Priority Arm Exercises for WomenWomen who want to improve fitness are interesting in arm exercises for toning and shaping. Women in sports often want to improve upper body strength to enhance performance.
The bench press as shown here is a free weight lifting exercise. Combined with weight control, the exercise promotes fat reduction from the breasts, which helps improve upper body curvature. See Gender Differences Description: The bench press is performed by locking out the bar, lowering it to the chest, and returning to the locked out position. The grip should be slightly wider than the shoulders. A more narrow grip shifts emphasis to the triceps. Normally, you lift the bar from the uprights. For heavier weight loads, a spotter should be ready to assist. 
Description: To counterbalance the bench press, use bent rowing as an upper back strengthening exercise that also helps posture. Place your head on a solid object to take the stress off your low back. Lift the weight from an extended position to the chest. Your legs should be slightly bent to protect your back, which should be flat. For women in sports: If you are performing Olympic lifting exercises, muscle balancing is built into the lifts. Bent rowing is not necessaary, unless you choose to add it. 
There are many alternatives for these lifts, most involving dumbbells (see free weights) or weight machines. For women, disadvantages of using dumbbells are (a) the difficulty of increasing weight in smaller increments and (b) greater stress on the joints of each limb. An advantage of dumbbells lies in the potential to increase the range of motion because the body does not block the movement, as with a barbell. See Fitness Equipment The military, or overhead press, and the lat pulls also work the opposing muscles of the upper body, but in a different range of motion from the bench press and bent rowing.
Description: For the military press, lift the bar from the shoulders to overhead, and then return it to the shoulders. The arm and shoulder movements are very similar to the upper body action of the Jerk.
Description: For the lat pull, or pull down, a machine provides the resistance. Pull the bar down from overhead and then return it. Your legs should be anchored by a bar so the weight does not pull you off the seat.
In addition to toning and shaping the upper body, these 4 Priority Arm Exercises are ideal for Sports Training when upper body strength is important (e.g., basketball, javelin throwing). Also, if you are performing Olympic Lifting exercises, it is not necessary to duplicate joint actions with these upper body lifts. For example, if you are performing the Jerk, you need not duplicate with the military press. 
All of the 4 Priority Arm Exercises or alternatives need not be performed on every single training day. For example, they can be alternated by pushing (bench, military) and pulling (bent rowing, lat pull), or by using other planned sequences. However, these key actions save time building the arms and should regularly be included in your training program in some form.
For guidance about how to incorporate the arm exercises in your program, see Strength Fitness. For sports, see Sports Training Adviser on Strength Fitness 
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