Want Buff Arms? Try These 5 Bodyweight Moves

Let’s face it: everyone sees your arms. You can cover your legs with pants and skirts. You can hide your tummy with A-lines or baby doll cuts. But unless you want to wear long sleeves 365 days a year, your arms are going to show! So why not take control and shape up those arms for good! The best part is that you don’t need an expensive gym membership or fancy equipment. With just your bodyweight and can-do spirit, you’ll be able to sculpt and shape those arms and bare them proudly for the world to see.

The Importance of Arm Muscle

Yes, sculpted, shapely arms are things of beauty, but there’s so much more to arm strength! Consider these important qualities that a strong upper body can foster:

Better Posture: Strengthening the upper body will help you learn to stand taller and improve your overall posture. Often the rounding of the shoulders – what you might think of as a hunchback – comes from a combination of tight chest and weak upper back muscles. By concentrating on good upper body strength, you can teach yourself to stand tall and look younger.

More Independence: A weak upper body means a weaker person overall. You need to stay strong if you want to maintain independent living for many years to come. Think of all the routine activities that require a strong upper body: carrying children, picking up boxes, hauling your own luggage, pushing a mower or taking down the Christmas decorations from storage. Independent living requires a strong body that can care for itself. If you fall, can you get yourself back up?

Fewer Injuries: This one comes down to simple statistics: those who strength-train experience fewer injuries than those who don’t. Research indicates that resistance training promotes growth and increases in the strength of ligaments, tendons, tendon to bone and ligament to one junction strength, joint cartilage and the connective tissue sheaths within muscle. Total win!

Stronger Bones: Building muscle helps protect your bones. Each year 6.8 million people in America break a bone. And get this: age-related fractures are projected to increase nationally from 2.1 million in 2005 to over 3 million by 2025. Of those, 1.5 million are attributed to osteoporosis. Stronger muscles make for stronger bones. One bad fall could knock you out of daily life for a long time.

Want to strengthen your upper body to prevent injury? Try our Serious Strength Program – Upper Body! Need something still intense but modified? Try LIFT – Low Impact Upper Body Workout!

How To Build Arm Muscle At Home

So you want stronger and more beautiful arms, but going to the gym just isn’t your thing. Have no fear. Working on arm strength at home is easier than you think. Some of the best, most popular arms exercises can be done right in your own living room. Consider the push-up! Every trainer uses them to train. Every instructor uses them in class. Every drill sergeant uses them with soldiers. Why? Because they work! Push-ups alone could help sculpt and shape those arms but it doesn’t stop there. There are plenty of other things you can do in your own home with and without equipment. How?

First: Make sure you begin with basic knowledge. Find a reputable website or two and learn what kinds of moves work and how to do them properly. At GHU TV, we pride ourselves in having excellent trainers who teach proper form and truly care that you do things the right way. Another option (if you have the time and resources) would be to hire a trainer for just one or two sessions. Get a couple routines and suggestions for ideas. Have them check your form. This is a great investment.

Unsure if you’re doing a push up correctly? Find out if you are here: How to do a Push-Up!

Second: Start slow. Less is more when you are beginning a workout program. Most people who end up walking away do so because they sprint out of the starting gates, do too much too soon, and run out of gas right away. Leave yourself room to build. For instance, in our 28-Day Push-Up Challenge we suggest starting with 5 kneeling push-ups an then adding one each day. You don’t even try to get on your toes for the first week.

Third: Make sure to include some cardio in your workouts! Building arm strength alone will not shape and tone your arms. You also need a good cardio program and proper, clean eating to lower your body fat and create change.

Benefits of At-Home Workouts

So often we get caught up in the notion that if we don’t get an expensive pair of yoga pants and make our way to the gym we can’t get a “real” workout. Nothing could be further from the truth! Working out at home provides the same benefits and gives you these extra bonuses:

Convenience: No fuss, no muss! No “getting ready” or special outfit. No driving, parking, checking-in or fighting for a locker. Working out at home just makes things easier which means you’re more likely to follow through and get it done!

Saves Time: A good portion of your time going to workout at a gym is taken up by things mentioned above including driving, parking, checking in, etc. When you work out at home you eliminate that extra time and put everything into your workout. A 30-minute workout is actually just a 30-minute workout! And if there is one thing we all need, it is more time in our day!

Saves Money: Okay, I guess, time is not the only thing we all need more of. Most of us are trying to save money somewhere in our budget and working out at home can do just that! Take that expensive membership fee and put it toward all of those other things that are important in your life!

Focus on Your Own Progress: Let’s face it: most of us are guilty of comparing ourselves with other people and judging our success based on theirs. That definitely happens at a health club! A major benefit of working out at home is that you can focus on your own goals and successes! Just do you!

Finally, if you have been skeptical of home workouts in the past, keep in mind that the digital world has changed everything! Workouts of ANY intensity and style are just a click away!

Interested in learning more about home workouts? Read our 5 Dos and Don’ts of Working Out at Home!

Benefits of Bodyweight Workouts

Walk into any gym and you’ll see that the equipment available for working out is almost hard to count. Dumbbells, barbells, bands, balls, sandbags, you name it! With such a plethora of options, why would you ever want to go with just your bodyweight? Well here are some of the best reasons!

• 1. Bodyweight moves can be done any time, anywhere. No equipment means no set-up and no concern about where you do your exercise. Got only 10 minutes during lunch at the office? Drop and give me 20! Traveling to see family? Tricep dips on the stairs work just fine. No excuses here.
• 2. Bodyweight exercise works! Dumbbells and other equipment are great and they will give you results. However, using the weight of your own body is a tried and true method for building strength and challenging you to work hard.
• 3. Bodyweight exercise is easy to modify. As opposed to dumbbells where you might need multiple sets to get just the right weight for just the right move, bodyweight is a bit easier to maneuver. For instance, if kneeling push-ups start to become easier for you, simply start to work in a few on your toes.

The Workout

For the workout below, guess what? You don’t need any equipment! This is a bodyweight workout for arms that you can do at home. Check this out:

• Perform each exercise for the number or time listed.
• Rest after you finish them all and go through the series once again.
• For maximum results, try three rounds and feel those arms the next day!

WALKING PUSH-UP: Perform 10 total push-ups (5 per side)

TRICEP DIPS: Perform 12-15 dips. Make sure to keep abs and glutes tight and lifted.

PUNCHING: Perform rapid, fast punches for 1 minute.

THREE-POINT PUSH-UP: Perform 5 with right leg out and 5 with left leg out. Add reps as you get stronger.

SIDE PLANK: Hold plank for 30 seconds per side.

Interested in more arm exercises? Try these:
10 Minute Upper Body HIIT Workout
10-Minute All About the Upper Body Workout
Upper Body Resculpt
Walk, Sweat, Sculpt – Upper Body
30 Minute Upper Body HIIT