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Toned & thin women's arms - don't forget the triceps!

Many women think toned and thin arms means hours doing curls and other bicep exercises. However, it is actually more important to build your triceps if you want firm and toned arms that don’t wobble or jiggle!

Toned triceps are the way to go!

I have written many posts on getting toned women’s arms but I wanted to make sure that everyone knows how important it is to place a bigger emphasis on the triceps as opposed to the biceps. The reason for this is, as I have explained before, that the triceps take up two thirds of the upper arm and the biceps only one. This means that if you want to thin or tone your arms two thirds of the work should be on the triceps.

So why does everyone focus on the biceps?

If you go to the gym you will see everyone (on their arms day) pumping their biceps with bar bells, dumb bells, cables and machines but you will not see many people put the same love into the back of their arms - the triceps.

I think the reason for this is simply that the biceps are more popular as a muscle (like the abs) and that the biceps are on show slightly more than the triceps. However, one thing I don’t think many people consider is that other people can see your triceps just as much as your biceps - it is only you who cannot see them unless you are looking in a mirror!

So the point is - if your want to tone or thin your arms, or if you want to build stronger more powerful arms then you need to put more energy into exercising your triceps.

What exercises are best for the triceps?

I have written several posts on this before which are listed at the end of this post but I have a few favorites that I want to go over again.

Behind the head lifts
Last night I did a triceps workout and I affirmed my love for a particular exercise called the behind the head lift. This is the exercise where one takes a dumb bell and, holding it with two hands, hoists it over your head and allows it to drop back down to your shoulder blades so that your elbows are pointing towards the sky. You then lift the weight by straightening your arms until the weight is above your head and then lower it back down to get a nice stretch in the muscles.

Narrow Grip Pushups
If you put your hands close together there is a shift of muscle usage and the pushup becomes more about your triceps than your chest. Experiment with this exercise, shifting your hand positions to different areas and putting your feet up on a table so that there is more weight on your arms. I find that pushups can make my muscles just as sore as heavy weights and so on.

Women's Fitness Forum -- ask us questions about toning!

Close Grip Bench Press

This is another excellent exercise that, when performed correctly, will give you the gains you are after. There is a little secret with this exercise where you bounce the bar bell off of your chest just as you have lowered it down so that instead of stopping on your chest the bar shoots back up only about two inches and continues its motion to the top position. This trick allows you to keep the weight on your triceps and keeps your chest from taking over (which it likes to do!). It also makes the exercise a lot harder as you get no rest time in between repetitions.

Conclusion
I have been getting a few emails from my loyal readers asking me to write some women’s arms workouts and routines that can be used in the gym on a weekly basis. So, within the next week I will post some workouts that can be printed and taken to the gym.

In the meatime, leave a comment letting us know what your favorite triceps exercise is.

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