How To Gain Maximum Muscle Tone By Lifting Heavy Weights

Getting An Understanding Of Muscle Tone And Muscle Definition

For one to choose the most effective way to increase muscle tone, one must first understand what muscle tone is. Muscle tone is residual tension in a relaxed muscle. What this means is that your nervous system is tensing the muscle to a certain extent while you are in a relaxed state.

Muscle Tone is a By-product of An Alert Nervous System

Essentially any part of the body with significant muscle tone has a strong mind to muscle connection in that body part. Whenever a person desire additional muscle tone in a certain body part they will have to increase the efficiency of the nerve impulses to that body part. Never forget that muscle tone is not a "muscle fiber" issue, it is a "nervous system" issue. This is the top mistake that persons make in their quest to increase muscle tone.

The Reason The "Light Weight and High Rep Approach" Isn't Effective

''Lift light weights for high reps'' is the mainstream advice that fitness trainers tell their clients to develop muscle tone. Lifting light weights gives you an illusion of increasing muscle tone. High reps generally give the muscles a great pump. When the muscles are pumped up they will look more toned, but when the pump is gone the muscle tone is gone. If you want muscle tone for the time you are spending in the gym then lifting high reps and light weights will allow you to gain this. But, if you desire to have great muscle tone 24 hours a day, then you need to take a different approach.

Lifting Heavy Weights Will Make Your Nervous System More Efficient and Increase Muscle Tone

The only way to lift heavier weights is to develop the magnitude of your muscle -or- increase the efficiency of your nervous system. If you're aiming to gain muscle tone, then you should try to get progressively stronger without getting bigger. A great way to do this is to lift for 3-5 reps for 5 sets or so. Do a basic strength workout, but then hit the cardio really hard after that workout. Keep your calories low as well.

Why Don't Most Strength Trainers Have Great Muscle Tone?

Most dudes you see in the gym who are lifting heavy are also not doing any cardio and they are consuming a ton of calories. They are trying to become as huge and strong as they can be. That should not be your goal! If you want to get amazingly defined then focus on gaining strength while reducing body fat.

Learn a Lesson from Olympic Level Athletes

Have you ever seen a middleweight boxer in person? These people are amazingly ripped. So are gymnasts. These guys focus on getting stronger while maintaining or losing weight. These athletes have unbelievable muscle tone as a byproduct of their training. They aren't even focusing on muscle tone, yet they have more muscle tone than most bodybuilders. Keep in mind that most of the pictures you see of bodybuilders are after they have pumped up and have dehydrated themselves almost to the point of heart failure.

Lift Heavy, Get Stronger and Increase Muscle Tone...What's Not to Like?

Follow a basic strength training program and hit cardio hard. Train like an elite athlete and you will create an amazing body. Leave all that "pumping up" nonsense to the Mongoloid bodybuilders.

About The Author:

Rusty Moore is an avid trainer who gives training advice geared specifically at people who want a body that attracts the opposite sex. While other trainers focus on building muscle mass, Rusty focuses on what members of the opposite sex find irresistible. Want a body like Brad Pitt -or- Matthew Mcconaughey? How about Jessica Alba -or- Jessica Biel? Click to check out his programs Visual Impact Muscle Building  and Visual Impact For Women 

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How To Train For Muscle Tone Instead of Muscle Mass

The key to gaining muscle mass is a sufficiently high volume of lifts to cause some degree of damage to your muscle tissues. Following the damaging of the muscle tissues it's essential that you rest the muscle long enough for a fully good recuperation. Ideally, whenever the muscle is recovered, it will become of a slightly bigger size. Eventually, over time this will build a larger muscle. The key to achieving muscle tone is to do less volume of sets, but make your work outs more frequent.

How Many Sets Do You Need to Do For Muscle Tone?

Don't forget, for muscle tone your aim should be to avoid damaging the muscles. Should you become sore the next day, back off a bit the next time that you work those same muscles. I always do 3-4 sets of anywhere between 3-10 reps for muscle tone. I choose 2 exercises per body part.

How Many Reps in Each Set?

Not much individuals understand the effectiveness of low reps for achieving muscle tone. Low reps result in harder contractions and over time, your muscle will show better tone. Feel free to include medium to high reps, but make sure you do not neglect heavier low rep training as well. Becoming stronger while your body fat is at a low level is a terrific way to look ripped!

Make Sure and Work the Muscles Often When Going for Tone!

This tip is overlooked but will quickly accelerate your ability to increase tone in a worked muscle. Muscle tone is essentially a muscle contracting partially in a relaxed state, hence your muscles are contacting a little by themselves even when you are completely relaxed. The right way to boost this is to contract the muscles hard by working out on a frequent basis. For another time, you need to avoid causing damage to the muscle, otherwise you will over-train the muscle if you work it soon. An additional problem with working a damaged muscle is the fact that it would not contract as hard, therefore the workout will have less toning benefits.

Do NOT Train to Failure or Use Forced Reps When Going for Muscle Tone

If you do a set to failure you are essentially "training your muscle to fail". This will cause a large amount of damage, which is great for when you're aiming to build muscle mass but not good for achieving muscle tone. Training for muscle tone is similar to training for gaining strength. Elite power-lifters rarely train to failure for the reason stated above. The problem is that your muscle will not contract as hard the following set. You want hard contractions when going for tone, so don't train to failure and don't even think of doing forced reps.

Here is Common Mass Building Split Routine

The "3 day split" is a common routine for muscle mass because it works well. A 3 day split simply means that all the muscles in your body are worked in 3 different workouts. So what a lot of people do is work chest, shoulders, and triceps on one day, back and biceps on another day, and legs and abs on the third day. The great thing here is that since you are working only a few body parts in each workout, you can focus on blitzing each muscle group. You can really do a high volume of lifts for each muscle group which is the key to mass.

The 2 Day Split Muscle Tone Workout Routine

Since you want to work each muscle group more often when going for tone, you should try to split you workout over two days instead of three. The great thing here is that you don't need much recovery time when you don't damage the muscles.

Note: So you should have a good idea on how to setup a great workout routine. Remember, if you are going for tone, keep the volume of lifting low and work each muscle frequently. Since your time in the weight room should be brief, spend the extra time hitting cardio hard to burn off all that excess body fat to reveal your toned muscles.

About the Author:

Rusty Moore is a trainer who gives advice to men and women who want a body that has "The Hollywood Look". Don't train to be bulky! Learn the Fitness secrets of Hollywood's finest and get lean and sexy instead. Get a copy of his program today Visual Impact Muscle Building and Visual Impact For Women