Five Tips For Getting Rid of 'Arm Jiggle'

Do you have this problem? Or know someone that does? You wave hello, and your arm jiggles like Jello?  You may not want the summer to come because that means sleeveless shirt time. Well here are five tips that will help you get rid of the annoying fat around your triceps:

1.       Bodyweight exercises are fantastic:  Instead of solely sticking to the machines in your gym I want you to make sure that you are working against the resistance of your bodyweight and of gravity. When you do exercises like pushups (knee pushups are fine in the beginning) you will not only hit your triceps directly, you will also work your stabilizer muscles because you have to control more than just the up and the down motion. Some quality exercises are close grip pushups, dips (if you cannot perform a dip place your feet on the ground and your hands on two chairs and press your butt off of the ground), and “air punches.”

2.       Utilize stretch and strength bands:  Bands are a wonderful tool because they can add resistance to your workout or they can take resistance off. If you step on a stretch band and do triceps extension where you extend your arms and band over your head you will be forced to accelerate your arms to accommodate for the increasing resistance of the stretched band. If you cannot do pull-ups you can hang the band from the pull-up bar, place your foot into it and the band will help lift your body up to the bar. The possibilities are endless with the bands, but here are a few good exercises: triceps extension over your head while stepping on the band, band “punches” where you have the band around your back and one end in each hand when you punch, and triceps push down with a band hanging off of a bar.

3.       Change your angle of attack with dumbbells:  Too many people over train one muscle and accidentally neglect to hit the sides and backs of their muscles. You may know how to perform triceps pull downs on a cable machine because you see the machine at the gym. Here is an exercise that you can do to change your muscle target: “unsheathe” your dumbbells by having your arms over your head, but instead of having your elbows point forward I want you to have them pointing more to the sides in a fixed position while you lower the dumbbells to your trap muscles and back up.

4.       Hit multiple muscles:  You need to hit total muscles if you want to shape your body properly. If your triceps are weak and soft you need to work them, but you also need to work your biceps, forearms and chest. As your triceps strengthen you will need to do more reps or more weight and you must make sure that your body can handle these changes. If your stomach cannot maintain the proper posture then you won’t be able to execute your triceps extensions properly and you won’t continue to tone your arms.

5.       Weights will only go so far:  There is a reason that powerlifters' bodies, for the most part, aren’t shredded without fat…that body type isn’t ideal for their sport. If you want to tone your body you must work resistance movements but you must also watch the food that you put into your mouth. My advice to my clients is that they focus more on what they are eating and less on the actual calorie content of their food. It is about putting into your body. These foods need to add to your vitamin and mineral content of your body. If a food provides no positive value you can rest assured that it likely shouldn’t go into your body. You will see powerful changes as you improve your diet

Now, if you do not have access to weights such as dumbbells you can use normal household items such as milk cartons, or full water bottles. I just want you to have a resistance weight that you can handle. When you put together a total package of a workout plan you have a much stronger chance of seeing the results that you like. More importantly, you will see results much sooner with a full on assault like I am proposing. You can make these changes and see these results soon, be confident! 

Jim Crowell

Jim@if-fit.com

412-254-FiTT  (3488)