Belly, arms.
 

I have been losing over a good amount of time. I am now needing to tone my arms and my belly really badly. Some serious loose skin. I have freeweights. does anyone have any suggestions for exercising these areas? Any best websites?:confused:

this may not be the answer you're looking for but I don't believe that is going to help with lose skin. It will either tighten up over time or you'll either have to live with it, or get it removed.

Sorry Mike, but I disagree completely. I too have had some issues with loose arm and belly skin. I've been doing a lot of toning and it's helped the arms a great deal, the belly a bit less so, but I have a new plan of attack for that area.

With the arms I've been doing not only arms but shoulders and back, to build up the muscles, and give that extra skin something else to be filled with. I'm not using a website that I can share, but I really like the Bob Harper DVD called "Cardio Rev Up" and EA Active 2, which I use with the Wii (I think you can get it for other game systems Playstation, Xbox, etc). I also hit the gym 1-3x week and lift weights, some lighter hand weights (10-20 pounds) and I just go by the instructions on the wall posters for each exercise, and I follow that with the machines. Most of the upper body equipment I can set to at least 10, and some a few blocks more. Sorry I don't know how much the blocks weigh, but I set it high enough that I have to grit my teeth with the first lift, and feel shaky and like I can't hoist it up again by the last. I usually do 2 sets of 10 on each piece of equipment, there are 15 machines total, 8 of which are upper body. I also do 10-15 min 3-6 times/week with the body ball, most of which is core and shoulders. You can search the internet for some good body ball exercises.

My new plan of attack for the belly is to build up my torso, so not just abs, but core and back too. I bought a new "Crunchless" ab DVD featuring a woman named "JACKIE" that is dynamite. It has a lot of twisting with weights and some really intense strength moves. There are also the old standbys, push-ups, planks and pull-ups. I doubt I'll ever be "swim suit model" material, but if you poke my squishy stomach bits, it's getting to be rock hard underneath.

almeeker, it's okay to disagree with me, I may be wrong.

My thought is the skin may tighten up over time, like I said, depending on some factors. Her age, skin condition (elasticity) and the amount of lose skin. I also know that it takes a while to actually build muscles. For example if her arms were 15" before she lost weight, and from losing weight over time they are down to 13". I don't think she'd ever (or maybe not for a LOOONG) time be able to build back up to even close 15" to fill in the lose skin. However, she may be able to build it up some and during that time, the elasticity in her skin helped out, leading her to believe it was from weight training. But this is just my option. I very well may be wrong.

A stability ball and plank will definitely help with you core and with some bands or a small set of dumbbells you could do countless exercises. I recently go a book, The Big Book of Exercises which has some great exercises and pictures. It a mens book but we all have the same muscle groups. You could probably find something similar or check out body building. com

A really good set of DVDs is from a woman named Tracey Anderson. She has a Post-Pregnancy workout, which is designed to bring the skin back to the muscle on your belly (not specifically for mothers, but it's a great marketing ploy), but she does arms and legs a bit in there, too. Then her Mat Workout, which concentrates more on the legs and arms with a bit of abdominal. In each, you use no more than 3lb weights, and let me tell you, the arms are a killer.

I agree with Mike that it's probably going to take a while for the skin to come back to the muscle, and of course it depends on how much skin you're talking about - but you're building strength, so it's worth the wait, in my opinion.

I haven't heard of the Crunchless Ab workout almeeker mentioned, but hey, if you can tone your tummy without crunches, it might just be worth a go!

okay I went back and read my original post. I think I misspoke when I said I didn't believe it was going to help. Sure it may help some. I just think that it takes longer than some people may expect b/c the skin gets damaged when it's stretched out. Sometimes the damage isn't as noticable until we shrink.

I just didn't want to get a false sense of hope that you can pick up a set of dumbbells and before you know it your skin will be back to normal. I didn't have this issue, although I thought I would, so like I said I may be wrong.

I thought I was going to have that issue too, and so I thought to myself that I would rather look "ripped and wrinkly" than "scrawny and deflated". In the beginning the extra skin was very noticeable, and I do think to some extent that the skin has shrunk down on it's own with continued diet and good nutrition, but not leaving things to chance I'm also religious with the moisturizer. But the workouts have been surprisingly helpful. Yes it takes a high protein diet and some dedicated time at the gym to develop muscle mass, which is why I don't just concentrate on just arms and abs. The muscles in your shoulders, back and booty can take up some of that extra skin as well, and in a good way. It's not all about "skinny", sometimes it's about "shape and firmness".

The new crunchless DVD I have stars Jackie Warner, she's the trainer from "Thintervention". Which is a show I saw on-line a while back, somebody posted a link to it here on fitday, but I've never seen it advertised on TV, although the DVD box says it's a TV show. I'm going to check out Tracey Anderson, thanks for the heads up behaze, I'm always on the look out for something new.