10 Best Arm Bodyweight Exercises To Tone Your Arms

If you’ve been wondering how to tone your arms without going to the gym, you’re in the right place. Can’t go to the gym to train your arms? No worries. Can’t buy gym equipment? That’s perfectly fine, too. After spending the last few years following youtube workouts and training at home, I’ve become very familiar with bodyweight exercises. Below, I have compiled a list of the 10 best arm bodyweight exercises to tone your arms at home. So, if you’re ready to strengthen, tone, and train your arm muscles (shoulders, biceps, triceps, etc) this year, keep reading this post!
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Focusing On Arm Bodyweight Exercises
I know it’s so easy to neglect arms when you’re so focused on building a sixpack or toning your glutes, but arms deserve some attention too! So, let’s put our sixpack, booty, and leg goals a side for a minute, and let’s focus on toning our arms. Have you seen J.Lo’s arms? Goals, right? Well today, I’m going to share 10 of my personal favorite exercises I like to do to train arms. You may know some, hate some, or be unfamiliar with some. But regardless of your fitness level or knowledge, all of these arm exercises have the capacity of helping you build the arms of your dreams!
10 Best Arm Bodyweight Exercises To Do At Home
1. PUSH-UP
One of the most common, but effective exercises of all time: the push up. You may hate doing push-ups (I can see you rolling your eyes at me right now, hehe), but they are very beneficial for building upper body strength and strengthening your core. The push up is one of the most complete exercises because of how many muscles you can train at once. If there’s one exercise you need to have in your exercise routine, it’s this one!
If you’re bad at push-ups, try doing a push up challenge! Do as many push-ups as you can daily and add on to that number as you go, but be sure to take break in between those days!
Other fun push-up variations
- Lay down push-up
- Push-up on knees
- Shoulder push up
- Side push-up
How to do a push-up
If you’re wondering how to do a push-up the right way, go to minute 0:13 in this workout video:
Workout Video: Sexy Arms In 10 Minutes
2. SUPERMAN
If you’re into superheroes (especially superman), you have to give the superman exercise a try! This exercise is a whole lot easier than a push-up, but it’ll still give you a good burn if you do it the right way. I like doing the superman, but I personally prefer doing superman variations that lean more towards training your arms. Below I’ll share some of my favorite superman variations that are great to train your upper body!
Superman variations to try
- Rotation superman
- Superman reach out
- Superman hold
How to do a superman
If you’ve never tried this exercise before, go to minute 3:17 in this workout video to learn how to!
Workout Video: 10 Minute Upper Body Workout
3. ARM CIRCLES
Arm circles are very underrated because of how “easy they look”, but they sure as heck make your arm muscles BURN. If you’ve done arm-circles before, you know what I’m talking about. There’s been multiple times that I have felt like I was lifting weights when I was doing arm circles. Arm-circles may seem friendly at first, but 40 seconds in to doing them, they’ll have your shoulders and arms hating you but also thanking you.
Arm-circles variations to try
- Arm circles forward + backwards
- Arm circles hold
How to do arm-circles
To learn how to do arm-circles properly, go to minute 1:47 in this workout video!
Workout Video: 10 Minute Upper Body Workout
4. TRICEPS DIP
If you’re looking for an upper-body exercise that targets your triceps directly, triceps dip is an excellent exercise to try. This exercise targets and activates your upper arm muscles. Now, although you’ve probably seen people use steps, chairs, or benches to do this exercise, you can still do this exercise without using any kind of gym or at-home equipment, just your own bodyweight!
How to do triceps-dip
In the video below in minute 5:25 you’ll get a perfect demonstration of how to do this exercise the correct way!
Workout Video: Sexy Arms In 10 Minutes
5. FLAPPY BIRD
I was introduced to this exercise in one of Pamela Reif’s workouts and I have been loving it ever since. Although the “flappy bird” exercise can be considered as another variation of arm-circles, it deserved its own special mention in this list of upper body exercises. Similarly to arm circles, the flappy bird is completed by extending your arms to the sides and like a bird (hence the name of the exercise) move them up and down repeatedly.
How to do the flappy bird
This exercise not only helps activate your arm muscles, but it’s also so fun to do. If you’ve done Pamela Reif’s workouts before, you probably know which exercise I’m talking about. But if you haven’t, go to minute 2:17 to learn how to do the flappy bird.
Workout Video: 10 Minute Upper Body Workout
6. DOLPHIN HOLD
Another exercise I started doing last year is the dolphin hold. This exercise is the perfect exercise to add to your arm routine because it’s an easy static exercise that you can do anywhere but will still help strengthen your upper body. I love including static exercises to my routines because although they still cause a good burn, they do feel like a break between intense exercises like push-ups, up-down planks, and dips.
How to do the dolphin hold
The dolphin hold is similar to a plank, but if you’ve never done it before, go to minute 4:49 in this video to learn how to do a dolphin hold!
Workout Video: 10 Minute Upper Body Workout
7. UP-DOWN PLANK
Even though I listed this exercise 7th on the list, it is my absolute favorite arm exercise. The up-down plank is a great exercise because it turns a static exercise (plank) into a dynamic exercise (the up-down plank) by simply adding an up down movement. The up-down plank helps you build strength in your triceps and shoulders while also targeting your core. Also, doing this exercise frequently has helped me with my push-ups.
How to do an up-down plank
To learn how to do an up-down plank and maintain a good posture, go to minute 3:19 in this workout video!
Workout Video: Sexy Arms In 10 Minutes
8. PLANK
After mentioning a few different plank variations, it’s only fair to talk about the plank, right? Although this is considered a great core exercise, the plank can also be beneficial to your upper body if you do a high plank rather than a regular plank. This exercise is probably one of the most basic exercises on this list, but if done correctly and for a longer period of time (1 minute+), it can give your muscles an incredible burn!
Plank variations to try:
- Back & forth plank
- Plank with arm lift
- Plank with leg lift
How to do a plank
If you want to learn how to do a plank, go to minute 6:30 in this video
Workout Video: Sexy Arms In 10 Minutes
9. REVERSE PLANK
I like to think of the reverse plank as a mixture of a regular plank and the triceps dip exercise. If those two exercises were to hypothetically have a baby, it would be the reverse plank, haha! Please tell me you see it, too! Anyways, the reverse plank is another great static upper body and core exercise because it forces you to stretch and strengthen these muscles. When doing a reverse plank, you have to hold yourself up through your arms. As a result, your arm muscles get targeted and toned in the process. So, don’t sleep on this exercise!
How to do a reverse plank
If you’ve never tried doing a reverse plank before, go to minute 5:55 in this workout:
Workout Video: Sexy Arms In 10 Minutes
10. SHOULDER TAPS
Last but not least, I want to talk about shoulder taps. And yes, this is yet again another plank variation….do you see the pattern here? I love and appreciate planks. Although shoulder taps are always underestimated, this exercise has the potential of increasing your shoulder strength, and toning your arm muscles. All you have to do is get into a plank form and alternate between taping your shoulders with the opposite hand. Seems pretty easy right? Well, the longer you do it, the more challenging it gets to maintain stability and good posture.
How to do shoulder taps
To learn how to properly do shoulder taps, go to minute 0:43 in this video:
Workout Video: Sexy Arms In 10 Minutes
Best Bodyweight Arm Workouts On Youtube
Since we’re trying to tone our arms, build strength, and train our upper body muscles, below I’m going to share my absolute favorite arm workouts from Pamela Reif’s YouTube channel. These workouts include incredible arm bodyweight exercises. And the best thing is that all of these arm workouts can be done at home without using any equipment.
1. 10 MINUTE ARM & CORE WORKOUT
Click here to be directed to the 10 minute arm & core workout.
2. 10 MINUTE UPPER BODY WORKOUT
Click here to be directed to the 10 minute upper body workout.
3. 10 MINUTE TONED ARMS + WATER BOTTLES WORKOUT
Click here to be directed to the 10 minute toned arms + water bottles workout.
4. 10 MINUTE UPPER BODY WORKOUT
Click here to be directed to the 10 minute upper body workout.
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- How To Stay Motivated To Consistently Workout At Home
- 14 Day Workout Challenge For Boss Babes
- 10 Day Workout Challenge For Beginners
FINAL THOUGHTS
I hope you found this post helpful and enjoyed these arm bodyweight exercises! Which arm bodyweight exercise do you like to do the most? Go ahead and share it with me in the comments below!
Until next time,
Gabby Abigail
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I need to work on my arm strength – it is always the workout category that I avoid the most. Also, I had never heard of a Dolphin Hold before but now I need to give it a try because I do enjoy static workout actives and planks. Push ups will kill me LOL.
Hahaha, same. That’s why I try to implement more arm exercises in my routines. And you definitely need to try the dolphin hold. I love it haha!