How To Tone Up The Smart Way!

 

How to Tone your muscles?

No, it’s not doing 20 bicep curls or 20 leg extensions. Contrary to popular belief, doing high repetitions of an isolated exercise will not give you the look you are looking for.

 

Toning is for printers. You’ve heard that saying, right?

how to tone up the smart way

I really hate the word “Toning” because it implies that women shouldn’t lift heavy because you will get too big. I hope with this blog post, you’ll see that you really can’t get too big. Lifting weights is the best thing that you could do for yourself.

 

I know that you have the fear of bulking up. Ladies, it’s really not possibly to get bulky. If you began a weight lifting program and started to get big, please share your secret! Muscle is very hard to get. The rate of growth is really slow.

how to tone up the smart way

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So, what is the definition of tone? To give greater strength or firmness to (the body or part of it.)

  • Exercise tones up the muscle
  • To have tone, you must have leanness or low body fat, muscle definition and shape

 

Toning is most often associated with lifting light weights with high repetitions. You’ll most likely see women, and even men, at times standing in the mirror curling away or doing tricep kickbacks. Week after week, doing these same exercises over and over, with little to no results.

 

We cannot tone muscle that we don’t have. Now, we do all have muscle to a certain degree. We obviously were born with some.  To achieve the quote on quote “toned” look, we must increase muscle tissue.

 

Strength training and the loss of body fat achieves the look of a toned body. Getting rid of the jiggle, you must:

 

  • Stress the muscle – traditional isolation exercises do not stimulate the muscle enough to warrant muscle growth. You might say, “well, I don’t want growth because of bulk. ”
    • Bulk is the least bit of your worries – not to discredit the thought of bulk, because you have been conditioned to think that lifting weights will turn you into a female body builder. Yes, some women are genetically predisposed to have more muscle but that doesn’t mean bulk. The women you’re thinking of are using anabolic steroids to achieve that bulky look.
    • Secondly, it’s really hard to build muscle. The first year that you begin lifting, you will see the most growth, and after that it’s a wrap – you’ll still gain, but it will be at a snails pace.
    • Progressively overload the muscle overtime.
      • The weight you started with is getting easier? You must continue to challenge the muscle by lifting heavier weights. Lifting heavier weights will make you stronger, and the muscles denser. If you are in a caloric deficit you will burn the fat surrounding the muscles, therefore revealing the toned look you are looking for.

 

To achieve the “Toned” look you are looking for,

you don’t need a ton of exercises, you just need the right ones.

Push, Pull, Squat, Hinge, and Carry will give you the best bang for your buck! Ladies, that’s all you really need. Toned arms are not built from curling away and doing bench dips.

  • Pushing movements such as pushups and presses.
  • Pulling – any rowing variations
  • Squats – body weight, goblet style, front, etc…
  • Hinge – deadlifts: any variations
  • Carry’s – farmer caries and overhead carries

This is not an all-inclusive list. You can push and pull in vertical, horizontal, and sagittal planes.

Ladies, remember this, compound movements

burn more calories and build more strength than isolation exercises: 

  • Save your beach work (muscles that you can see in the mirror, otherwise known as vanity muscles) for the end
  • If you must have isolation exercises, do them with another exercise like a lunge to a curl.
    • Save sitting down on the leg extension for another time, once you have established strength and reached the desired tone you are looking for – then by all means, use isolation exercises.

 

That’s it in a nutshell. Don’t over complicate things and don’t worry about getting big. Lifting heavy will do wonders for your body. You just have to get started. Start simple and cover the basics, like I mentioned above and in no time you will see the physique that you desire!

Are you part of my inner circle? If not, I would love to have you. You can join here!