I often hear women telling me ‘I just want to tone up’.
What is being ‘toned’?
In this context, muscle tone refers to having a sufficient amount of muscle mass, plus a low enough body fat percentage for that muscle to actually be visible.
So, the less fat you have covering your muscles, the more “toned” and “defined” and “sculpted” you will look. The more fat you have covering your muscles (or if there’s simply not enough muscle present), the less visible your muscles will be and the less “toned” you will appear.
In a nutshell… Muscle – Fat = Tone
So, whenever a person says they want to “tone up,” they’re really saying they want their muscles to be more visible than they currently are.
Here’s how to achieve it..
LOSING MORE FAT This is the most common reason why someone isn’t as toned as they’d like to be. Their body fat percentage is too high and there’s a layer of fat sitting on top of the muscle they want to see. This makes the person look “soft” and “flabby” rather than lean and toned.
BUILDING MORE MUSCLE Other times, the person will have a low enough body fat percentage, but they’re just lacking a sufficient amount of muscle mass. This makes the person look “thin” and rather than lean and toned.
DOING A COMBINATION OF BOTH And in other cases, it’s a little of both. The person is lacking muscle and has too much body fat.
The truth is, in terms of your appearance, the only thing you can do to a muscle is make it bigger or smaller but totally achievable with the correct strength training including other factors, such as nutrition, sleep etc..
Research shows that building muscle requires a particular type of stimulus – specifically tension, fatigue, and damage.
Building muscle also involves gradually getting stronger over time (aka progressive overload), and using the same super light, not-at-all-challenging weights over and over again for months/years is the opposite of that.
In addition, muscle is most effectively built when using a well-designed weight training program that incorporates optimal amounts of volume, frequency, and intensity. The typical “toning workout for women” takes none of this into consideration.
If you’d like more information on my training programmes and would like to feel good on the inside and out, contact me for details. Personal training is so much more to me than showing clients how to lift weights.
Often it is a complete mindset shift and I work on a holistic level with my beautiful clients to get RESULTS.
PS. lifting weights WILL NOT MAKE YOU LOOK BULKY :)
Have a great day all. xx