If you want to sculpt strong arms, swap out the free weights for these bodyweight moves.
If your main fitness goal is to sculpt strong, defined arms, you’re not alone. The first step we’re suggesting? Put down the free weights. You heard that right! We spoke with an expert who breaks down five stellar bodyweight moves that tone your arms even better than dumbbells after 50. By using your body weight as resistance, these moves will help you build lean muscle while boosting functional strength and arm definition.
Why can bodyweight training be more effective for toning arms than traditional dumbbell exercises?
Dr. Zergabachew Asfaw, Clinical Advisory Committee(CAC), Enable Healthcare Inc, breaks it down: “Exercise activities that involve body weights tend to become more effective after 50 since they decrease the undue load on the joints and at the same time offer sufficient resistance to induce muscle development. The joint stiffness, arthritis, or lowered mobility of many people in this age bracket makes dumbbell exercises, and heavy dumbbell exercises, more challenging to maintain proper form in this age group.”
Bodyweight workouts promote “more natural movement,” which protects the elbows, wrists, and shoulders. This form of training recruits a variety of muscle groups at the same time, such as the stabilizing muscles, back, shoulders, and core, boosting functional strength and generating “more arm development equilibrium,” Dr. Asfaw explains.
Tricep Dips
“Triceps dips are intense in reaching the long and lateral heads of the triceps that bring about a firm and defined arm. Helping to support your own weight means that you can move in a natural way, and in the process, the elbows do not have to endure the pressure of the heavy weights,” Dr. Asfaw tells us. “Moreover, dips enhance the stability of the shoulders and engage the chest in a minor manner, which makes it an upper-body exercise that is all-rounded among people above 50.”
- Begin sitting at the edge of a sturdy chair.
- Place your hands on the edge of the seat and lift your tailbone off the chair.
- Walk your feet away until your knees, hips, and torso form 90-degree angles.
- Activate your core and keep your shoulders relaxed as you bend your elbows to lower your body just below the seat.
- Press back up until your arms are straight, engaging your triceps as you do so.
- Perform 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.
Incline Pushups
“Incline pushups decrease the stress on the wrists and shoulders and, nevertheless, the activation of the chest, deltoids, and triceps is outstanding. The higher angle assists beginners or those with joint pains in having the correct posture,” Dr. Asfaw points out. “This is a controlled movement that develops arm muscle strength and acts as a form of re-training the stabilizers that can worsen as one ages.”
- Use a stable surface like a wall, countertop, plyometric box, or workout bench, and place your hands on it, shoulder-width apart.
- Walk your legs back so you’re at a straight incline from your head to your heels.
- Keep your legs together and rise onto the balls of your feet. Engage your core and keep your gaze forward.
- Bend your elbows to lower your body until your chest lines up with your elbows.
- Return back to straight arms.
- Perform 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps.
Plank-to-Pushup
“Plank-to-pushup will work the triceps, shoulders, and chest; however, it will also make the core and upper back stronger. This is why they are effective in enhancing total upper-body coordination and stability,” Dr. Asfaw says. “The motion requires concentration and regulation making it stronger to endure more, and effective in tightening the muscles but not so much as compared to using dumbbells in isolation exercises.”
- Start in a forearm plank with your elbows under your shoulders and legs out straight.
- Brace your core.
- Press up with your left hand, followed by your right hand, to assume a high plank—or pushup—position.
- Then, lower back onto your forearms, one arm at a time.
- Perform 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.
Wall Handstand Hold or Modified Wall Walk-Ups
“Lifting the weight of your body in the vertical position produces maximum activation in the shoulders and upper back. Even variations—in which the feet are not raised all the way the wall—actions of the deltoids are made to burn,” Dr. Asfaw notes. “The wrists are also strengthened by this exercise and balance is enhanced, as the older adults are provided with a safe means of developing strong muscles in the shoulders without the use of heavy weights overhead.”
- For modified walk-ups, begin in a high plank with your feet against the wall.
- Begin to step your feet up the wall a few inches at a time as you walk your hands closer to the wall.
- Pause when your body comes to a comfortable position—either halfway up the wall or close to vertical.
- Hold for 20 to 30 seconds before walking back out to a plank.
- Perform 3 rounds of 20 to 30-second holds.
Diamond Pushups
“Diamond pushups are one of the best exercises that you can use to work on the triceps with just bodyweight. The hand position is narrow which exerts more muscular tension, directing the tightening of the back of the arms in a shorter time,” says Dr. Asfaw. “This exercise is also difficult when performed on the knees, but they are available and safe to people with less tolerance of the wrist or shoulder.”
- Assume a high plank, placing your hands close together so your index fingers and thumbs form a “diamond” beneath your chest.
- Keep your elbows close to the sides of your body as you lower your chest toward the floor.
- Press yourself back up to the start position.
- Perform 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps.
Alexa Mellardo
Alexa is a content strategist, editor, and writer based in Greenwich, Connecticut. She has 11+ years of experience creating content for travel, lifestyle, fitness, wellness, F&B, home, and celeb news publications. Read more about Alexa
