Do You Want To Tone Up?

Recently I had a new group fitness client ask me if she could book me for private training to focus more on "toning up her body". At the beginning of our first session together, I asked her what she would like to get out of this experience. She responded saying that it wasn't really weight that she wanted to lose (as she is already a petite woman), however, she desires to tone up what she does have.

My response to her was simple: Do you enjoy lifting weights?

She replied that she did in fact enjoy weight lifting, and so I continued to explain to her that there really isn't a type of program out there that is geared towards "toning" the body. In truth, most strength coaches and personal trainers who know anything at all will tell you that the word "tone" or any of it's variations doesn't really have a true meaning.

Basically, when you say, "toning", I hear "strengthening". They are one in the same.

I have learned through thousands of these conversations with men and women alike that upon describing to them what the symptoms and subsequent consequences are of weight lifting, that's what they mentally picture as "toning". Simply put, strengthening the body means to increase the density of a muscle while recruiting additional muscle fiber to develop in that area, thus taking the space of where fat used to be. In your eyes, you are more tone. In my eyes, you have gained strength!!

Now, that we've solved that communication breakdown, we can move into the simple explanation of how to "tone" your body:

Lift heavy objects. Lift them safely, and lift them often.

With my clients, I have broken down the barriers of the aforementioned misunderstanding, and low and behold, what do you think is the most populated class at the gym with both men and women is?

You guessed it. Weightlifting.

Changing Lives Everyday,

Bill Meyer

Bill Meyer is considered the best personal trainer and strength coach in Norfolk, Virginia. For questions and comments, please call 757-222-0344 or email at bill@meyer-fitness.com

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