Don't shy away from curling hard and heavy, your arms are not going to rip out of your sleeves. Women don't produce nearly enough testosterone to make huge gains or even huge man-muscles quickly.

Here's a quick & basic guide to training your arms, including a couple workouts.

The basics:

Curls flex the elbow & work the biceps and brachialis, while extensions extend the elbow and work the triceps.

When you flex and extend your elbow with resistance, you recruit muscle fibers. The heavier you go, the more muscle fibers you need to move the weight. If you challenge your muscles consistently, they respond by growing.

I see many women doing a lot of curls, extensions and various raises with those little, five-pound dumbbells.  I know the bigger dumbbells can be intimidating.. but remember, your muscles should strain (even just a little bit!) to do the work or they won't change. Even if you move up to 10lb or 15lb dumbbells you'll notice a big difference.

A good tip to go by is the last 2-3 reps of each set should be a challenge to complete. If they are relatively easy, then you've graduated and can increase the weight a bit!

Make sure you do every exercise with a full range of motion. You're only cheating yourself and your arms if you only do part of the movement. If you are unfamiliar with an exercise, this is a good database with videos and instructions. 



What are your favorite exercises to keep your arms strong? Any favorite programs? Just comment below, I'd love to hear and try them!