Ariana Grande’s Workout Secrets: 4 Exercises That Keep Her Arms Toned

Ariana Grande is a 29-year-old pop powerhouse with millions of fans around the world. Grande has received several accolades throughout her career, including one Brit Award, two Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, one Bambi Award, nine MTV Video Music Awards, three American Music Awards, and 27 Guinness World Records. Ariana Grande’s four-octave vocal range has received huge recognition too.

Beyond her singing, however, Ariana Grande is also quite famous for her slim and toned body and incredible public appearances.

She has been training under celebrity fitness trainer Harley Pasternak for quite some time and isn’t afraid to go intense in the gym.

In an interview with Shape, Pasternak stated that he leads Ariana Grande through 45 minutes of workout sessions that mostly include toning and strength training. While the singer includes a variety of strength training exercises in her workout routine, some of her go-to moves include walking lunges, reverse lunges, standard plank, pike plank glute bridges, skater lunges, and more.

Let’s take a closer look at Ariana Grande’s exercise approach

For Ariana Grande’s upper body, especially her arms, Pasternak leads her to a routine that consists of four primary exercises. This includes glute bridge skull crushers (The Harley), dumbbell T-raises, standing rope triceps extensions, and standing cable reverse flys.

According to Pasternak, all four exercises target the pecs, shoulders, triceps, biceps, rhomboids, lats, and deltoids. While these exercises can be performed as circuits, Pasternak usually distributes the movements into Grande’s exercise routine throughout the week.

“We focus on the upper body once per week, but all of Ariana’s workouts focus on dynamic movements that hit multiple body parts, so we’re never really isolating a single muscle group for a whole season” – Harley Pasternak.

Below are the four exercises briefly described with step-by-step instructions so you can follow along at home.

Glute bridge skull crushers aka The Harley

Step-by-step instructions

• Lie face up on the mat with your knees bent and feet on the floor. Grab a dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms while keeping your wrists properly aligned above your shoulders.
• Now extend your elbows towards the ceiling to perform a triceps extension and then brace your core to bring your hips up into a glute bridge position.
• Pause at the top and then return to the initial position.

Dumbbell T-raises

Step-by-step instructions

• Grab a dumbbell in each hand and stand tall with your feet at shoulder-width distance. Position your arms on the sides with palms facing down.
• Keeping your arms straight and core muscles engaged, lift the dumbbells in front of you until they reach your shoulder height.
• Slowly bring the dumbbells out to the sides while keeping your arms straight and then return to the initial position.

Standing rope triceps extension

Step-by-step instructions

• Start the exercise by attaching a rope to a cable pulley machine and standing straight facing the rope. Grab the handles with both hands and make sure to maintain a neutral grip throughout the exercise.
• Now hinge at your hips and lean forward as you extend your elbows downwards. S
• Continue to extend your elbows while keeping your core engaged and then return to the starting position.

Standing reverse cable fly

Step-by-step instructions

• Set up two cable pulleys with stirrup handles at your chest height. With your feet at hip distance, stand straight between the pulleys.
• Hold the right handle with your left hand and the left handle with your right to bring your arms in a crossed position.
• Now start uncrossing your arms until they get parallel to the floor while extending until your shoulders get pinned back together.

So, these are the 4 exercises that help Ariana Grande keep her arms toned and sculpted.

Pasternack recommends performing three sets of 15 reps for each exercise if you are new to lifting weights. If you lift regularly, however, he suggests going for 20 reps, and if you are a pro, then aim for 5 to 6 sets of 20 reps each. Although warm-ups and cool-down sessions aren’t listed here, you must not forget to include them in your workout routine.