Whenever a person says they want to “tone up,” they’re really just saying they want their muscles to be more visible than they currently are.
How do you make this happen, you ask? By either:
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 “skinny” 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.
Most people are surprised to hear all of this, because they’re under the impression that getting a toned body is this special thing that happens some special way using special workouts, exercises, methods, and techniques. It’s not.
Ignore all of the myth-based “toning” nonsense you often see. It’s useless at best, and counterproductive at worst. “Toning workouts” and “toning exercises” and “light weight/high reps” are all concepts marketed (primarily) to women that perpetuate a variety of weight training myths that only prevent those women from getting the results they want.
The truth is, in terms of your appearance, the only thing you can do to a muscle is make it bigger or smaller. That’s it.
You can’t tone it, or sculpt it, or shape it, or define it, or [whatever else] it. Muscle is muscle. You can only increase or decrease how much of it you have, or increase or decrease how much body fat is covering it.
Getting “toned” is all about building enough muscle and losing enough body fat so the muscle you’ve built is sufficiently visible.
Are you currently on a program where you’re not seeing any changes? It may be time to change up your routine, or time to take a harder look at your diet.
Make sure you’ve scheduled your nutrition consult with Coach Nick and have spoken to one of the coaches about your current programming!
-Coach Juhi
