5 Ways to Get More Toned

Being toned is the ultimate fitness and exercise ambition for many – it is a reward for all the time spent training and in the gym. Here are five ways to get more toned.

Being toned is all about being able to show the muscles that you’ve built over time on your fitness and exercise journey. The aim is to have a low body fat and defined muscles that aren’t too big. It is also definitely one of the buzzwords of the moment in the exercise and fitness world, lean muscle, which is essentially the muscle you build without the addition of excessive fat deposits.

1. Regular All-Over Body Exercise

A full-body workout is the best way to get lean muscle mass and lose weight at the same time. This involves doing elements of the upper body, core, and lower body in your workouts and pushing these hard. However, the main criterion is that this all-over body exercise is done at least 3-4 times a week, with sufficient rest between training specific muscle parts. Whether you have a pair of Mirafit hex dumbbells or an entire home gym, you should focus on the entire body. The dumbbells, as mentioned, are a fantastic way to start off the muscle-building process, and they are a straightforward way to exercise on a daily basis. There is a weight for all abilities and strengths. You can therefore start off with dumbbells and then progress onto the bigger muscle groups with movements like squats, pull-ups, and bench presses, simply using heavier dumbbells or changing to larger resistance gym machinery.

2. HIIT (High-intensity interval training)

High-intensity interval training has become one of the most widely accepted and used means of getting toned or ripped. The rise of cross fit as a worldwidephenomenon has also seen an increase in people looking to this form of training as a means to build stamina, strength, and muscle and get the dream abdominal muscles that getting toned will provide.

The main concept is to train at a high intensity for a period of time sufficient enough to raise your heart rate significantly, and then instead of a rest period, yousimply start the next set but at a lower intensity, alternating in this way for the entire workout, with short to no intervals of less intense exercise. The main form of exercise used is cardio, as this is the best way to get your heart rate up and allow the body to continue to burn calories long after the exercise has finished. Yet there are those who will also use HiiT with dumbbells or additional weight vests to increase the intensity. Squats, burpees, lunges, planks, and mountain climbing are all the types of HiiT exercise that you should consider to get toned.

3. Lift Heavier for Longer

There has long been a debate between those who suggest lifting lighter weights for longer reps and more sets to get toned and those who suggest heavier weights for shorter reps. Here the suggestion is a mix of both, done in the right way to suit your muscle growth and fitness progression. You will need to exercise compound or big muscle groups and use progressively heavier weights, and this will build lean and defined muscles, burn calories and improve your toned look. Once you’ve started using weights that strain the muscles being trained, increase your reps and increase the sets. By increasing your metabolism by liftingheavier lifting for longer periods, you will burn more calories for longer after the exercise as well as create leaner muscle quicker than you would lifting any other way.

4. Improve Nutrition

The training that you do must be combined with healthier, more focused eating and nutrition. Being toned, as discussed above, is about the reduction of body fat to expose lean muscle, and both of these acts need a specific way of looking at your nutrition.

• Reduction of body fat percentage – To lower the percentage of body fat that you carry about, you will need to eat at a calorific deficit for a sustained period. It’s not about dieting but adjusting your meals to include less bad fats and sugars.
• Build and then expose lean muscle – You need to have lean muscle in order to expose it, and muscle building requires the most appropriate fuel and protein-building blocks from the food you are eating. Increase lean proteins and ensure that you’re well-energized by carbohydrates on the days that you’re training.

5. Sleep

If you want to be toned and ripped, with significant lean muscle mass, then you need to sleep to allow these muscles to build and grow. It’s in the recovery phase after you’ve trained that the muscles develop. Ensure that you’re getting a good amount of quality sleep for muscle recovery and growth. If your daily routine doesn’t allow for this to happen immediately, try to add to your weekend sleep and take significant naps whenever you can. You need to give the body enough time to rejuvenate and recover if the weight and strength training that you do is going to result in lean muscle growth.

It is for this reason that some people spend all their time in the gym, lead hectic lives, and are just too busy to relax and recuperate, meaning that their fitness and muscle growth are delayed or even stunted, no matter how hard they train.

Final Remarks

Getting toned is a personal choice and one that will come with a great deal of sacrifice and hard work. These five tips and suggested ways to assist will provide the basis from which to build a sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle, and in doing so, in this way, over a long enough period of time, you’ll get toned. Don’t believe the hype that is promoted and associated with the idea that you can get toned quickly or achieve some form of super transformation without sweat, dedication and prolonged periods of hard work…have fun getting toned.