Muscular arm

Causes and Solutions for Saggy Upper Arms

Let’s face it… we all want to avoid having saggy upper arms. Having always done weight-lifting, push ups, etc., I thought this would never be a problem… I also have not noticed much of this in my family until very late in life. Experience has given me a learning process. Now I understand the problems much better. As the issues came, I learned and fought them.

Three factors that are valuable to know

There are 3 major factors that lead to saggy appearance to the upper arms. These are the structure of the fat present, muscle tone, and skin health.

I have been in the battle, and I think I am doing pretty well. Fortunately, I love how great and relaxed I feel after weight-lifting. Those sessions also lead to terrific sleep. There are many methods to exercise your arms. If you have never done weight-lifting, maybe you would enjoy it more than you realize. I am also a fan of arm circle type exercises…

Muscle tone

Muscle tone is important to maintain and improve. When you lose that tone, this gives a looseness to your arm anatomy that contributes to saggy appearance. It is a great idea to exercise all the arm muscles… but give special concentration to the triceps. The triceps are the muscles on the back of the upper arm… the very area that shows saggy appearance.

Fat layer is the biggest problem for saggy upper arms

When fat accumulates in the upper arm, it adds weight that pulls the arm downward more. Whether in combination with muscle loss or alone… the result is more saggy upper arms. The other thing about this fat accumulation is that it tends to be in the back of the arm… where it does the most contribution to this appearance. The fat layer is a weight that can fall upon the skin, which does not happen with muscle. Increase in muscle does push the skin outward, but does not bring a hanging weight for the skin like this fat layer can cause.

Eliminating a fat layer usually requires both eating healthy and exercise. A lifestyle of fitness and proper nutrition improves our health in every way. This holds so many benefit for our lives.

Skin condition

Finally, the last factor in my list, is the skin condition. As we get older, the amount of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid in our skin decreases. Our body replaces this material less and less with time. Now collagen is the base for these materials in the skin.

Unlike people selling skin care would have you believe, collagen cannot be absorbed through the skin or derived from a supplement. It is too big a molecule to be absorbed through the skin. It also does not survive the digestive process in a supplement. There are treatments that can cause your skin to produce collagen and you need to get the proper nutrition to support this production.

Collagen

Once you spark your skin to produce more collagen, it will also produce elastin and the other key elements too. There are 2 very important tools to DIY on collagen improvement in your skin. The first is a diet that will support collagen production. This is healthy food that supply amino acids. The second one is Collagen Induction Therapy.

Now there are other DIY tools that can spark production of collagen (Dermabrasion, Chemical peel). I do like these choices too, but they cannot do the task as well and certainly not as deeply as Collagen Induction Therapy. This is the kind of tool necessary to help the saggy arms issue. As we spark the restoration of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid to the skin, this will make it firmer, healthier, and younger looking.

Amino acids

Amino acids are the base building block for collagen in the skin and the protein in our muscle. This is absolutely essential in our diet when we are working towards restoring skin collagen.

Amino acid foods

The best source for amino acids are lean meat. Plant-based sources are much lower in the amount they can provide.

Meat and fish

These are a good source of amino acids including proline.

Eggs and dairy

The egg whites have proline amino acid required for biosynthesis of collagen.

Grain, beans, nuts and seeds

Vitamin C foods

Fruit, peppers, fresh thyme, fresh parsley, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts.

Additional item that I love

I have been using neoprene belts since the 1980s and I love them. I feel that holding that skin compressed a little and not under the weight of fat, can help preserve skin flexibility and firmness.

These are made of the material that wetsuits use. There have been recent studies that show these do indeed benefit. I wrap trouble areas that I want to give special focus. They help heat up the area more to help burn fat better. These can be most helpful while exercising, but also without to a lesser degree.