Biceps for show, triceps for go.
Adam Peaty
According to a study from Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, women naturally have 80-90% of the lower body strength that men do, but just 50-60% of the upper body strength.
So what does that translate to? More pain for me during arm workouts! More seriously though, I don’t tend to look forward to arm workouts. However, this one, for whatever reason, felt different. I enjoyed today’s workout, although that may be down to something as simple as enjoying being in a new routine.
Today, I used 8fit’s workout for stronger, toned arms, and I did both their bodyweight and free weight exercises. They say to do the program 3-4 times so, as a minimalist, I did 3. However, the sets for each exercise varied, like so:
- Inchworms – 5 reps
- Plank to push-ups – 10 total reps, 5 each side
- Tricep dips – 10 reps
- Incline push-ups – 8 reps
- Bicep curls – 12 reps
- Overhead tricep extensions – 12 reps
- Lateral raises – 8 reps
- Bent over rows – 10 reps
- Standing tricep kickbacks – 10 reps
The image for the standing tricep kickbacks was wrong, so I referred to the instructions, and did a quick Google image search before starting the kickbacks, to make sure I was doing the exercise correctly.
Today, I decided to do each three sets in a row for each exercise, so I wouldn’t have to go back to exercises I enjoy least (i.e. inchworms and plank to push-ups). The only exception was for the bicep curls and overhead tricep extensions, where I did a set of bicep curls, followed by a set of overhead tricep extensions and repeated the process three times.
I was really careful to take my time with the exercises, taking a break if my form started to suffer. I’ve learnt from experience that exercising with bad form isn’t worth the injuries it can cause.
If you care about the weights I used, feel free to read this part, otherwise feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph. For the bicep curls, I used both of my dumbells, which each had 2.5 kg worth of weights, along with the metal bars from the dumbells (which weigh about 2.3 kg), and I used just one of the dumbells for the overhead tricep extensions. For the lateral raises, I used just the metal bars, and for the bent over rows and standing tricep kickbacks I used the metal bars with just one 1.25 kg weight on each.
Despite my arms still being tense (and a little shaky) post-workout, today was really good, and I think this was my best workout so far. I noticed myself taking much shorter breaks between exercises, which I think was more due to having built some mental resilience than anything else.
So, how are my muscles feeling after my first three days of working out? Sore mainly. I must have been fairly out of shape, as my leg muscles still haven’t recovered from their workout two days ago, and my ab muscles tense every time I move position! I can only imagine my arm muscles are going to follow suit tomorrow. Good thing it’s my legs being worked tomorrow!
Weight today: 68.7 kg – 13.7 kilos left to goal weight!
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