Arm flab is often called bat wings because they give your upper arms a winged appearance. While working out is one way to get rid of arm flab, sometimes it takes more than that. They come from either too much fat and too little muscle or losing weight rapidly and having excess loose skin. The younger you are and the shorter time period you were overweight will determine how fast your skin shrinks back to fit your new body. Whether arm flab comes from too much fat, too little muscle or weight loss, there are ways to get those upper arms looking good again.
Start with exercise.
Grab some weights and get ready to go. While exercise will tone the muscles in the area, if it comes from extra fat, you’ll have to lose weight all over your body. Luckily most people do a full body workout at the gym. Not only will the exercise reduce fat, it should also have exercises for the triceps, which dangle if you have flabby arms. If you don’t have weights, fill milk jugs or detergent bottles with handles with water or sand until you have the perfect weight for exercising. Using water filled bottles provides another benefit. As you get stronger, you can add more water or sand to increase the weight.
Get fit where you sit.
Use your chair or seat as a support as you do a chair dip. Your feet should be on the floor and legs slightly extended. Putting both hands on the sides of the chair next to your hips with your fingers pointing down, lift your bottom off the chair and forward using just your arms. Lower your body with your elbows at 90 degrees then raise yourself back to seated position. Lay on the floor for another great exercise. Hold a single weight, filled bottle or heavy object in both hands. Lift it above your head and then lower it behind your head and lifting it back up to in front of you.
Get on your knees with the weight in your hands.
While you have the weight in your hands, sit up on your knees. Hold the weight in both hands above your head and slowly bend at the elbows to lower it behind your head and back up with hands straight in the air. Use two weights, one in each hand bending over. You’re going to create a slow flapping motion (how appropriate for bat wings) with your arms. Bent over, lift both weights behind you, lifting the weights in the air. When you’re done, focus on doing the same thing, but providing resistance as you lower the weights.
- Push-ups help strengthen and build the triceps. You can do modified forms, like bent knee or partial ones that keep your feet on the floor and hands on the bed.
- Do a plank and hold it. This simple exercise isn’t really as easy as it looks, especially when you hold the position longer. It will help sculpt your upper arms.
- Make sure your diet has adequate nutrition to build both collagen and muscle tissue. You’ll need the collagen to add elasticity to the skin and the protein to build muscle tissue.
- Resistance training, using weights or resistance bands, not only helps eliminate flab under the arms, it builds the upper arm, too. While the focus may be on the triceps, the biceps need a workout, too.