The first thing you need to know is that your body gets used to the resistance you put it into everyday…
For example, there is no gravity when people travel to space for weeks. There is not enough resistance for the body to keep its muscle. Therefore, astronauts start losing their muscle fast and when they come back to earth, they need to train to gain the muscle lost.
If you have a sedentary life, you are not challenging your muscles to grow and they are adjusting to the lifestyle you are practicing. However, if you have a physically demanding lifestyle, your muscles are being challenged and your body needs to meet such demand.
Many people think that an athlete has a fit body and therefore it’s an athlete. But the truth is that the training that she does makes her an athlete and therefore its fit.
So for you to tone your body you need to challenge your muscles to meet the new resistance…
For example, if you can only squat your body weight, you have enough strength to be able to squat your body weight. However, as you squat your body weight more often, your body will meet the new resistance and you will be able to squat your body weight with no problem. Now you need new resistance which is adding an extra weight while squatting. You may feel the same way you felt when you started squatting your body weight because it is a new resistance, but you will get used to the new weight just like you did to your body weight while squatting.
If you continue adding weight as the time passes and as your body allows you to, your muscle will increase and your muscle fiber will get stronger and that is what tones your body.
However, if you stop lifting the new heavy resistance, or decreasing the weight you have increased, you will start losing the muscle mass and the strength you have increased. Once again, the body is getting used to the resistance you are putting it to.
Now you know that you need to increase your weight lifting to tone your body…
Next I am going to tell you how to increase your weight lifting. I bet you want a balanced, healthy and toned body. If that is the case, what I recommend is to learn all the big muscle groups you need to work. Plus what exercise will be the best to work your whole body.
For example, you need to work your chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, core, hamstrings, butt, and calf, find exercise that works all those muscle groups and create a routine that better fits your needs.
Like I mentioned, you are going to increase your weight lifting to tone your body and to do that, you need to do it in a safe way to not get injured or burn out…
You need to learn body mechanics or the correct way to perform any exercise before you can overload your muscles. For example, to squat, you can start with your body weight. Once you can correctly squat your body weight at least 10 repetitions after a week, now you can increase the resistance by adding the barbell on the squat rack or use some 10 pound dumbbells holding them by your shoulders. After a couple of weeks you will be able to add 10 more pounds, and after a couple weeks you will be able to add another 10 pounds allowing you to lift around 40 pounds when squatting. However, as you become stronger, it will take more time to add more weight. Instead of weeks, it might take months before you can add 10 more pounds to your load.
You want to follow this process for all muscle groups in your body. That is why it is important to create a weight lifting routine where you target all big muscle groups…
Create a routine when you do at least 3 to 5 sets of exercise, 8 to 15 repetitions with at 3 different exercises per muscle group per week. There are many programs out there you can use.
Don’t forget that you need to eat healthy and lower your body fat percentage to get definition in your body. Does not matter how much muscle and strength you get if your fat percentage is high. So make sure you get an optimum fat percentage and start overloading your muscle to tone your body.