Why You Have Flabby Arms And How You Can Fix It
Read My Updated Views In Brief On This Topic Here.
While anyone can have flabby arms, this problem is more predominant in women.
Most people fail to understand why they have flabby arms in the first place which makes them wonder if this is something they can fix or if they are predisposed to flabby arms forever, thanks to genetics.
Well, let me begin by telling you that you can indeed get rid of flabby arms.
But doing countless arm circuits isn’t the way to sculpt the toned arms you desire.
This article will lay out what you need to do in order to fix the flabby arm problem.
We’ll begin with why you have flabby arms in the first place?
Why Do You Have Flabby Arms?
There could be multiple reasons for how you end up with flabby arms, but the cause of flabby arms comes down to two main reasons.
Flabby arms are caused because of the following two reasons;
1. Less muscle development in the arm
2. A high body fat percentage
You see, having sculpted toned arms needs both of 2 conditions satisfied.
You need some muscle development in your arms and you need to be at a relatively low body fat percentage.
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t need to build bodybuilder arms and you don’t need to lose so much body fat that you have veins popping out of your abs.
You just need to be relatively more muscular and leaner than you are right now!
Now that you know that, the next question is how can you get there?
You see, if you do things wrong, you can end up with even flabbier arms.
People have this misconception that only unfit people end up with flabby arms but the truth is that you can be working really hard and still have this issue.
This is very common with the people who feel they are ‘skinny-fat’ despite putting in hours of work.
I don’t want you to waste your time doing that which is why I’m going to layout 3 things you need to do to get rid of flabby arms.
These might be contrary to what you’ve heard, but stick with them and you’ll get results.
But beware, the side effect of this is that you’ll end up sculpting your entire body, and not just your arms!
(I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that)
Let’s begin!
How To Fix Flabby Arms?
1. Focus On Progressing On A Few Exercises.
i. Focus on progressive overload.
The key to building muscle naturally is progressive overload.
You can get all the burn, soreness, and pumps you want, but if you aren’t progressively overloading your training over time, you will not build muscle.
In simple terms, this means that you need to get stronger.
No, you don’t have to break the world record in squatting or deadlifting, but you need to be able to do more than you can do now, over time.
ii. Select a few key movements.
Unlike what you see everyone doing at the gym, you don’t have to do countless exercises in the gym to get rid of flabby arms and sculpt your physique.
In fact, you can do 3 workout sessions of just 45-60 minutes weekly to sculpt your body.
I know, it sounds too good to be true, but if you follow the principle of progressive overload, you can get a lot out of a few movements.
What are these few movements you may wonder?
They have to be primarily compound exercises.
These are the exercises that recruit multiple muscle groups.
For example, a push-up (compound movement) works your chest, triceps, shoulders and core when compared to something like a tricep kickback (not a compound movement) which only targets your tricep.
You might think that your training needs to be filled with these exercises which target the arm muscles in isolation to get rid of flabby arms, but that is far from the truth.
You can definitely perform 1-2 of these exercises every week, but the majority of your training should be made up of compound exercises.
iii. Take longer rest periods.
As a general recommendation, it is a good idea to rest 3-5 minutes between sets for heavy compound exercises.
For the smaller exercises, you can rest around 2 minutes between sets.
This might seem contrary to the ‘Are you even working out if you are resting?’ mentality, but it has been proven that longer rest periods are superior for gaining muscle.
Remember, you aren’t training to just sweat, get a pump, feel a burn, or be very sore.
You are training to gain muscle, and while this is contradictory to what people say, taking longer rest between sets with a focus on progression will give you great results.
iv. Track your workouts.
Tracking your workouts in a workout tracker or in the notes app of your phone is crucial to help you know what you did in a session.
This allows you to progress by increasing a rep or adding more weight on a session by session basis.
v. Recovery.
You do not have to go to the gym 6 days a week, 2 hours a day.
As I mentioned earlier, you can make amazing progress in 45-60 minutes of training 3 times a week.
If you like to go to the gym more frequently, you can add in cardio sessions as mentioned below.
Resting between sessions will allow you to recover and make better progress.
2. Limit your cardio.
Not doing excess cardio is key if you wish to get rid of flabby arms.
Here’s what I recommend you do.
i. Set a step goal.
Instead of doing a fixed cardio session, fix a step goal for yourself.
Aim to hit this step goal on a daily basis.
8000-10,000 steps per day can be a good place to start.
ii. Alternatively, do 45-60 minutes LISS on rest days.
If you have a sedentary lifestyle and don’t get a chance to get in your steps, you can perform 45-60 minutes of Low Intensity Steady State cardio 3 times a week.
This type of cardio is great for recovery and won’t make you feel exhausted the same way something like sprinting does.
That said, I don’t recommend doing more than 45-60 minutes of LISS more than 3 times a week.
You can perform this at the gym on a machine of your choice or go out for a brisk walk.
Playing sports or doing something like swimming or dancing can work as well.
3. Create a moderate calorie deficit and hit your protein target.
Once you do the 2 things mentioned above, it just comes down to locking in your nutrition to start seeing your fat melt.
Here are two things you should know about body fat.
i. You cannot spot reduce fat.
This means that doing lots of reps of arm exercises will not burn arm fat the same way doing a lot of crunches will not burn belly fat.
This is because spot reduction is not possible.
You can’t control where you lose fat from.
ii. Body fat storage patterns are genetic.
Some people will store more fat on the hips, some on the abdominal region and some on arms.
Even when fat loss starts, different people will lose fat from different areas.
So, for example, someone may notice that things like their neck or back start leaning out before their arms.
For some, it may be the legs before the stomach, etc.
This means that if you aren’t seeing fat loss from a certain area, it just means that you have to diet for longer until your body taps into the fat storage in that area.
Now that you know this, here is how you can lose the fat;
(a) Create a calorie deficit.
Burning more calories than you consume leads to fat loss.
But, aggressively cutting calories won’t work.
If anything, it’ll make the problem worse.
This is why it is a good idea to create a moderate deficit.
You can calculate your calories by using the calculation below:
12 x bodyweight in kg x 2.2
This is a starting point and you can adjust it based on how your weight responds.
Aim to lose 0.5-1% of your bodyweight per week.
For a 60 kg girl, this would mean losing 0.3-0.6 kgs per week.
You can push this up to 1.5% per week in the initial weeks if you feel you have a lot of fat to lose.
(b) Hit your protein target.
Protein is important to help build muscle and keep you full while dieting.
As a general guideline, aim to hit this much protein daily:
0.8 x bodyweight in kg x 2.2
If you are very overweight, this might give you a skewed number, in which case I recommend you eat a minimum of 100g daily as a woman.
(c) Eat food you enjoy.
Of course, you can’t fill your calories with donuts and pies.
Given that you follow a well-balanced diet, you can eat foods you like.
This means that you can eat chocolate or have carbs at night.
You don’t need to eliminate food groups.
You don’t need to stop eating out just because you’re on a ‘diet’.
Taking extreme measures will make it harder for you to adhere to your diet.
Focus on eating nutrient-rich foods for the most part and you’ll be fine as long as you hit your targets.
As long as you eat a balanced diet, hit your calorie and protein target, you will lose fat.
Conclusion
If you follow the three things listed here, you’ll see your body change.
You’ll be able to get rid of your flabby arms and you will finally have a toned physique.
The best part?
You’ll do this without wasting your time, effort and money on pointless detoxes, fat burners, and aimless workouts.
Train the right way and be consistent with your nutrition to transform yourself.
I know putting this stuff together can be a little overwhelming which is why I recommend you check out the article below.
It includes a workout routine that follows the principles I mentioned and lets you get strong and sculpted in the right proportion, training only 3 times a week.
Check it out!
That’s it for this article.
If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below!
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