The best way to tone up your body (including arms) is with intense exercise. It’s simply too difficult to get the best results with diet alone.

Even more compelling is that caloric deficits created from diet alone induce more hunger than caloric deficits created from exercise. And recall that you have to be in a negative caloric balance in order to lose arm fat.

So, here are some overlooked areas that can enhance your results from exercise:

1. The rest and recovery stage: Paradoxically, the majority of favorable changes happen outside of your workouts. So if you aren’t resting and recovering properly, you will get a minimal return on your time invested in the gym. Here are two biggest mistakes women make in between workouts:

a. Not resting enough.

b. Not incorporating enough non-exercise activity.

2. Traditional muscle-building parameters: There is simply no other form of exercise that can increase your metabolism and change the way your body looks the way muscle building does. And please keep in mind that the muscle building process is very slow, and the female body does not have the right hormonal or structural profile to get “big.”

Moreover, most women shrink while slowly building muscle because of the enhanced fat loss.

3. Postural imbalance correction: Exercising with a postural imbalance is like driving a car with tires that are out of alignment, eventually something is going to give in. Thus, if you want to extend your body’s exercise warranty and if you want to exercise at the highest level possible, you have to address all postural imbalances before they become something serious.

Final advice: have a fitness professional or even better, a physical therapist, take a look at your posture.

4. Shoulder mobility and stabilization: If you work from a desk all day it’s highly likely that you have forward slouching shoulders. The problem with this is that it decreases the amount of space your rotator cuff tendons have for movement. If left unchecked, you could tear a rotator cuff tendon.

The best way to prevent this is to have your workstation ergonomically setup and to do more pulling versus pushing in your workouts.

5. Deep spinal stabilization: Your lower back has muscles that help it move and muscles that help it remain stable. Most exercises women do in the gym focus on the movement part. These are the garden variety crunches and sit-ups.

However, if you have lower back issues and focus on movement before stabilization, you could create additional damage. So make sure you do stabilizing exercises like planks and bird dogs before moving onto standard movement exercises.

Anything you can do to enhance the effectiveness of your workouts will bring you a couple steps closer to getting the body you want and deserve. So try to incorporate the above tips in your routine as soon as you get a chance!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms!

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There are fortunes to be made in the world of diets and pills. And as a result, there is an overload of available programs, strategies and supplements.

For the average consumer that doesn’t have a PhD in nutrition, however, it can be virtually impossible to sift through all the hype to extract the kernels of truth.

So here is a random collection of facts about sexy-arm nutrition that can make a huge difference:

1. As carbohydrate intake goes up, lean muscle tissue breakdown goes down: Put differently, if you don’t have enough carbohydrates in your diet you are going to burn through excess muscle. And recall that muscle burns a lot of calories, even while you are resting.

2. A decrease in glycogen stores causes a decrease in calories-burned from exercise: Glycogen is the stored form of carbohydrates that your muscles use to produce work during exercise. Thus, if your muscle glycogen is low, you will not be able to exercise at maximum intensities. And recall that intense exercise is the best way to burn extra calories outside of your workouts.

3. Weight loss takes place independent of macronutrient ratios: This means that you can lose weight no matter what combination of protein, carbohydrates and fat is in your diet. The overriding factor here is whether or not you are in a negative caloric state. Having said that, in order to maximize fat loss and minimize lethargy, you want to have balance in your diet.

4. A 1200-calorie intake will force any woman to lose weight: With the exception of extreme outliers, it’s virtually impossible for a woman to not lose weight if she’s eating only 1200 calories. This fact holds true because no one has a basal metabolic rate (amount of calories you burn in 24-hours while not moving) that is less than 1200 calories.

5. You can experience muscle and strength gains while in a negative caloric state: This means you can lose fat while simultaneously increasing lean and tight muscle mass. In other words, you aren’t doomed to a skinny, weak and flaccid body while restricting calories.

6. Hypnosis has not been proven effective by peer-reviewed research: There has been a surge in hypnosis products in the market. However, there hasn’t been a single peer-reviewed randomized trial (the gold standard) proving its effectiveness. You are far better off saving your money here!

It can be hard to sift through all the misinformation out there. And hopefully this article can help you sift things out just a little bit better!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms!

Credit: Christi Nielsen

It’s virtually impossible to get in shape if a food addiction has a tight grip on your eating patterns.

The issue here is that a strong food addiction can change your brain the same way that drugs do. In fact, sugar is used as an analgesic in infants undergoing surgery.

On the bright side, there are some steps you can take to beat the addiction.

So here are 6 action items so that you can start winning the war:

1. Manipulate your environment: Relying on self-control and will power is a big mistake here. Why even give yourself the chance to make a decision in the first place? You see, if the offending food is not available to you, then there is no room for decision making-there is nothing present to be decided upon.

2. Create the majority of your caloric deficit with exercise, not food elimination: Your body does a better job at sensing caloric deficits from food than it does from exercise. In other words, a 500 calorie deficit from exercise won’t create as much hunger as a 500 calorie deficit from eating less food.

Thus, a great strategy to avoid throwing in the towel and bingeing is to use exercise as your main tool for creating your caloric deficit-your body won’t sense the reduction as well.

3. Use natural stimulants when you feel like you’re about to give in: There is nothing wrong with using nature’s gifts in times of need. Specifically, you want to use loose leaf teas like yerba mate or dragon well green tea to help appease the addiction.

In this case, you are replacing one pleasurable stimulus (dopamine response from food) with a less harmful stimulus (adrenal rush from tea).

Just make sure that you don’t abuse loose leaf teas or else you will build a tolerance to their effect.

4. Have artificial sweeteners if your sweet tooth is driving you crazy: The good news here is that artificial sweeteners have come a very long ways over the years. In fact, it’s very hard to tell the difference between a good artificial sweetener and sugar.

The bad news is that we don’t know if long term use of artificial sweeteners is safe. To stay on the safe side, have no more than a couple servings per day. And watch out here because a lot of processed and “diet” foods already come loaded with combinations of sweeteners.

5. Address the negative emotional hole that you are filling up with food: More often than not, a food addiction can be traced back to a negative emotional hole in a woman’s life. And if you figure out how to deal with the emotional drain, you will have a much better chance at beating the addiction.

You see, by fixing your issue you will uncouple your eating from your emotions.

6. Seek a competent professional if you can’t do this on your own: A huge body of evidence has clearly shown that a multi-tiered approach to food addictions is extremely effective. And the more you wait the harder it will become to win.

You deserve complete health now, not later! So make sure you take action on this advice today if you are suffering from a food addiction!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms!

Credit: Derrick Coetzee

Plateaus are the number one motivation killers.

After all, who would want to keep on working hard if there are no fruits for their labor?

Now the tricky thing with plateaus is that they require adaptability and flexibility on your part. In other words, you have to be willing to break out of your comfortable routine.

In essence, you have to establish new routines-something that is never easy.

So, here is an action plan to pull yourself out of a plateau:

1. First make sure you are in a plateau: Countless women stop exercising because the weight scale is no longer moving. Well, recall that a weight scale doesn’t reveal changes in body composition. For instance, you could be losing fat and gaining muscle which won’t necessarily show up on the scale.

Instead, rely on circumference measurements and/or body fat measurements to assess progress.

2. Begin covering half of your plate with vegetables every single time you eat: This is by far the simplest way to bust out of a plateau. You see, vegetables do a great job at lowering blood sugar (which accelerates fat loss) and they create a lot of bulk in your stomach. This in turn will make you eat less without feelings of deprivation.

3. Increase the intensity and duration of your workouts: You will feel a lot hungrier if you create a 500 calorie deficit with diet versus creating the same deficit with increases in physical activity. For whatever reason, the female body is more sensitive to caloric reductions from food than from exercise.

4. Begin keeping a food journal: If all of the above aren’t working, you are going to have to keep a journal. This will be the only way to assess where your diet needs work. Otherwise, if you simply wing it, it will be like finding a needle in a haystack while blindfolded.

5. SLOWLY reduce portion sizes relative to your food journal: Go too hard too soon here and your body will reject the lower caloric intake. Think of this process as coaxing your body into fat loss, not forcing it. You see, if you restrict calories too much you will stop producing fat burning hormones and your metabolism will drop.

6. If all else fails, measure and weigh your food: Most women don’t have to go to this extreme. But if you have tried everything else and it’s not working, then you probably have “caloric creep.” In other words, calories are creeping into your diet where you least expect it.

The only way to solve this is by weighing and measuring your food, unfortunately. The good news is that you won’t have to do this forever. Only until you figure out what is going on.

Nobody deserves to be stuck in a plateau. And if you let yourself hover in plateau limbo for too long, motivation will fade. So get yourself out of the hole today!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms!

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Unfortunately, because of ever increasing global obesity rates, exercise has become a matter of life and death. And those women that can exercise well into the later years of life, will have a serious advantage when it comes to longevity and vitality.

But there is a catch… Your body is constantly aging and breaking down as is. And exercise further increases this breakdown process.

HOWEVER, if done correctly, exercise compensates for the breakdown by having an even bigger building process. So even though you take one step back with intense exercise, during the recovery process you take two steps forward.

So here is how to extend the durable life of your exercising body by getting more build up instead of breakdown:

1. Avoid doing the same movements over and over and over again: I strongly believe that the most important aspect of getting in shape is learning how to establish permanent routines within your schedule. But if you don’t add variety within the routine, bad things start to happen.

You see, if you do the same workout with the same movements over and over again, your muscles and even worse, connective tissue will not have enough time to recover.

And connective tissues take a very long time to heal and recover because of almost non-existent blood supplies. Note: blood is the recovery lifeline to all the structures in your body because it carries nutrients and repair factors.

2. Don’t start exercising until your body is hot: I’ve seen too many women count a light walk as proper warm up. This simply is not enough. You need to feel an increase in body temperature for the proper effect here.

And exercising when your body isn’t “hot” not only puts your connective tissue at more risk for injury, but it also reduces your strength, power and speed. I personally take a very hot shower (increases blood flow) before each training session in addition to warming up on an elliptical.

3. Prioritize connective tissue strength over muscular strength in the beginning: Focusing on muscular strength will burn more calories and allow you to lose body fat faster. However, in the long run it will catch up to you and can potentially sideline you with an injury for a very long time.

So make sure that whenever you start an exercise program for the first time, you focus on light weights with higher repetitions too boost connective tissue strength. Then slowly phase into heavier weights with lower repetitions.

One option here would be to start with the shake weight (JOKING!).

4. Cycle in as much low impact activity as possible: Giving your joints a break from the rigors of exercise is a great way to reduce wear and tear on non-renewable cartilage. You see, cartilage is like the tires on a car-once it wears out, there is NO way to get it back.

And a great way to extend the life of your limited supply of cartilage, is to provide your body with periods of minimal load. My favorite modality here is exercise in water because water virtually takes away all the forces and loads of gravity.

Just make sure you don’t do too much swimming with your upper body if you have shoulder issues.

Getting results NOW is important for motivation, but you also need to plan for what can happen LATER. And most women simply forget about the later, they don’t take into account what their exercise routine will do to their bodies 10-15 years down the road.

So take care of your frame, and plan for the future so you can keep on exercising as long as you want!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms the safe way!

Credit: Tiago Rebeiro

Billions and billions and billions of dollars are spent on dietary supplements each year. And I receive countless emails on a weekly basis about every supplement under the sun. I also get many emails about the shake weight!

We want results fast and we’re more than happy to get the results from a pill. Maybe you wouldn’t mind getting results from a pill…

The main issue here, however, is that most women have no idea as to what happens behind the supplement companies’ doors.

So, here is what YOU need to know about dietary supplements:

1. Just because they are marketed as “natural” does NOT mean they are safe: Any matter that goes down your throat, whether it be food or a supplement, is going to cause a chemical reaction. And many things found in nature will cause a lethal chemical reaction.

2. The 1994 DSHEA deregulated the industry: Pharmaceuticals have to go through an extremely rigorous process of clinical trials as established by the FDA. Dietary supplements, on the other hand, are not subject to upfront testing before being put on the store shelves.

In fact, it’s the government’s responsibility to prove that a supplement is unsafe before it’s taken off the market. It’s easy to see how this can create issues when there is a multitude of new supplements hitting the market all the time-it’s virtually impossible to keep tabs on everything.

3. The manufacturers are “good hearted” and prioritize your health: A business cannot survive unless it remains profitable. As a result, there is always going to be a tug of war between quality, purity, safety and cost reduction. Unfortunately, many manufacturers disproportionately focus on the cost reduction side of the equation.

4. More is better: Virtually any nutrient in excess can kill you. Drink too much water and you die. Eat too much protein without any fat and you die. Have too much vitamin D and your blood vessels can calcify. Have too much calcium and you can end up with kidney stones.

The solution? MODERATION.

Even too much fish oil can damage your heart! I recommend having no more than 100% DV for ANY supplemental nutrient unless your physician recommends otherwise.

More often than not, you are better off spending your hard earned money on high quality food than on supplements. And keep in mind that your body actually absorbs food much better than supplements because of all the synergies between natural nutrients.

And if you do decide to take a supplement, make sure it’s from a reputable manufacturer!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms the safe way!

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Knee pain that comes and goes is extremely debilitating because not only does it hurt, but it can make you paranoid about what you should and shouldn’t do.

Even worse, if you have a strong will and “work” through the pain, you could end up blasting through your non-renewable cartilage.

The only solution at this point? Surgery.

So here are 6 steps towards less knee pain:

1. Avoid the seated position: Counter intuitively, staying in the seated position can exacerbate pain on the front of the knee cap. I recommend trying to work from the standing position for various reasons:

a. You will burn more calories.

b. It’s better for your back.

c. It alleviates front knee pain.

If standing work is out of the question for you, at the very least elevate the bad knee(s) when seated.

2. Get a high quality knee brace: They really do help and can provide relief when you are exercising. Now you don’t want to depend on a brace, but it can help weather the storm until you figure out the underlying cause of the pain. The only drawback here is that good knee braces are expensive.

3. Make your quadriceps muscles (front thighs) strong: You don’t have to become a bodybuilder here, but you should focus on making your front thighs strong with highly targeted movements. You see, strong front thighs will help your knee cap moving correctly.

4. Keep your hamstrings (back part of your thighs) flexible: Being in the seated position isometrically contracts your hamstrings. In other words, your hamstrings are contracting even though you don’t feel it. The end result is super tight hamstrings for women with desk jobs (the majority).

5. Don’t wait too long before replacing shoes: The extra money you save by wearing your shoes thin does not warrant wearing down your knee joint. After all, money is renewable, your joints aren’t.

Your knees are the primary weight bearing joints in your body and if your shoes no longer have appropriate cushion, they have to absorb more cartilage-damaging shock.

6. Reduce levels of body fat: Since your knees are the primary weight bearing joints, fat loss is a great way to give them a break. For every 1 lb of lost fat, your knees experience 4 lbs of relief-so everything counts here.

Now keep in mind that it’s impossible to cover all the potential causes of knee pain in a single article. Please consider this article as a starting point. And if your knee pain is severe and persists, do NOT hesitate to see a doctor.

It’s much better to stop the pain now instead of waiting until you’ve lost non-renewable cartilage!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms the safe way!

Credit: Pink Sherbert Photography

Anti-oxidants aren’t just for anti-aging, they are also for accelerated recovery from exercise. And if you can exercise more frequently you will burn more calories. And if you can burn more calories, you will you lose fat and get toned much quicker.

So here are 6 brutally simple ways to get more anti-oxidants in your diet:

1. Begin having loose leaf green tea every morning instead of coffee: Not only do you get the anti-oxidants, but you also get the following:

a. No dry mouth.

b. No upset stomach.

c. Enhanced mood.

d. Enhanced blood flow.

e. No energy crashes.

And don’t be tempted to have bagged tea, it’s far inferior to loose leaf tea.

2. Substitute your cassia cinnamon with true cinnamon: Cassia cinnamon is the type most commonly found in grocery stores. The sticks are thin and hollow. True cinnamon, on the other hand, also called Ceylon cinnamon, has thicker sticks with multiple inner folds (like a cigar).

And not only does true cinnamon taste better, but it has much higher nutritional value. I personally prefer to put a stick of true cinnamon in my green tea every morning.

3. Take a LOW DOSE multi-vitamin supplement: Do not assume that taking vitamins with mega doses of nutrients is healthy for you, it’s not. You are far better off taking a multi-vitamin that has no more than 100% daily value for any given nutrient.

Remember that you are taking a multi-vitamin as insurance against any potential deficiency. And the bulk of your nutrition is going to come from whole food-the most absorbable and effective form of vitamins and minerals.

4. Substitute your standard lettuce with “other” leafy greens: The more the merrier here since nutrient interactions between wide varieties of foods are the true key to maximum health. Some excellent leafy greens (with much more nutrition than lettuce) that aren’t too hard to get used to are:

a. Kale

b. Chard

c. Spinach

5. Begin experimenting with turmeric: Another anti-oxidant powerhouse, turmeric has a mild flavor and combines very well with many dishes. I recommend using it in recipes with chicken and in recipes with chili. Just make sure you don’t spill it since it can stain with its yellowish color.

6. Drop some cloves in your green tea: Cloves have a strong flavor and aren’t the easiest thing to incorporate. I’ve found that putting them in green tea is a stealthy way to get them in my diet. If the clove flavor is too strong for you, consider adding in some peppermint to mask it.

Anti-oxidants aren’t just for the life extensionists, they are also for women who wish to further enhance their physique goals. So start following these tips today!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms with the best nutrition!

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Sometimes it’s the small, overlooked elements of an exercise routine that leave you with permanent damage. And at times figuring out what is going wrong can be like finding a needle in a haystack because these factors don’t cause immediate pain.

But before you start to stress about this, bear in mind that a little analysis on your part can go a long ways to keeping you healthy throughout your exercise career.

So here are some random facts that you should know to prevent potential damage to your body:

1. Excessive use of high heels can damage your posture: By excessive, we’re talking about daily use here. However, if you already have a tight posterior chain (very common in women with desk jobs) even moderate use can potentially cause issues.

You see, the problem with high heels is that they contract and tighten your calf muscles. This in turn can alter the natural curve of your lower back.

2. On average, women have different angles between their shoulders and wrists: Of course, this is in comparison to men. This means that when toning your upper arms with bicep curl movements, you should try to use an ez-bar as often as possible and never work through wrist pain. At the very least, experiment with different grips until you find the one that works.

3. Tight muscles can permanently alter normal movement: First, you get a tight muscle from overuse or poor posture. Second, the tight muscle forms a knot. Third, inelastic collagen (think “stiff saran wrap”) covers the knot and alters the way said muscle moves.

Take home point: address tight muscles as soon as you become aware of them. The more you wait, the more degeneration occurs.

4. You can stretch every day: Unlike intense resistance training and cardiovascular training, flexibility training can be done on a daily basis. You see, stretching causes minimal damage to your body which in turn allows for much higher frequencies of sessions.

And most women should be stretching every day because of sedentary living.

5. Step-up machines should be used in moderation: This is mostly a concern for women that have desk jobs. When you sit at a desk for prolonged periods of time your hip flexors become tight. And these muscles pull on your lower back. Now when you use lots of step-up machines, you further tighten these already tight muscles.

The end result can be severe lower back pain if this “hip flexor tightening “ protocol isn’t stopped.

6. One tight muscle or injured joint will spread its dysfunction: All the systems and components in your body are interconnected, this is just how things work. Thus, if one joint or muscle is having problems, other structures will pick up the slack. The main issue here is that these other structures are NOT made to pick up said slack for very long.

It’s analogous to having a weaker second string team take on the work of a stronger first string team-it may work for a while, but eventually those second stringers are going to give out.

Now I just noticed that this article has somewhat of a “scare tactic” tone. This really isn’t my intention. I simply want you to appreciate how small things, if left unchecked, can cause major issues down the road.

The good news is that it only takes a couple minutes of analysis to make sure you aren’t doing anything in your daily routine that can cause potential issues in the future when you least expect it!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms safely!

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Irregular schedules lead to irregular circadian rhythms. And an irregular circadian rhythm can have a negative impact on every single system in your body. In a nutshell, having an out of sync rhythm can make getting in shape virtually impossible.

But it gets even worse because studies have shown that haphazard rhythms can actually decrease your length of life.

Specifically, here is what can happen when your schedule is constantly off kilter:

1. A decrease in body heat: Elevated body heat is a primary indicator of fat loss. In fact, seasoned fitness professionals can tell that they are losing fat just by how “hot” they feel. Unfortunately, a poorly entrained circadian rhythm decreases your body temperature.

2. Worsened blood pressure levels: High blood pressure ages your arteries and negatively affects circulation, not good if you want to stay healthy. And good circulation is essential for the best fat loss.

3. A slower metabolism: Your metabolism is basically the sum of chemical reactions that keep you alive. Thus, a faster metabolism means you are burning more calories. And intense training with weights is the best way to amplify this effect. After all, you can’t simply shake weight off your arms!

4. Decreased insulin sensitivity: Extremely small increases in insulin can create a huge decrease in fat burning. Your body is very sensitive to levels of blood sugar and by extension, insulin. And if your cells are less sensitive to insulin, your body has to produce more of it for normal functioning.

5. Altered hunger signals: While controlling total caloric intake is vital for fat loss, altered hormonal profiles can destroy your efforts no matter how well you monitor food intake. And hunger hormones are no exception here.

Ideally, you want there to be a good balance between how many calories you eat and how hungry you get. A crazy schedule disrupts this balance.

6. Less stage 4 sleep: Arguably, deep sleep is the most important aspect of ANY fitness program because it has such a strong influence on recovery. The better you recover, the more you can exercise. And the more you can exercise the faster you’ll get in shape.

Having an out of control schedule is no way to live. Not only will it decrease your quality and length of life, but it will make it very difficult to get in shape. So take control today and start living life on your own terms.

CLICK HERE to discover how to get sexy and sculpted arms!