The Psychology Of Arm Toning
It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to get arm tone and as a result, flabby arms were the thorn in my side for a very long time. I was extremely frustrated and resorted to hiding behind kimono-style tops all the time.
And the most difficult part of the whole arm tone war was an unstable level of motivation. Despite all my efforts, I could not stick with a program for a very long time.
Sometimes the disappointment would be so great that I would jump ship all-together. And a jar of cookies would become my consolation.
One day I had a wake-up call and realized that if I couldn’t figure out a way to stick with a program for the long run, I would never be able to get sexy arms. And I also knew that this motivational “yo yoing” wasn’t sustainable.
So I searched high and low for a method that would allow me to stay motivated indefinitely. And I’m happy to say that I found said method. It was created by David Burns M.D. and in my opinion is the best thought modification system out there. Central to his method is the elimination of cognitive (thought) distortions.
So without further ado, here are three distortions you should avoid so that your arm tone motivation never fades:
1. Perfectionism distortions. If you see things as black or white then you have this distortion. For example, if you have to have a perfect workout or no workout at all then you suffer from perfectionism. Don’t sweat the small stuff and always keep moving forward despite minute setbacks. In other words, focus on general patterns of improvement.
2. Over-generalizing distortions. Just because you haven’t been successful today doesn’t mean you can’t be successful tomorrow. You simply haven’t found the right approach. Yet with this distortion, you assume that your past failures will keep on being your future failures. The key here is to keep on trying new things with a fresh outlook.
3. Mental filtering distortions. Make sure to always give yourself credit for the smallest of achievements. With this distortion you hardly focus on the positive and prefer to focus on the negative. If you have a test, for instance, and get 99 questions right and 1 wrong, you focus on the one you got wrong!
Avoiding the above distortions will seriously help you achieve lasting motivation when trying to get arm tone. And lasting motivation is the key to sexy arm stardom.
One more thing, it’s very important that you act on this advice sooner rather than later. You see, taking action quickly is the fastest way to get great results.
Author Katherine Crawford M.S., a Harvard exercise physiologist and former arm fat sufferer, is an expert on exercises for flabby arms for women. Discover how to get toned arms now by exploring her blog on arm flab.