To tone your muscles you must do the opposite of what you have been told

So I was browsing through some of my favorite social media websites looking for my muse and found her where I least expected her. You see, I’m friends with a lot of the forward thinkers in the health and fitness industry and usually find it between them, but instead I found it with two people who aren’t “in the know.”

Many times women come to me for coaching to look and feel their best. This is often associated with weddings, bikini season, class reunions, etc. Probably the two most common requests are to lose fat and tone muscle, which brings me to my story here.

Now this probably goes against what you have heard in the past and I will have to ask you to trust me on this because almost everyone has the concept of “toning” wrong and that is what this article is about. show. To learn, you must first empty your cup.

The first myth I want to dispel is all this “cardio tones muscles” nonsense. This is going back to how I found my muse. My muse is an underweight girl who wants to tone her muscles. Her plan of action is to do Zumba (a cardio routine based on Latin dances) to achieve it. I’m sorry, but cardio doesn’t work for toning. If you want proof, take a look at some of the marathon runners she sees. Many of them look like they just got out of a hospital bed. Hardly the toned look you’re looking for.

Next up is this whole “high reps tone muscle, low reps build bulk” myth. If low reps always produce volume and high reps don’t, why do bodybuilders have such big muscles? Common rep ranges for bodybuilders are usually between 8-12 reps. When you train with high reps, your muscles fill with something called “sarcoplasm.” It’s like a sticky substance that sits between muscle fibers, giving them a bloated look and doing little to nothing to improve strength. That’s not tone.

“But I don’t mind being strong. I just want to look toned.” That’s something I hear a lot from my clients. The fact is that they are the same thing. They are not mutually exclusive.

So what is pitch and how do you get it? Pitch is actually a function of your nervous system. It is the flow of ions across cell membranes. It is residual tension within a relaxed muscle. It is like a relaxed state but ready for the muscle fibers to do something that requires force. The way you achieve this is with heavy, high-intensity strength training without burning out your nervous system. Learn how to build tension correctly and use it correctly in your program. Stop viewing workouts as toning workouts and instead think of them as strength training. If muscle tone is the destination, then strength training is the way to get there. Keeping your reps low will prevent unwanted bulk, and of course you need to be lean enough to see tone, but that largely depends on a proper nutrition plan.

Here is a sample of a strength training session (to tone muscles).

Squats 3 – 5 repetitions
rest 1 minute
Overhead Press 3 – 5 reps
rest 1 minute
Pull-ups 3 – 5 reps
Rest 3-5 minutes and repeat 3-5 times 3 times a week.
Don’t forget to go heavy but not to muscle failure.

I know it’s not what you heard before. That’s a good thing because if you want to be like everyone else, do what everyone else does. If you want to look different, you have to train different (and smart, I might add).

Train smart, be strong and look amazing.

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