(MOBILE, Ala.) - Mardi Gras parades start on Dauphin Island this Saturday. Parades roll in Mobile in two and a half weeks.
Cindy Ross with Bodies By Cindy says that timeline has a lot of ladies pouring into the gym to get in shape for ball gown season. She has some tips to get those arms looking great.
"99 percent of women do not like the look of their arms, and they say the arms are the new legs", says Cindy Ross of Bodies By Cindy.
"As women, we want to have the nice cut, the nice rounded shoulders and you want to be able to see the tricep when you're moving your arms
Cindy says. "We don't want to be waving three times when you say goodbye to someone, and that's what most of my clients complain of", says Ross.
To get those arms in shape, Cindy says combine cardio, good nutrition and strength training, and your arms can look amazing.
Here are three easy exercises to get started:
BICEP CURL
"When you're doing a bicep curl, you want to make sure your elbows are staying nice and close into your side. You're going to have the dumbbell nice and smooth and make sure you're squeezing that muscle at the top of that contraction and make sure you're using the negative-when you're going down, you don't want to go up too fast. Remember: up slow, down slow."
TRICEP KICKBACKS
"When you're doing tricep kickbacks, you want to make sure again that your elbow stays close to your side. You're going to kick it back, you want to stay up about a 3-second hold, and that's going to get the nice tight contraction you're looking for, and again, slow down and slow up."
TRICEP DIPS
"As far as tricep dips, you want to make sure you're not going down past the range of motion of your shoulder in order to not put too much stress on your shoulder."
On the treadmill or the eliptical? Simply keep your arms moving at all times.
How much is too much? In other words, how do you avoid the so called "man-arms"?
Cindy says use challenging, but not heavy, weight. Usually 5 pound dumbbells are perfect, and keep the reps high.
"You want to get 15-20 reps out of any exercise that you're doing, that way, you're getting more of the nice long lean muscle instead of the bulking muscle."
Cindy says to make sure all that work you put into getting in that dress, maintain it after. There is spring and bikini season coming up so you want to make sure you maintain it with good nutrition and a good exercise program.
It's a matter of making the committment to through with your exercise routine. It's a challenge, but it can be done.
