Tip of the Week: Sure, I'll be the first to tell you that consistency is essential to achieving change in your body. For as long as I can remember, I've preached the importance of staying focused, with your eye on the prize, and making sure to stick to both your diet and workout plan if you want to see progress beyond that of the tens of thousands who aren't so diligent as you.

Of course, rules were meant to be broken, and this one is no exception. In fact, I would actually encourage you to take some time off from your diet and training periodically. Yes, you read that right. Take time off. Getting away from the gym and off your diet for a short spell could do you a world of good by taking the edge off and letting your body recover from the consistent workload you put on it.

Of course, I'm not recommending that you become lethargic and eat junk food for a month or two. However, a couple of days a month in which you don't think about sets and reps or count calories can be incredibly invigorating, giving you the motivation to approach your regimen with newfound enthusiasm when you do come back to it.

Q: I'm a 45-year-old woman who's an avid yoga practitioner who takes class three times per week. I'm considering starting a workout routine in addition once or twice a week, but am afraid I'll make myself too stiff to do all of my yoga moves. Is there any way to avoid this?

A: I'm actually not much of a yogi myself — I prefer getting into the gym and hitting the weights rather than sitting on a mat practicing my breathing. Not that there's anything wrong with yoga. I know a number of men and women who enjoy it tremendously and who have derived great benefit from it.

That being said, I do understand your concern. While exercising once or twice a week probably won't affect your yoga practice too much, progressive resistance training can make your muscles a bit sore and stiff — especially when first starting out — and this can obviously limit your range of movement.

My advice to you is to start out slowly with fairly light weights and to stretch during and after your training. I've previously explained why I'm not a fan of stretching before exercise (it weakens cold muscles and can lead to pulls), but warming the body up before exercise is crucial. Start off with 10 minutes on the stationary bike followed by a half hour of lifting, with gentle stretching between sets.

After a month of this, you can up the time to 45 minutes and increase the weights as you get stronger. Keep the rep count between 10 and 15 and the sets at six for biceps, triceps and shoulders and eight for chest, back and legs. This should give you a good strength foundation that will actually improve your yoga ability rather than detract from it.

Q: Joe, can you give me a good arm routine? The other day my girlfriend actually commented on how skinny my arms are. She was only joking, but it really bothered me.

A: I feel your pain. No man wants to hear how underdeveloped his arms are — least of all from his girlfriend! Sounds like you need a surefire arm routine to help pack some size on, fast. I've got just the workout for you.

This workout is intense, so please take caution. It incorporates super-sets, which are consecutive sets of different exercises, meant to maximize blood flow into an area. Make sure never to exceed your limits by warming up with a light set of curls (20 reps) and 20 pushups before launching into it.

This is a four-week program. The first week, you'll perform the routine four days — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The second week, you'll do it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Week 3, you're down to two days — Monday and Friday. For Week 4, you'll do it just once, but increase the reps to 20 for all sets. After the four weeks, you can do the routine once to twice per week, depending on your schedule.

By the end of the four-week cycle, you should see a noticeable difference in your arms — and so should your girlfriend.

Joe's Arm Blaster Routine

Exercise —- Sets —— Reps

Cambered barbell curl super-setted with seated cambered bar overhead extension —- 3 —- 15

Seated alternating dumbbell curl super-setted w/ triceps pushdown —— 3 —— 12

Machine preacher curl super-setted w/ machine dips —— 2 —— 10

Joe Weider is the co-founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilders, creator of the Mr. Olympia and Ms. Olympia bodybuilding contests, and publisher of numerous fitness magazines. To find out more about Joe Weider, write to him and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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