How To Get Toned
Lose fat or build muscle..? If you ask someone what their goal is when they start exercising, most people will respond with “to tone up”. To most people this means, having lean, visible muscle that gives a sculpted look. But how do you achieve this toned look?
Well the answer may be very different depending on your current physique.
If you have a higher body fat percentage, you will need to focus on losing fat, as any muscle will not appear ‘lean’ or may not be visible. Whereas someone who has less body fat would need to focus more on building muscle.
However, this is not to say that you should only focus on losing fat or building muscle. Both are important to get a ‘toned’ physique.
You may have heard people saying you need to lift light weights for high reps to achieve a toned look. This is not strictly true, whilst this method can work, it’s not the only way or by no means the best way. Lifting heavy weights has a negative association with big bulky muscles, it’s as if people think they’ll suddenly look like they have no neck, and start grunting every time they pick up a weight… Firstly there are many ways to lift weights which all provide different adaptations. It depends on your total volume, intensity and the progression of them over time.
Additionally there are other factors that determine the way your body changes from exercise, the most obvious of which is your nutrition! To build muscle your body needs sufficient protein and calories alongside the correct training stimulus. You can use this link to see how much protein you roughly need. Protein Calculator
Importance Of Nutrition for Getting Toned
Without the right nutrition you will struggle to see the results you’re looking for despite your exercising efforts. Another, often overlooked factor, is NEAT – which stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This is the amount of calories burned throughout the day, excluding exercise activities. NEAT is important to consider as it can massively impact the amount of calories needed to reach your goal. For example, you may do a workout in the morning, but barely get 4,000 steps a day if you have a desk job. Or you may be very active throughout the day and need more calories to account for this.
Using a tool to track calories and macros can be very helpful to give you an idea of what your nutrition looks like. You don’t need to track for a long time, a week is plenty to give you an idea of how many calories you’re eating, including if you have enough protein and fiber in your diet. In fact I would encourage you to only use these as a tool, not something to rely on.
Exercise to Tone Up
Once you have figured out whether your priority if to lose fat or build muscle, and reduce calories or increase. Then you’re ready to start implementing some resistance training. To be totally honest the ‘best’ exercise method for you to tone up is one that you enjoy and will stick to. The hard truth is, consistency is the only way to get results, there are no lasting short cuts or ‘hacks’. With that said, some people enjoy lower intensity resistance training such as yoga and pilates, with lower intensity cardio like walking or cycling. Which is a great option if you’re just starting out on your fitness journey or if you can’t do high impact. This way of exercising is very accessible because you can do it from anywhere and it’s super easy to scale to your level!
For me personally, I love HIIT (high intensity interval training), and strength training, but these can be quite demanding and are not so beginner friendly.
To tone up any exercise that provides a resistance to your muscles will help you achieve this look. Some examples are; spin classes, lifting weights, body weight workouts, or gym classes. All of these will work provided the intensity or volume is high enough to provide a stimulus for the muscles to grow. After all you need muscle to have definition, just having a lower body fat percentage alone, won’t provide you that toned look.
In Summary
To tone up, you first need to determine your starting point and NEAT to figure out if you need to be in a calorie deficit, surplus or maintenance. Then find a training style that works for you, baring in mind if your NEAT is lower you’ll either need to increase exercise or decrease calories. Ensure you have some kind of resistance training in your exercise routine, as this will give you muscle definition. The bottom line is your nutrition and diet will have the biggest impact on getting toned, ensure you add some form of resistance training and cardio.
If you need some assistance in creating a program to help you reach your goals you can get in touch here. We would love to help you achieve your potential!
