It is a cause of frustration for many exercisers… armpit fat. The extra fat tissue that gathers around your underarm is frustrating and everyone has dealt with it. I’m sure you have heard fitness professionals say you can’t spot reduce, meaning you can’t only reduce the fat you have in an isolated part of your body. This is a true statement. When taking part in a fat burning exercise program, your body will gradually shed fat from your entire body. And usually the areas you want to lose fat in the most will be the last to see change. It can be annoying, but that’s life.
But don’t let this get your spirits down! There are a few things you can do to start eliminating that fat build-up around your armpit. So let’s talk about how to get rid of armpit fat.
One thing you can do is strength train. Work your upper body and chest to help build muscle around your problem area. The more muscle you have the easier it will be for you to burn fat. Today I am going to introduce you to five different exercises that will help strengthen and tone your chest.
Push-ups
Push-ups are a great total body exercise, and there is no denying the power they have to sculpt a strong chest. I recommend doing several push-up variations to tone different parts of you upper body. Working different angles of your chest will help you get rid of the pesky armpit fat.
Perform a standard push-up by placing your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart and allowing your elbows to push out to the sides when you lower down. Try a shoulder-focused push-up by lifting your hips in the air via the use of a bench or pushing up in downward facing dog pose. A tricep push-up will be performed similar to a standard one, only this time you will keep your elbows in next to your sides. Remember to take modifications whenever necessary.
Chest fly
Any fly exercise includes the opening and closing of your arms. Try this variation first; lie flat on your back holding a pair of dumbbells. Hold the dumbbells over you chest with a slight bend in your elbows. Make sure your palms are facing each other. Slowly open your arms bringing them out to either side of your body. Once you reach the bottom of the movement, slowly bring your arms back up to the start.
There are a couple different variations that work for this movement. You can choose to use dumbbells as I explained or you can kneel and on the ground and use cables. I personally recommend switching it up and including both in your workout routine.
Elbow pulses
Place your hands together like you’re praying, and then press your forearms together. Throughout this entire exercise your forearms must be touching, that is the only way to get that stubborn armpit fat.
Once you have the arm placement, you are going to pulse your elbows up. Keep your elbows above your chest the whole time. You can choose to either hold onto a weight with both hands during this exercise or use body weight. Both are very effective! See how many reps you can do without separating your forearms.
Box fly
This exercise is one of my favorites. Hold your arms in a field goal position with your elbows bent at a ninety-degree angle and you elbows in line with your shoulders. At this point, you should be holding a dumbbell in each hand. From here, close your arms bringing your forearms together. Make sure your arms stay parallel to each other! Then you can separate your arms and return back to the starting position.
This exercise imitates what you may do on a butterfly machine, but working with dumbbells will engage your core more… bonus!
Narrow chest press
Similar to a regular chest press, you will have a dumbbell in each hand. Hold the weights together in front of your chest and do not separate them until you are done with your set. Now, press your arms in front of you with the weights still touching!
Try to imagine there is a magnet drawing your arms together as you perform this exercise. Your arms won’t be able to touch during the press, but you are trying to get them too. This narrow press will work more of your inner chest, or that armpit fat area we are trying to get rid of.
These exercises will be a great start to eliminating armpit fat. But, strength training is only one part of the solution. Of course cardio to burn fat and a clean diet to manage weight are both necessary as well. Without those two your body will carry extra fat and fall where it wants to regardless of strength training.
Find a form of cardio that you enjoy. Circuit training, steady state cardio, HIIT, sports, and dancing are great forms of cardio to try.