Get Rid Of Your Armpit Fat
March 30, 2011, Posted by adreeza at 5:00 am under Exercises, Today's Tip
A frequent complaint among women during the sunny seasons is that unsightly skin that rests between your arm pit and your chest. While body fat could be the culprit, changing your diet alone won’t always solve this issue. If you’ve noticed women with implants have very little of this extra tissue. That’s because increasing the size of your chest by adding muscle or implants (in their case), can fill out that skin. Doing chest exercises paired with back exercises can help fill out that problem area.
Here Are Our Favorite Exercises For This Problem Area
PUSH UPS
Flies
Dumbbell Row
Lat Pull Down
Although you can’t spot reduce, you can add muscle to fill out extra skin. Keep up on these exercises especially over the summer months and you will see the improvement in no time!
Adria Ali
Currently have 49 Comments
thank you for this helpful post! can these exercises make my chest look fuller too?
I’m starting this new 12 wk program and it has a lot of these exercises in it, but how long will it take to disappear?
I will print this and put it in the dressing rooms of my lingerie store. This is the number two complaint ( second to backfat). Thank You.!!
Love these, and yes it does work!!!
Ya know, Maria Sharapova has “arm bulges” and she’s totally in shape … especially in the arms. Maybe we should worry about other parts a little more and not fuss about this one.
Angie,
Keep in mind that you must also change your eating to see results. Keep track of your calories so that you are eating less then you are consuming. Then do the exercises to increase how many calories you are burning each day. This is the best way to lose body fat and inches! Usually any new routine takes about 2-3 weeks before you start seeing changes in your body. Stay consistent and make sure you take your measurements! Measuring is more accurate then the scale!
Adria
Yes, these exercises have the ability to lift your chest and fill it out. The back exercises help to firm the area under your arm pit while the chest exercises help to fill in the sagging, soft skin. You must also change the way you eat to lose body fat. Make sure you are addressing that also!
As a male who’s trained for decades, I advise focusing on what the men focus on for a great broad chest and back that improves posture, looks great and accentuates a narrow appearing waistline.
That is, briefly, the lats, shoulders and outer pectorals. Don’t be afraid that you’ll look like a guy. You won’t and you really can’t even if you tried.
You’ll look like a broad shouldered, strong beautiful woman and you’ll feel great!
Also keep in mind that breast tissue goes up into the armpit so if you have a properly fitting bra this will be minimized as well.
I’m wondering about the amount of weight and the number of repetitions. Is there a magic number for each? Thanks!
I want to know what kind of bra the girl in the first picture is wearing, the taupe-gray one!!
The common number for reps on these exercises is 12 – 15 Reps / 2 – 3 sets each
While these exercises are a great place to start, especially if you haven’t already tried to “spot treat” these issues along with decreasing your calorie intake, this is also one of those spots that can just… exist. I was a swimmer and water polo player with 13% body fat (seriously low for a woman) that weighed 180lbs (picture a 5’10″ lean, muscular woman) and I still had this armpit fat. And now that I’m not burning ~5k calories a day and have gained some weight back, this arm pit fat has stayed the same size. I just wanted to mention it because sometimes our genes just don’t agree with strapless dresses. No reason to get obsessed or disappointed about it when it’s part of your natural body shape.
That being said, try these exercises first before assuming it’s just your shape! No reason not to try. And I can also imagine that if you didn’t do exercises like these and/or stay in shape in general, it’d get worse!
Can you do the two exercises above if you don’t have the equipment at home or belong to a gym and how?
Glad I repinned – great exercises
Thanks Marsha! We are glad you stopped by and repined !
Michelle,
Yes, you can do these at home. If you don’t have any equipment, choose 2 things in your house that are the same weight. I always recommend food products since they have the weight of the product on the label. I would use 2 semi heavy soup cans.
Lay on the floor to do the flies. Use the soup cans as your weight. If you find that the weight is too light then increase the repetitions or find something heavier around your house.
You can do the rows as directed on the site, also using the cans.
The lat pull downs can be preformed if you have an exercise band. Other wise I would have you google “laying pull over exercise” on google to find a picture (I can’t post pictures within the comment area). This is another way to work that area. Again, use your soup cans as your resistance.
You can also use water bottles filled with sand or with water. The sand just gives it a more solid affect.
I hoped this helps!!
Adria
If you perform these exercises, won’t your breast size decrease?
Allison,
Breast tissue is fat. Under the fat there is muscle. If you increase the size of the muscle under and around the fat tissue it will push the fat tissue up. It also firms that area. However, if you lose body fat (which includes fat in your chest) you may loose some in your cup size. If you are a thin person with a smaller chest, it won’t get smaller unless you lose weight and decrease your body fat percentage.
Let me know if you have more questions.
Will push ups alone do the trick or do we have to do all these excersizes?
push ups alone won’t hit all the areas that should be targeted
Thanks for the tips, but I have to say I love this bra she is wearing, any clue where I can find that? I have gotten slightly obsessed with finding it, it looks like something that would work for me. You know how difficult finding the right workour bra can be. Thanks again on the tips, bye bye arm fat!!
Completely agree with Lea Medeiros. I’ve worked out all my life. Swam competitively about 11 years. At one stage was 11% body fat (5’2″, 90#)…and I think it was all armpit fat. Great exercises for any workout program, but if you’ve got the armpit fat gene, you’re fighting a losing battle.
Liz,
Sorry I have no clue what type of bra that might be. However, maybe some of the readers will ??
Haha Susan! I came here to find out what kind of bra that is too!
I think that these exercises can minimize the buldge but if you have it, it will not completly go away. I even had it when I was a cheerleader and a ballet dancer. Ladies, enjoy your body…embrace your curves, eat healthy and get exercise. If you do that, you will feel great and the buldge won’t matter.
You said that by increasing the muscle in that area, it would push the fat up. I imagine that would be counterproductive. I want the fat to either go away or be pushed down. Can you explain?
The bra the woman is wearing in the top picture is at least two cup sizes too small. The middle section should lay flat against the breast bone. If she wore the correct bra size her “fat” would disappear.
Christi,
Let me clearify a bit. The muscle in the chest lays under the fat. By increasing the muscle tone in the pecs (chest) it has the ability to lift the fat up which make is higher. For women this helps with a sagging chest it pulls the skin tighter and higher across the arm pit as well. If you want the fat to be reduced, then you must lower your body fat through exercise and diet. These exercises can help to change that area of your body but you can’t spot reduce. You must simply burn more calories then you consume to lose weight and body fat.
I hope this helped
Adria
@liz-
I am pretty sure it is made by daskin- I know Walmart sells them
Yes, I have a bra that looks just like that only it’s white and grey. It is Danskin, and I got it from Walmart.
On another note, as a personal trainer I almost never discourage exercise… but when it comes to this “armpit fat” problem, it’s almost always due to wearing the wrong size/fit of bra. By all means, do these exercises for your health and posture. But go get a professional bra fitting for immediate results that take care of the *actual* problem.
Another thing to keep in mind is that our armpits can frequently get filled with lymphatic fluid. For people who exercise frequently this usually isn’t a problem BUT here’s a good blog post that talks about breast health: http://www.alignedandwell.com/katysays/keeping-you-all-abreast/
A custom fitted bra will do a lot to eliminate the armpit fat. Underwire bras tend to push breast tissue under the arm where custom fitted bras will push the breast tissue forward to the proper position. These bras support by suspension without underwire.
If I whant to burn fat, should u be doing this with a weight (sufficient to make a lot of effort) or with light weight to just burn fat?
IF you are looking to burn fat you should be doing 15- 20 repetitions of these exercises with light weight. However, if you want to lift the tissue. Try doing a heavier weight 10 -12 repetitions with a more challenging weight.
Adria
Becka (hahaha) had this right. I’m a mammography tech, and no breast tissue is not all fat, and the majority of those lil “pockets of fat” are breast tissue, that’s why during a mam they screen this area. If breast tissue was fat, woman with low fat percentages wouldn’t get breast cancer. Most of a woman’s size is fat however, if you carry it there. Yes, getting in shape will help reduce this area for most, just like their breasts, but not all, all of our bodies are built differently as we all know. There’s just a lil misinformation in some of these comments that I think needed to be cleared up.
This is a great idea, i just have to motivate myself to do it,
Thanks!!
I have a broken wrist that I can’t put my full weight on i can rest my weight on my elbow will these exercises still work?
Sarah,
Yes these will still work. Try it out and let me know. You should feel the burn!
Will these help with arm toning as well?
Yes, but the true key to toning is losing body fat. So in a sense, these exercises will help you burn more calories, activate muscles that haven’t been used in a while and shock the body into burning more.
Hope this helps,
Adria
Awesome ideas
Just what I’ve been looking for!
Can the Lat Pull Down move be improvised? I do most of my work outs at home and wanted to know an alternative to using gym equipment.
I think this is like fighting a losing battle. I have had “armpit fat” forever and it has always bothered me. All my life, I would not wear tank tops because of this, it wasn’t until I had a child that I came to terms with it. My daughter is a tiny little skinny thing, but has her mama’s thicker arms and “armpit fat” because that is our build. Seems to me a better idea to not try to change everything about your body but enjoy the parts that you like and be as active and healthy as you can be.
My brother suggested I may like this blog. He was totally right. This put up truly made my day. You cann’t imagine just how so much time I had spent for this info! Thank you!
Bra…try Soma. I recently bought one and it looks very similar if not exact. I was very pleased with some of their options!
I definitely think there’s a genetic component to armpit fat for some people. I’m 5’11″, 145 lbs and pretty fit, but the fat bulges right under my armpits have seemed to stay exactly the same size no matter how toned I get my shoulders, chest, and arms. These bulges exist whether I’m wearing a bra or not, so I don’t think it’s due to a poorly fitting bra in my case.
In the end, I would probably have to get down to an unhealthy body fat percentage in order to completely get rid of them. So I totally understand the frustration of wanting to get rid of them, but I think that for some of us, it’s just the way our body fat is genetically distributed. But that doesn’t mean I won’t keep working to strengthen the muscles in this area! And I will just try to appreciate the other parts of my body that I HAVE been able to tone up through hard work and patience.
Thanks for the tips and good luck everyone!
tks… it’s exacly what im doing in gym