MOVE
Posted June 13, 2018
It's summer. Time for sleeveless shirts and dresses. Some of us, however, think twice about baring our arms and waving or reaching because our upper arm has the tendency to "wave" back. Is there anything that can be done to get rid of or minimize the "bat wing" look? Yes and no. The cold hard truth is that you cannot spot reduce a troublesome body part. What you can do is tone and strengthen the underlying muscles and reduce the layer of body fat over the muscles so that the new muscle definition can show through and reduce the bat effect.
First, let's focus on strengthening your underlying upper arm muscles, specifically the triceps muscle on the back of the upper arm. If you are just beginning a strength routine, choose a light weight, one that you can lift fairly comfortably ten times. Start with one set of ten repetitions (reps). As your strength improves, increase to three or four sets of ten reps with a 30 to 60 second rest between sets. During your final set the last ten reps should be a challenge, but still doable. After several weeks, increase the weight and start over with ten reps. To prevent injury, do strength training exercises two to three times a week with a day of rest between sessions.
Here are examples of triceps strengthening exercises:
Your next step is to work on reducing your overall body fat through aerobic or cardiovascular exercise, such as biking, walking, swimming, running or dancing. Aim for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week. Remember, the more heart pumping activity you do, the more calories you burn and the faster the layer of fat is reduced. Moderate intensity exercise is best. This means that you can carry on a conversation without having to stop often for a breath during exercise. Most people will be sweating as well. And if you are pressed for time, several bouts of 10 to 15 minutes of movement is just as good as one 30-minute session.
Finally, eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. Avoid calorie-dense foods like sweets, pizza, french fries and soda. Remember it only takes minutes to ingest hundreds of calories, and it takes many hours to burn it off.
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