Arms too big and too flabby

[Loritah]

Hi everybody, so I have being working out for 1 year, and 6 months, I work out 1 hour 5 times a week. I used to do 12 rep of 8lbs, or 4lbs depending on the work out. My arms are 11 inches.
After I raised my concerns with the trainer, she gave me 20 reps for most work outs with lower weight (2 lbs) I do sometimes 6 lbs.
The thing is, my bíceps are big, making my arms look very masculine, but my triceps are flabby.
I am a 38 year old woman, I am not sure if the age is to blame that my arms are not toning like it should.
The trainer at the gym changes my routine every 2 months and I work 2 days upper, 2 days lower body, 1 day only abs
My diet is not the best, I try to keep away from sugar, but I do eat carbs at lunch (rice or potatoes, I know! Don't judge me)

I really need an advice, I hate my arms, the look very big for my body I am 5'3 and weigh 123 lbs (56 kg)

What should I do? I know my diet is step one, but will this help? or because of my age, my arms wont ever get toned?

Thanks in advance

[BS57]

You failed to mention what exercise you're doing reps of?

Nothing wrong with taters and rice, but what sort of daily total caloric intake are you consuming? Macros?

Since you're unsure if "will my diet help", you may want to start reading the stickies.

FYI- I see you're cross-posting identical threads.......it's generally frowned upon.

[davisj3537]

Triceps are a problem area for women in general. If you want your tricep to be tighter you either need to lose weight or gain muscle there. Gaining muscle requires you to gain weight. Obviously trying to gain tricep muscle and lose weight are two conflicting goals. A picture says a thousand words. 11 inch arms doesn't seem masculine given your size, but again without a picture it's hard to say for sure.

[Farley1324]

Hi everybody, so I have being working out for 1 year, and 6 months, I work out 1 hour 5 times a week. I used to do 12 rep of 8lbs, or 4lbs depending on the work out. My arms are 11 inches.
After I raised my concerns with the trainer, she gave me 20 reps for most work outs with lower weight (2 lbs) I do sometimes 6 lbs.
The thing is, my bíceps are big, making my arms look very masculine, but my triceps are flabby.
I am a 38 year old woman, I am not sure if the age is to blame that my arms are not toning like it should.
The trainer at the gym changes my routine every 2 months and I work 2 days upper, 2 days lower body, 1 day only abs
My diet is not the best, I try to keep away from sugar, but I do eat carbs at lunch (rice or potatoes, I know! Don't judge me)

I really need an advice, I hate my arms, the look very big for my body I am 5'3 and weigh 123 lbs (56 kg)

What should I do? I know my diet is step one, but will this help? or because of my age, my arms wont ever get toned?

Thanks in advance

There is nothing wrong with eating carbs, including carbs with lunch.

What is your daily breakdown of calories and carbs/fat/protein? Average weekly bodyweight change? Are you trying to gain or lose weight at the moment?

Changing your routine every 2 months is a bad sign.

[Loritah]

There is nothing wrong with eating carbs, including carbs with lunch.

What is your daily breakdown of calories and carbs/fat/protein? Average weekly bodyweight change? Are you trying to gain or lose weight at the moment?

Changing your routine every 2 months is a bad sign.

Thanks for your reply. I don't count calories so I am not sure. It might be more than it should.
I will try to be more aware of it.
Why is it a bad sign to change my workout routine every 2 months?
My workout is a bit of everything. ( shoulders, back, chest, legs, biceps, triceps and abs)
Any tips will help me a lot as I am not noticing major improvement and I am feeling my effort is not paying off.
Thanks

[Loritah]

FYI- I see you're cross-posting identical threads.......it's generally frowned upon.[/QUOTE]

Sorry about that, I was not sure where to post. I deleted the other one.

Thanks for your advice

[Farley1324]

Thanks for your reply. I don't count calories so I am not sure. It might be more than it should.
I will try to be more aware of it.
Why is it a bad sign to change my workout routine every 2 months?
My workout is a bit of everything. ( shoulders, back, chest, legs, biceps, triceps and abs)
Any tips will help me a lot as I am not noticing major improvement and I am feeling my effort is not paying off.
Thanks

The general idea is to find something that works and stick with it for awhile. 2 months is barely enough time to see if/how well it works. A common tactic of 'trainers' is to constantly change routines, changing exercise selection, exercise order, sets, reps, rest, etc, to conceal a lack of real progress. Changing what you are doing is a good way to elicit some new muscle soreness (DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness), which many people equate to 'workout must be good' (in fact, DOMS is not a reliable indicator). Changing can also give an appearance of some progress because you will start the new program/exercises/etc at a lower weight than you can handle and then 'progress' to where it's more difficult...you can also adapt to the different exercises, different movement patterns, etc, and simply get better at performing the new stuff without getting any stronger or gaining any endurance etc, again, illusion of progress...and yet, if you do get something that works, quitting it after 2 months is lunacy, one of the fundamental principles that most should abide by is "never stop something that is working".

And more. Point is, arbitrarily changing everything every 2 months (or whatever time frame) is just...not good.

As a 38 year old woman whose primary expressed concern seems to be flabby arms, the answer is diet. Track calories and carbs/fat/protein, eat to lose bodyweight. davis basically said this right up front in the thread. "Tone" or lack of flab is a combination of more muscle and/or less fat. For women, it's much easier to lose fat than it is to build muscle (even for men, losing fat is easier and much faster than building muscle)

[Loritah]

Thanks a lot. You opened my eyes, I never thought I should stick to the same routine for more time but as you said I must keep doing what works best for my body. So far I have not seeing major changes after over a year at the gym except for my biceps 😂, but I know I must diet and hopefully things will change.

[Farley1324]

Thanks a lot. You opened my eyes, I never thought I should stick to the same routine for more time but as you said I must keep doing what works best for my body. So far I have not seeing major changes after over a year at the gym except for my biceps ������, but I know I must diet and hopefully things will change.

This may be cynical or overly negative (I can be that way), but IMO the only thing the vast majority of gym/fitness center 'trainers' are good for, is accountability and motivation. You spend the money on a trainer in addition to a membership, you want to use it. You develop some kind of relationship with them and they have no problem calling you out on "why didn't you exercise yesterday?", which gets a lot of people to do something instead of nothing, which is good. But, for the motivated who will do what needs to be done regardless, and who can and will put in the legwork to read and research what they should be doing and why, and all that good stuff, trainers are a waste of money that hold them back because most trainers don't really know enough to properly coach programming or form. Some of the absolute stupidest bull**** we ever hear comes out of the mouth of trainers at commercial gyms or fitness centers

[melDorado]

Bench pressing turned my big flabby tris into big firm tris if thats any help.

Push ups are a start
If you can't do a pushup from the floor do it from a table or a step, whatever you can manage
Then work down to lower surfaces til you're strong enough for floor pushups. By this point you should start bench and overhead pressing.

Dont do ladies "knee pushups" they arent good

[Loritah]

I don't pay them as they work for the gym, they just change the routine and tell me if I am doing the workout as it should. I am motivated but I am not well informed. I do some research but I always end up lost or like the last time I told her I read it's better to do more reps less weight for toning the arms and she did add lots of reps on my arms work outs but I haven't seeing changes. So I came here to ask for advice and see if someone can tell me what I am doing wrong.

[Loritah]

Thanks this is a great advice. I can do 10npush ups at a time bUT I never do. Will start now. Thanks a million

[Farley1324]

I don't pay them as they work for the gym, they just change the routine and tell me if I am doing the workout as it should. I am motivated but I am not well informed. I do some research but I always end up lost or like the last time I told her I read it's better to do more reps less weight for toning the arms and she did add lots of reps on my arms work outs but I haven't seeing changes. So I came here to ask for advice and see if someone can tell me what I am doing wrong.

That is false

[Loritah]

That is false

So Should I do less reps more weigh?

[Farley1324]

So Should I do less reps more weigh?

When cutting, it is important to maintain your intensity, with intensity properly defined as % of 1RM. The best signal you can give your body that it needs to keep that muscle is to lift heavy weights that tap into all of that muscle. Keep protein intake up (even higher than when bulking, actually), keep the weights heavy, reduce volume if needed so that recovery doesn't suffer.

[davisj3537]

The fitness industry is full of bad advice and generally no one agreeing on anything. Try not to get frustrated. Work hard, put in the time and ask questions constantly. With enough effort to seek the truth eventually you'll find what is and isn't BS.

[EjnarKolinkar]

I used to do 12 rep of 8lbs, or 4lbs depending on the work out. My arms are 11 inches.
After I raised my concerns with the trainer, she gave me 20 reps for most work outs with lower weight (2 lbs) I do sometimes 6 lbs.

Sounds ridiculous. My 70 year old mother trains much more intensely than that. Get on a legit weights program with a built in progression model.

The general idea is to find something that works and stick with it for awhile.

^ This. Luckily you came to this forum lots of good programs to chose from.

[Loritah]

[QUOTE=EjnarKolinkar;1559141811]Sounds ridiculous. My 70 year old mother trains much more intensely than that. Get on a legit weights program with a built in progression model.

LOL thanks for the motivation, I consider myself a bit weak when it comes to lifting heavy weight, so I keep it comfortable, maybe for body builders sounds ridiculous, but for me it's ok. I just want to tone my body and feel good ;-)

[grubman]

so I keep it comfortable, maybe for body builders sounds ridiculous, but for me it's ok. I just want to tone my body and feel good ;-)

The body needs to be forced to change. Keeping it “comfortable” means simply going through the motions doing what your body can already handle...your not forcing it to improve.

There really is no such thing as “toning”. What people think is toning is actually losing some fat and gaining some muscle...which you won’t do if you aren’t taxing your body and making it adapt.

[nikola1808]

I doubt that you can do 10 push ups. If you could do that as a woman you have great triceps. Your form is probably bad, search youtube for a proper push up video. Better do 3 good push ups than 10 terrible ones.

[sooby]

i wish we could crucify every trainer that espouses "more reps for toning"

because that isn't even half true

defining your muscles comes down to putting on muscle then losing fat, two goals which for the most part are contradictory unless you are a complete beginner.

[Loritah]

Why do you doubt it? do i look that weak? lol

[grubman]

Why do you doubt it? do i look that weak? lol

I don’t know what he’s talking about either. I know plenty of women in “average” shape who can knock out 10 push-ups without breaking a sweat.

[Farley1324]

I don’t know what he’s talking about either. I know plenty of women in “average” shape who can knock out 10 push-ups without breaking a sweat.

Yeah, when your bodyweight is only 120-130 lbs, and you train consistently for some time, 10 push-ups shouldn't be unbelievable or anything

[RedRusty]

I doubt that you can do 10 push ups. If you could do that as a woman you have great triceps. Your form is probably bad, search youtube for a proper push up video. Better do 3 good push ups than 10 terrible ones.

Wut.

[Sweetums6000]

A common tactic of 'trainers' is to constantly change routines, changing exercise selection, exercise order, sets, reps, rest, etc, to conceal a lack of real progress. Changing what you are doing is a good way to elicit some new muscle soreness (DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness), which many people equate to 'workout must be good' (in fact, DOMS is not a reliable indicator). Changing can also give an appearance of some progress because you will start the new program/exercises/etc at a lower weight than you can handle and then 'progress' to where it's more difficult...you can also adapt to the different exercises, different movement patterns, etc, and simply get better at performing the new stuff without getting any stronger or gaining any endurance etc, again, illusion of progress...

I also wonder if some trainers feel the need to keep changing things to make you continue to think you need them. I’ve never been or used a trainer, but it seems to me like a good trainer would kind of be setting you up to not need them anymore.

[nikola1808]

Still doubt it

[Loritah]

If it makes you happy then so be it.