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The Guide to Real Women's Arm Toning 5 - Forearms and Tips

This is the final part in our series The Guide to Real Women’s Arm Toning - the perfect series for women who want toned arms. The full series is PART ONE, TWO and THREE and FOUR.

In this post we will be taking a look at the much overlooked forearms as well as touching on some final arm toning tips. Many women completely neglect to train their forearms - if that sounds like you then you should read this post.

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Introduction to toning the forearms

Of all the muscles in the body the forearms are probably the most toned. For one reason or another there seems to be less fat on the forearms and they naturally look and feel firm without any work. This is probably due to the fact that we use our fingers and grip strength a lot during the day and so are constantly working out the associated muscles.

This does not mean, however, that we should neglect to train our forearms. This series is about muscle development as an integral part of your arm toning program. Neglecting to train one muscle group is a very bad habit to get into. It can lead to unbalanced joints and posture later on down the track as well as an incomplete looking body.

The forearms do not need a lot of work to grow. As most women forget to train them they will find that as soon as they do some work the forearms will take off. This should be very encouraging.

The best forearm exercises

The forearms are a favorite muscle of mine to train as the techniques are not difficult and it doesn’t take much effort to do. Whenever I feel a bit lazy at the gym I sit down and work my forearms.

1. Reverse wrist curls
The classic exercise for the forearms is the reverse wrist curls. This is like the bench press for the chest or the curl for the biceps. It is good for two reasons: it works well and it is easy to do.

Make sure when you do your wrist curls you do two parts to the exercise. Firstly, roll the weight up and down in your hand and then once you can’t do any more of those switch to rolling the weight up and down in your fingers. This is the best way to totally fatigue your forearms.

2. Heavy bar holding
A very simple but effective exercise for the forearms is to stand while holding on to a very heavy barbell. You do not need to move or do anything - just stand there.

This is one of the best methods there is for developing some real strength in your hands and forearms. If you are a martial artists or a sportswoman like I know many of our readers are then this is a great exercise for you to start doing.

Remember to breathe deeply and hold on to it for as long as you can. Once you drop it take a short rest and do the same thing again.

Tips for women who want to tone their arms

I wanted to dedicate the final part of this series to giving women some practical tips that they can use to tone your arms. I will go through them in list form so you can scan the points and take note of them for further study.

1. Lose some fat!
The most important thing you need to know about getting toned arms is that it will never happen unless you lose some fat. It is the soft fat on top of your muscles that is preventing them from looking toned and firm. No matter how many weight lifting exercises you do, your arms will never look toned until you lose some of that fat.

2. Get intense
Intense exercises are a much better way to burn fat and challenge your muscles. If toning is your main goal you should do away with the low intensity slow exercises like jogging and replace them with:

1. Sprinting
2. Boxing
3. Martial arts
4. Rowing
5. Dancing
6. Indoor sport

Slow jogging does have its place in our workouts though as it is a very health past time. However, a couple of intense cardio session per week will do wonders for the overall appearance of your body.

3. Increase the weight
Everytime you go to the gym you should be increasing the weight on your exercises. It is very important to keep progressing. If you allow yourself to stay on the same weight for too long your body will get used to it and see no need to grow any more. This is when exercise becomes boring and when many women choose to throw it away.

4. Remember your protein
Make sure you are getting a lot of high quality protein from all-natural sources while you are on your arm toning stint. The best protein sources are fresh free range eggs, milk and so on. This helps muscle rebuild after a hard workout.

5. Post workout protein shake
The post workout protein shake is very important. You should have one as soon as your workout finishes. Studies have shown that if you have a protein shake within 10 minutes of working out you can increase your muscle development by up to 40% for that session.

Conclusion
I hope this series has helped some women work out a weight lifting program as part of their arm toning aspirations. Remember, you need to have a good diet and cardio program to get toned arms - weights will not do it by themselves.

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