Upper arm exercises

[Plumerias]

I have a pair of five pound hand weights that I use for exercising my upper arms. Sigh, sometimes they really miss the exercise from the gardening, raking of leaves, shoveling snow. But...... when we travel without the RV in which we live, I am at a loss as to how to handle their absence. I would appreciate some thoughts on lightweight options, something small and light enough to sneak into the suitcase, to keep me strong. There is all sorts of stuff available online, but as I'm not at all familiar with any of it........... Thanks all.

[VeggieSue]

That's what those stretchy resistance bands are for! Just check Amazon or your local sporting goods store - even the tiny exercise equipment section of your nearest Walmart has them. You can find plenty of workouts on YouTube.

[vgpedlr]

I would get away from the idea of training "arms." That's reductionist thinking.

Instead, train movements: pushing and pulling. The arms work in tandem with other muscles to push or pull far more than they do things in isolation. You can do this with bodyweight, and the various stretch cords/tubing which pack up small and light.

Examples:

Anchor a stretch tube and do chest presses and rows.

Using bodyweight, do pushups or any variation (from the knees, yoga style down dog etc) You can also just lean forward against a wall and push back. Vary the resistance by how far away you stand from the wall. For pulling, get a towel, loop it around something sturdy, lean back and pull. Just like with wall much ups, vary the difficulty by where you put your feet. When camping, I often do these movements using a picnic table. I use the bench for push ups, and hang underneath grabbing the edge to pull.

[GeoffreyLevens]

For more difficult pulling, depending on how dining table is built underneath you can lie on floor with torso and legs under table, grasp over the edge with your fingers, and pull chest up to edge of table and lower slowly aka horizontal or Australian pull-ups