BAT WINGS & SPARE TIRES

"HOW DO I GET RID OF MY BAT WINGS?"

I cannot tell you how many times a woman at a party, or a bar, or on line at the bank, after learning that I am a personal trainer, has started failing her arms around, grabbing the skin under her triceps and asking me, "How do I get rid of this?" The male corollary is when a dude – in a social setting – finds out what I do for a living, and lifts his shirt up and starts grabbing his love handles saying, "How do I lose this?" To which, my reply is usually something like, "Uh, sir, please put your shirt down. We're in the middle of The Food Emporium."

YOU CANNOT SPOT-REDUCE FAT.

The areas of the body in which fat tends to accumulate varies from person to person, but the only thing anyone can do if they want to lose what one of my clients refers to as "bat wings," or lose a spare tire, is to reduce their overall body fat composition. Now how do you do that? The answer isn't exactly sexy or novel; if you want to reduce your body fat percentage, you need to burn more calories than you take in.

YOU NEED TO LIFT, DUDE.

If you want to lose the fat in your arms (or stomach, or face, or butt), you are going to need to work your entire body. The end goal is to burn more calories, and putting some lean muscle on the body will actually elevate your metabolism all day long. The most effective, efficient way to do this is through resistance training. Although there may be a non-surgical way to target arm fat, there are some wonderful strength training exercises that will give the appearance of tighter arms.

HOW YOU SHOULD STRENGTH TRAIN YOUR TRICEPS.

When working the triceps, aim to do exercises that elongate the triceps as much as possible. Exercises such as dips, skull crushers (scary, ugly name for a really awesome exercise), bent-over triceps extensions, and behind-the-head triceps extensions, will not only strengthen your triceps but will also make the back of your arms look hot. Triceps function as the secondary muscle group in exercises such as push-ups and rows, which will also aid you in your quest to tone the back of the arms.

AND IF YOU ARE A WOMAN THINKING, "I DON'T WANT BIG, BULKY ARMS!" CONSIDER THIS:

Most women don’t produce enough testosterone (naturally) to support big, bulky muscles, and since the goal is to reduce fat by expending more calories than you are consuming, you will not be taking in enough food to build what Hulk Hogan refers to as “24-inch pythons.”