Question about lean fitness

Unfortunately, a lot of exercises that promote themselves as "toning" can also end up bulking muscles.

Sit ups, for instance, we were all told would make ab muscles flat but all that crunching ends up creating big ab muscles. While strong, they are not flat and are often unbalanced.

Exercises like those done by dance, Pilates, yoga, and my personal favorite Classical Stretch move in a way that build strength and lengthen muscles rather than crunching and bulking muscle.

You don't need to stop martial arts and the like. Just add some exercise workout such as these to create strength, flexibility, and toning muscles. It helps not only with avoiding extraneous bulking, but also helps prevent injuries.

kenyonhaff wrote: »

Unfortunately, a lot of exercises that promote themselves as "toning" can also end up bulking muscles.

Sit ups, for instance, we were all told would make ab muscles flat but all that crunching ends up creating big ab muscles. While strong, they are not flat and are often unbalanced.

Exercises like those done by dance, Pilates, yoga, and my personal favorite Classical Stretch move in a way that build strength and lengthen muscles rather than crunching and bulking muscle.

You don't need to stop martial arts and the like. Just add some exercise workout such as these to create strength, flexibility, and toning muscles. It helps not only with avoiding extraneous bulking, but also helps prevent injuries.

Totally this!

Yoga and pilates were recommended to me by physios for injury prevention.

Another thing - if you wear heals a lot, that will bulk up your calves. Make sure you stretch them out with some downward facing dogs even if you don't do full yoga. Wear flats occasionally too.