Looking to target my tummy area and arms, any tips?

[CHARismatic110]

Aka my problem areas. I've been on the fitness journey for some time. I do a lot of cardio and exercises that target my legs and butt. I wanna dedicate more time to my stomach and arms. I'm not sure what to outside of sit ups for my stomach. For arms, I have a resistance band that I do a few exercises with. I can't really do push ups because I can't put my hands flesh against the ground. Any tips would help. Thanks!

[SirenDep]

Just a small clarification. Target exercises build muscles. And having more muscles boosts metabolism and helps burn more calories while you do cardio.

This is what I do for my tummy, after I've danced a bit. When I did it for the first time I managed it only once without the 1 minute plank and I was sore for a couple of days. Now I can do it twice and not get sore, and I hold the plank for half a minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0YChgqiJ2Y&index=6&list=PLyjuF4JSuevNaAQsJc6XUtTGLsFPuiAa0

About arms, have you tried doing push ups in a mattress or a thick carpet? Or do wall push ups. They are easier to do and you don't have to touch the floor. The farther away your feet are from the wall and the more you bend your arms, the harder they get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtM3L00BUU

Whenever I (try to) dance belly dancing my arms and belly get a good workout. It's not a quick dance but with the way you have to control your movements you work your muscles a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzVN3_93wDw

Another thing you can do about arms, is lift weights obviously. They should be heavy enough that your arms start to burn at 15 reps. For me that's 5 kg or 10 pounds. So, a few reps with heavy weights. It could be dumbbells. If you don't own any, it could be a backpack filled with packaged food that is the same weight. I also built muscles going for grocery shopping alone on foot and carry the heavy cart over my home's big staircase.

[SirenDep]

a good site with free exercise routines is this one
www.fitnessblender.com
sorry for the long comment, it's just that I workout on my own too

[CHARismatic110]

I love belly dancing! It's a great workout. I suck at it but it does work core muscles. Thank you for this!

[SirenDep]

you're welcome!

[SirenDep]

thanks for mho!

[ginny_weasley]

Sit ups are actually an overrated exercise. Here is an article for 24 ab exercises that don't include crunches
www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20664616,00.html
You can do weight lifting for your arms here's another article for arm exercises
www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20681364,00.html
Also if you have a Pinterest account, Pinterest can find you tons of great workouts. You're doing great just keep at it. I have recently started running so I understand your frustration.

[CHARismatic110]

Thank you! I appreciate that. I'm going to bookmark these sites.

[GoldCobra]

Consider this, the more muscle you have, the easier it would be to burn fat. Did I use my commas correctly in that sentence?

Wtf is a resistance band? Get on the bench press and start pushing some weight! Get on the lat pull down machine and start pulling down some real weight. Take deep breaths. Squeeze those muscles until they start crying. If you're not sore the next day, you didn't push yourself enough. Take some caffeine and go ham as a mother f*cker!! Can you squat? Good. Squat more. Throw that barbell over your shoulders and put in some work! If your thighs aren't burning in pain, you didn't do it correctly. Nobody on planet earth can motivate you as well as you can!! So get busy! Get MAD!!! Come on!

[CHARismatic110]

The resistance band is what I can work with. Thanks.

[GoldCobra]

Not for nothin, but I think you look fine as it is.

[CHARismatic110]

Well thank you. I appreciate that. But I need to lose more weight and tone up.

[BuchitaBuchys]

You're still on this site! :o

[GoldCobra]

@BuchitaBuchys whattup gurl

[BuchitaBuchys]

How you doing? Lol

[GoldCobra]

@BuchitaBuchys been gooooooooooood lol. 😊

[Levin]

Maybe you could do it with diet? I used to eat lots of whole grains and vegetables, not much animal products and fat; also I used to move around a lot, not just exercise; I had very little fat tissue indeed. If one eats whole products and stays away from the refined garbage, and changes the orientation of the foods one eats, it seems difficult to hold onto weight, in my experience!

[CHARismatic110]

Yeah, I've changed my diet around a lot

[Elarra]

Tricep exercises are your friend. Biceps are okay, but they don't do much for us women because our flab goes to our triceps. So bicep exercises are fine but make sure you target triceps more.

And do weights. Don't use machines that much because they all have some support for you. 20 pounds on a bicep curl machine does NOT feel the same with loose weights. Seriously. I tested it and it was huge difference.

As for abs, you may want to go to YouTube and look up at home abs. I have videos I watch but my exp level won't permit me to post them.

[CHARismatic110]

I don't use any machine lol. I don't go to the gym. I workout from home. I will hit YouTube up tho. Thank you!

[Elarra]

You're welcome. Look for 10 minute exercises and make sure you don't rest too much in between exercises. I usually give myself a max of 20 seconds in between each exercise.

[CHARismatic110]

To keep my heart rate up, correct?

[Elarra]

Yeah, but also to keep your muscles in a workout mode if that makes sense. If you don't push your muscles, they won't get bigger and there will be no fat burn.

[CHARismatic110]

Oh ok. Yes, that makes sense.

[Xfitchick]

As far as I understand you are not in a gym. For yiour stomach you have many variations, depending whether you want to exercice lower or upper abs. And don't forgat your side abs. Furthermore train your whole core, so do planks, straight and side. For push-ups, if yoi can't put your hands flat on the floor (don't understand why?) do it on your fists or use two dumbbell on the floor. Do pushups small and wide to train triceps, shoulder and chest (start on your knees if feet is too hard). If you have a branch or bar, do pullups or use the door style.

[CHARismatic110]

Because I have RA and it fucked up my hands so the don't straighten out all the way, that's why. Tried on my fists and hurt my wrist. Didn't think of the dumbbell thing tho. That's smart.

[Amuro]

Well for your tummy you could try the 30 day ab challenge. It's pretty intense your tummy will hurt a lot after the first few days. You should also throw in cardio too as well as watching what you eat (cardio 4 or 5 days each week). You could lift weights for your arms like two or three days a week. You can buy a mat to do push ups and to work on your tummy.

The most important part is watching what you eat. Don't eat too much but don't starve yourself.

Could you answer my question.

www.girlsaskguys.com/.../q2112691-was-i-wrong-to-ask-for-the-money-back

[DodgersGM]

Hey Char, I'm far from an expert, but everything I've read says that you can't target areas for weight loss. All you can do is keep losing body fat and do your best to replace the lost mass with muscle.

Can you invest in some free weights? That'd let you add some resistance training, which could be great for your arms (among other things). :)

[CHARismatic110]

Yes, I'm looking at some now. Though I don't know what to get outside of the dumbbells.

[DodgersGM]

For at-home workouts, I'd thing a set of dumbbells would be just fine.

Some people prefer barbells, but if you're a beginner I'd go dumbbell. It eliminates the possibility that you're working more with one side than the other.

[DodgersGM]

*think

[CHARismatic110]

Dumbbells it is

[Chief16]

@DodgersDM I concur with you.

[Chief16]

@DodgersGM

[Aweir]

Sit-ups won't help you lose fat on your stomach. You can't target where you want to lose fat, you just eat at a deficit and over time you lose fat. Its a misconception that doing sit ups will help you lose fat from your stomach. I've done maybe 2-3 exercises for my abs in my entire life, yet they are pretty good.

[CHARismatic110]

Eating at a deficit meaning burn more than I eat?

[Aweir]

Exactly

[CHARismatic110]

Yeah, that's the goal

[Eevee2026]

Doing "plank" exercises will help in those areas and more. For the first day, count how many seconds are comfortable for you to do and each day try to add a few more seconds on. It'll not only strengthen your arms, but your core and legs as well.

[CHARismatic110]

*looks up planks on YouTube* ohhh ok. I'll try those!

[Eevee2026]

Ahahah good, they look easy but can be challenging.

[CHARismatic110]

Lol I learned that with wall sits!

[steveguitar]

If you are speaking about losing fat, it's a very slow process, as fat it taken from everywhere on your body. You cannot will your body to do anything else. Not even if you do sit ups many times a day for years, it will benefit the muscle, but do nothing to the fat.

You ha e to keep exercising and the fat will go slowly

[0112358]

there's basically no connection between which muscles are doing the exercise, and where fat loss comes from.

If you want to build muscle tone somewhere (i. e. add muscle fibre) then we can talk. But it sounds like you are more worried about fat?

[CHARismatic110]

I feel like I need toone more weight before I can tone tho

[0112358]

Muscle building actually is much slower than fat loss... so there's no reason you can't start working on both if you want. But adding muscle in your core or arms isn't going to magically make fat loss happen there.

Adding muscle in general does help boost your metabolism, but the big muscles are more in your legs and hips anyway.

[CHARismatic110]

Well, I'm open to any advice really.

[0112358]

You can hit chest and triceps with either pushups (which don't have to be against the ground, and can be against a couch or counter if flat is too hard as well) or dips. You can hit triceps with resitance band to, any motion where you are straightening your arm. I. e. if the band starts at the floor hold your arms so your elbows are pointed at the ceiling, then straighten your arms. or wrap the band around something, and hold an end in each hand. bend over with elbows at sides, and pull back straightening your arms.

For core, cruches and planks are good to start with.

Biceps and upper back get hit with any 'pull' type motion, pullup variants are the classic, but there are a lot of resistance band type moves you could do. any where you are doing that 'curl' motion hits biceps.

[somebodysaycheese]

Workouts that target the stomach Popsugar has a lot of good workouta for that. Cutting down on sugar and carbs. But in the end you can't choose where you loose weight... naturally anyway

[CHARismatic110]

I'll check it out

[lightbulb27]

Ride a dirt bike, great exercise
Sit on a ball at home instead of a chair.
more sex... lol
Cross fit
Rock climbing

[CHARismatic110]

A ball instead of a chair?

[lightbulb27]

chairs relax core muscles. the ball forces you to use those inner core muscles.

[CHARismatic110]

Oh ok. That's makes sense. I may look into that

[TripleAce]

I'll give you something you can work with but

Do you have access to a gym or do you do home workouts?

[CHARismatic110]

Home workout

[TripleAce]

For abs there is much more you can do than just crunches, Check out Brandon Carter ab workout on youtube. I think that can help.

But your primary goal is 2 things. And unfortunately these 2 things have to be followed religiously. Caloric deficit and exercise. Low carbs are very important too since certain carbs will spike insulin and keep it raised for a while. When insuline is spiked your body is anabolic and doesn't shed adipose tissue efficiently

Anyways, for arms just get like 5 or 10 pound dumbells and lay on the floor with a mat and push the weight up with your arms. Or just grab two heavy text books, one in each hand and push that up instead of dumbells.

what else really?

[CHARismatic110]

Yeah my nutritionist explained about carbs and such. But I'm gonna look on amazon for the weights

[PurpleSweater]

The best way to lose stomach fat is to eat healthy. Drink plenty of water, eat your vegetables , whole grains, fruits , dairy and lean protein. I'm telling you , it works.

[CHARismatic110]

I'm already doing that

[Goldie757]

Try pilates.

[Amandacrap]

Me tooo🎀

[DisWebsiteSpysOnYall]

Walk a lot.

[babeeeone]

Crunches and weights