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Grandma arms...

It's a term most women loathe to hear. The mere thought of it conjures up images of droopy, sagging arms that flap in the wind when you wave good-by to someone.

Sadly, women are now flocking to surgery in an attempt to cure their arm ills. Upper arm lifts are becoming almost as popular as breast augmentation as a quick fix panacea. But while instant triceps might sound appealing on the surface, it really doesn't pan out in practice. Surgery is both costly and painful, and its effectiveness limited. What's more, unless you take a proactive stance and embrace exercise, the results will only be temporary. Over time, your muscles will continue to atrophy and fat cells will ultimately regenerate, ultimately leading to the return of the dreaded grandma arms.

Fortunately, there is a better solution: Targeted training! Yep, nothing beats regimented exercise when it comes to doing away with grandma arms. And you should be happy to know the triceps respond well to training…provided you take the right approach. You can't just haphazardly throw together a routine and expect to attain the look you desire. Achieving great looking upper arms involves a combination of performing the proper exercises with the proper form in the proper manner. Do these three things and results are all but assured.

The Basics
The first thing you need to understand in your quest for tight, toned triceps is the importance of working them from multiple angles. Here's why. The triceps is a three headed muscle (hence the tri- prefix). In effect, it is really "three muscles in one." Although the muscles of the triceps act as a unit to extend the arm, each head has a specific function and, to varying degrees, can be selectively targeted by utilizing different movements. Thus, exercises for the triceps can be classified into three 'categories' that stress the heads in different ways.

1. The first category targets the long head of the triceps-the muscle that lies at the bottom-most portion of the upper arm. This is accomplished through the use of overhead triceps movements. Since the long head crosses the shoulder joint, it becomes stretched in shoulder flexion (i.e. when your arm is raised and your elbow points towards the ceiling) and therefore can exert more force than the other two heads.
2. The second category emphasizes the medial and lateral heads of the triceps (the muscles that combine to delineate the middle region of the upper arm, helping to form the distinctive "horseshoe" appearance of the triceps). This is accomplished by performing movements where your arms are extended at your sides. Doing so renders the long head less active, which in turn allows the other two heads to accomplish a greater amount of work. When the upper arms are slightly hyperextended (brought behind the torso), the effect is even more pronounced and even better isolation is achieved.
3. The third category stresses all heads of the triceps in roughly equal fashion. This is accomplished by performing movements where the upper arm is in a "mid-position," held out at a 90-degree angle to the torso. These exercises provide a slight stretch to the long head-enough to provide stimulation without overpowering the other two heads-thereby serving as great overall triceps builders.

Of course, technique is also paramount to achieving desired results. Not only does sloppy form diminish stress to the targeted muscles, but it also significantly increases the potential for injury-and you can't get buff if you can't train! To make sure your technique is sound, study the exercise descriptions and photos that accompany this article. Commit them to memory. Make sure you aren't swinging up the weights or using excessive momentum to complete a repetition. Moreover, emphasize the negative (eccentric) portion of the repetition by lower the weights about twice as slowly as you raised them. Eccentric actions are at least as important, if not more so, than concentric actions in generating lean muscle tissue. If you don't resist gravity as you lower the weights, you'll lose out on half the benefit of the exercise.

The Routine
The following program is designed to give you shapelier upper arms in just four weeks time. Given the volume intensive nature of this routine, however, you'll need to be cognizant about the potential for overtraining. In the short term, your body can handle a significant workload without much of a problem. But over the longer term, excess volume can readily lead to an overtrained state whereby results are hindered. Hence, after the four week period, it would be prudent to cut back on training volume for a while, perhaps splitting this workout into two parts, performing half the exercises one session and the other half the following session. This will provide your neuromuscular system with the necessary time to recuperate and recover. Then, after a month or two, use the routine again to jumpstart your progress to even greater heights.

For the purposes of this routine, it is beneficial to vary your repetition ranges. A moderate rep range (6 to 10 reps per set) is ideal for maximizing muscular hypertrophy while a higher rep range (15 to 20 reps per set) is suited toward improving muscular endurance. By utilizing a combination of both moderate and high rep schemes, you'll achieve the best of both worlds, developing pleasing muscle tone that is shapely and firm.

So there you have it; a comprehensive routine guaranteed to transform your triceps in less than a month. Perform the routine once or twice a week, alternating between the two workouts from one session to the next. Stay dedicated (and eat right!) and you'll soon be waving good-by to your grandma arms without having them wave back!

Workout One

Workout Two

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