Body >> Tone Your Body

What Is Muscle Tone?

Muscle tone basically refers to the tension in the muscles due to a constant muscle contraction called an isometric hold. Certain muscles in the body are always contracting and so the strength of those muscles will, to some extent, define muscle tone. When the words 'tone up' are used, it simply means to bring more definition to the muscles. This is often achieved by decreasing the amount of fat surrounding muscles and strengthening the muscles themselves.

How Can I 'Tone Up'?

There are literally thousands of exercises that many people claim will give you the ultimate tone by putting the load through muscles without exerting much effort. Most of these exercises are no good. You will find ones that work really well and that you may find comfortable to do, but usually exercise just comes down to doing the movements required with the strength required.

Both cardiovascular (huffy puffy) exercise and strength (lifting heavy stuff) exercises play an important role in muscle toning. While the cardio exercises help to remove excess fat and 'carve-out' the muscle for more definition, the strength exercises cause the muscle to 'build' which is called "hypertrophy".

Won't I Get Big And Muscly (Girls)?

It is commonly thought that strength exercises will cause girls to get gigantic muscle like many of the she-men in muscle building competitions. The truth is, just about all the contestants of muscle building contests take some kind of performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids which cause the female body to become more masculine.

Girls who do strength training are simply shedding off the fat, and replacing it with firm, toned muscle which complies with their genetic body shape. You can't change your body shape, but you can tone your body to what it was meant to look like and usually for females it is still very feminine.

The 3 Best Exercises For Toning

The 3 best exercises for muscle toning (done correctly) are simple, functional exercises which put maximum load through the muscles without compromising posture or technique. These are just some of the possible 'best exercises':

• Pushups - Knees or toes
• Lat Pull-down (narrow grip)
• Squats

Simple as that! Nothing fancy is needed to give you the best muscle tone you ever dreamed of. Just do the work!

These are all amazing, practical techniques for creating an amazing body image. Please note that it is a condition of entry to this website that you read through our terms of use.