Look at those Arms pt 1 & 2

Part 1
With the summer right around the corner bringing warmer weather and less clothing, a popular question is, “how do I get my ______ bigger/leaner/toned?” Now, I am here to tell you it doesn’t quite work that way, but I am going to let you in on a secret. The first secret is, you need to take the body as a whole. Want your arms or legs to appear more tone? Well, you need to lose body fat from your entire body to reveal the hard work you put in strengthening each muscle group! Two things will get you to your ideal body composition the quickest: diet and interval training. HIIT is a version of interval training that has become popular in the past couple of years and is very effective. A less known, but equally effective if not slightly superior method would be maximal or supramaximal intervals that will bring you to a point of exhaustion in which you need an inactive rest. If you have not tried interval training, I highly suggest it. You will improve your VO2max (ability to take in oxygen) and your body composition when in combination with diet. There are many ways to improve your diet and lose weight, but start by focusing on portion control and natural/clean foods. If you try to eat correct portions and foods that are naturally existing 80-90% of the time you will start to see results.

Enough rambling, on to my topic for the week: arms! To tone or increase strength in the shortest amount of time I suggest using BIG movements. What do I mean? Great question. Use exercises that incorporate more than one muscle group, as you will get the most bang for your buck. My suggestions are pushups, pull ups/chin-ups, dumbbell chest press, dumbbell shoulder strict press or push-press, dumbbell or body weight rows, and plank variations. There are numerous variations for each exercise to keep you entertained and to keep challenging your body.  I will be sending out a video with regressions and progressions of the standard pushup to get you thinking. Once you know and master the form, you are only limited by your creativity when deciding how you will progress next.

If you are creating an upper body circuit I would suggest pairing a push(pushup, shoulder press, etc.) with a pull (pullup/chinup, row, etc).  Even better, pair a pull, push, and conditioning exercise. Now that is efficient!  I am big on total body circuits, but that will mean you have to wait for my special on legs :)

PART 2
I had some fun early this morning and made a short clip of some push-up progressions for you to take a look at, find which push-up is the best fit for you, and give a whirl! 

Push-up Extravaganza

These are just some ideas to get you started. Keep working your way down the stairs. Perfect your form on the floor. And then start to use your imagination. When doing the ball push-up variations, you can use any ball. If you have a medicine ball, great! If not, use your resources. Kids play sports? Grab a soccer ball. Husband reliving his glory days on the Men's Over Thirty team? Steal his basketball. Get creative! The possibilities are endless. You can add mountain climbers, a weight to your back, elevate your feet, put your hands or feet on a physio ball, the list goes on and on. Perfect this body weight move, and then never let it become boring.