Fit Bride - Bridey Arms

By Lisa Cunningham

I’m not lying when I say that an 84 year old woman would have more upper body strength than me. My fitness regime has always focused on endurance and cardio (not strength). I loathe doing strength work at the gym, purely because staring at myself in the mirror doing bicep curls bores me.

However, as an Instagram addict I have become acutely aware of resistance based body workouts that seem to be getting results. So I thought – if strength training is going to make me feel good and improve the two limp excuses for arms I have attached to my body then LET'S DO THIS!

Also the only part of my body that will be on display in my wedding dress (aside from my face) will be my guns, so if strength training is going to tone me up then LET'S DO THIS! (please note the high level of self-talk here as I mentally prepare myself for another “arm session” tonight after I send off this blog). 

A few weeks ago, I couldn’t do one push up to save myself, so my approach to arm strengthening has been about building and loading - both in weight and in rep counts. 

Following a PT approved body strengthening programme, I have done the gauntlet of exercises: tricep dips, commandos, pushups, planks, laydown pushups (my personal fave) and various weights like bicep curls etc.
To begin, these exercises made me swear so much that the jacked 84 year old woman would blush, but I pushed through every session and keep going with it. In my first week of arm training, I did some leg and ab strength work too and it took me double the allotted time and I swore that I would never go back. 

However the  wedding day incentive was enough to try again, and then again and again. And you know what? It seems obvious but now 4 weeks later I can really smash out my pushups and my arms are feeling strong and amazing. Do I have definition of an iron man? Well, no, but it’s really cool, and I’m proud of what I achieve in a session and the results I am seeing. When I do those bicep curls in the mirror, I’m delighted that those pitiful 2kgs days are gone & I’m moving up to 7.5 kg weights and hopefully will be cracking 10kg soon!! The self-talk is working. The results I see are motivating. Slowly but surely I’m achieving my strength goals. There’s no turning back!

 Lisa xx

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A lover of adventure and of finding all the hidden gems her latest travel destination has to offer, you will often find Lisa glued to Instagram looking for the next hot location. With a serious online shopping addiction and the need to ensure her fitness attire is on point, Lisa is a always on the hunt for the latest & greatest – which is what brought her to Base Athletica! When in Singapore you will find her eating up a storm at a local hawker centre or on the hunt for the best coffee in town.

Toning up is not the only benefit of strength training!  See BASE Blogger Maddy Pearce’s blog on Benefits of Strength Training here.

See Lisa’s first installment about her quest to be a Fit Bride here.