Q&A From Women's Fitness Magazine: How to Tone Your Arms

I just got a request from a well-known women’s fitness magazine asking me for help with their reader Q & A section.

Since it takes nearly six months from the time they ask for my fitness tip to the time you get to read it on the newsstand, we'll save you some time and give you my full answer (before the editors chop it up) right here.

Here’s what they said:

“Our reader wants to know:

I strength train twice a week and my arms still have zero definition. What am I doing wrong?"

My answer:

Disappointing results always comes down to just two things: bad eating, bad workout program—in that order.

Definition is more an eating issue than an exercise issue. I advise my clients to take a two-step approach.

First, lower your intake of starchy carbs.

Then, once you’re comfortable with that, work on saving starchy carbs for after (within two hours) workouts only.

(Jumping immediately to step 2 is completely unrealistic for most people.)

Surprisingly, most women don’t have to worry about doing arm exercises to improve arm definition. A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology revealed that women tend to lose fat faster in their arms, followed by the trunk, then by their legs even when they’re not doing any direct arm exercises whatsoever.

More importantly, the arm exercises women typically select (kickbacks, bench dips, and curls with non-challenging weights) do not stimulate your metabolism enough to yield discernible changes in your body.

Your time is much better spent performing higher intensity, compound exercises like push presses, swings and burpees.

These will get you lean all over and, combined with cutting your carbs a bit, will give you more definition in your arms than an “arm workout” ever could.

Two sessions of strength training is a great start, but if you’re truly serious about changing your body, add a third session of either strength or hard intervals. My clients who progress fastest, however, do four workouts a week, either three strength/one interval or two of each (my personal preference).