Tone upper body without adding bulk?

[Karen P]

Okay, I've been doing push-ups and building up to pull-ups. I also work out with rubberbands for my tri-ceps. I am trying to tone my upper body-arm and back- for my wedding, but I really like the trim and slim look, rather than the muscular look. Do you guys think I'm doing the best exercises? Any other suggestions. What about carrying really light weights when I run?

[Leigh P.]

You problem isn't so much are you doing the write/wrong exercise for what you want. The problems seems to be more that you don't know what you want.

Put up a picture of who you want to look like. In short if it is an actress the you likely have enough muscle mass already and just need to lose body fat to show that muscle (tone) that you have. The only real training you need to do is some light full body work a few times a week to maintain mass and don't diet down too aggressively.

If the picture you put up is a more athletic look with ripped six pack abs, thick quads, and looks like that spend all their time lifting, running and training well then you need to train more specifically.

So what do you want and there in lies the answer.

You don't need to jump hurdles to look hot in a wedding dress.

[Karen P]

Originally Posted by Leigh P.

You problem isn't so much are you doing the write/wrong exercise for what you want. The problems seems to be more that you don't know what you want.

Put up a picture of who you want to look like. In short if it is an actress the you likely have enough muscle mass already and just need to lose body fat to show that muscle (tone) that you have. The only real training you need to do is some light full body work a few times a week to maintain mass and don't diet down too aggressively.

If the picture you put up is a more athletic look with ripped six pack abs, thick quads, and looks like that spend all their time lifting, running and training well then you need to train more specifically.

So what do you want and there in lies the answer.

You don't need to jump hurdles to look hot in a wedding dress.

I guess your right. I probably do have enough muscle mass. The problem is just all the fat on top of it. There's really no way to make your arms shrink unless you shrink your whole body by losing weight in general. I'm just overthinking it. Thanks for the straightforward advice. Take care!