Warning: Light weights and high reps won't tone your muscle

LuckeyStoke has nice muscle tone!

After years of being told that high reps increase muscle tone, I'm here to tell you to take the opposite approach. Read on to find out why it is actually heavy weight/low rep training that tones your muscles.

The question most asked by novice trainees is: “How do I get the firm and toned body I always wanted?”

The answer they will likely receive to this question is: “If you want to tone do light weights and high reps.”

But guess what… your personal trainer or good intentioned friend is wrong!

Read on to find out why light weights and high reps don’t tone your muscle and what should you do for excellent muscle tone.

What is muscle tone anyway?

Muscle tone is residual tension in a relaxed muscle.

What this means in layman terms is that even when a muscle is relaxed, nerve impulses from your brain stimulate the muscle fibers within it to contract; so the muscle is in a constant state of partial contraction which keeps it firm, healthy and always ready to use.

So, basically, you already have a certain amount of muscle tone.

How can I improve my muscle tone?

Because, as you learned earlier, muscle tone comes from neurological activity increased muscle tone is not the result of a physical transformation of the muscle but rather an increase of residual tension in the muscle as a result of the nervous system being more alert.

Again, what this means in layman terms is that in order to increase muscle tone you must increase the tension in the muscle. Lifting heavy weights generates higher tension in the muscle than light weights therefore should be practiced for muscle tone.

But if high reps/light weights don’t work, how come I feel so hard and toned after such a workout?

Good question!

The way muscle fibers work is that they can contract on their own but need energy to de-contract. The energy compound that relaxes the muscle is known as ATP.

High reps exhaust ATP in your muscle which leads to a temporary hardness (due to impossibility to de-contract) also known as the pump which is just temporary muscle tone.

But won’t training hard bulk me up instead of tone my muscle?

This depends on the volume of work (number of sets and reps) performed.

The key to getting strong and hard (toned) without the added bulk is to train heavy but keep the volume low.

How you should train and how low is enough is the subject of a upcoming post, so I won’t go into details here.

I realize that just this single post is not enough to convince you to give up on the idea that high reps = high tone that you’ve been indoctrinated in all of this years but I hope that at least it got you thinking a bit.

Until next time!

Maximize exercise after-burn: Secrets of burning body fat fast (I)

Just pick up any modern fitness and bodybuilding magazine and chances are that you will find a “new” exercise program that will “greatly accelerate” the post workout fat burning rate.

Although well intended these programs most of the time lack scientific evidence to back them up and lead people in the wrong direction as far as what needs to be done in order to maximize post workout fat burning.

[fine tune your fat burning furnace with this simple trick below]

The purpose of this article is to present what exercise after-burn is, what factors influence it and to present a couple of scientifically back up programs that maximize post workout calorie (fat) consumption.

What is Exercise after-burn and how does it occur?

The exercise after-burn also known as “excess post workout oxygen consumption” (EPOC) basically is the amount of calories expended by the body (above resting levels) in order to return itself to the pre-exercise state.

The total amount of calories consumed depends on the duration and intensity of the exercises performed.

The intensity in an aerobic exercise bout has the greatest impact on EPOC.

The higher the intensity, the greater the post workout caloric expenditure.

Studies suggest that given sufficient aerobic exercise intensity, exercise duration becomes an important factor influencing EPOC.

Also, several studies have concluded that intermittent aerobic exercise bouts (interval training) elicit a greater EPOC response when compared to continuous exercise bouts (steady state cardio).

Although there appears to be variation in individual responses, the positive news is that any additional caloric expenditure following exercise can add up over time and may contribute to long-term weight management.

Some evidence-based exercise options to maximize the exercise after-burn are presented below.

Exercise Program Suggestions to Maximize the Exercise After-burn (EPOC)

1. Tempo training: continuous, aerobic exercise at a high-intensity (70-85% VO2 max or 80% of your maximum heart rate) for a period of 30-60 minutes (Smith & McNaughton, 1993).

2. Long slow distance training: continuous, aerobic exercise at a moderate intensity (60-70% VO2 max or 70% of maximum heart rate) for a period of 60-80 minutes (Withers et al., 1991).

5 Things you can do NOW to start losing body fat.

Imagine this situation:

You are wrestling with the same 10-30 pounds for years. You’ve tried everything out there, from no fat to high fat diets, low carbs, high carbs, you name it but only managed to lose a few pounds here and there.

Every time you look in the mirror you don’t like what you see - you know it’s time to get serious about losing body fat but are not prepared to make a major dieting effort.

If that’s the case with you, then I have some good news – you don’t have to make an major dieting effort in order to lose fat.

In fact, the trend in the fitness world has shifted from complex fitness solutions that turn your lifestyle upside down (and for that reason are hard to follow) to focusing on thing you can incorporate into your life style with ease and act on NOW!.

Below is a list of things you could do to start losing body fat now:

1. Don’t touch that first piece.
Everybody knows that you can eat any kind of food and still don’t get fat as long as you eat in MODERATION. But let’s face it – some types of food you can’t just eat in moderation. One cookie or a hand full of chips will do for you? If not; if you can’t stop there it is better to avoid those types of food altogether.

2. Spread your calories over the entire day.
Most people have the following eating pattern: one or two light meals during the day and a HEAVY dinner. Geese’s! At night you are the least active (with the exception of night jobs) so you burn the least amount of calories. The extra calories from the large dinner are stored as body fat.
So, make breakfast your largest meal and dinner the smallest. Chances are that you will be burning the calories eaten during the day so minimal amounts of them will be stored as fat.

3. Fill up on fiber.
Because fibrous carbs have low calorie density and at the same time “fill you up” so you don’t feel hungry they help you lose fat, so they should constitute the bulk of your carb intake.

Fibrous carbs are: Asparagus, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Cucumber, Green Beans, Green peppers, Mushrooms, Onion, Peas, Salad (lettuce, romaine), Spinach, and Tomato.

4. Drink water.
Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normally.
When dehydrated, the body tries to hold on to as much water as possible. When this happens, the body’s waste products can’t be eliminated and the kidneys become overwhelmed. At this point the liver starts to help remove these waste products, neglecting its own job which includes using stored body fat for energy.

5. Get Moving.
This is the most simple and most effective fat burning secret. Exercise, besides the fat that burns calories, increases the metabolism and develops lean muscle mass, also boosts your self-esteem, increasing the probability that you will do more things in this direction (losing the fat).
Running outdoors is a very pleasent activity and can help you quickly burn the fat!

For the best results, combine aerobic (walking, riding a bike, treadmill etc) with strength training.

Why training with weights is a must.

In the fitness world, there are very few things all people agree upon; the fact that, no matter what your goals are, strength training should be a part of your workout is one of them. And for a good reason too.

Some of the benefits of weight training are:

1. Burn more body fat.

The short term benefit of weight training is that it burns calories while you do it, at a rate of about 150 calories per 30 min.

If you compare this with cardio, which can burn up to 500 calories per 30 min, you may be tempted to skip weight training and do the cardio.

Why not do this? Because of the long term effects of weight training; research has shown that post workout increases you Basal Metabolic Rate by as much as 20% for up to 48 hours after the workout.
So a person that has a BMR of 2000 calories will burn an extra 400 per day besides the ones consumed working out. Cardio does not have this effect.

2. Reshape your body.

Weight training leads to stronger muscles and joints which have a drastic impact on posture.
Also, weight training increases your lean muscle mass, decreases body fat levels and tones your muscles.
From my experience, proper posture, toned muscle and low body fat levels make everyone feel better about their appearance.

3. Helps perform every day tasks more easily.

Every day tasks like grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, pushing a car, which we do not give to much attention to, require all muscle strength, power, endurance, balance and flexibility.

Weight training improves all of these.

You are convinced? Good!
Now let’s see how we can set up a strength training program that accelerates fat loss. (we will discuss this in a further post).

The basics of fat loss

The only way to lose fat is stated in the law of weight/fat loss also known as the law of energy balance:

“In order to lose weight you must use more calories than you eat every day.”

A calorie is a measurement for a form of energy – heat.
The food you are eating releases, when digested, an amount of energy (heat). So each type of food has a caloric value.

The total amount of calories that you consume in a day is the sum of the caloric values of the foods eaten on that particular day.

Calories are also used as a measurement for the amount of energy stored in the body as adipose tissues (fat) or glycogen (stored carbohydrates).

The amount of calories that you use in a day is also known as your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and consists of:
• The calories used for normal bodily functions like digestion, circulation, eating etc. – your Basal Metabolic Rate.
• The calories used while performing physical activities.

What happens when your total energy expenditure is greater then the number of calories eaten is that a caloric deficit appears. The body, in an attempt to reach energy balance, must tap into stored fat for energy – calories are released from body fat and used for energy.

Using body fat for energy (because of the caloric deficit) leads to lower body fat levels and, implicitly, weight loss.

(Total energy expenditure) – (Calorie intake) = (Caloric deficit)

If you know a bit of math (and I bet you do), you would clearly see that the calorie deficit can be created/increased in 3 ways:
1. Increasing total energy expenditure above calorie intake
2. Decreasing calorie consumption below total energy expenditure
3. At the same time decrease caloric intake and increase energy expenditure

The obvious pick between the three is number 3.

So if you want to lose fat what you should try to do is decrease your calories and increase the amount of exercise.