What are the best exercises for toning?

Answer 1

"Toning" is a myth. There is a concept in anatomy and physiology called residual muscle contraction or tonus, but it refers to the continuous and partial contraction of a muscle to help stabilize posture and balance. It has nothing to do with the outward appearance of your body or whether you have tight glutes and washboard abs. You can be out of shape and struggle to climb a flight of stairs and still have muscle tonus. What you are really referring to is a fit, physical appearance. Among men, being toned typically means being very lean, with a "chiseled" muscular physique. For women, it usually means being lean, but with shapely muscles, an overall "tight" look, flat abs and the absence of jiggle in the thighs and backs of the arms. An example of a "toned" male might be male model Tyson Beckford and for females, someone like actresses Jessica Biel or Jennifer Garner or female fitness model Amanda Carrier. While the "toned" aesthetic is highly subjective, many people view "toned" as striking a balance between having enough muscle to have nice muscle shape and definition, without crossing the line into having the very muscular physique of a male or female bodybuilder. So while a toned body may be very lean and tight, it typically won't have over-exaggerated muscle mass. To achieve a toned aesthetic, you have to have two things: # The presence of muscle # Relatively low body fat levels A typical training routine to reach this goal would involve plenty of resistance and weight training (to build muscle) combined with long duration and high intensity interval cardio. It also requires a very clean diet with a good mix of lean protein, healthy fats and complex, slow-burning carbohydrates. Diet is critical at helping reduce body fat and maintain these lower body fat levels, which are required to allow the muscle underneath to appear. While many "toning routines" will recommend lower weights and higher reps -- especially for women -- this is actually a counter-productive approach to body sculpting. High reps build muscle endurance and may create a temporary (usually lasting only a few hours) tightness and "pump" in the muscle, but adding additional muscle requires lifting heavier and with lower reps. While variation in exercise weight and reps is always a good thing, consistently training with low-weights and high repetitions in the hope of avoiding becoming "bulky" or over muscular will not result in a toned physique. The concern about becoming too muscular or bulky is especially prevalent among women. However, females typically do not have the hormonal environment present in males to produce very large muscles or large amounts of muscle mass. There are exceptions of course, depending on genetics, but most women will be typically happier with their results after switching to a lower-rep and higher-weight routine. The best approach to achieving an overall toned appearance is to follow a full-body workout routine which emphasizes compound exercises. This ensures balance among muscle groups and will encourage an overall symmetry in the physique. Exercises would include things like squats, lunges and deadlifts for the lower body, and large pressing motions for the upper body and shoulders like dumbbell chest presses, rows, and military or dumbbell shoulder presses. Bodyweight exercises would include things like pushups. The core and abs are typically worked with these exercises, although some people do like to add some abdominal-specific training into their full body workouts. In terms of cardio, you would typically perform a combination of lower-intensity, longer-duration cardio with higher-intensity, shorter-duration cardio, also known as HIIT. Generally, you would perform your cardio on your non-weight training days. While weight training can add in lower body-fat levels, it won't accomplish this alone. This is why it should be combined with regular cardio training. Also, maintaining an exercise log is also critical to making sure you are always making progress toward your goal. In your log, you should record your exercises, the weight you used, the amount of repetitions and how many sets. Each workout, you should try to beat your last workout in some way, whether that is using a little more weight, performing one more rep, or adding in an additional set. This is known as "progression" and it ensures that you are always challenging your muscles a little more each workout. This is critical for continued gains in muscle and strength.

Answer 2

Search exercises for toning and work on specific muscles at a time.