Arms Race - Toned Arms

This season’s sexy halter styles demand toned arms. Here’s our guide to getting yours in dare-to-bare condition

Blame it on Jennifer Garner, Hollywood actress of Alias fame. These days, women won’t put up with getting dingly-dangly “auntie arms”. No way! We want arms that are toned to perfection. Plus we want a firm back, as it helps create a slimmer, more elegant posture, in or out of clothes.

With this guide, you can get both, as these simple yet effective exercises can even be done at home.

* Tricep Dips - Jennifer Garner’s trainer claims this is the secret to the Alias star’s arms. To begin, sit on a chair with hands on front of the seat and fingers over the edge. Move your bottom forward, off the chair, supporting your weight on your hands. With your back straight, lower your body, bending your arms to a 90-degree angle. Before your bottom touches the floor, push your body back up and straighten arms. Do three sets of 15 to 20 reps.

* Lateral Raise – Do this for beautifully sculpted shoulders. Holding a dumbbell or free weifhts in each hand (you can also use two large cants), stand with your feet hip-width apart. Hold weights with your arms at your sides (your inner arms should be next to your body). Lift arms out to shoulder level and slowly back down. Do three sets of 15 to 20 reps.

* Bicep Curls and Tricep Curls – Start using 2 kg or 2.5 kg weights and try for four to six sets of 12 to 15 reps. To do bicep curls, stand with your feet hip-width apart holding the weights by your sides. Keep elbows close to you sides all the time. Now lift, bending your elbows, and bring weights to just below shoulder height. Slowly lower weights back down and repeat. For tricep curls, bend over from your waist and raise your elbow behind you, straightening your arm. Keep elbow close to your body. This exercise is best if you do it one arm at a time. Do three sets of 15 to 20 reps on each side.

* Reverse Flys – Hold weights with palms facing each other in front of your body. Slowly lift arms out to the side, squeezing shoulder blades together. Release and bring weights back to original position. Do three sets of 15 to 20 reps.

* Seated Row – Sit on the floor with legs straight. Raise arms to shoulder height with weights in hand. Bend elbows and squeeze your back as you bring your elbows towards your stomach. Keep your elbows close to your sides. Do three sets of 15 to 20 reps.

Arm Yourself with the Facts
- There are no short cuts to firmer arms. Even liposuction can’t help. French cosmetic surgeon, Dr Jean Louis Sebagh, says, “The skin is too thin in that area. You have to improve the muscles as they hold the skin up. If you’re lazy, no one can help.”
- It takes up to three months for your body to show results from exercise.
- Besides weighlifting for toning, do cardiovascular exercises to burn calories and fat, so you can see the sleek muscles.
- Eat small, balanced meals throughout the day to keep you metabolism going.

Kiss Stress Goodbye

Get your energy levels soaring with these super tips!

You’re so stressed, you’ve been snapping at everyone. Some days, you find yourself gritting your teeth in anger all day or wanting to scream your head off in frustration! Other days, you’re so exhausted, you feel like you can’t take another step. If your face now wears a perpetual frown and worry lines your forehead, it’s time for some serious stress-busting.

1) Be Assertive
Don’t let others walk all over you. Be honest about what you think and feel. So next time your boss asks you to run errands during lunch, tell her you won’t be able to do your job well unless you have a nutritious lunch and a breath from work.

2) Icy Pleasures
Is the heat making you sluggish? Bring temperatures down by rubbing cubes of green tea all over your body. The feel of cold liquid, trickling down your back will instantly spring you back to life. Green tea’s antioxidants are good for the skin. To double the fun, do it with your hubby!

3) Go on a Natural Hike
Slather on some sunscreen lotion, put on your boots and get yourself down to the nearest hill, nature trail, or forest. Just feeling the delicious warmth of the sun on your skin and being amidst natural will instantly calm frazzled nerves.

4) Buy Yourself Flowers
So, who says you have to wait for a man to get you some blooming beauties? You can get some flowers for your desk at work – even a single red rose in a bud vase does miracles for your mood!

5) Get into the Groove
Melt stress away trough dancing – this super-charged activity is so much fun, you won’t even feel like you’re exercising! Latin dances like the tango and salsa go a step further by getting you in touch with your deepest emotions, so you’ll find yourself swaying to the sensual rhythms like you never knew you could.

6) Strut Your Stuff
Do you know why models always get noticed? Because of their walk! So, stand up straight, pull your shoulders back and stride confidently out of your home. Imagine yourself as having the perfect body and don’t let any negative thought stray into your head. Flash your dazzling smile at all the people you normally deal with and everyone will be buzzing about you.

7) Take a Day Off!
Sure you’re good, but your office won’t tall apart in your absence. So, plan a day just for yourself: Start with a game of tennis, then go for a massage cum pedicure. Call up an old girlfriend you haven’t seen in ages and make a lunch date with her. Get that book you’ve been meaning to. Catch the latest movie – it’s easier to get tickets while everyone is at work – then make all your colleagues green by telling them how awesome the movie was when you get back to work!

8) Cross-train
If you’re treadmill junkie or a stationary bike die-hard, it may be time to shake up your workout. Fitness experts say that you burn more calories and tone different parts of your body if you actually cross-train. SO, what that means for the gymaholic is that you would see more results if you spent 10 minutes on the bike, 20 on the treadmill and 15 on the elliptical stepper. For those of you who prefer running in the park, alternate your workout with a swim or a game of tennis or squash.

9) Anytime Tension-reliever
a – Standing tall, lift your head up and back so that you stretch your neck. Slowly turn it to the right and then to the left. Dip your head and return to looking straight ahead.
b – Slowly rotate your head in a clockwise and then anti-clockwise direction.
c – Take your shoulders back as far as they will go. Lift your left shoulder and relax it down again. Now swap and lift and relax your right shoulder.
d – Swing your right arm slowly in a full circular movement to free the shoulder. Swing your left arm in the same way.
e – Raise and relax both shoulders. Repeat ten times.
f – Put your right hand over your right shoulder and touch your left shoulder blade. Repeat with your left hand to your right shoulder.

10) Express Yourself
Pent-up emotions are a hotbed for stress. So, at the end of the day, when you’re alone in your car or home, let it all out: Scream at the top of your lungs. Hit pillows. Wave your arms around. Cry. When you experience an emotion and don’t want to let it out at the exact moment that you’re feeling it, give yourself the gift of expressing it later on. It clears your mind and body of emotional residue and will release the tension that accumulates from trying to hold it in.

Get Out & Play to Rev Up Your Workout

Burn Without The Sweat

Swimming provides a great cardiovascular workout without stressing the joints. To maximize your workout, personal trainer Irving Henson advises that you first focus on proper swim technique: “Breath in when you have your head above water and breathe out while you are under water. This way, you don’t lose out on valuable oxygen.”

He adds, “Seventy per cent of successful swimming comes from reduced ‘drag’: only 30 per cent from hand movement. So keep your body as horizontal as possible and wear a swim cap.”

To burn more calories – and have more fun – Irving suggests:
* Adding Resistance – Buoyant ankle cuffs keep your feet afloat, making it harder to paddle. Or, don flippers – they make you move faster, but your legs work harder.
* Internal Training – Swim 10 laps with buoyancy cuffs, then do 10 without. Or, do leg extensions or tricep dips in the water after every lap.
* Building Speed – Swim as many lengths as you can within a certain time, say 20 laps in 20 minutes. The goal is to gradually increase the number of laps you do in the same amount of time.

Lean, Mean Cycling Machine

Cycling gets the heart pumping and sculpts your butt and thighs. Whether you enjoy cycling outdoors or on a stationary bike, make the most of your workout with these simple tips from


Fitness Consultant and aerobic instructor, Bong Asuncion:
* Add Intensity – Increase the revolutions per minute (rpm), cycle uphill, vary speed intervals or change seating positions.
* Workout Plan – Bong suggests this eight-week plan to pump up your ride:

- Weeks 1 & 2 (Twice or thrice a week)
Start a 20-minute routine to let your body adjust to the activity and build endurance. Gradually increase to a 30-minute routine.
- Weeks 3 & 4 (Twice or Thrice a week)
Go for interval training, adding sprints and hills. Alternate one- to two-minute spins with three minutes of paced pedaling. With paced pedaling, you cycle at an intensity that’s high enough to reach your minimum target workout zone (65 per cent). Spin pedaling is similar to sprinting and you should reach the competitive part of your target workout zone (80 per cent). Here’s how to calculate your target heart rate zone:
Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) = 220 – age
Resting Heart Rate (RHR) = Count your pulse for 15 seconds x 15
Target Heart Rate Zone (THR) = (MHR – RHR) x (0.65 to 0.8)
- Weeks 5 &6 (Three to four times a week)
Continue interval training with longer sprints and aim for three- to five-minute spins followed by two-minute paved pedal speed.
- Weeks 7 & 8 (Four to five times a week)
Increase the distance covered within your 30-minute routine.

Walk Your Way Trim

A brisk power walk improves your heart and lung capacity, and tones your body, says Karen Sia, Amore Fitness Corporate Fitness Executive. If you’re already putting in 30 minutes, three to four times a week, great! But to pump up that walk, Karen suggests:
* Arm Work – Punch or swing your arms overhead activity. Do each arm movement for about five minute brisk walks.
* Interval Training – Alternate squats, hops, high-intensity lunges or shuffles with five-minute brisk walks. On a treadmill, select an uphill cross training programme.
* Pace Quickener – If your workout is 30 minutes, time your outward journey at 15 minutes. On your return, aim to reduce the time by walking faster. Karen stresses the importance of stretching: “A good five-minute warm-up before stretching is better than stretching with cold muscles.”

Fire Up Your Body

We’ve all heard about the multiple benefits of yoga. Yoga principal teacher Joan Seow Harakuma stresses the importance of proper hands-on guidance. “The right teacher will be able to show you the right way to move the body, the right methods to do the poses. If done incorrectly, one can easily injure the body.”

* Heat Generators – There are several forms of yoga, like Ashtanga, lyengar and Vinyasa, all part of Hatha yoga. These methods all have different approaches and asana (pose) work. Joan adds, “Assuming one knows the correct methods and poses, it’s possible to link th e poses. By doing so, there’ll be changes to the body, such as creating more heat in the body. Vinyasa and Ashtanga are examples of yoga styles that flow from one pose to another. “These styles help the body “generate heat” – they'll improve blood circulation and strengthen the body.
* Power Poses – For a more intense session, look for a class that incorporates inversions. Adds Joan, “when done correctly, these poses revitalize one’s body system by reversing the effects of gravity and flooding the vital organs and brain with nourishment.” Examples of inverted poses are the Bridge, Plough and Shoulder Stand poses.

Women's Weekly mgz

Balancing on Weight

“We need to focus a little less on the numbers – weight per se – and more on the behaviors that are most important, like being physically active and eating healthy foods.”

Say you‘re physically fit, 5’5” and 140 pounds. According to dietary guidelines, you’re well within the healthy weight range for your height. But if you’ve heard about the widely publicized Harvard Medical School study of body weight and health risks, you may be wondering if you need to diet. By the standards of that study, you’re about 20 pounds over the optimal weight and have a higher risk than thinner women of developing cancer and heart disease.

In this study of 115.000 women, the authors found that the women least likely to die prematurely were those who had never smoked and weighed 15 percent less than the average American woman (or about 119 pounds, if you’re 5’5”). Other studies have linked obesity to increased health risks, but this one seemed to say that even average weight women should worry.

A closer look at the stuffy reveals that there is little cause for alarm. The increased risk was quite small until a woman was heavier than average (around 165 pounds, if you’re 5’5”). And experts point out that the study did not emphasize the women’s diet and exercise patterns, which may be more important to health than what you weigh.

“We are all genetically different, and some of us are thinner than others,” says Tim Byers, M.D., professor of preventive medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, who wrote the editorial that accompanied the study. “If you’re eating a good diet and you’re physically active, you’re going to define your own [healthy] weight,” says Dr. Byers. “We need to focus a little less on the numbers – weight per se – and more on the behaviors that are most important, like being physically active and eating healthy foods.”

If you’re not genetically lean, trying to get down to rail thinness is unrealistic and possibly in healthy because you’d have to diet stringently or exercise to an extreme to maintain that lower weight.

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