Hey guys.

I've been a personal trainer for a little over five years now. Every week I'm learning something new. So I will never claim I have all the answers. This week I've been researching how to make a woman's arms leaner after a very extensive bulking to maintenance period. My gf has been doing this for the last three years. She's wanted to lean out for some time, but it wasn't until a month ago did she take her deficit more seriously.


As of right now, I can see the changes beginning to take place in her back and stomach area. However, a major concern of hers are her arms. They've definitely grown in size from lifting heavier the past three years. To the point where most of her long sleeves don't fit anymore. They have a bulkier look right now. Which drives her crazy any time she sees a side angle of herself in photos. Basically, many curvy women, she wants to maintain the booty gains, but lean out up top.

**The photo I have included is fairly recent. The top photo is where she used to be three years ago. And the bottom is what her arms currently look like.

This is the very first time I'm helping a female lean out her bulkier, muscular arms. (I'm always dealing with female clients who either really skinny chicks, or are overweight.) My first thought is for her to (obviously) dial back on her arm days. Continue her deficit. Include more conditioning. (Which she hates, but will do what's necessary.) She doesn't want to lose strength, but at the same time it *could* be a minor casualty from trying to lean out her arms. I'm also trying to figure out if she should switch it up to higher reps and a little less weight. Any of you ladies or gentlemen have advice on this?

On a side note. When I first googled, "how to make womens arms leaner," it gave me a ton of results of women who are just naturally skinny giving their advice on how to do it. *rolls eyes.* I have to do a little more digging. I know this particular task is something chicks who are serious about lifting have had to deal with. Anyways, I'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks

Thanks. Haven't seen this one by Bret.

You can't spot reduce fat. All you can do is create a calorie deficit and lose fat from all over. Genetics decide where it comes off from.

I think this is about muscle not fat

although to be fair that "bulk" is probably due to fat so continued deficit will make her arms leaner

if she doesn't want bigger arms she probably shouldn't be doing arm isos

if she wants leaner arms she needs to be in a caloric deficit

if she wants smaller/leaner arms she is going to have to accept the fact that some of her lifts will go down in strength.


apart from that there isn't much else you can do.

what's your client's height and weight?

I understand you can't spot reduce. Just trying to implement the best game plan possible.

She began her deficit last month. It's been a long time since she's done that, but heading in the right direction. Told her earlier on she's most likely going to lose some strength in the process. She's 5'7/170lbs/roughly 28% BF.

I'm just having her ease off the arms days. Dial back on the heavier upper body lifts. Make sure she keeps going heavy for her legs. Let the deficit take its course.

Rabbitjb

Yeah. She definitely added fat onto the arms too. It's just one of those situations where she's done something for so long that a change up scares her. Lol. All normal stuff. She's going to trust the process.

I'm questioning why she has arm days at all?

cos most PT's dont have a clue about anything than counting reps n making people sweat.

When she loses weight, her arms are likely going to look even more muscular, but probably less 'bulky'.

There are those tiny % in the population with the genetics and hormones for muscle growth, but your GF doesn't really look like bulky arms to me... she looks fluffy arms. Also, the two pictures are vastly different lighting... the bottom picture is much better lighting for showing definition..

The only thing to actually lean her arm out is atrophy... but as soon as she starts doing anything with her arms she's gonna get bigger again due to muscle memory... Unless she's planning to not lift upper body any more at all, and stop eating protein. None of which sounds healthy or productive.

She incorporated arms on her own merit two years ago. If I haven't clarified already, she's no longer going to do a dedicated arm day. Which was maybe once or twice a week at the most.

MyEgo Problem - Hold up. I'll assume you're not referring to me. If so, don't patronize me by insinuating I'm just another trainer counting reps. Far from it. I take this stuff very seriously. Not some guy on his phone during a session giving no sh*ts.

fluidZ - Bear with me on the lighting in the photos. It's what I've been given. For the record, she's not trying to get tiny arms. Just looking to bring down her body fat. And yes, she will more than likely experience atrophy. Within reason. I think she's going to be happy with her results over the next couple months.

Appreciate the feedback, folks. I'm out.

Women shouldn’t just train lower

My advice is train whole body and diet. After losing some weight, arms will most likely return to previous size but with better tone than before.

And yes whole arm days are not necessary for anyone who is not an advanced bodybuilder. Just train bis when you train upper back, train tris when you train pressing.

What weight was she before?

Also echo what most people said. Just cut and eventually her arms will be leaner but 5'7 170lbs sounds excessive. Unless she is really muscular.

Maybe because I'm not a trainer and try to see things simply (or maybe I'm simple) I don't understand why this is causing so much debate

I agree with WolfRose, I mean what's the purpose of having an arm day? It's to chuck more and more volume at arms to get hypertrophy, but she doesn't want that so why not stick to full body strength workouts without dedicated arm day (yes I realise strength training grows muscle too, but you can maintain strength by dialing back the volume a bit and using the neuromusuclar side of things)

* She needs to cut some fat
* She needs to stop doing arm days... already stopped? Good!
* She needs to do full body strength, maybe with Bret Contreras levels of leg work on top
* You need to persuade her to do more conditioning --> good luck!

If you are a personal trainer who tries to learn something every week (and hopefully tries to teach your clients something every week?) then you are already ahead of the pack. Good for you!

Agreed, I wasn't suggesting she should...

See SPs post below yours

he didn't say women should only train lower

just simply not having dedicated arm days, if it isn't a good idea for most men to have a dedicated arm day then it's probably a worse idea for a woman to have one.

but as for OP if client is 5'7 170 lbs, it probably isn't just her arms that are bulky but anyhow the best way is to drop a whole bunch of weight

just a general observation about 95% of pt's lol.

but for a pt with 5years experience this question shocks me.. "how to get a girls arms leaner?" thats remedial stuff yano what i mean?..
it should be ur bread n butter mate. i mean people pay YOU for personal training setvices.

Not trying to sound like a prick but letting clients (even if gf) ramdomly do daft stuff like adding arm days (plural) unchecked and not knowing how fat loss works isnt filling me with confidence about not being one of the 95% i mentioned.

but ill take ur word for it ofc matey, no offence intended.. and being open to learning new stuff is an excellent mindset for sure.

This


And, still unsure of the point of this thread. Id expect someone who makes money training people, to know that training her arms less and reducing overall body fat percentage would be the simple solution to this problem.

"I'm a PT and I made my girlfriend fat. Her arms are now fat. How do I make her arms less fat?"

Did you write your own qualification on a napkin?

I'm sorry everyone, but this really feels like some discrimination in this therad to me. We're nice and helpful to generally everyone that comes through here.. but when a PT shows up, and is humble and willing to learn, there's a lot of admonishment for asking a question.

He said this was a new situation for him... how many people do you see in the gym that are trying to LOSE muscle? I'm a tutor, if someone came to me and said "Hey, what's the best way for me to forget about something that I learned" I'd want to double check my ideas with someone too. It's not like a doctor is coming in and asking about the basics of the TCA cycle or electron attacks... The guy even had exactly the right idea from the beginning:We need to maintain the forum rules of being respectful and give the same help to anyone with a question, whether it's a noob or otherwise.

She needs to lose fat not muscle.
Literally any solid program focused towards her goal (Strong Curves) plus a steady deficit and a 10 to 15lb loss over a few months

the golden rule..
lift n eat for ur goal..a pt of 5 years should know this.. that's not discrimination. its just odd.

She just got fat. Happens to the best of us. She doesn't need some tailor made routine to "lean out" her arms (doesn't exist anyway) and she doesn't need to let them atrophy.

She just needs to be less fat.