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As a personal trainer, many of my clients ask me about workouts that they come across online. One client asked if there was any legitimacy to arm workouts done without weights — outside of basic strength-training exercises like pushups or tricep dips.

One of the popular weightless arm workouts making the rounds is the Blogilates “weight less” arm workout designed by founder Cassey Ho.

Ho is a certified Pilates instructor and her brand Blogilates offers tons of workout videos online. After seeing one of her weightless arm workouts on TikTok, I decided to try her routine on YouTube for two weeks and track my own progress with before and after photos.

The workout is totally free on Blogilates’ YouTube channel. You can find the workout here. 

The arm workout is a no-equipment needed upper body workout routine that focuses on toning the shoulders, biceps, triceps and upper back. It’s only 13 minutes long, but you keep your arms lifted the entire duration of the workout!

During the workout you perform a new exercise every minute or so that builds off of the previous exercise. The entire workout can be done seated or standing and doesn’t require any equipment. The workout doesn’t move too quickly and you probably won’t sweat (I didn’t). In fact, one day I even did the workout in my pajamas!

As a personal trainer who loves to provide modifications for my clients, whether they want to start slowly or just don’t have access to equipment, I was eager to try out this no-equipment arm workout to see if I felt or saw a difference in my arms after a couple of weeks.

I tried the workout every other day for the two-week period to give my muscles time to recover in between. It really wasn’t hard to fit this into my busy schedule. Only 13 minutes a pop was super simple and effective, and as I mentioned, I didn’t even sweat! So it was easy to squeeze in any time I had a spare 15 minutes.

While you may not see a huge difference, I feel a huge different in my arms, specifically my shoulders. My arms feel more solid and jiggle less when I move. They feel slimmer in my workout tops and I feel like they touch the side of my body less. I also feel a stronger upper back with less tension in my neck muscles, something that I had been struggling with for a few months. I think the combination of strength training without having to actually lift dumbbells worked well to strengthen my arms without straining other muscles around the arms and shoulders (like my neck.)

No equipment needed — what’s not to like about that?! That’s the first selling point of this routine that I loved. The next thing I loved is that I actually found myself being more present in the workout because without dumbbells you really need to have body awareness and pay attention to contracting the muscles with each move.

I loved the “walnut crushers” and the “raise the roof” exercises because I felt the muscles in my upper back working without straining my neck, which can sometimes be hard to do with weighted exercises. 

I also felt like my shoulder girdle and rotator cuff became stronger and sturdier. I have a problem with being overly flexible, especially in my shoulder joints; I noticed that after a few weeks doing this routine, it was easier for me to do plank pose with near perfect form in my upper back because my shoulder joint felt more stable. I liked that the movements really improve mobility and strength in the shoulder joint — something that’s challenging to do when you’re holding dumbbells or resistance bands.

With any workout, it can get a bit repetitive to do the same thing a few times a week. While I appreciated the fact that after a few workouts I had the routine memorized, I can see how some people may get bored.

Also, because you keep the arms elevated for the entire 13 minutes, it was challenging to keep my traps from engaging too much. Admittedly, I had to lower my arms every few minutes to reset, but after a few workouts I was able to keep my arms up longer without pain, so that felt really good! 

It was also hard for me to engage my muscles for some of the exercises; some of them felt more like stretches.

Stephanie Mansour is a contributing health and fitness writer for TODAY. She is a certified personal trainer, yoga and Pilates instructor and weight-loss coach for women. She hosts “Step It Up with Steph” on PBS. Join her complimentary health and weight-loss challenge and follow her for daily inspiration on Instagram and in her new app.