It’s arm day here at Poosh. Since we know you’ll be wearing your Y2K-inspired tube tops and slinky sleeveless dresses all season long, we wanted to kick off your summer workout routine with a quick yet efficient arm sequence.
With the help of the creator of The MWH Method for long lean lines, Melissa Wood-Tepperberg, we’re sharing ways to sculpt your arms using a one-pound weight. If you don’t have weights, you can also use your own body weight. In the video below, Melissa walks us through the moves and how to properly perform each. This is the perfect exercise if you’re starting to slowly ease back into a regular fitness schedule. The entire rotation only takes five minutes, but you can repeat it as many times as you’d like throughout the day.
Read on for the simple and speedy workout that will give you all the sculpted results.
The Routine:
Breathing Warm-Up
Half-Circle Arm Pulses
Upper Chest Pulse
Hand-to-Ceiling Lift
Front-to-Back Arm Extension
Tricep Extensions
Weighted Circular Arm Pulses
Side-to-Side Arm Extenders
Weighted Arm Stretch
The Move: Breathing Warm-Up
How to: Make sure to take a moment for grounding before starting your arm workout. Begin the breathing warm-up with your weights on your palms; you will use them the entire workout. Start by closing your eyes and releasing tension in your body. Hang your weighted arms to the ground and stand straight. Inhale and exhale. Then take your hands toward your heart and place them together as if you were in prayer. Breathe in with affirmations for your workout or everyday life, then exhale.
The Move: Half-Circle Arm Pulses
How to: Start by tucking your belly in and with a soft bend in your knees. Extend both your arms out and turn your palms toward the ceiling. In a consistent circular motion, bring your arms toward the ceiling then toward the back. Keep doing this for 10 reps.
The Move: Upper Chest Pulse
How to: Take your arms into a 90-degree bend. Make sure your elbows are in alignment with your shoulders. With your palms facing your face, extend your arms to the sides of your body and open up your chest. Bring your arms from the sides of your body to the front and touch your elbows together. Keep doing these pulses for 10 reps.
The Move: Hand-to-Ceiling Lift
How to: Put your arms to the sides of your body with your arms bent and palms facing forward. Your arm should be in an L shape, and fingertips pointed toward the ceiling. Gently lift your arms up and down. Complete 10 reps before switching to the next weighted exercise.
The Move: Front-to-Back Arm Extension
How to: Hinge forward while keeping your abdominals tight. Reach your arms back with your palms facing the ceiling then reach forward in a consistent motion. Make sure while you’re reaching to move your body up and to a bend in a consistent motion. Continue for 10 reps.
The Move: Tricep Extensions
How to: At a hinge, extend your arms to your sides with your palms facing behind you. Begin to extend your arm out toward your sides and then back in. Make sure to engage your tricep. Continue for 10 reps.
The Move: Weighted Circular Arm Pulses
How to: Stand tall and extend your arms out with your shoulders back and palms facing the floor. Make small circular motions forward for 10 seconds. For the last 5 seconds, you can make the circular motions even smaller. Then, for another 10 seconds, go the opposite direction. For the last five seconds of your reverse pulses, you can stretch your arms even longer to really engage your muscles.
The Move: Side-to-Side Arm Extenders
How to: For 10 reps, extend your left arm out and have your right arm reach up toward the left side of your body then back down to your right side and extend it. Repeat the same exercise on your other side for another 10 reps.
The Move: Weighted Arm Stretch
How to: End your workout with a closing stretch. Relax your arms and extend them out, stretching your entire upper body. Slightly raise your arms up and exhale.
For more from The MWH Method, sign up for a seven-day free trial here.
Melissa Wood-Tepperberg is a mom, digital entrepreneur, and founder of Melissa Wood Health, a business based on helping women learn to appreciate and love themselves through movement, meditation, and mindful eating. The MWH Method is a fitness philosophy that sculpts beautiful, long, lean lines throughout the entire body using precise, low-impact movements, now available on the Melissa Wood Health app. On top of the library of 200+ workouts, Melissa Wood Health also offers dance warmups, a cardio treadmill series, guided meditations, and pre/postnatal-friendly workouts.
Up next, be the first to know our weekly content and sign up for our Poosh newsletter.
