What's the best way to get toned?

[thebossman]

I've been working out for a while now but my muscles won't show like I want them to. what's the best work out to get toned?

[candlewax]

This is something I'm starting to see a bit too often with guys. They focus way too much on resistance training and then whine about how they aren't "big" and their muscles aren't showing.

But they never do much cardio. Cardio is the golden ticket here. It always will be. You can work out those muscles all you want, but if you aren't adequately burning the fat that covers up those purdy muscles, they won't show much.

Muscle mass WILL help increase metabolism, thus helping you burn fat more adequately, but it has nothing on the extent that cardio will have on burning fat.

Try doing a full body resistance training routine 3 days a week and do cardio daily. Or you can do a split and use a cardio based exercise that will also work out, say, legs.

Example being one day you do upper body. Same day, you do cardio, but do something like the elliptical. It'll give you cardio but also work out the lower body in the process. Mixing it up will help prevent plateau and burn out.

You can get much more creative than going to the gym all the time and lifting a bunch of weights for a few hours. I recently had to do an exercise prescription with someone who was in the same boat. He was obsessively working out, muscles only. He was given a prescription of cutting back on resistance and instead of doing splits, only to do full body work out 3 days a week with cardio every day. In turn, his muscles were likely to show more because the body fat that we'd assessed was the reason why his muscles weren't showing much (the body fat percentage was a tad high, despite his working out obsessively).

Also, addressing the response of yours below, 3 sets of 25 is absolutely ridiculous. If you have to do that many, you're doing it wrong. You should be doing 3-5 sets of 10-12 reps each at most. 20 minutes of track is really... not helpful. Up it to 40-60 min of cardio. You have the right idea, you just need to adjust your routine a tad.

[LJHam]

What does your workout consist of? Have you tried the P90X stuff?

You probably need to change up what you're doing. Muscles get used to doing the same thing all the time. I've been working out on an elliptical since the beginning of the year. Started at 20 minutes and typically go for 45-60 minutes now. I increase the resistance sometimes and really focus on working my thighs and glutes. But for the first time yesterday, I did an interval sculpting class. I had to modify most of the stuff because I couldn't keep up, so I ended up doing a lot of squats throughout the hour. And today, I can barely lower myself to sit down. So obviously, just working my legs on the machine isn't doing much.

[thebossman]

i usually just lift dumbells. 3 sets of 25, I do crunches, and I run track for like 20 minutes. I do crunches till I can't move. I want abs.

[LJHam]

I can't tell you how many different ab muscles there are but you have to do various ab exercises to hit ALL of them if you want a 6 pack. check out some YouTube videos.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

First off, not 3 sets of 25.

A bodybuilding routine consists of 9-12 sets of 8-12 reps. Generally people will do 3-4 sets per exercise and do 3 exercises per a muscle and then maybe a superset to finish. E.g. 3 sets of 8 reps of concentrated curls, 4 sets of 12 reps of hammer curls, 3 sets of 10 reps of preacher curls, one set of fast lightweight reps to failure (strive to fail within 15-25 reps).

If all you have is dumbbells...

Do push exercises one day.. so..

Tricep kickbacks

Tricep overhead extensions

Arnold Presses (shoulders)

Lateral Raises (shoulders)

Butterflies (chest)

Dumbbell Chest Press

etc..

Pull exercises the next day.. so..

Hammer curls (biceps)

Concentrated curls (biceps)

Dumbbell Rows (lats)

Shrugs (traps)

etc..

Legs the next..

Squat jumps

Frog jumps

Hill sprints

One legged wall sits

Etc..

Then repeat the cycle.

If you have more gym options.. Include Squat, Deadlift, Bench and Military/Overhead Press in there.

Have 35% or more of your calorie intake come from protein. Record your calorie intake and your weight (in the morning, naked) daily to find out how many calories you're burning a day (1lb = 3500 calories). After 2-3 weeks you should have a good guesstimate on how many calories your body needs a day.

[candlewax]

You absolutely forgot the part where he needs to do cardio. He can do all this til he's blue in the face, but he needs that cardio to get rid of the fat covering those muscles.

[NotJustAnotherGuy]

You absolutely forgot the part that a BB routine requires strict dieting and is a lot of reps and thus calories burned. He doesn't need cardio. An hour of lifting a day is enough. And doing nothing but cardio will only make him skinny. Why do you think there are really skinny people with no definition? Because body fat % is more than just how much fat there is on your body. It's the ratio of fat to lean muscle mass. Increasing muscle mass = decreasing body fat %.

[martyfellow]

An allaround sport,like tennis, is a way to get overall toned. Aerobics classes also will do this for you inf theyinclude light weight workand are really vigorous.

[Kearra]

You have abs but you can tree them because of the layer of fat. Cardio gets rid of the fat so you can see them. Crunches just makes them slightly more defined.

[DanteSparda]

visit this . you'll find what type of body you want :)

link

[martyfellow]

To SHOW muscles you'd have to lose weight overall as well as work out. Don't worry, you're getting the health benefit you need.

[Aizou]

the workout excercises you are forced

to do in parkour is great for that ^-^

[ManaX]

Do some cardio, for you muscle to show you need to lower your body fat percentage as well.

[Anonymous]

Sprinting and other high intensity cardio aim for 20-30 minutes of intense exercises and you'll burn away that fat.

[max_alpha]

If you are fat.. do more cardio and strict diet

For skinny - eat more protein foods and do compound exercises will help you

Good luck.

[Alanaaa]

Eat healthy,

[MrEM4N]

Healthy diet.