What happens when you work a muscle?

When you ask your muscles to do something, they get better at doing it.

Now, the human body is complex, so of course there arentonlytwo things that happen.

But those are the main ones.

You burn calories and build endurance with cardio, too, such as running.

These last two items do not have a visible effect on your body.

You cant tell how good somebodys endurance is by looking at them.

Exercise by itself does not change the amount of fat on your body.

So how do I get that toned look?

Lean just means without fat, so if you want to look lean, youre looking at fat loss.

And thelengthof a muscle isnt something you’re able to control: Its attached to your bones.

How would it get longer?

What does a toning workout do?

So then whats with all these toning workouts?

Isnt there a toning rep range?

Dont you need smaller weights for toning than for getting jacked?

Well, I hate to break it to you, butthats all bullshit people say to sell stuff.

Youre still working on endurance, but endurance isnt going to do much to change how your body looks.

What about the size of your weights?

Well, to hit those appropriate rep ranges,you should probably lift weights that are heavy for you.

Maybe youre new to this and five pounds is a really challenging bicep curl.

Thats your heavy, for now.

As you get stronger, youll need heavier weights.

(Keep in mind, though: different exercises use different muscle groups.

Somebody who uses a five-pound weight for curls is going to need a heavier weight forgoblet squats.)

If your muscle-building exercises dont involve weights, the same principles still apply.

So you oughta do normal-ass strength training.

A lot of popular onesarent even real HIIT, theyre just circuit training.

Crossfit WODs (workout of the day) fall into this category, too.

High-rep exercises without weights or with light weights: A lot ofbooty bandandankle weightworkouts fall into this category.

If they feel hard enough to count as strength training, great!

But most are not, especially once youre not a beginner anymore.

At that point, theyre just training endurance without actually building muscle.

If you like them, or if endurance is important to you, enjoy.

But theyre not going to tone you at all.