This 18-Minute Workout Makes Your Arms Feel Like Jell-O (and Then Like Steel)

It’s recently been brought to my attention that I have very little muscle on my arms, and while it’s not exactly necessary that I build some for my job as a writer, we are inching toward an environmental apocalypse for which they might become important? Or, you know, they could come in handy for holding babies or particularly large cocktails, depending on the direction my life goes from here. An arm workout with resistance bands is exactly what I was looking for.

Fortunately, just as I pondered this dilemma, the newest episode of Good Moves surfaced and in it, New York City trainer Sashah Handal focuses specifically on training the arms. “I’ll be taking you through an upper body workout that targets your biceps and triceps specifically, utilizing a long resistance band,” she says. “I’ll be using a handle band but if you’ve just got a long Theraband ($15) at home, that’ll work too.”

The routine is just 18 minutes long, which means you can easily work it into your day at least one time per week. The workout features bicep curls, isometric holds, tricep kickbacks, iso tricep raises, and more—all made that much more difficult (and effective!) by the resistance of the band. “Your arms should feel like steel but also like Jell-O,” Handal says of the routine’s aftermath.

My arms feel like jelly at present, so Jell-O definitely seems like an upgrade. I’m hoping to use this routine to become the most ripped writer in town, which is an admittedly low bar but these days, after a year of pandemic stress, low bars are just about the only ones I have the energy to reach. Press play to set similarly lofty goals (just kidding—this is a legit workout that will set your arms on fire, whether you’re muscle-free like me or not!).

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