The TRUTH about "toning" your muscles!

visiologist
visiologist Posts: 45
edited September 20 in Fitness and Exercise
Finally, someone says it, and says it well and CLEARLY! All women need to read this.

http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/a/toning.htm

Mike

Replies

  • slieber
    slieber Posts: 765 Member
    Thanks for this. I kind of knew it but to see it all in print is great. One teacher I had at college for ballet class used to make us do all around cardio, pushups, abs, et. al. as well as our 2 hour ballet class. She said that to make the legs stronger you need to do the whole body because muscles do not strengthen in isolation. She was a degreed kinesiologist as well as dance teacher.
  • visiologist
    visiologist Posts: 45
    Wow - she was right on the money. :bigsmile:

    Awesome ballet teacher!

    Mike
  • Blossom01
    Blossom01 Posts: 658
    Thanks for the tip. I will look into it:wink:
  • pcbta
    pcbta Posts: 227
    I agree...however through personal experience I KNOW that you can change your general appearance by building muscle and toning or tightening it up. you may still have the fat on the outside, but your build can change!! and you can be a much smaller size, and not lose weight, by building or toning muscles. absolutely.

    Cindy
  • KaitieBug
    KaitieBug Posts: 559 Member
    Thanks for this. I kind of knew it but to see it all in print is great. One teacher I had at college for ballet class used to make us do all around cardio, pushups, abs, et. al. as well as our 2 hour ballet class. She said that to make the legs stronger you need to do the whole body because muscles do not strengthen in isolation. She was a degreed kinesiologist as well as dance teacher.

    Smart woman!! My favorite coach was in my junior high cross country coach. She understood that to excel at any sport, the body needs cross training. She didn't just run us to death; she had us doing everything from running to swimming to lifting to yoga. Shame the Marine Corps still doesn't understand the concept of crosstraining....:wink:
  • Lookgreat
    Lookgreat Posts: 63
    Thanks for this
  • Kityngirl
    Kityngirl Posts: 14,304 Member
    Balanced diet, cardio and weights. Amen. :flowerforyou:
  • lessertess
    lessertess Posts: 855 Member
    Although I agree that you can't focus on just one area of the body, I disagree with a lot of this article. Exercise can change the shape and tone of your muscle. For proof look at the common characteristics of athletes:

    Body buiders and football players tend to have short bulky muscles
    Swimmers, yoga practitioners, dancers tend to have long stretched muscles.
    Runners have very lean muscle mass with little bulk (due to the amount of cardio they don't build as much muscle)

    Anyone who's taken yogo will tell you that their muscles have become longer and more stretched and flexible. The term "toning" may be a semantic argument but I submit that you can tone (as in shape and define) your muscles through the type and amount of exercise that you do.
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