Targeted muscle training for the upper arms helps to fill the sagging skin with muscles and thus burn calories too!

“Waving arms” or “bobbing arms” are not exactly nice descriptions for a phenomenon that bothers many women on their upper arms: the skin sags and some women therefore do without short-sleeved tops in summer. Slack upper arms  do not have to be.

We’ll show you what you can do about it!

How do slack upper arms develop?

Slack upper arms are caused by two different causes. On the one hand, because our connective tissue loses more and more of its stability with age, and the skin on the thighs, upper arms and stomach begins to flop downwards following the force of gravity.

On the other hand, if there is suddenly too much skin “left” due to a major weight reduction. Such excess skin can become inflamed, for example if it remains on the stomach as a so-called “fat apron” after a significant weight reduction.

The skin begins to rub under the large skin fold and inflammation develops in the warm, humid environment.

This article is about the prevention of “normal” flaccid upper arms, which are age-related and not caused by a major weight loss.

Muscle training helps!

Targeted muscle training for the upper arms helps to fill the sagging skin with muscles and thus also to burn calories!

Our upper arms consist of two strong muscles, the biceps and the triceps, which can be specifically trained. You don’t even need a gym to do this.

There are simple exercises that you can easily incorporate into everyday life. From the exercises mentioned, create your own personal little training unit, which you do at least once a day, but ideally twice.

It would be ideal to take a moment to do this in the morning and in the evening. Maybe you have music on your Mp3 player that makes the exercises in rhythm really fun?

Praying with pressure against slack upper arms

To do this, place both palms of your hands against each other in front of your chest. Raise your elbows horizontally and now press against your palms with both arms at the same time.

Hold the pressure briefly, then release it and repeat the exercise a total of 10 times.

Finger wrestling against slack upper arms

To do this, hook all the fingers of your two hands together in front of your chest. Again, lift your elbows outward and keep them level.

Now pull your fingers outward with all your strength, trying to pull your elbows outward as far as possible. Hold briefly and then repeat 10 times.

Push-ups against slack upper arms

For beginners, it is advisable to do the push-ups from the four-footed position. To do this, kneel down and bend forward so that your hands support your upper body on the floor.

Place your hands under your chest, shoulder width apart. Cross your ankles. Now inhale and lower the weight down, bending your elbows outwards.

Hold briefly and while exhaling push the weight of your upper body back up. Do not rest your upper body on the floor and never fully straighten your elbows.

If you have done this exercise 10 times a day and you find it easy, first increase the frequency to 30 times and then the difficulty and switch to “normal” push-ups with knees straight and on tiptoe instead of on the knees.

Dumbbells against slack upper arms

If you don’t (yet) have dumbbells, you can also use water bottles in various sizes.

At the beginning, 0.5l bottles made of plastic are suitable, if you are well trained, 1.5l or 2l water bottles are also suitable. The latter are so difficult to grasp that you might invest in dumbbells after all.

To be on the safe side, fill the water bottles with sand, for example bird sand, if you like. So nothing can happen if the bottles fall on the floor.

A good exercise is to let your arms hang sideways and then slowly and straight up to the horizontal. You should then form a T with your legs hip-width apart. Hold the position briefly and repeat 30 times.

Swimming against slack upper arms

Water sports are the best way to train your muscles, stimulate your circulation and burn fat at the same time!

The water in the swimming pool is always at a temperature that is below your body temperature.

This causes heat loss over a large body surface, which allows your fat to melt in addition to movement.

Water aerobics and other water sports are also very gentle on the joints and especially overweight and elderly people with joint problems can play painless sports.

The crawl is the most effective type of swimming to train the muscles in your upper arms and thereby tone the upper arms.