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While it’s a natural part of aging, losing the tone in your arms and getting dreaded “bat
wings” or “bingo arms” can be a serious blow to your self-confidence, especially when it seems to happen overnight. But the good news is your arms don’t have to be like this
forever. You can try engaging in targeted arm exercises, explore nonsurgical methods
to lose the sagginess or undergo surgery to get the arms you are anxious to have.
Read on for the best ways to combat flabby arms.
How Did Your Arms Begin to Lose Their Firmness?
First, it’s important to understand WHY your arms have gone south. It can happen to
anyone, even those who are slimmer. Poorer upper arm muscle tone is sometimes the
culprit. Fat and sagging skin collect below the arms due to decreasing testosterone
hormones as we age. You might also see more sagging after you lose a lot of weight
since the skin doesn’t always bounce back well.
Say Goodbye to Saggy Arms
These issues can be addressed very effectively through a number of different non-
surgical and surgical treatments:
1. Exercise! Prioritizing exercise and arm toning before opting for an arm lift offers
several key benefits. Strengthening arm muscles not only enhances aesthetics
but also promotes functional fitness and vitality. Pre-existing muscle tone can
contribute to a more natural and refined outcome post-surgery. Additionally, well-
toned muscles provide a stable foundation, potentially leading to improved
surgical results. While it’s not always possible to completely eliminate sagging
arms through exercises, you can try this first to see if it tones your arms.
Exercises for flabby arms that isolate movements in the arms are especially
helpful, like:
● Strength Training: Using your body weight, resistance bands, or weights,
you can isolate your upper arms (especially the triceps) and build great
muscle strength. Some recommended exercises include push-ups,
shoulder presses, and dips. You can experiment with a variety of
exercises to tone this portion of your body.
● Pilates: Known for being an excellent core builder, Pilates tones the entire
body. To focus on your arms, you can try specific exercises like tricep
squat presses to help build muscle strength.
● Yoga: For the same reasons that pilates is an effective toner, yoga also
helps increase strength, along with balance and concentration. Positions
like bridge pose, plank and reverse plank, and chaturanga dandasana
help tone your underarms too.
● Swimming: This is a wonderful low-impact exercise that can help fight flab.
By concentrating on your upper arms with freestyle and butterfly strokes,
you’ll be building and toning muscle.
● Flush Out the Fat: By staying well hydrated in conjunction with exercising,
your body can help you better eliminate the fat. Aim to drink around 64
ounces of water per day to help flush it out.
2. Radiofrequency: You can also use the opposite strategy to melt away fat. Using
safe radio frequencies that heat deep body tissues, treatments like BodyTite can
reduce fat that the body then absorbs. It also stimulates collagen production that
tightens the skin. This is best used for mild cases of sagging arms (and can also
be used elsewhere on the body to eliminate fat). It requires several sessions to
be effective, but there is no recovery time. BodyTite produces similar results to
surgical procedures with fewer scars.
3. Liposuction: Using a thin tube known as a cannula, your plastic surgeon can
eliminate any excess fat that is causing the sag and create a beautiful contour.
Liposuction is a simple procedure with very little downtime and works well for
those who don’t have excess skin. To address extra skin, you can pair
liposuction with the next procedure, Brachioplasty.
4. Brachioplasty: Known also as arm lift surgery (and sometimes called “flabby
arm surgery”), this procedure usually starts with liposuction to remove the excess
fat. Then your surgeon will remove excess skin and tighten the skin for a natural
toned look. Arm lift surgery requires some anesthesia and recovery time, and is
the most effective procedure for removing loose skin once and for all and getting
the arms you want. Results are usually very good, and there’s a dramatic
difference in your before and after photos.
Time to Tone
At the Advanced Center for Plastic Surgery, we can offer you a number of non-surgical
and surgical treatments to help sculpt your arms. Flabby arms are a common challenge
for both men and women, and our patients are delighted with the transformations they
receive. Talk with us today about your goals, and we can help recommend the
treatment that works best for you. With so many great options, you’ll be able to show off
your toned arms again soon!
