How to Tone Up Muscles
When lifting weights, there are four possible training goals: strength, power, endurance and hypertrophy. Strength refers to increasing the amount of weight you can lift; power increases the rate at which the muscles contract; endurance improves the muscles' ability to withstand resistance for an extended period of time; and hypertrophy refers to increasing the size of the muscle fibers. The term "toning" likely refers to a blend between hypertrophy and muscular endurance because of their ability to develop muscles and decrease fat, respectively. To achieve such goals, you need to follow a specific set-repetition scheme for each workout.
Do two or three nonconsecutive resistance training sessions each week. Begin each session with a general 10-minute cardiovascular warmup and 10 minutes of dynamic stretching.
Select six to eight exercises each session that target all major muscle groups. Because you are aiming to improve hypertrophy and endurance throughout the body, emphasize multijoint movements that load the axial skeleton. These include overhead presses, squats, walking lunges, deadlifts, good mornings and multiple abdominal and lower back exercises.
Build hypertrophy and decrease fat by performing three sets and eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise using about 70 percent of your maximum load. To focus more on building muscle size, decrease the repetitions and increase the weight slightly. To emphasize decreasing fat, increase the number of repetitions and decrease the load. Rest one minute between sets.
Cool down after each session with 10 minutes of cardiovascular exercise and 10 minutes of static stretching.
- Toning has a lot to do with simply decreasing fat. Continue to burn fat by including 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on days in which you are not in the gym. Exercise at about 65 percent to 75 percent of your maximal heart rate.
- Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning (3rd Ed.); Thomas R. Baechle and Roger W. Earle
- Sports Fitness Advisor: Hypertrophy in Human Muscle
- Sports Fitness Advisor: Strength Training Section
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