5 Arm And Shoulder Exercises For Strappy Summer Dresses

Don’t be that woman wearing a jersey on a gorgeous summer’s day, just because you’re self-conscious about your flabby arms. Doing the right arm and shoulder exercises will swap those jiggly bits for sexy, sculpted muscle tone that you’ll be dying to show off.

These exercises, extracted from Shedding For The Wedding, a comprehensive weight-loss plan for brides and their bridesmaids, were put together with strappy and strapless wedding dresses in mind. And that makes them the perfect go-to moves to get you ready for baring some skin!

The #1 Secret To Sculpted Arms And Shoulders

One hack for scoring the best results: don’t waste your time with baby weights. The key to sculpting your arms and shoulders is building muscle in those body parts. And lifting tiny weights is not going to build the kind of visible muscle tone you want.

Choose a weight that you can pick up and carry with relative ease, but that feels challenging when you perform the move. You want to feel as though you’re working against resistance. As you do more reps, your muscles should start to feel fatigued – almost like the weight is getting heavier with every rep. You should be able to perform all the reps prescribed with good form, but the last two should feel like a big challenge.

Your Moves

These moves by Virgin Active master trainer Aneeka Buys, who designed the Shedding For The Wedding workout plan, will hit your arms and shoulders from multiple angles to sculpt different muscle groups. For each move, do three sets of 10, focusing on good form.

1/ Push-Up

Targets: Arms & Shoulders

If you can’t do a push-up yet, put your hands on a raised step or bench. Still too hard? Do them against the wall. Focus on keeping your elbows close to your body, not sticking out to the sides. Much tougher, right? Good – that’s your arms getting toned.

2/ Biceps Curl

Targets: Front of arms

You can do these with palms facing up as shown or palms facing each other like you’re holding two mugs (hammer curls) to target different muscles. Keep your upper arms still as you hinge your elbows. Don’t swing your arms or use momentum.

3/ Triceps Dip

Targets: Back of arms

You can do these off a bench or sturdy chair. Make sure you keep your bum close to that bench at all times and lower until the tops of your arms are just about parallel to the ground.

4/ Static Lunge Front Raise

Targets: Shoulders

You may find you need a much lighter weight for these and that’s fine. Make sure you keep that movement controlled – don’t swing wildly. Do all reps on one side, then swap legs and arms and repeat on the other side.

5/ Squat To Shoulder Press

Targets: Shoulders

Keeping your palms facing forward instead of in recruits more muscles at the backs of your shoulders, which is what looks so hot in a strappy top. You can go nice and heavy with your weights because you’re using your bum to help power the move. Squeeze it as you stand and press the weights overhead.