Women Want Michelle Obama’s Arms

An amusing observation from the American Association of Plastic Surgeons came to us today. On unveiling their annual statistics on reconstructive and plastic surgeries, the association noticed that since 2000, procedures on arms in the United States have increased by over 4,378 percent. Last year alone, over 15,000 American women went ahead with this procedure, which involves either liposuction on or lifting of the arms, with the aim to remove loose skin.

Where did the American obsession for well-sculptured arms come from? Surgeons claim that it came from Michelle Obama. According to ASPS, they have not identified a sole cause which could explain the phenomenon, but the association has undertaken a survey which confirms that women “are paying closer attention to female celebrity’s arms,” such as those of Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore and Kelly Ripa. The most admired arms of all are allegedly those of the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

Some Internet sites, which specialize in dieting, are muscling in on the trend by showcasing exercises for toning up the arms, underlines French magazine Grazia on its website.

The site Fitness.com offers a series of exercises to get Michelle Obama’s arms in six to eight weeks. All it takes, says the site, is to use free weights between 2.5 and 5 kilos and eat fruit and vegetables and a decent amount of protein. “Michelle Obama contradicts the myth that strength training will only produce the muscular body builder type arms that most women believe,” outlines the article.

Although the chairman of the ASPS’ Public Education Committee, David Reath, confirms the impact of diet and exercise on triceps muscle gain, he insists that, for some women, obtaining the desired look is not possible using these methods. “We are genetically programmed to have different accumulations of fat in different areas, and for some women the arms can be a problem area,” he said to Associated Press. All the same, Mr. Reath wishes to remind us that this surgery, named brachioplasty, leaves a visible scar.

Even if arm surgery is more and more popular, let us not forget that this trend falls far behind that for breast augmentations, which has sat atop the plastic surgery procedures charts for seven years running, with 286,000 operations undertaken last year in the United States.