As a woman, I find having sexy, toned arms to be empowering. Great arms on a woman can draw a lot of attention because they are unexpected. They make women look brave, elegant, and confident. Below are some of my favorite exercises and tips for building gorgeous guns year round.

We all hate to hear it, but toning up any part of the body always starts with diet. Maintain a reduced-calorie diet with lots of lean protein and vegetables. Eat controlled portions of bread and salt, as both can make you retain water. Water retention hides muscle definition. If you carry fat in your arms, you may have to lose some fat to help your muscles show.

Add to the positive effects of your healthy diet with lots of cardio exercise. While resistance training will, of course, be needed to build size and shape in your arms, cardio exercise is the best way to burn extra calories to help you take off fat. I know, I hate cardio too, but it’s an evil we all must endure to enjoy beautifully sculpted arms.

Tone your biceps with barbell curls, dumbbell curls, and seated preacher curls.  You can also use the resistance cable in the gym.  Some health clubs have cable machines that allow you to isolate one arm at a time.  I love these because they challenge me to focus on each arm and they force me to work both sides evenly.  If you are really strong, you may want to try chin-ups. 

 Work your biceps from multiple angles and always keep a slight bend in your elbows.  Hyper-extending your elbows could lead to injury.  If you don’t have a health club membership, buy a resistance band and place one end of it under your foot or a door, then perform curls.  I love my resistance band because I can take it on trips, or I can throw it over my shoulder and take it to the park for an outdoor workout.    

Dips, press backs, and tricep extensions are great for the backs of your arms.  My gym has an assisted dip machine that helps me work toward lifting my full body weight.  At home, I do dips off a chair or off my balance ball.  Using the balance ball challenges your muscle to stabilize itself while it lifts.  Push-ups with your elbows close to your body are also highly effective for working the triceps.  I often perform tricep push-ups with my knees on the ground because I am not yet strong enough to do them from my toes.  Believe me, they still work! 

 Combining diet, cardio exercise, and resistance training is the only solution to getting truly toned arms, but luckily, if you incorporate all three of these elements at once, you’ll also achieve a truly toned body overall.