For many women, there’s a downside to the glorious weather — having to unveil their dreaded ‘bingo wings’.
As we get older, the muscles and skin on the upper arms naturally become looser. Female hormones can also lead to fat accumulating around this area, further causing it to sag.
Yet First Lady Melania Trump, 48, and Queen Letizia of Spain, 45, were able to show off perfect arms when they posed on the red carpet last week.
So, how do they do it? SADIE NICHOLAS reports on the stars who have banished the bingo wings…
Salmon diet fit for Queen Letizia, 45
First Lady Melania Trump (left) stands next to Queen Letizia of Spain as she and King Felipe VI arrive at the White House in Washington
When fortysomething power wives Melania Trump (near right) and Queen Letizia of Spain (far right) were pictured together outside the White House last week, it looked like they were there to discuss the latest arms deal — their arms, that is.
Letizia is a former TV presenter who married King Felipe in 2004, and they have two daughters. Vogue magazine called her toned biceps an ‘inspiration’.
A keen tennis player, she is also regularly seen sailing and skiing — all of which give the arms an intense workout. Her real secret, however, is the Perricone diet — a doctor-devised regime that puts anti-inflammatory food at its core.
When the body becomes inflamed (caused by eating sugar or refined carbohydrates), there is a possible increase in cell damage and accelerated signs of ageing: all bad for bingo wings.
The strict regime advocates eating antioxidant-packed salmon twice a day and plenty of green vegetables.
Meanwhile, Melania reportedly tries to eat at least seven pieces of fruit a day, to keep her skin in tip-top condition.
She revealed she usually starts off her day with either a bowl of fibre-rich oatmeal or a nutrient-packed smoothie ‘with a few ingredients and lots of vitamins in it’.
At 53, Liz Hurley still runs upstairs with a suitcase
What does Liz Hurley put her shapely arms down to? Carrying her own Louis Vuitton luggage.
The actress (left), 53, explained: ‘I can never be bothered to ask a nice man to pick up my bags. I’m always heaving them myself — I’ve got five flights of stairs in my house and I run up and down them with a suitcase at least five times a week.’
She also has a strict diet, saying she’d rather sip soup than devour a cupcake: ‘I’ll make a vat of vegetable soup and have a cup of it whenever I am tempted to raid the fridge.’
Suranne, 39, had a TV ‘plank squad’
Ahead of filming the TV drama Doctor Foster, Suranne Jones (right) revealed she performed regular ‘planks’ to tone her arms.
The exercise — during which you support a perfectly straight body on the floor on your forearms and toes — is terrific for strengthening the core, shoulders and biceps.
Planking also allows you to build muscle, while making sure that you are not putting too much pressure on your spine or hips. Furthermore, it helps to elevate the body’s metabolic rate — burning fat.
Suranne said she performed the move for five minutes at a time with her ‘plank squad’ of cast and crew.
At home, lifting her toddler son will have boosted her arm definition.
Jerry Hall at the Steiger Award 2014 held at the LWL Industriemuseum Henrichshuette in Hattingen, Germany
Jerry Hall, 61, puts it down to housework
By THE time they qualify for a free bus pass, most women are resigned to wearing sleeves that disguise their bingo wings — but not 61-y
ear-old Jerry Hall.
A former model, she swears that her age- defying taut arms are the result of housework and doing the gardening at the home. ‘You can burn a lot of calories mopping the house,’ she has said.
Jerry also revealed that she slathers olive oil all over her arms once a week, to keep the skin soft.
This may not be as bonkers as it sounds: studies have found the antioxidants it contains can help firm ageing skin.
She also uses the ‘time-erasing’ £140 Creme de la Mer body lotion and has previously revealed that she visits London’s plush Hale Clinic for Ayurvedic hot oil massages.
Cate Blanchet at the 71st Cannes Film Festival 2018 Girls of the Sun premiere
‘Body armour’ and bungee rope for Cate Blanchett, 49
Cate Blanchett’s arms are slim, defined and toned. Their perfect definition may be down to the ‘horrendous’ cardio and weights exercises that celebrity trainer Luke Zocchi put the actress through when she was filming Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok.
Each of the sessions only took 20 minutes, but she’d do several a day, in between filming scenes.
Along with arm-defining push-ups, crawls and bicep curls, Zocchi also advocates a fiendish bit of equipment called an ‘ankorr harness’.
This looks like a piece of body armour attached to two bungee cords fixed to a wall. To do a workout, you put it on and then undertake exercises such as crawling away from the bungee cords — a difficult challenge that quickly tones the arms and shoulders.
Halle Berry, 51, is boxing clever
Halle Berry attends the ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ World Premiere held at Odeon Leicester Square on September 18 in London
Oscar-winning movie star Halle Berry (right), posts details of her hardcore workouts on Instagram for her 2.6 million followers.
Her sensational arms are the result of kettlebell training — a cast-iron weight used by Victorian strongmen. These can typically weigh up to 35kg.
Arm-shredding exercises include swinging the weights by the handle to build muscle fibres, lifting them above the head or carrying them up and down a track — burning up to 800 calories an hour.
Halle also does boxing and weight-lifting, fuelled by ‘bone broth’, a watery soup made with bones simmered for 24 hours that is full of protein and collagen to keep skin wrinkle-free.
Organic is best for Bond girl Jane, 67
ALTHOUGH Bond girl Jane Seymour is pushing 70, she still has arms that would make 007 weak with lust.
She puts her incredible figure down to willpower, workouts and only ‘three or four’ Maltesers at a time, as well as chasing around after her young grandchildren. The Malibu-based British beauty says she owes her firm arm muscles to an organic diet, plus yoga and Pilates, which she’s been practising since 1976.
She has said: ‘I try to eat leafy green vegetables, berries, kale juice, arugula [rocket] and spinach and get my protein through fish and lean meats.’
Jennifer Aniston, 49, is yoga-friendly
Jennifer Aniston at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, Los Angeles on February 26
In THE Nineties, every woman wanted Jennifer Aniston’s hair. Now, they want her sexy arms. Despite having loved a sneaky cigarette and calorific Mexican food, the twice-married Friends star has the figure of a twentysomething.
Her yoga instructor, Mandy Ingber, revealed she does vinyasa flow yoga with the star three times a week.
This hardcore yoga is a fast sequence that involves plenty of arm balances. Mandy said: ‘Vinyasa flow is one of the best things for your arms because you are doing multiple push-ups. The reason [Jennifer] has tone, but is also lean, has to do with [the fact that] when we do the flow, her own body weight is incorporated.’