At 49 years old, the queen Letizia from Spain She became a fitness icon following occasionally wearing dresses or suits at public events that reveal her toned arms. The truth is training this part of the body at the age of 40 becomes a challenge and at the same time an aesthetic obsession.
The arms became new fitness challenge for both women and men and if they have not been worked on, it is better to start as soon as possible, since the deterioration is greater as time goes by without training.
“Every muscle is trainable, you are not going to achieve the same capacity at 50 as one of 20. Any muscle you don’t move atrophies and over time is injured, but one decreases the probability of having injuries if one is used to doing physical exercise”, reveals the sports doctor Alejandra Hintze (MN 114194).
The specialist points out that there are places in the body where more fatty tissue accumulates than in others, in women this happens in hips and tricepswhile in men in the abdomen. “The point is that in men, intra-abdominal fat can become dangerous if they are greatly exceeded, on the other hand, in women the issue of the arms is something purely aesthetic”, he clarifies.
For the professional there are two essential elements to take into account if one considers reducing the fat in the arms and toning them: decline and mobility.
“That phrase we hear that says that the more toned the muscles are, the more fat decreases is a myth. It is not that it diminishes or consumes it, but rather that if you do a lot of arm exercise you will tone up but not decrease it”. Likewise, the sportswoman says that to lose fat, what you have to do is have a negative energy balance, that is, fewer calories enter than are expended.
On the other hand, if what you really want is to tone up and not reduce the fat in your arms, it is recommended to do localized exercise to work that area of the body. “What bothers is not that the fat exists, but that it moves”dice Hintze.
“The fear of the Hulk’s arms is another myth that exists with the training, the giant arm reaches that instance because they supplement with other things like special proteins, anabolic steroids or they are simply people who are dedicated to bodybuilding. In the mildest cases, when the arm swells following training it is because the blood pumps more following the movement of the arm”, maintains Francisco Piperatta, the trainer of the famous also known as Oso Trainner.
As for specific exercises to do at the gym or at home, Piperatta suggests doing the following:
1) Push Ups
These can be done with its own weight and without the need for external elements. It has two positions: with arms open out frog type to work sternum and chest; or do it closed stylewhere the line of the shoulders follows the arms and works the triceps and chest.
In the cases of people who are used to training or playing sports on a daily basis, they can add a plus to the push up by doing it with dumbbells; it can be with the classic movement with the elbows close to the body and the hands holding the dumbbells or else alternating the rise and fall of one arm and then the other.
2) Parallels
These can be done once morest the wall or between benches. This exercise works the triceps and biceps and can be practiced in a gym or at home. In the latter case, elevation is done by putting feet up on a chair and arms behind one another on another chair then the person remains seated in the air and flexes down in an “L” shape.
3) Bicep curl
As its name indicates, only the bicep is worked, but in a concentrated way. It is a very practical and effective exercise, great results are achieved if done correctly. The same is done with long elastic bands or tensioners. “You step on it with both feet and arms close to the body and the you will stretch from the bottom up reaching the shoulder”, says the coach.
“It is good to train without the assistance of machines because it helps the fiber work better and the blood dilates more. When you don’t use weights, you get the most out of your own body”, Piperatta says. And he adds that sports such as swimming, tennis or cycling are excellent to alternate with arm training because they oxygenate the blood and improve resistance. “Inaction does not pay, what works is action,” he concludes.
