Bingo wings

[Tygrrh]

Hey all, question, I have big arms, most of the fat is in my tricep area though. I'm doing 1/2 hour of cardio with my daily workouts. I'm probably the most un-co person in the world and with my current foot problem I can't run.

I realise cardio and diet are the majors to burning that off but even when I was 58kgs my arms were still huge.

Ideas?

[samoan_muscle]

Hey all, question, I have big arms, most of the fat is in my tricep area though. I'm doing 1/2 hour of cardio with my daily workouts. I'm probably the most un-co person in the world and with my current foot problem I can't run.

I realise cardio and diet are the majors to burning that off but even when I was 58kgs my arms were still huge.

Ideas?

Fat or skin?

[Tygrrh]

Fat I'm guessing. I got a 29mm reading from a caliper test.

It's a small pic but you get my drift.

[Hercfeend]

Forget cardio as you knew it!! HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is what you should consider if you want to shift fat.

Take an exercise, you can't run so we'll go with bike, x-trainer or rower.

1 x 5 min warm up.

? x 30 seconds max effort followed by 30 seconds moderate pace - repeat. The number of times you repeat depending on your current fitness level ? = 8-15. If you've never done it before try starting on 8 and gradually increase the number of 'intervals' as your fitness improves.

1 x 5 mins cool down.

The above example would give you an 18 minute work out (if you went with 8 intervals) - it doesn't sound much but if you do it right you'll be considerably more tired than an hours mind numbing plodding at a constant pace.

The benefits of this style of training is that you maximise the spent exercising i.e burn more calories in shorter time. Another and similar to weight training is that you stress your body to a greater degree and therefore will continue to burn calories post workout.

Don't be afraid of weights. There's a commonly held belief that if you start weight training you will turn in to a bodybuilder, bulging all over the place - you won't - there's a lot more to body building than lifting weights.....

However lifting weights is (we've always known this but it's only now entering the popular consciousness) one of the best ways to loose weight (read burn fat) and as an added benefit you'll tone your body and replace the 'bingo wings' with shapely aesthetically pleasing arms. Bonus!

Keep us posted.....

[Tygrrh]

Thanks Herc I'll change my cardio around. I do weights, I split the groups up over the week. My tricep xtns (on the machine) is 4 plates. It says 40 (I believe it's pounds). Cool, will try that today as its my cardio day.

[Chillicat]

Hiya Tygrrh - I have a similar problem with carrying excess fabbage around the upper arm/tricep area. Unfortunately I don't yet have an answer, but I can tell you what I've done and my results.

Firstly, I started with working triceps like crazy. Basically I have spent the last year consistently doing just a little bit more on triceps than any other body part because it's my biggest problem area. So for every bicep exercise I'll do two tricep exercises.

Prior to that I'd tried dieting and lots of cardio, but genetics are a bitch and no matter what I did, the proportions were still the same: heavy arms. Even at my absolute slimmest, I'm still heavy set in that area, but I've found that working hard on the weights in that area has had a positive result. Not any smaller or larger, but a very definite change in the composition - before if I flexed my triceps, there really weren't any visible triceps to speak of, but now there is a very solid and visible area of muscle. I still have to actively flex for it to be seen, but it's a huge change and wll worth the effort.

[Phedder]

Forget cardio as you knew it!! HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is what you should consider if you want to shift fat.

The benefits of this style of training is that you maximise the spent exercising i.e burn more calories in shorter time. Another and similar to weight training is that you stress your body to a greater degree and therefore will continue to burn calories post workout.

I'm a big fan of HIIT, but I'd just like to caution Tygrrh against doing it every cardio session for the exact reason in bold. It does cause much more stress on the body, and when dieting your ability to recover from intense workouts is severely decreased. As I said I'm a huge fan of HIIT, but in your situation maybe just once or twice a week otherwise you could burn yourself out so to speak. You can keep your 1/2 hour of low intensity cardio on the days you don't do HIIT if you wish. Just being more active in day to day life will make a huge difference as well without impacting your ability to recover. Great time of year for long morning or evening walks etc.

[Hercfeend]

Of course, yes, take it easy until you're used to it - I should have said.

How did it go anyway?

[Tygrrh]

It's been going FANTASTIC!!! :grin: I was getting really bored doing cardio, this way I really challenge myself which has made my cardio sesh so much more fun.

I've taken to walking to work (1/2 way) which is 50 mins but I won't be doing this on my cardio days, not till I get used to it and get fitter.

Thanks heaps man

[Hercfeend]

Sweet

No worries at all.......