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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

Any workout is better than no workout, so take the information in this article with a grain of salt. However, if you have the option of not working out first thing in the morning, then by all means take it.

Now without going over a bunch of physiology (and circadian rhythm graphs), I can say that the best time to work out is a couple hours after breakfast.

In any case, here is why working out first thing in the morning is not good:

1. Your spinal discs are bigger than usual: Right when you wake up, you are the tallest you will be during the day. This happens because the discs in your lower back have a little extra liquid inside of them. If you do a lot of bending or strenuous exercise right when you wake up, you are more at risk for lower back injury.

You see, when your discs are topped off with liquid, they are less mobile. And less mobility translates into higher risk of injury.

One more thing, if you already have lower back pain, early morning exercise should be out of the question for you.

2. Your body is breaking down at a fast rate: When you wake up, your liver does not have any carbohydrates, you are dehydrated by a couple pounds, and you are burning through muscle tissue like a knife through butter so that your brain can survive on the broken down muscle. If you do not eat quickly to reverse this state, this break down process will keep on accelerating.

Even worse, if you begin exercising on an empty stomach, this negative cascade of events will be amplified even further.

3. Your hormonal profile remains disrupted for the entire day: And you can’t reverse this no matter how healthy you eat. You see, cortisol and insulin are the major players here. If you start exercising on empty, cortisol will keep on rising and your levels of insulin will be disrupted for the rest of the day.

And recall that you need optimal levels of insulin in order to burn the most arm fat.

4. Your joints aren’t smooth, slippery and lubricated: It takes time for synovial fluid (the oil of your joints) to increase in quantity and slipperiness. If you simply jump out of bed and start exercising, your joints aren’t at their best in terms of being able to accept stress. Over time, this can degenerate your joints.

So at the very least, have a robust warm-up period before early morning exercise. And if you already have noisy joints (i.e., cracks and pops), you absolutely have to follow this advice.

Alternatively, you could use the shake weight to warm-up. Check out my shake weight review for a more complete overview (JUST KIDDING!).

5. Your body temperature is low: Body temperature regulates alertness, force production, reaction speed, strength and all metabolic processes. And it takes time for your muscles and body to warm up first thing in the morning. So try to get your body very hot before exercising very hard.

Now if you absolutely have to work out first thing in the morning because of scheduling constraints, then by all means proceed-something is better than nothing. Just make sure you have the biggest liquid meal you can tolerate, and incorporate a robust warm-up period. At the very least, this approach will mitigate a lot of the negative side effects.

And try to take the necessary steps so that you aren’t forced to exercise so early!

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

Spending all day in the gym to get results is not only unnecessary, but also unhealthy. You see, after the one hour mark, your internal environment becomes very catabolic. In other words, your body begins to break down at ever increasing rates.

So here is how to get the most out of your arm toning workouts without spending all day in the gym:

1. Big muscles first: Always prioritize bigger muscles first in your workouts. The last thing you want is an exhausted smaller muscle limiting the development of a bigger muscle. And remember that the more muscle mass you activate during your workouts, the better off you will be.

2. Don’t avoid isolation moves: You can’t violate the law of specificity. If you want to achieve maximum arm tone, then you have to directly work your arm muscles-there is no way around this. So don’t rely on doing push-ups all day to get toned arms.

3. Remember that intensity is king: The only way to make sure you don’t plateau is to constantly push the envelope. Your body is simply to adaptable and your results will come to a screeching halt if you don’t constantly experiment with new ways to increase intensity.

4. Add in variety: Related to the previous point, to avoid adaptation, you have to include lots of variety. Now you don’t have to completely change your routine from one day to the next. But you should definitely add in some slight modifications from one workout to the next.

In the short run, a simple change in grips will do the trick. In the long run, you want to change the order, the selection and the difficulty level of your exercises.

5. Work all the heads in your arm: Your triceps has three heads and your biceps has two heads. Thus, a complete arm toning program should target all of these components. If you only work two heads, as most women do, you will not get the best results possible.

6. Never forget that intensity is king: Have I made my point here?! I know a lot of marketers like to glaze over this point, but the truth remains: the harder you work per unit of time, the faster you will get results.

I know you are extremely busy, who isn’t. And I’m sure the last you want is to spend all day in the gym trying to get the arms of your dreams. The good news is that you don’t have to do this. So make sure you take action on this advice sooner rather than later!

CLICK HERE to discover how to get rid of flabby arms with the best arm-toning workouts!

Sometimes it’s the details that count when you’re trying to get the most out of your workouts.

So here is a random collection of tips to maximize your time in the gym and prevent injury:

1. Focus on dumbbell bench presses instead of barbell presses: Bench pressing is one of the best ways to sculpt and define your chest. Unfortunately, the standard barbell bench press that everyone does can put a lot of stress on your shoulders. And if you have a forward hunch, you risk damaging your rotator cuff.

The good news is that not only do dumbbell bench presses do a better job at targeting your chest muscles, but they are also easier on your rotator cuff.

2. Don’t stop squatting if your lower back hurts: Instead, try doing front squats. With this variation of the squat, less pressure is put on your back. As an added bonus, it does a great job at working your core musculature.

And remember that squats are a top exercise for burning lots of calories (and fat!).

3. Don’t overdo the overhead pressing: Again, pressing overhead can place a lot of stress on your rotator cuff and if you have a forward slouch, this problem is exacerbated. Even worse, if you have a downward slopping acromion (a bone that sits on top of the rotator cuff tendons) you will eventually end up with an injury if you overhead press too much.

So stay on the safe side by using light weights and doing overhead movements sparingly.

4. Experiment with reverse grip bench presses if you have shoulder pain: With a reverse grip press, you create the maximum amount of space for your rotator cuff tendons and place minimal stress on your shoulder joint. Many of my clients cannot press with a regular grip, but do just fine with a reverse grip.

5. Don’t be afraid of forced reps: The fastest rates of fat loss will happen when you train on the outer edge of your abilities. And one way to get to the edge is by doing forced reps. You will need a partner for this, but it’s well worth it.

Also, don’t think that forced reps equal poor form. You can still maintain excellent form while doing forced reps—just be extra cautious and focused.

6. Use a weight belt when doing complex movements with heavy weights: The idea that using a weight lifting belt will make your core weaker is a myth. As long as you train your core and don’t wear a belt every single minute of the day, your core will develop just fine. And it’s much better to prevent any lower back injuries because lower back pain is one of the most difficult things to get rid of.

7. Don’t do cardio before lifting weights: You have probably heard this before, but I’m going to have to mention it again. Because I still see way too many women doing cardio before lifting weights. So if you fall into this category please stop! It’s much safer and effective to do cardio after you have fatigued your muscles with weights.

Well, that’s it for today’s tips. Just make sure you start implementing them as soon as you can!

CLICK HERE to discover how to blowtorch your arm fat away!

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What is the best way to reduce the size of your arms?

This is a difficult question to answer if you are listening to everybody. There is simply too much bad information out there that falls into the hands of unsuspecting women.

So here are some more myths that you should be aware of:

1. Low grade physical activity is a waste of time. When you transition from the seated position to the walking position, the amount of additional calories you burn increases dramatically. Depending on your level of activity, you can burn an extra 800 calories per day—this is a lot of calories.

But most importantly, low grade physical activity does NOT stress your system. It’s a great way to burn more calories without breaking down your body. In fact, simply moving around more will accelerate recovery from intense exercise because of increased blood flow.

2. Weight training has little benefit for your heart. You do NOT need to spend hours on a treadmill to increase heart health. In reality, weight training has tremendous impact on cardiovascular health because it reduces visceral fat—the fat around your internal organs.

You see, not only does visceral fat decrease HDL (good cholesterol), but it also secretes harmful substances that go right into general circulation since it’s so close to your internal organs.

3. Assuming that carbohydrate elimination leads to the fastest fat loss. While carbohydrate elimination leads to the fastest weight loss because of dehydration, you do not need to completely eliminate carbohydrates to lose fat quickly.

You see, to lose arm fat at the fastest rate possible you have to get insulin as low as possible. And while carbohydrate elimination accomplishes this, it’s not necessary. You can still attain ultra low levels of insulin by eating slow digesting carbs with lots of vegetables.

4. Assuming that exercising more means you can eat more. Now this really depends on what your goals are. However, for most women wishing to reduce the size of their arms, exercise is not a free ticket for all-you-can-eat binges.

Unfortunately, there is a psychological phenomenon called “compensatory feeding” in which women end up eating more calories than before while using exercise as an excuse.

Bottom line: be very careful if you begin to “reward” yourself with exorbitant amounts of food after you exercise.

5. Fat loss gets harder and harder because of adaptation. While there is some truth to this, it ignores a whole host of changes that happen in the female body which accelerate fat loss as time goes by:

a. Mitochondria within your cells burn a higher percentage of fat as you become fitter.

b. Your adrenal medulla—responsible for secreting arm-fat-burning hormones—gets larger over time.

c. As you lose fat your insulin sensitivity increases which makes it easier to lose additional fat.

Even better, the psychological aspect of exercising and dieting will become increasingly effortless as they become internalized as part of your daily routine. According to research studies, it takes about 30 days for this effect to kick in.

There’s lots of talk about paralysis by over analysis, but getting bad results from bad advice is just as damaging, if not more. So make sure you don’t fall victim to any of the aforementioned myths when constructing your program for arm reduction!

CLICK HERE to reduce fat arms.