Muscle toning — What that really means and how to do it.
In the health and fitness industry, most people talk about wanting to “tone” their bodies and body parts. A quick google of terms “arm toning” and “thigh toning” workouts will yield heaps of workouts — some effective, many not.
“Muscle tone” is actually less about a muscle’s physical appearance, and more about the neuroanatomy and health of it.
To save you from a science lesson with complicated anatomical terms and processes (you can definitely look it up if you’re interested!), I will tell you simply that muscle tone actually refers to the tension in your muscle. And this is completely to do with how effective your nervous system is. Muscle tone is said to “reflect a state of preparedness to a movement and thus it may not be possible to estimate muscle tone when the person is asked to relax and not to make any movement” (Ganguly et al., 2021). It is very much to do with the excitability of the sensory and motor cells for maintaining your posture or static position, and for controlled movements. You can read more here if you want to nerd out on an article.
In my days as an Occupational Therapist in the medical world, muscle tone is very much perceived in a functional and biomechanical way. When working with clients who may have various medical conditions affecting their spinal cord and brain, such as cerebral palsy, we would often be addressing muscle spasticity, which is hyper-excitability of the nervous system that can cause involuntary and rigid movements. In contrast (but can still be present in a person with cerebral palsy), a client with hypotonia is said to have poor muscle tone which can lead to floppiness, it can also be associated with muscle weakness due to motor unit recruitment.
Now, in jumping back to the fitness world, when people say they want to tone up, usually they’re not talking about their nervous systems. They are talking about wanting a firmer appearance of their muscles.
This is achieved through resistance/strength training. Whether through body weighted activities or weightlifting workouts. Consistently exposing your muscles to these movements and under a load will cause them to respond by growing and getting stronger. THIS is what gives you the sculpted, firm or toned look. This, coupled with reduced fat mass on the body.
So for anyone who is searching for the PERFECT toning workout, let me simplify it for you:
Find a strength training program that you like. You can achieve results by doing 3 sessions per week.
Eat a whole-food, plant-based diet that is low fat. Your macronutrient split can look something like 70-75% carbohydrates, 10-15% fats and 10-15% protein. Yes, this is MORE than enough protein for your fitness endeavours. Any more than this is putting your kidneys at risk and so much more. Read my previous article on the dangers of high protein, high fat diets.
Excessive cardio is going to do the opposite of toning you up. It will cause muscle wastage and age you. You can always manipulate your strength workouts to make them more cardio-based (unless you play a sport that requires running… then it’s a good idea to train for this). Strength training has many benefits on your bones, strengthens the walls of your heart, increases capillarisation of your body, and can improve lung function.
If this sounds simple but you don’t know where to start, then I suggest you start here – a place where I teach women who are adamant that they “aren’t working out people” how to move and strengthen their bodies, how to eat plenty WHILE losing fat, and how to maintain high energy levels throughout the day. And they all end up realising that “not being a woman who likes working out” was just a story ;)
Join Strong With Amya — Home workout program and coaching for beginners.
Love,
Amya