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. We would all like to have toned and sexy arms and bodies, but not if it's going to take up all our time.

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

Mistake No. 1 - Working out for longer is better
Even working out for more than an hour can start to have an adverse 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. This can lead to exhaustion, anxiety, lethargy and even weight gain.

The key is to keep your workout short, but intense. It only takes 20 minutes of hard work to be 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 No. 2 – Using weights will make you look bulky
There are many women who work out with heavy weights and they still look lean and toned. They aren’t big and bulky and look like a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger! It is a myth that lifting weights will make you look big and bulky. If that was the case then you wouldn't lift heavy shopping bags or pick up your child for fear of creating bulky muscles.

It would be a mistake to not use any weights as this will stop you from building muscle, raising metabolism and burning calories efficiently. The solution is to use weights that are as heavy as you can lift for 6-12 repetitions. It is only by using heavy weights that you can develop lean and sculpted arms.

Mistake Number. 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. Imagine that you could be burning calories even whilst sitting watching TV. This is called the "after-burn effect". This does not happen with low or medium intensity workouts.

Take advantage of the after-burn effect by working out at a high intensity for at least 20 minutes. Lift weights that are as heavy as you can manage safely for 6-12 repetitions. To keep up the intensity, do at least two minutes of skipping and have a brief rest period between repetitions.

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. Now that sounds good to me!

Tags: build muscle, burn calories, burn fat, fat flabby arms, get rid of flabby arms, how to get rid of flabby arms, how to tone flabby arms, tone flabby arms, toned body
Filed under: building muscle