Ideas Please?

OKay Guys and gals,
Here it is I am trying to tone up the flabby swinging underarm I have dubbed the *FLAG* I can't afford a gym OR weights to tone these puppies up before i go to OZ to get married. Any suggestions on something I can invent for weights?

I have the exercises I need to do to tone them up just need weights! AAAHH

thanks all

Im just tired of knocking over people with them!

Question is it loose skin or actual fat?

I have a bunch of loose skin there and my research indicates that NOTHING, NADA, ZIP, ZILCH can reduce this except plastic surgery. Ah how I wish that was wrong and it doesn't stop me from lifting weights.

Good luck!

Gallons of water or milk weigh a little over 8lb...they are bulky, but a good weight for triceps.

Cinder blocks work good too, if you can find them....they are heavy but can be gripped with one hand in each opening and used as a weight.

Books...like a phone book can be lifted over your head and work the triceps.

Your own weight...push ups, pull ups etc.

not loose skin just muscle and fat I need to tone...LOL


OOOH good IDEAS!!

oh you all ROCK!

Cham you can buy 2.5kg or 5kg handweights in kmart for $5....they shouldnt cost much more than that...but yep tricep pushups dont require handweights, you hold your hands directly under your shoulders instead of out to the sides like normal pushups.....milk bottles (full of course).....2kg bags of flour or sugar

Well my exhusband is all in the martial arts and weights so avoid close-grip bench press or tricep pushdowns because all that will do is build up mass so unless you want arms like the terminator I would avoid that. What you want to do is the French Curl to sculpt and trim your triceps up.


Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-length apart. Raise your arms straight up over your head
Keep your biceps close to your ears
Bend your elbows behind your head slowly use a slow count of 6
continue until your hands are pointed straight to the ground
repeat in the other direction.
Do repetitions of 5 and eventually work your way up to 20 reps


For weights you can use empty Orange juice containers the big ones I believe they are 64 oz and fill them with either sand or water to your comfortable weight, they have a handle that you can use to lift.

And warm up before you do them or else you wont be able to lift your arms the next day.

Oh and bulking up a little if you have the opposite problem of loose skin will take care of it so for loose skin think building mass, for excess flab think sculp.

Very few women need to worry about building a lot of muscle mass. We don't have the testosterone. Believe me, that's what I try to do and it doesn't happen.

I wonder why you cant. Women do have less muscle than men but you should still be able to build up some guns if you want to. My mother is 4'11 and 100lbs and in her late 50's and when she starts working her arms up, Im usually telling her gawd mom stop before you start scaring Gary (my stepdad). :D

I wonder why you cant. Women do have less muscle than men but you should still be able to build up some guns if you want to. My mother is 4'11 and 100lbs and in her late 50's and when she starts working her arms up, Im usually telling her gawd mom stop before you start scaring Gary (my stepdad). :D

I'm thinking it's partly genetics....

I can build up those "guns" in no time and look pretty scary for 5'5" 105...but my little chicken legs and butt never develop!! :p

I wonder why you cant. Women do have less muscle than men but you should still be able to build up some guns if you want to. My mother is 4'11 and 100lbs and in her late 50's and when she starts working her arms up, Im usually telling her gawd mom stop before you start scaring Gary (my stepdad). :D
Well, I can build some, but not to the point where I'd look masculine or anything. I just see women warned away from serious weight training for this reason so often, and I don't think it's a real concern.

If you do have a propensity to gain more mass than you'd like (which does seem bizarre to me, but I'm weird), you just need to use a lower weight and do more reps per set. You can still do whatever exercises you want.

Well, I can build some, but not to the point where I'd look masculine or anything. I just see women warned away from serious weight training for this reason so often, and I don't think it's a real concern.

If you do have a propensity to gain more mass than you'd like (which does seem bizarre to me, but I'm weird), you just need to use a lower weight and do more reps per set. You can still do whatever exercises you want.

hehe no mass here I got enough mass as it is :tongue2: just toning

If you can't quite make a decent push-up...belly in, back straight. Try standing with your back to a kitchen chair or something, put the palms of your hands on the chair seat and use your arms to do a kind of push-up that way......remember to not lock your elbows........keep the weight on the arms.
You can do the same exercise on the floor too, just have to bend your knees, sit on your butt with your arms close to your body but slightly behind you. Keep your tummy in and push up your weight.
I, even though am skinny and VERY fit from a lifetime of ballet....cannot defy "some" gravity that happens. Don't be too hard on yourself.
Remember, these are lifelong habits nothing is a "quick fix"...........start slow and keep it as your DAILY routine.
Blessings, TD

Ditto Pinkpanther! Not that I want to look masculine, but I WISH I could build some bulk! Take up some of that extra skin. Tried for years, no can do.:(

I wouldn't worry too much about it if you are female. The women you see who have all that muscle mass are probably taking hormones or something.

Very few women need to worry about building a lot of muscle mass. We don't have the testosterone. Believe me, that's what I try to do and it doesn't happen.

Hmm.. maybe I have too much testosterone. I have always bulked up, no matter what exercise I ever did... gymnanstics, weight lifting, walking, calesthenics, pushups, pullups, etc.

I've also got huge upper arms (which is also a wingspan and fat, but you can also actually see and feel the muscle, too) because of holding my twins at the same time when they were babies.

Cham, I was JUST going to post about this very same problem the other day, so I'm glad you posted. I'll be watching the thread for tips, too. Not that any worked before, but you never know - maybe someone has something that may just eventually work.

If you don't want to buy any equipment, you can do the milk or orange juice containers with handles thing that some have suggested. I have used even just canned foods held in my hands. I do what Strwbrries said to do (although I don't understand her instruction to "then do the opposite direction" - because your elbows can only bend in one direction - strwbrries?)

I have weird arms and legs (well a weird body all around). I have both very thin/skinny areas, and also very heavy, bulky muscularly, or fatty/flabby areas.

The tops of my upper arms have some muscle definition - you can see the "sculpted" look to them, especially when I have my arms down against my torso. However, underneath, they just hang like bags (like real saddle bags). ugh. My legs from the knee down are great - great shape, nicely toned, small ankles, little feet, no fat at all... But from the knee UP...it's all flab and fat and NOT toned. Same for my middle area - I have a nice waistline and "figure", but I guess from being pregnant (having "prolapse"?) the skin just hangs there. Nothing I do tightens that up.

I'm trying to just accept and get used to the fact that I'm going to just be flabby with hanging skin from now on, no matter what I do. But I'm having such a hard time accepting that since I used to be so athletic. Nothing I used to do to stay in shape seems to work anymore though. I've done all kinds of sports before - jogging, walking, tennis, table tennis, weights, gymnastics, running, volleyball, track, swimming, hiking, bike riding, and martial arts (I have a brown belt and was just about to go to the black belt level when I got sick with the fibromyalgia so badly a few years ago).

The one part of my body that bothers me the most though - it's my arms. Even though the legs are what they are, I still think they look cute, but I hate the Rocky the Flying Squirrel arms that I have. Oh yeah, and I have tiny hands and wrists and forearms. So what I do, because the exercising doesn't really work for me, is just wear clothing that has 3/4 sleeves or full length sleeves. The cutest on me are the 3/4 sleeves, but they are harder to find most of the time. If I wear short sleeves - yuck! That just draws attention to that part of my arms that I hate the most.

I have to say that the one exercise regime I have tried recently that does NOT bulk me up too much is that Core Secrets exercise ball. I leave that inflated and in the living room. If I'm watching TV, maybe I'll sit on the ball (it's really comfortable for that - LOL) and bouce around or swivel around on it, so I'm kind of exercising at the same time I'm relaxing. Also, sometimes my back hurts, and I like to just hang over the ball and stretch my back. But then I almost ALWAYS do something else, like a few pushups or crunches. This exercise ball used to be used initially in hospitals for physical therapy patients, so it is a way to build the strength and tone the muscles in a very gentle way. That's why I bought it actually - when I heard that. It does look easier than it actually is to do all the exercises that come with the program, but it is really a gentle way to build strength and tone up your body (as much as is possible).