I'm an 18 yr. old female and I need help! I play ...

If you happen to have access to a gravity rider it will work both the arms and the abs at the same time. I have one in my home gym and if I do nothing else that day I hit the rider for a full blown workout. If you don't have a gravity rider, an ab roller does a great job on both the arms and the abs as well. I have four different varieties and if you use them they all work about the same depending on the amount of resistence you use. Although soccer is a wonderful arobic workout and great for the legs thighs and buttocks it is not beneficial to working out the upper body as your legs do all the work.

If you do not have access to equipment, and don't feel like going to the gym, there are several other methods. Swimming for one is excellent for toning the arms and abs especially if you do the butterfly and the backstroke. Think about it, have you ever seen an avid swimmer with flabby arms or tummys? Nope! And again if you don't have access to a pool, there are several things you can do right in your own bedroom or family room that will bring great results.

No.1 for your arms, take 1 to 5lbs weights (or heavier, depending on your preference,) extend your arms straight out to the sides and make small circular motions. Keep your muscles flexed tightly with fists palm side down facing the floor. Do 50 to 100 of these in a set, then turn your fist with your thumbs on top and do another set. I know this sounds like a lot, but it's really not. Usually what I do is 50 rotations one direction, and then reverse to the other direction for the other half. And if you don't happen to have weights, soup cans, vegetable cans (unopened of course) will work as well. Basically anything you can get your hand around with weight will work. Then for your last set put the weights down, bring your arms back up, full extension of hands with the backs of your hands facing in towards your body. Do your last set in this position. If you want to take a few min. between sets,(no longer) that's ok. Do as many as you can at first, if it's only 10 a set the first time, do whatever is comfortable for you and just keep working up to a hundred if you can. Do it till you feel the burn or you're wasting your time. When you finish drop your arms to your side, let them hang limp and shake them out gently for 15 to 20 seconds to prevent cramping and give the muscles a chance to relax. And if you have reasonably strong upper body strength push ups are fantastic for toning the arms, on the floor or against the wall, either works. Enjoy yourself and have a good workout!

Contagious -- the first thing you need to understand is exactly what "toning" means.  Toning means having muscle. If you don't have muscle underneath your skin, your arms will be "flabby" -- regardless of your weight or even body fat levels.

Developing more muscle usually involves lifting weights or performing some type of heavier resistance training. If you have access to a gym, I would recommend starting a weight training routine 2-3 times a week. A full body routine would be best, since it will increase your overall strength and will help reduce body fat over time. It also will help you with soccer.

Since you say that you are naturally slim, I think your problem is that you need to add some additional lean mass on your frame. If your body fat is already at healthy levels, this additional lean muscle will actually give you some curves and definition (which is pretty much what "looking toned" is.) It typically will NOT make you look blocky or overly-muscular, since women generally cannot put on large amounts of muscle, even with heavy weight lifting.

I'm generally not a huge fan of high-rep, low-weight "toning routines" since they typically only train you for muscle endurance, and not for muscle strength or size. Rep ranges in excess of 10-12 reps are not going to get you "toned" regardless of what the fitness magazines lead you to believe.

They tell you this because women have been taught this myth that lifting heavier weights for lower repetitions will make them "blocky." Most magazines and trainers don't want to fight their clients' misperceptions around "toning" and high reps because they don't want to piss them off and have them go to another trainer who will tell them what they want to hear. So the myth just gets perpetuated.

If you don't have access to a gym, then I would recommend that you do some very basic body-resistance exercises that will use your own weight to increase your strength and muscularity. You can have some good results if you perform them with proper form.

Push-ups are excellent exercises that will workout your back, chest, triceps (back of the arms) and increase core stability and balance. Crunches on an inexpensive swiss ball, as well as planks, v-crunches and jack-knives can also help build strength and muscle in your midsection.

Pull-ups can also be great bodyweight exercises to help build your upper body -- however, many people need to have someone help them when they first start out. If you have a playground or junglegym nearby and have a friend to can "spot you" you can perform pullups without any special equipment. The spotter can help lift you up until you can perform them on your own.

You can also buy some inexpensive home dumbbells and use those to add some additional resistance. The advice to use soup cans is pretty good, except at a certain point this won't be challenging any more. Simply increasing your reps won't really help you add additional muscle, so you'll be falling back into the high-rep endurance trap again and your progress will stall.

Here are a couple of additional links that might help you out:

Why Workout Routines for Toning Fail: The Toning Myth

Full Body Workout Routine

Total Body Workout on Machines

Why Women Won't Get Bulky Weight Lifting

Weight Training: Burn Fat, Be Strong and Stay Healthy

Best of luck and let us know how it goes!