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This 10-Minute Arm Routine Promises the Svelte-Yet-Sculpted Limbs of a Dancer

Erin Bunch

April 20, 2021

When you visually compare arm workouts utilizing light hand weights to, say, Crossfit exercises like the power clean, it's a bit laughable—surely those tiny dumbbells aren't taxing your muscles in any real way, right? Wrong. As anyone who's ever burned out their upper limbs using *just* two- or three-pound weights knows, that sh*t is legit. And in the latest episode of Good Moves, The Ness founder Colette Dong demos a routine that offers proof positive of the fact that lifting light weights looks a whole lot easier than it is.

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Colette Dong, founder of The Ness in New York City

"Today I'm going to take you through a 10-minute upper body and arm sequence," she says casually, as though she's not about to light your limbs on fire. Repeated practice of this routine and others like it promises "dancer arms," those limbs sculpted specifically to not only perform amazing physical feats but to also look aesthetically lovely while doing so.

The 10-minute length is perfect for a number of reasons. For starters, to optimize a workout such as this, it's best to push through each series of moves without rest, and while 10 minutes will feel like an eternity while you're lifting, technically you can do *anything* for ten minutes. The duration is also short enough that this routine can be tacked onto the end of a cardio workout or used to replace an Instagram break mid-workday—because scrolling isn't the arm workout you think it is.

The only equipment required is those aforementioned light weights, and you can pick your poison in terms of how heavy you're wanting to lift. Keep in mind, however, that the best results will come from a weight that fatigues you by the end of a 12- to 15- repetition set. Once you've selected your preferred bells, press play to burn your way to gracefully buff arms.

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