By Nick Nilsson
Author of Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss
The first thing I USED do when someone told me they "just wanted to tone up" was slap my palm to my forehead and groan.
It's not because I'm frustrated with that person...quite the contrary! Describing their goal as "getting toned" is just as valid as any other description.
I know exactly what they mean when they say it...it's up to ME, the trainer, to determine the best way to help that person get to their goal, not criticize how they describe it.
Please realize, I'm NOT frustrated with the the person asking me the question about how to "get toned," but I AM frustrated with a fitness industry and popular media that LEADS people to believe they can make changes to their body without any real meaningful work and without actually building any honest-to-goodness, fully-functioning, metabolism-boosting muscle. That's the real problem.
To be blunt and to put it another way, tricep kickbacks with a soup can will NOT stop your underarms from flapping in the wind.
The reason I used to be frustrated was because I would see people who wanted to "get toned" doing useless training programs that got them nowhere. And then they gave up.
This is something I can't stand to see because I desperately WANT you to succeed in changing your body and getting healthier (it's why I'm in the business I'm in). Ineffective training information can stop you right in your tracks.
The look that most people would describe as "toned" is primarily the result of building some degree of muscle (or keeping the muscle you've got!) and losing fat. If you don't have muscle mass, you can lose fat but you'll just be a smaller version of what you are right now.
The problem arises when a person uses exercises and programs that bend to the desire not to build a single extra ounce of muscle for fear of "getting big bulky muscles." By doing that, you basically throw out most, if not all, of the most effective things you can do for fat loss!
And please believe me, I'm not saying this to be mean or discourage anyone from exercising. I'm saying this because you DESERVE to know the truth...
If you want results and "get toned," you need to train with challenging exercises and targeted fat-loss workouts. It's not glamorous but it works.
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