As part of my quest to focus my free time devoted to exercise, I’ve been dedicating a lot of time to weight training. Based on my personal research on the subject, I believe that weight training is very important to my exercise routine for a number of reasons.
I’ve noticed a HUGE difference in my lower body as a result of weight training. I am not kidding when I say that in just a few weeks of getting back on the weight training bandwagon my butt has shrunk nearly a full size. But when it comes to upper body work, I’m having a harder time producing results. A lot of times, my arms are barely sore after weight training for a good 45 minutes, and the results have been incredibly slow to manifest. So I’ve added in a new element to my upper body workout: Tracy Anderson’s arm routine in her basic mat video.
Some of you may know that Tracy Anderson has trained Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, and Courtney Cox. She focuses her routines on ballet and dance, working to activate the smaller muscles to build a leaner, tighter body. Amazon reviewers swear by the arms portion of the workout, and since that’s a particularly troubling area for me, I figured I would give it a shot.
The workout itself is incredibly difficult. I don’t know if any of you have done ballet (I did it for about 7 years as a kid) but your arms get tired pretty quick after holding them upright for longer than a few minutes. Imagine this times ten in Tracy’s workout. My arms were burning after a short time doing the exercises, and I could barely hold my arms up to complete the entire routine. I’m working on building up enough stamina to complete the entire workout all the way through, and I’m glad to have introduced a new challenge to my stubborn arm muscles.
Do any of you have special fitness routines you swear by to get rid of that pesky arm flab? Tips appreciated!
suki
June 25, 2010 at 3:42 pm (15 years ago)Working with the Wii Fit now. 😉 There's a set of exercises supposedly geared towards arms, so we'll see if it works.
Marie
June 25, 2010 at 10:51 am (15 years ago)Nice! Terry has a Wii Fit, I might have to break that out and see how the arms exercise routines work.
Kara
June 25, 2010 at 11:49 pm (15 years ago)As I posted on Twitter, push ups are great for toning arms. I need to work out every day (though it will be hard to at High Sierra Music Festival) before my friend's wedding on July 10th. 60 push-ups per day is my goal and I'm going to start tonight after I finish up a contract and blog post.
Marie
June 25, 2010 at 4:56 pm (15 years ago)That is a great tip, Kara. I suck at pushups (maybe that is part of my problem?). 😉 I am sure that really the most important thing is for me to do something, regularly, and keep at it. Still have to do my upper body workout tonight since I skipped out on it this morning. Whoops! I really need to get up earlier.