Way back in time, before the internet and cell phones, I went to school for business. I decided to take an anatomy class as my elective to fulfill a science requirement. Little did I know that one class would change the direction of my life.
I found it fascinating how the body moves and works. I decided to change my major to kinesiology (the study of movement). Fitness quickly became my focus.
While learning about the body I found out that there isn’t much of a difference between how men and women’s bodies function when it comes to working out.
I also learned that there was no such thing as getting “toned”.
Muscles only do one of two things. They either get bigger (hypertrophy) or they get smaller (atrophy). To make your muscles look better, you need to lose the fat and increase your lean body mass. That’s what “toning” actually is…losing body fat and gaining muscle. If you lose 5 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of muscle you will actually have smaller body measurements. The leaner you are, the more muscular or “toned” you look. As you can see the woman pictured below gained 3 kg or 6.6 pounds of muscle and now looks “toned”. It also took her 4 years to gain the muscle. No ladies, you don’t gain muscle quickly.
How do you do this? It’s quite simple really. You eat well for your specific genetic type and lift heavy weights.
Yes, heavy weights. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06real.html?_r=2
Lifting heavy weights isn’t going to make you bulky as long as you don’t increase your intake of certain foods to go along with it. Eating and drinking mass amounts of calories will get you bulky, not lifting heavy weights. It’s also not a bad idea to get tested for food allergies. That can have an effect on how well you break down and absorb your food as well.
Both of the girls pictured below train with Bret Contreras. They are fitness competitors who have decided to compete in powerlifting. For those of you who don’t know, powerlifting is a sport where you lift as much weight as you can in usually three different lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift.
This is Erin McComb. She weighs around 100 lbs and can squat 115 lbs, bench press 85 lbs, and deadlift 155 lbs.
This is Sammie Cohn. Sammie weighs around 130 lbs and can squat 175 lbs, bench press 90 lbs, and deadlift 245 lbs.
The man pictured below is lifting the same 225 pounds as Sammie.
“Whaaaa??” you may ask. “How can that be? That girl should be bulky like the guy in the picture because they are lifting the same heavy weights,” right?
As you can see the girls in the pictures are nowhere near “bulky.” Again bulky comes from the amount of food and drinks that you consume in a given day/week/month. The man pictured above consumes a large amount of calories to be able to maintain his muscle mass, or what some may refer to as bulk.
Lift heavy and watch your food intake and you, too, will be on your way to “toning” that body of yours.
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