You'll Want To Copy Eva Longoria's Upper Body Workout
We love a good leg day. But when it comes to arm day, it can be intimidating for some. Between not knowing where to start and not wanting to bulk up, it's easy for these fitness lines to get blurred. Still, strengthening the arm muscles is important for overall health. In fact, Eva Longoria is all about an early morning arm workout.
Arm workouts help to stabilize the joints, strengthen the arm muscles, improve posture, and protect the bone, points out Healthline. They also build lean muscle and help prevent injury.
Recently, Longoria shared an early morning workout on Instagram in an all-black fitness attire and her post has been nothing less than inspirational (per Shape). Julia Brown, Eva Longoria's three-year certified trainer, explains "We break the days into specific muscle groups or full body with an emphasis on a certain muscle group," and this day they were working out the upper body muscles. Brown told the publication that since Longoria travels frequently these moves help with posture. But the secret sauce of Longoria's upper body workout doesn't stop there. The time of day may or may not play a major role in getting those arms tank top ready.
Wake up early and start off with cable rows
In order to copy Eva Longoria's upper body workout, you may have to wake up early. Longoria's Instagram post was timestamped at 6:01 am, hyping up the morning to be an idyllic time for a great workout, points out Shape. But if you're not an early riser, don't worry. The best time of day to work out is whenever you can, shares WebMD.
One 2022 study published in Frontiers of Physiology investigated the benefits of morning versus evening exercise over a 12-week period and found that both can be beneficial. In particular, morning workouts can help lower blood pressure levels and reduce abdominal fat in women. However, evening workouts reduce blood pressure levels in men, but for women, it improves muscular performance. With that in mind, any time of the day is just fine. Just be sure your body is properly warmed up, so you can start the first exercise in Longoria's upper body workout — low cable rows (per Shape).
Low cable rows target the lats, shoulders, biceps, and middle back (via Men's Journal). This compound exercise can be performed seated or as Longoria showed (per Shape), holding a high squat position on a cable machine. When performing this exercise it's important to engage your core and keep an upright position, shares Men's Journal. Then pull back your shoulders and use your lats to pull the weight towards you, as your arms stay parallel to your torso.
Wrap it up with half-kneeling face-pulls
After cable rows, take a knee for the next exercise on Eva Longoria's upper body workout — half-kneeling face-pulls (per Shape). This is a variation of face pulls, which targets several upper body muscles. Some of the primary arm muscles being targeted during cable rows include the rhomboids, deltoids, trapezius, and the core (per Healthline). But when you add the half-kneeling component, the core fires up even more, Brown tells Shape. To begin, start by half-kneeling on the floor (via Muscle and Strength). Keep an upright position and make sure your elbows are in line with your shoulder height. Contract your deltoids, then pull the bands from the cable machine towards your face.
Longoria then wraps up with another round of low cable rows, except this time she's focusing on a different movement during the exercise (per Shape). Instead of concentrating on contracting the arms muscles, Longoria focuses on lengthening the muscles, also known as an eccentric movement. Eccentric movements help strengthen the muscles of the lower back and forces you to release slowly for roughly four seconds, Brown tells Shape.
If you're looking for more toned, sculpted, and stronger arms, try adding these arm exercises to your own fitness routine. But remember, it takes time for results to show, and always start off slow when it comes to strength training.