on the wrists at the bottom of the movement, so if you find your wrists getting sore widen your grip slightly. Since you're already lying on the bench in the proper position, lower the weights to your chest while keeping your elbows tucked close to your body, then raise the weight directly up by extending your arms. 

Do not let your elbows drift out to the sides as this involves the pectoral muscles of the chest more than you want it to - keep the tension on your triceps as the weight moves up and down.

Because you're supersetting this press with the extensions the weight won't be as heavy as you could do otherwise, so you can compensate by either doing a few more reps per set or slowing each rep down, especially on the eccentric (lowering) portion of each rep.

At the end of your set rest for about a minute, then go back to the lying extensions to begin your next set. Perform the full cycle 3 - 4 times before moving on to the third exercise.

Overhead Triceps Extensions 

Sit up on your bench with your feet flat on the floor and a neutral or slightly-arched lower back. 

Using two hands, suspend a dumbbell overhead so that it rests perpendicular to the floor - your thumbs and forefingers should be wrapped around the handle while your palms and other fingers are pressed against the underside of the top bell to support the weight.

Keeping your elbows facing forward and tucked close to the sides of your head, bend your elbows and slowly lower the weight as far down as you can behind your head, then return the weight back up to directly overhead. 

Your upper arms should not move during the exercise but instead stay upright and close to your head.

Other Triceps Exercises 

The three exercises above will give you quick tricep workouts that are effective in building more muscle, but if you need to replace any of them due to injury or other physical issues, replace the necessary exercise with dumbbell kickbacks. 

Kickbacks have been shown to stimulate all 3 heads during each rep, so it's your best replacement exercise. 

Other triceps exercises like pushdowns, rope pushdowns, overhead cable extensions and triceps dips are good too, but save them for your workouts where time isn't limited and you can fit one or more of them in with these three.

Bigger biceps are a status symbol, a symbol of personal physical power, and every bodybuilder spends a fair amount of time working to achieve the best biceps they can build. Unfortunately time isn't always on our side, so for some workouts we need a quick bicep routine like this one...

Now, we don't want to take a lot of time, but we don't want to waste what little time we have either, right? So do a quick warmup set of curls if you haven't already warmed up your biceps while training other body parts. 

Don't overdo it - one set of 10 - 15 reps should suffice to get blood into the muscles and loosen up the joints, tendons and ligaments. Now choose a pair of dumbbells you can manage safely for 10 or 12 reps with strict form.

Note that these aren't reps you can cheat up with plenty of momentum and 'body English', but rather good, strict reps at a temp of 1 second up (concentric) and 3 - 5 seconds down (eccentric). 

For 2 of these 3 exercises you'll be taking body motion out of the equation entirely, so you need to choose weights that are challenging but manageable.

Do each of these three biceps exercises for 3 - 5 sets (depending on your available time), with 10 - 12 reps per set. Focus on keeping to your tempo, not trying to race through each set.

Incline Dumbbell Curls

Set the back of your bench to a 30 - 45 degree angle, then sit on the bench laying back against it with the dumbbells hanging at each side. 

Perform your curls through the full range of motion, finishing a full rep with one arm before repeating with the opposite arm. 

Keep your body flat on the bench throughout and don't let your elbows travel forward as you raise and lower the weights.

Dumbbell Scott Curls or Dumbbell Preacher Curls

Depending on the equipment you have available, you can do these as Scott curls or preacher curls. 

If neither bench is available, you can also stand behind an incline bench and rest the back of your upper arm down the padded back. 

Use a sitting or standing position that has you leaning forward from the waist with your armpit snug to the top of the pad. 

Resist the urge to lean backward as you raise the weights - the reason you're using the bench is to prevent yourself from 'cheating' the rep by involving your bodyweight. 

Curl the weight to the top, squeeze your contracted biceps hard for a second or two and then return it, under control, to the extended position.

Standing Dumbbell Curls

To finish off this quick bicep workout, use standing dumbbell curls. On the first exercise your elbow was behind the plane of your body while on the second it was ahead of your body, and this time you'll keep your elbows at your sides. 

Raise the weights one arm at a time, pronating your wrist at the top, rotating it to bring your baby finger closest to your chest & shoulder, before lowering it again at a controlled pace. Do not just let it drop back down, stick to the 3 - 5 second pace.

By the end of this quick bicep workout you should be able to tell the muscles have been well-worked, and flexing them should reflect a good pump. 

If timing is too tight even for this short routine, you can shorten it even further by doing one set of each exercise with no breaks in between, resting for one minute and then repeating the 3 sets until you've done your 3 - 5 cycles.

Either way, re-rack your dumbbells and smile - your biceps know they've had a great, fast workout!

By D. Champigny