Summer challenge to tighten flabby arms

The back of the upper arm is a problem area that’s often flabby. The muscle here is the triceps and it doesn’t get worked a lot in every day life. That’s because it’s job is to straighten the arm and usually when we do this, we have gravity helping us. Unless you have an job where you do a lot of physical work, or you exercise with weights, your triceps probably aren’t very toned. This challenge is to tighten flabby arms by using two exercises that make the triceps work hard.

Exercises to tighten flabby arms – shoulder press and push up

In both of these exercises, the arms straighten under resistance, making the triceps work hard.

For the first half of the challenge you do wall push ups, then for the second half knee push ups. The reps are lower for the knee push ups, because it’s a much harder exercise.

You’ll need some sort of weights for the shoulder press. A set of hand weights weighing between 2-5lb (1-2kg) is ideal. See a hand weight buying guide here.

You’ll also need cushioning for you knees when doing the knee push ups, ideally an exercise mat. See an exercise mat buying guide here.

Please read these general safety guidelines before you start the challenge.

Exercise chart

The chart tells you how many reps you should do of each exercise every day. Exercise instructions are below the chart.

Tighten flabby arms exercise chart

Exercise instructions

Warm up

Do 5 arm circles to warm your shoulders and muscles up before you do the challenge each day.

tighten flabby arms - Arm circles

Challenge exercises

Wall push up

Tighten flabby arms - Knee push up

Shoulder press

Get a printable copy of the tighten flabby arms challenge schedule

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Challenge FAQs

The first day of the challenge should feel like it needs a bit of effort, but not too much. If you really struggle with day 1, then you probably won’t get through the challenge. The idea with the challenges on this site is that the first few days get you used to the exercises and the daily habit. Usually about halfway through the challenge the effort levels start to increase more quickly.

Avoid challenges that increase effort levels very quickly – they’re simply not realistic. It’s unlikely that, for example, you would be able to increase how many squats you are able to do by 10 a day for 30 days, or increase your plank hold time by 10 seconds a day for 30 days.

In general, allowing muscles 48 hours between workouts is good because it gives our bodies time to recover and adapt. Challenges are generally short workouts and for a limited period of time (usually 30 days), so not having many rest days won’t be a problem. With challenges that alternate exercises each day, it’s not an issue, because you’re using different muscles.

Fitness improvements don’t always happen in a predictable way. Sometimes we’re just not as strong or energetic for no apparent reason, or we hit a plateau. If you get to a point where you’re struggling to complete the day’s challenge, you can try one of the following:

  • Take a couple of days off and start again where you left off
  • Do the challenge on alternate days rather than every day
  • Instead of increasing the effort every day, stay at the same level for 2 or 3 days and then go onto the next day of the challenge

Obviously these solutions mean the challenge will last longer, but you’ll still benefit from doing it.