The Truth About Toning

It's...just building muscle

I wanted to tell you a little secret about "toning," which is one of the top goals I hear from clients and people in my classes: it's not actually a thing.

I realize that this goes against just about every marketing message from every fitness brand ever, so just stick with me while I explain.

When we go through certifications to become personal trainers, we learn about resistance training, aerobic training (cardio), and mobility and flexibility. There's no special section on "toning" exercises, because it's just strength training marketed differently.

The "tone" people refer to is actually muscle tone. The keyword there is "muscle." Looking "toned" generally means having visible muscle definition, which just means defined muscles with less body fat on top.

Yet fitness marketing encourages women to just "tone" -- never, ever get "bulky" -- so they come in to the gym not wanting to do strength training or build muscle but wanting to cut calories or go on restrictive diets.

In order to get a "toned" aesthetic though, the muscles have to be developed, which means ya gotta lift some weights -- not just small pink ones -- and eat some food.

Let's go a little deeper....

Strength Training

If the weights you are routinely lifting weigh less than the purse or the small child you carry around each day, you should be lifting heavier.

Of course, if you're starting from no lifting at all, it's wise to work up to it but many people, especially women, are afraid to do that.

Women have been conditioned to believe that if we so much as look at the squat rack or the heavy dumbbells, we will immediately morph into a female Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That’s truly not how it works!

It actually takes a lot of time, consistency, dedication, a 5-6 day per week structured lifting program and a rigid nutrition plan to achieve that degree of muscle, as anyone who's ever dabbled in bodybuilding can tell you!

If you want a toned look, which again, requires developing muscle, you'll eventually need to progress beyond doing a zillion bodyweight squats and jumping lunges and banded glute bridges, no matter what your favorite YouTuber might tell you.

While those are all completely solid and useful exercises, muscle growth requires progressive overload. You have to increase the stress on the muscle tissue so they can adapt, get stronger, and develop "tone." At a certain point, you won't be able to continue progressing unless you incorporate more resistance.

There are numerous benefits to strength training. Done correctly over time in conjunction with solid nutrition, it can lead to a lean, muscular physique. In addition to increasing muscle strength and size, it can also improve the health of the connective tissues to prevent injury and increase recovery and reverse the effects of aging on the body.

As nice as it is to think you look good in certain items of clothing, it's feels equally good -- if not better -- to be able to lift your luggage into the overhead bin without worrying you'll drop it on someone's head, and to be able to move around confidently and independently as you get older.


Nutrition

The fitness/diet industry also wants people, women especially, to continually cut calories and eat less and do lots of cardio and HIIT training and somehow end up "toned."

Again…NOT how it works!

If you want to build muscle, you need to eat enough food.

To keep it super simple, resistance training creates microscopic damage to muscle tissue, and the repair process is what causes muscles to increase in size and strength. In order for them to repair properly, the muscles need to have sufficient protein.

If a person is training hard but not taking in enough calories to support their activity levels, they will not see optimal muscle development aka tone, at least not long term.

Your body's basic biology doesn't actually care if you "look toned," so it uses the nutrients you consume for essential processes first, like making sure your organs are functioning properly. Rebuilding and repairing muscle tissue comes later, if you've provided your body with enough nutrients to do so.

If you're constantly dieting and restricting calories, your body is going to need to put all the nutrients you intake to work sustaining life processes, not giving you a six-pack or sculpted legs.

Many popular diets encourage women to only eat 1200-1600 calories a day, which is absolutely 100% too low for a healthy adult and which absolutely 100% will not help you achieve the lean muscles you desire.


The bottom line...

The "toned" look -- not too skinny, not too muscle-y, lean yet defined -- is currently considered desirable in American culture. That doesn't mean it's appropriate or achievable or even desirable for everyone.

Keep in mind that the aesthetic people are taught to strive for changes with time and can be different across different cultures, and there's no real reason anyone needs to try to look a certain way.

There is not a significant health benefit to looking lean with muscle tone, and in fact, many people who are in great physical shape are not what many would consider "toned!"

This email is for those of you DO aspire to have a toned physique, because the messages sent by the fitness industry are often straight up wrong. That aesthetic is not gained by doing a ton of bodyweight jumping exercises and Pilates and eating a toddler-size amount of food.

Men and women can and should lift challenging weights and build strength in order to achieve numerous health and aesthetic benefits, and proper nutrition -- NOT dieting -- is also key for maximizing results.