Muscle Building vs Toning Up?!!!

First of all, there is no such thing as "toning" or "sculpting" your muscles. You're either building muscles, or you're increasing the stamina and endurance of the muscles you already have. The only way to achieve the "toned" look is to build muscle and lose body fat. Low weights with high reps will only increase your muscles' endurance. You need to lift heavy weights for lower reps. If you can do more than 12 reps, you're not choosing weights that are heavy enough. Ideally, you should be doing three sets of 6-8 reps.

Cardio burns fat, yes, but only while you're doing it. Strength training burns a fraction of the calories that cardio burns DURING THE TIME YOU'RE EXERCISING. The most calories burned from strength training are after the fact; your muscles use energy (burn calories) to repair, renew, and rebuild. Honestly, you don't even need to do cardio. Refer to my blog entry entitled Why Women Should Lift Weights to read more "researched information" behind my statements.

You should be in and out of the gym in under 45 minutes. Incorporate compound moves to achieve maximum results, i.e. deadlifts, squats, back rows, pushups, dips, pullups, lunges, and all-over core exercises such as planks, jackknives, etc. Don't waste time with isolated bicep curls or tricep extensions--compound exercises will work these muscles and more.

THIS, yes, yes, yes!!!!!! Ladies, please, lift weights and lift mod-heavy!! And the article link you posted further down the thread on bodybuilding.com - very informative and comprehensive!!! Thanks for posting

First of all, there is no such thing as "toning" or "sculpting" your muscles. You're either building muscles, or you're increasing the stamina and endurance of the muscles you already have. The only way to achieve the "toned" look is to build muscle and lose body fat. Low weights with high reps will only increase your muscles' endurance. You need to lift heavy weights for lower reps. If you can do more than 12 reps, you're not choosing weights that are heavy enough. Ideally, you should be doing three sets of 6-8 reps.

Cardio burns fat, yes, but only while you're doing it. Strength training burns a fraction of the calories that cardio burns DURING THE TIME YOU'RE EXERCISING. The most calories burned from strength training are after the fact; your muscles use energy (burn calories) to repair, renew, and rebuild. Honestly, you don't even need to do cardio. Refer to my blog entry entitled Why Women Should Lift Weights to read more "researched information" behind my statements.

You should be in and out of the gym in under 45 minutes. Incorporate compound moves to achieve maximum results, i.e. deadlifts, squats, back rows, pushups, dips, pullups, lunges, and all-over core exercises such as planks, jackknives, etc. Don't waste time with isolated bicep curls or tricep extensions--compound exercises will work these muscles and more.