Best Way To Build Muscle

Posts Tagged ‘burn calories’

Many women believe that the only way to tone flabby arms or any other part of their bodies is to work out for hours in the gym every week. For anyone who has an extremely busy life, this is impossible and unnecessary. Who wouldn't want to have beautifully toned arms and bodies, but not if it takes away time from our families.

Achieving that dream body does not mean you have to work out for hours. Below we will bust apart the most commonly held myths about muscle building and toning.

Myth Number. 1 - Working out for longer is better
Working out for longer than an hour can start having a negative effect on the body. This is because the body starts releasing hormones that decrease muscle tone, increase fat storage and increase stress on the body. Not only can this lead to exhaustion, anxiety and lethargy, it can make you even gain weight.

The key is to keep your workouts short and sweet. An intensive workout for 20 minutes is just as effective. Get a good sweat going within the first 5 minutes and keep up the hard work for the entire 20 minutes. It is certainly easier to fit in 20 minutes of intense exercise into your routine than longer sessions.

Mistake Number. 2 - Lifting weights will make you look bulky
There are many women who work out with heavy weights and they still look lean and toned. Their muscles certainly don't look like those of a bodybuilder! It is absolute nonsense that lifting weights will make you look big and bulky. If that were so, you'd better stop carrying heavy shopping bags or lifting your child.

It would be a mistake not to use weights in your workout. This is because you won't be able to build muscle, raise your metabolism and burn off calories effectively. The solution is to use weights that are as heavy as you can lift for 6-12 repetitions. It is only through using heavy weights that you can start to develop lean, defined and sculpted arms.

Myth No. 3 – low or medium intensity workouts are better

When you work out with heavy weights at high intensity, you force your body to increase the amount of calories it burns during your workout, which last for the rest of the day. How great is it that you could be burning calories whilst sitting in front of the TV. This is known as the "afer-burn effect". This doesn't happen if you only do low or medium intensity workouts.

A 20 minutes high intensity workout will take advantage of the after-burn effect, so make every minute count. Use weights that are as heavy as you can lift safely, for 6-12 repetitions. After the repetitions do a couple of minutes of skipping and then have a 30 second rest period before carrying on.

We hope this has busted the most commonly held myths about muscle building. If you want to know more about how to tone flabby arms then visit my tone flabby arms website for a complete program that takes less than 90 minutes per week. Sounds like my kinda workout!