“I don’t wanna be too big, just get more toned.”

As someone who has spent a great deal of time in the gym either during my own training or with a client I have had many people ask for advice or just generally talk to me about their fitness goals. The goal of ‘toning’ seems to be the most common topic among your average gym goers. Women want to ‘tone’ their legs, men want to ‘tone’ their pecs and teenage gym rats want to ‘tone’ their abs.

But what is toning? When someone refers to increasing muscle tone they generally mean they want to improve the appearance of a muscle by making it more visible, shaped and impressive; without of course getting ‘too big.’ With that said they march off to the pink dumbbells to punch out a 50-rep set of ‘toning’ curls or do set after set of crunches.

Unfortunately there are a number of misconceptions, fallacies, myths and misconstrued information surrounding the idea of toning a muscle. Read on to find out the truth.

Toning Exercises

When you think toning exercises I’m guessing things like biceps curls, leg extensions, crunches and triceps kickbacks come to mind. I see so many people in the gym performing these exercises in search of toning their muscles. First of all, there is no way to ‘tone’ the muscle in the true sense of the word. A muscle is limited to becoming bigger, smaller or staying the same. It doesn’t choose to tone itself because you did 100 crunches or 200 calf raises.

Think of muscle tone as the appearance of a muscle. A tone muscle looks lean, well-shaped and athletic. Therefore to increase tone you need to reduce the fat surrounding the muscle and increase the size of the muscle itself to give it a nicer shape. Low weight and high reps is not the way to go about it. You would be much better off with an effective cardio program, a healthy diet and lifting moderate-heavy weights in compound exercises, but more on that later.

But low reps with heavier weight will make me too big? Right?

Wrong. First of all, building muscle is a slow process so you don’t have to worry that after your first squat session that you’ll wake up with legs Arnold. Secondly, and this is for the girls out there, don’t think that lifting weights will make you look masculine because it simply won’t. Some of the most famous A-list female celebrities who are famous for their bodies include weight training as part of their training program. One thing that can hold women back from making the progress they deserve is the misconception that the dumbbells and barbells are for guys-only.

Lean, Fit and Strong

Those three things hold the key to possessing that ‘toned’ physique that so many search for. Therefore to improve muscle tone, in the true sense of the word, requires becoming leaner, fitter and stronger.

Leaner: This comes primarily from your nutrition. To lose weight you need to reduce your total calories consumed while still consuming a healthy, well balanced diet. Don’t make the mistake of eliminating carbs or fats completely: carbs are our primary energy source and fats play a role in numerous bodily functions (one of them being the process of burning fat).

Fitter: This will come from a sustainable and effective cardio program. Depending on your other goals you might choose running, walking, boxing, cycling, the list really is endless. Steady state cardio, interval training, or even adjusting your resistance program with supersets and circuits, can all improve your general fitness – helping to lower body fat, improve your body’s ability to burn fat and improve your health in general.

Stronger: This is the element of a more toned physique that many people leave out. High rep ‘toning’ exercises will do little to make you stronger. Instead, compound exercises like squats, bench press, chin ups, dips, lunges, push ups and shoulder presses are the absolute most effective exercises. The reasons for this are multiple and include but are not limited to:

• Increasing muscle size
• Improving muscle and bone strength
• Burning more calories (means lose weight quicker!)
• Stimulating the body to release muscle building and fat burning hormones.

You don’t have to train like a bodybuilder to benefit from using moderately heavy weights to improve the appearance of your body. I hesitate in giving exact rep ranges as they depend on the exercise, muscle group, rep speed and personal goals but generally anywhere from 8-20 reps/set is a good range for the client who wants to improve ‘tone.’ Remember, spend more time on compound, multi-joint exercises, rather than isolation ‘toning’ exercises.

Conclusion

Too many gym-goers use the word ‘tone’ in the wrong way. It is not a thing you do, it is a way you look. In other words you don’t tone a muscle with specific exercises, you increase the tone of a muscle through diet, cardio and resistance training.

Mobile Personal Training covers the Hills District area including Cherrybrook, Castle Hill, Galston, Pennant Hills, West Pennant Hills, Glenorie, Dural, Round Corner, Glenhaven, Kellyville, Hornsby, Baulkham Hills, Beecroft and Glenwood.