Published: Thursday, July 15, 2010

By Phillip Johnson, CPT
Madison Magazine, Sports Desk
Madison, Alabama's Hometown Newspaper 

For many of my male clients one goal of their fitness regimen is to develop better looking, more toned and muscular arms. Many of my female clients have the same goal, but are even more concerned with just getting rid of the flab that forms on the undersides of their arms. You know what I mean: you wave and so do your arms! Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle…

There is a simple solution to this problem, though many people go about it the wrong way. Some who suffer with flabby arms may find it best to tone the arm muscles rather than exercise to try losing weight from such difficult areas.

When people try to lose weight from the arms or problem areas they often find they lose it from other areas first, sometimes even losing weight from places they don't want to lose it! Losing weight from difficult areas such as the arms may require the eventual loss of a high percentage of fat because the body draws energy from all over rather than from one specific place, even if there is regularly exercise for the arms it will often tone them up before fat will reduce in the arms.

Nicely toned arms are one of the top fitness goals, especially for women. They want to look good in short sleeves or a sleeveless dress or top. Women have a tendency to have big arms due to gaining weight. Women will accumulate more body fat than men in certain areas especially the arms and legs.

Difficulty in losing weight in the arms or other problem areas is caused by the result of our genetics, which determine the number of fat cells present in various places around the body. We all have different numbers and places where the body tends to deposit more fat cells, this is often the place where we find it annoyingly hard to lose fat from.

If there are a large number of fat cells around the arms, losing fat around the arms will often take longer because there is more fat to shift than in other areas. The best way would be to tone the arms while at the same time losing weight with basic aerobic exercise.

The best exercise for toning the arms are single-joint movements. Examples are curls and tricep kick-backs. These exercises place direct stress on the bicep and tricep muscles of the arm causing them to firm up much more quickly. In fact, the triceps muscle at the back of the arm make up two-thirds of arm size so it would probably be best to work more at toning the tricep than any other muscle of the arm.

The Triceps make up about 70% of the total muscle mass of your upper arm while the Bicep constitutes the rest. The triceps and biceps make up what people see when they are looking at your arms. As you can see in my client Dawn (in the photo), she has a great peak on her biceps and a great horseshoe look on her triceps.

Dawn has been my client for over 2 years and has made great strides and improvements on her physique and especially her arms. Dawn has done this by working out on certain exercises, maintaining a good diet, being consistent in the gym with resistance training, doing cardio, and taking care of her body. Even at 50 years old she looks great and most women envy her body type and shape.

Of course not everybody wants to look that muscular and defined. Many women just want their arms to stop jiggling when they wave. You can still look toned and defined without looking muscular at all. Dawn is just an example of someone who takes pride in their body and is consistent!

If you’d like more information on how to lose the jiggle and tone your arms please contact me at (951) 970-7635

Happy fitness goals everyone!

Phillip Johnson is a Madison Weekly columnist and Certified Personal Trainer working in Madison, Harvest and Huntsville. He works with clients of every age and fitness level. For a free consultation call Phillip at (951) 970-7635.