Arm Workout for Women: A 4-Week Plan for Stronger Arms

This arm workout for women is an add-on. It assumes you already train your upper body, for example with our upper body workout for women, and gives you two ways to add focused biceps, triceps and shoulder work: one 35-minute Arm Day a week, or two 10-minute finishers. Both have dumbbell-only and band versions.

What "toned arms" really means

"Toned" isn't a special kind of muscle. It's how much muscle you have in your arms and shoulders, and how much fat sits over it. Arm exercises build the first. The second depends on your overall body fat, which comes from your whole routine, especially food.

You can't choose where you lose fat. In a 12-week study, 104 men and women trained only their non-dominant arm, and MRI scans found no difference in fat loss between the trained and untrained arm. A 2013 study of 11 young adults who trained one leg for 12 weeks found the same: fat dropped in the arms and trunk, not in the trained leg.

If fat loss is one of your goals, treat it as a whole-body project. Our high-protein meal plan for women is a good place to start.

The arm muscles and how to train them

The triceps make up the back of your upper arm. One of its three heads, the long head, also crosses the shoulder, so it stretches more when your arms are overhead. In a 12-week study of 21 untrained young adults (14 men, 7 women), each person trained one arm with overhead cable extensions and the other with pushdowns. The overhead arm's triceps grew about 1.4 times as much, which is why Arm Day starts with an overhead extension.

How many sets a week for arms

A meta-analysis of 15 studies, mostly in untrained adults, found muscle growth rose with weekly sets: about 5% with fewer than 5 sets per muscle a week, and about 10% with 10 or more.

Rows and pulldowns already work your biceps, and presses work your triceps, so you don't need 10 sets of curls on top. Each option below adds 3-5 direct sets for biceps, triceps and side shoulders (Arm Day also adds 2 sets for the rear shoulders):

Pick one. New to lifting? Start with weight lifting for beginners and add this after a couple of months.

Option 1: Arm Day (once a week)

Effort is written as RIR (reps in reserve): how many more clean reps you could do when you stop. RIR 2 means two good reps left.

Warm-up (4-5 minutes)

1. Two minutes on a rower or arm bike.
2. 15 band pull-aparts and 10 arm circles each way.
3. One light set of 12 on your first two exercises.

Arm Day

If overhead extensions bother your elbows or shoulders, swap in pushdowns or kickbacks.

Where Arm Day fits

Leave a day between Arm Day and your upper-body sessions so your arms are fresh for rows. On a 4-day upper/lower week, like the one in our gym workout plan for women:

Other sample weeks are in our guide to the best workout split for women.

Option 2: Two 10-minute arm finishers

Add these to the end of two sessions on nonconsecutive days: your upper days if they don't already end with arm work, or your lower days if they do. Unlike Arm Day, a finisher is small enough to do the day before an upper session. Do each as a circuit: one set of each exercise, 45 seconds rest between them, two rounds.

Finisher A

Finisher B

Dumbbell-only and band versions

Bands get harder as they stretch, so pause for a second at the top and take 3 seconds to lower. Aim for 15-25 reps, still stopping at RIR 1-2. No equipment? Close-grip push-ups at your level from the home workout plan for women work the triceps.

How to progress

Arm weights are light, so each jump is big: going from 10 to 12 lb (or 4 to 5 kg) is 20-25% heavier. Let reps do most of the progressing: stay at a weight until every set reaches the top of the range, then move up. If the heavier dumbbell drops you below the range, go back to the lighter one and add 2-3 reps past the top of the range before trying again. After week 4, take an easier week (half the sets, RIR 4), then start again from your new weights.

Common mistakes

• Using weights that are too light. Light weights only work when sets end close to failure. If you could do well past the top of your rep range, go heavier.
• Letting your elbows wander. Keep them by your sides on curls and pointing up on overhead extensions.
• Cutting the range short. Lower curls until your arm is straight, and let overhead extensions reach a full stretch.
• Swapping upper-body days for arm work. Rows, pulldowns and presses still do most of the work.
• Skipping the shoulders. Lateral raises shape the top of the arm, and rear-delt flies balance out pressing.