Sometimes, you’re just looking for a quick full body 15-minute workout to feel better overall, while other times, you may have certain areas of your body you want to focus on. For stronger deltoids, triceps, and biceps, you’ll want to try some quick barre exercises for arms you can do at home.
Elite Daily spoke with Alo Moves barre instructor and licensed acupuncturist, Emily Sferra, who teaches a Daily Barre Burn class and shared eight barre arm exercises that you can do anywhere in your home. All you need are a pair of two to five pound weights that can be made out of water bottles or cans, and a setup where you can freely move.
With your feet hip-width apart and your knees slightly bent, Sferra says to hold your arms in an “L” shape with your weights and “take small pulses of the arms, moving two to four inches up and down.” Switch sides and rotate where your palms are facing as well. Each rotation will “hit different sections of your deltoid muscle.” Sferra also says each of these moves should be done for about 30 seconds, which gives you about a four-minute workout overall.
From your “L” position, move your arms “laterally to the side and bend and extend the arms three to six inches, creating a small punching motion out and away from the midline of the body.” Keep your arms shoulder height for these first three exercises, and Sferra says to “play with palm facings here as well.”
From the same stance, you’ll want to do a carve and scoop next with your palms facing forward. Sferra says to “carve the weights over and under, creating little ‘c’ shapes on either side of you while your palms rotate to face the floor, then the ceiling.”
Instead of standing tall, for this barre exercise, you’ll want to “pitch your torso forward 45 degrees” with a flat back and engaged core. With your weights by your side, palms facing in, and elbows at a 90 degree angle, extend the weights behind you until your arms are straight and back.
While you should be working with lighter weights on the previous barre exercises, this is when you’ll want to grab your 5 pound weights. Sferra says to stand tall and have your elbows at a 90 degree angle “with palms facing the ceiling in front of your hips.” From there, “take small pulsing bicep curls” with your elbows remaining at your side.
Continuing from your bicep curls, you’ll want to “open your arms 45 degrees to the corners of your space, slowly extend your arms forward with palms facing up, then draw back in to the starting point.” Sferra says that this barre exercise gets harder for your arms the further away they move from your body.
Keeping your 5 pound weights in hand, Sferra says to “alternate between a full range bicep curl with palms up, to a shoulder height punch with knuckles facing up.” Your punch should only “go to the corners of your space.” With the right upbeat soundtrack, this exercise is a super fun way to finish off your arm barre workout.