Although you can’t necessarily target certain areas of your body for fat loss through your exercise, working to build up certain muscle groups is a very attainable goal, and in fact recommended when looking to improve your metabolism and lose weight. Focusing workouts to strengthen your arms, legs and core will allow those muscles to appear more prominently when you lose the layer of fat that may be covering them, and muscle growth can allow for your body to burn through food more effectively, leading to healthy weight loss. However, not every targeted exercise is actually useful for achieving your goals, and being aware of which strength moves are a waste of time can help to streamline your exercise period.
If you’re working to build your biceps, shoulders, triceps and chest, there are certain upper body movements which should be left out of your routine in order to see the biggest, most profound changes in the new year. We checked in with Kate Meier, CPT and gym owner for her top tips on the arm exercises you can skip, and what you should be doing instead to get toned, strong arms à la Michelle Obama.
Dumbbell Tricep Kickback
Your triceps are the horseshoe shaped muscles at the back of your arms and are often targeted by tricep kickbacks with a dumbbell. However, according to Meier, this move quickly becomes ineffective when it comes to seeing any real definition in the muscle. “This exercise is extremely limited in the amount of resistance you can use and only puts the tricep under significant tension in the last part of the movement,” she says. “The triceps are a big muscle group of the arms, which will barely tax them.”
Instead, swap this move for tricep pushups which will target more of the body than just the arms, increasing calorie burn and building up strength from a compound movement. “By working on increasing the amount of volume (reps x weight moved) in these exercises, it will strengthen the arms over time and build more muscle than the isolation exercises,” Meier adds.
Machine Bicep Curls
While dumbbell bicep curls may be useful in targeting this muscle, turning to the machine actually dilutes the effectiveness of the exercise, often engaging the incorrect muscle group. “For most people, this will become more of a forearm exercise than a bicep exercise. Like the tricep kickback, there is only a small part of the range of motion that will hit the bicep fully,” notes Meier.
Practicing this move with a dumbbell and making sure to keep your elbows pinned to your side so as not to swing the weight and use momentum will be most effective in targeting your biceps. Hammer curls are another useful variation which can help increase strength over time. “A simple rule to follow is to choose a weight that is challenging for 8 reps and try to get through 3-4 sets,” suggests Meier. “When you can comfortably perform 8 then increase the reps to 9-10. Continue this progression until you can do sets of 12 comfortably and then increase the weight and work on progressing the reps back up.”
Lateral Dumbbell Raises
This move is said to target your shoulders, but while it certainly puts pressure on the area, the extension may actually put you at risk of injury. “These can be bad for your shoulder joint and possibly lead to impingement,” warns Meier. “In addition to that, it will only isolate one part of the shoulder meaning you will still have to hit the other parts to fully work those muscles.”
Instead of completing a lateral movement to target those muscles, Meier suggests trying a vertical shoulder press to reach the full scope of the shoulder muscle. This will allow you to push more weight and increase your time over tension, leading to growth. “Compound exercises that allow you to work against more resistance will force the muscles to contract to their fullest. It will also work more muscles at the same time,” she says.
Overhead Dumbbell Tricep Extension
Another commonly practiced tricep exercise, this move is an isolated exercise which only targets the tricep and is therefore less effective than a compound movement. “This is a very popular exercise at the gym but not the best use of time. It is more effective at making the shoulders uncomfortable than it is at strengthening the triceps,” explains Meier. “Many people will spend whole workouts doing curls and tricep extensions to try and grow their arms. In order to grow, our muscles need the right amount of stimulus and this will be limited with those exercises,” she says. With this, movements that engage multiple muscles will be most effective for increasing strength over time, particularly in the arms.
