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All I want is LEAN arms....


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shocked_confused

Hey ladies and gentlemen, I need your help with this. I am a female in my 20s (if that even matters) who is trying to get lean, sexy arms.

 

I work out about 5-6 days a week at the gym. I'm fairly thin and pretty happy with most of my body---EXCEPT my arms. I work on them all the time with the machine weights (3 sets of 12). However, I feel like they're just getting bigger. I am gaining muscle, but it is growing underneath my fat, making them look chubbier, not cut/lean.

 

I do about 45 minutes of cardio every time I'm at the gym at a moderate pace (I could go harder, but the pace definitely isn't slow by any means). I like to switch it up between the elliptical, treadmill, and bike. And just yesterday I started to jump rope because I heard its really good for your arms and overall body. I still can't seem to get those oh-so-desirable lean arms!

 

Does anyone have any advice for me? Am I doing anything wrong?

 

Also, does anyone have experience using the Armcycle? Will that help make my arms leaner?

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There are two things that you need to keep in mind here: 1) spot reduction of fat is a fantasy, and 2) you cannot out-train your diet (at least in the long term).

 

Spot reduction is the idea that you can burn fat on specific areas of your body using specific exercises or eating certain foods. However, the body does not oxidize fat that way. Granted, some people do carry fat differently depending on a lot of things (primarily genetics), but the fact remains that you cannot burn fat off your stomach by doing crunches, or in your case, burn fat off of your arms using the arm-cycle.

 

Also, high intensity training can help-to a point. The very large factor in your body composition will be your diet. Your body burns many more calories over the course of a day simply existing than it does during exercise. Granted, exercise does increase your metabolism, increase your muscle mass (which is metabolically expensive), and improve your hormone profile, but the amount of calories you burn during training is fairly negligible compared to your base metabolic rate.

 

It's important to keep track of how many calories you're taking in, as well as macronutrient breakdown (how much protein/fat/carbs), at least at first. This will help you establish how much food you need to be eating per day, as well as what kinds of foods to buy and prepare.

 

Shoot for about 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight (i.e., if you weight 130 lbs, get at least 130 grams of protein per day). The rest of your caloric intake can be made up of fat and carbohydrate sources. Remember that a gram of fat has 9 calories, and gram of protein or carbs contains 4 calories. Because fat is more calorie-dense, it's easy to overload calorie intake if they're not monitored. This doesn't mean that you should avoid fats, but be aware that they pack on the calories quickly.

 

With regards to carbohydrates, timing is important. Carbohydrates cause an insulin spike, which stops fat oxidation and activates the body's mechanisms designed to transport blood sugar to either storage within skeletal muscle, the liver, or fat stores. Muscle glycogen is generally depleted after a hard training session, while liver glycogen stores deplete after periods of fasting (i.e., they're at their lowest when you wake up in the morning). Therefore, when you eat carbs without these stores being depleted, there is much greater likelihood that the body will store this energy as fat. As a result, try to focus your carb intake to after your workouts (at least for fat loss purposes).

 

Practically speaking: if I were you, I would restructure my training to include more resistance training and less steady state cardio. Weight training, especially in the form of circuit training or complexes, can be very beneficial for losing fat while preserving muscle.

 

I would do no more than 3 high intensity weight training sessions per week. Recovery is important too, not only for injury prevention and strength gain, but also for fat loss. Without recovery, cortisol is chronically elevated, which hinders fat loss, muscle gain, cognitive abilities, as well as creating a host of other problems.

 

High intensity resistance training doesn't necessarily have to involve a bunch of heavy weight. Bodyweight only complexes are great for fat loss. For example, you could do 5 rounds of: 10 full depth (ass-to-grass) jump squats, 15 push ups, and 30 seconds of high knees in place, all as fast as you can. There are almost an endless number of permutations that you can create, but the important thing is to make the workouts full body, short, and fast.

 

I also recommend that in addition to your 3 high intensity resistance training sessions that you include daily brisk walks to your life. Walking (especially fasted) draws primarily from your body's fat stores, without having a large impact on your recovery abilities.

 

There are many ways to skin a cat, so to speak. Experiment with your diet and training until you find what works for you.

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Spot reduction is nearly impossible. Are you over eating? Being in your 20's can only help.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Yoga. It has done wonders for my body.

I second this. Yoga is a beautiful thing. I do it for peace of mind, but the physical side-effects (and benefits!) are undeniable. :love:

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Pilates is even better than yoga, IMO, for building LEAN long muscles.

Will a combination of both be good, too?

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Eddie Edirol

What are you eating? whats your diet like? Are you a foodie? can you resist eating the wrong foods and deal with the right foods?

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kiss_andmakeup

The one upside to being a hairdresser...I get an arm workout all day every day from the blowdries!

 

I have always had an opposite problem to yours...my arms stay spaghetti skinny no matter what but when I feel like I have extra weight in my thighs it just won't budge. ::sigh::

 

It's always something!

 

As many above posters have already noted, spot-reduction of fat is pretty much impossible, your body will lose the weight where it wants to. I agree to maybe try a more restrictive diet - couldn't hurt.

 

Tman's posts pretty much make anybody else's posts obsolete...he is all-knowing...so just listen to him! :D

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Tman's posts pretty much make anybody else's posts obsolete...he is all-knowing...so just listen to him! :D

 

Pretty much...which is why I'm forced to post the crap advice that I post... :laugh:

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You guys are too kind. :)

 

I'm far from all knowing though, nor do my posts render others' 'obsolete'. It's sort of like how a lot of college graduates reflect back on their experiences and amassed knowledge base and think to themselves: "the more I learn, the dumber I feel".

 

I have personal experience with a fairly specific set of skills (primarily strength, hypertrophy, and athletic training). I'm learning more about nutrition every day, and I feel that it's the area I've progressed in the most lately.

 

At any rate, there's usually multiple ways to do things, and physical fitness and nutrition are no exception. While we know how certain chemicals behave within the body, there is also some level of individual physiological variance and an even greater gray area of individual behavioral variance.

 

When it's all said and done, each person needs to experiment with their training and diet to see what works for them. Training and nutritional guidelines are only the first step.

 

"Do or do not; there is no try" - Yoda :lmao:

 

 

 

 

 

 

(kinda true though)

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