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Why Workout Routines for Toning Fail | Fitness Tips

If your fitness goal is to get a ‘toned body’, you’ve probably been doing all the wrong things with your workout routine. Learn what “toned” really means and how you can achieve it.

It’s almost impossible to pick up a fitness magazine and not find a reference to “toning your abs”, “toning your butt” or “toning your legs or thighs.”

But I’m going to let you in on one of the best kept secrets in fitness: There really is no such thing as “toning” or being “toned” — at least in the sense of what people normally associate with ”toned muscle” or a ”toned body.”  

There is a concept in anatomy and physiology called residual muscle contraction or tonus, but it refers to the continuous and partial contraction of a muscle to help stabilize posture and balance. It has nothing to do with the outward appearance of your body or whether you have tight glutes and washboard abs. You can be out of shape and struggle to climb a flight of stairs and still have muscle tonus.

So what’s the story? What is this “toning” that everyone is always talking about?

How the “Toned Body” Myth Got Started

At some point years ago, fitness writers, personal trainers and people who really ought to know better started using the term “toned” to describe individuals with high muscle mass to low body fat ratios. Instead of saying that an athlete, fitness model or highly-in-shape person was “lean and muscular” they started saying the person was “toned.”

Why this happened isn’t exactly clear. My theory is that the words “muscle” and “muscular” are scary and intimidating for some people, especially to many women who have been conditioned to run as fast as they can from the dreaded “M-Word.” The seemingly endless stream of articles online and in major fitness magazines instructing women how not to ”bulk up” and avoid become “muscular” via workout routines for “toning” is a major contributor to this myth.

So fitness writers and trainers started to use “toned” as a way of describing being muscular, without actually saying the word “muscular.” It seemed innocent enough, and it allowed them to not have to get into big, long, involved and uncomfortable discussions with their clients about why they should top obsessing on becoming too “bulky.”

You Can’t Diet or Treadmill Your Way to “Toned”

The problem is, to get a body that fits most people’s definition of “toned”, you have to weight train. And you generally have to go heavy. And you need to put on muscle mass. And you’ll have to drop your body fat ratio.  That’s the secret. Those four things. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a male or a female. It applies equally regardless of gender.

This may seem like an issue of semantics and a little thing, but it’s not. The problem is that “toned” has become a euphemism for “lean and muscular”, yet most people don’t realize that. They think “toned” is something you achieve by dieting, doing endless bouts of cardio and maybe occasionally doing some pilates or high-rep, low-weight resistance training.

So by obscuring what “toning” really means, we’ve doomed all kinds of people to pursuing toning workout routines that will likely never allow them to achieve their fitness, physique or body-shaping goals. They’ll continue to avoid any kind of serious weight training, go too light on the resistance, focus on high reps that only improve muscle endurance (not size or shape),  put way too much time and attention on ”functional” exercises and try to stair-step their way to a “toned” body.

And when it doesn’t work, they’ll go seek out the newest “30 Minute Body Toning Workout” and get right back on the hamster wheel again, only to be frustrated in three weeks when nothing has changed.  Maybe that’s how you sell fitness magazines and personal training sessions, but I’d prefer to think we’re in the business of helping people succeed, not just pushing services or content.

There’s A Whole ‘Lotta Toning Going On

So how pervasive is this term or concept of “toning?”

It’s probably one of the most frequently asked questions in the Diet and Fitness section of Yahoo Answers — especially among women (although I do see some men using it.) Typically, it will come in the form of a question like: “How can I get toned without becoming bulky?” or “Does anyone have any toning exercises that won’t make me put on muscle.”

Of course, if they hadn’t been sold the “myth of toning” and understood exactly what that term really meant, their questions would be absurd.

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Getting Real with Fitness Model Amanda Carrier | Female Fitness Model Interviews

Professional fitness model and actress Amanda Carrier talks with Answer Fitness about her diet and exercise routine, why she lifts heavy, looking sexy while you’re pregnant and America’s obsession with “thin at any cost.”

Amanda Carrier has a confession to make. Actually two of them.

The Muscle & Fitness Hers cover girl, Maxim model, actress and amateur pugilist (yes, she likes to box) has a little secret to share. And it has to do with cheat meals.

“I cheat everyday!” she gushes. “Sometimes a couple of times a day!”

This was not what I was expecting to hear from a woman who has some of the flattest female abs around and makes a living posing in barely-there bikinis.

A cheat meal once a week, I expected. A cheat day, perhaps. But daily cheat meals? And more than one of them a day?

I was waiting for Amanda to say she had “fast-metabolism” that let her eat whatever she wanted and still keep that body beach-ready for the next photo shoot or acting role.

But she didn’t.

Enter Amanda’s second confession: Until she started hitting the weights and getting serious with her training, she admits that she was the quintessential “skinny fat girl” - her scale weight said she was lean, her body fat percentage and appearance said otherwise.

“I had been inactive all of my life. I didn’t really play sports. I was always told I had a pretty face, but I wanted to also be told I had a nice body.  I never really felt like I had a womanly, sexy body,” Amanda explains. “I was thin, but ‘mushy.’ I had stick legs, a flabby belly and a square waist. I had to work really hard to put on curves.”

This was not what I was expecting to hear at all.

In a way, I was actually thrilled to hear Amanda say this, even if it seemed unimaginable based on how she looked in her swimwear portfolio.

Breaking The Myths Around Female Fitness

I’ve been wanting to run a series of interviews with female fitness models for some time now. 

Not the usual “Tell me your turn-Ons and Turn-Offs” that you often see accompanying their spreads in men’s magazines, but more honest and serious interviews around their exercise routines, diet, and philosophy for staying fit.

I thought it would be a great way to counter some of the myths around women and weight training and help inspire my female readers. I was also hoping to take some of the gloss off from fitness models and demonstrate that for many of them, getting and staying in top shape has more to do with hard work, healthy eating and good habits than with genes or metabolism.  

I decided to start this series with Amanda Carrier, partly on appearances and partly on instinct. And based on the interview she gave, I’m glad I did.

Profile: Amanda Carrier

Place of Birth: Alexandria, LA
Current Home: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Fitness Model & Actress
Age: 28
Height: 5 5″
Weight: 125-130
Measurements: 34C-26-37
Bodyfat: 14-16%
Marital Status: Married
Favorite Activities: Weight Training, Boxing
Amanda’s Workout Routine: 4-Day Split; Trains legs twice a week; Cardio is performed on non-weight training days, usually on a stair-stepper or elliptical trainer set to high resistance to keep her glutes hard. 
Favorite Food Indulgence: Sweets
Best Body Part: “Butt and abs”
Favorite Healthy Recipe: Pumpkin Pancakes
Latest Film Project: Featured role in “Labor Pains” with Lindsay Lohan
Website: Amanda Carrier Actress and Fitness Model (www.amandacarrier441.com)

What’s So Cool About Amanda?

I first ran across Amanda in 2007 in Muscle and Fitness Hers magazine where she did an eight page workout spread (she also graced the cover) demonstrating how to use resistance bands and an exercise ball to get a killer home workout. 

Amanda had that great combination of athleticism, feminine curves and tight, toned muscle that I think a lot of women associate with a fit, sexy, bikini-ready body. 

And she just looked so healthy, which struck me as a refreshing break from the pencil-thin role models trotted out in Hollywood or on the fashion runways.

My instincts told me this wasn’t a woman who got in that kind of shape with a bottle of Trim Spa, The Detox Diet and 90 minutes of cardio seven days a week. I’ve spent enough time in the gym to recognize a woman who lifts weights, and I was willing to bet Amanda did her fair share of hanging out in the weight room.

My instincts were right.

 I asked Amanda, who just wrapped up shooting a featured role in the upcoming movie “Labor Pains” with Lindsay Lohan, if she’d do the honors of kicking off my fitness model interview series because I suspected that she’d be able to back up some of the things I discuss regularly on Answer Fitness around female weight training, dieting and focusing on reducing body fat, instead of simply scale weight.

I also thought she would be a healthy role model for my female readers and help debunk the myth that lifting weights will make you bulky and manly. After all, there is nothing manly about Amanda Carrier. She is walking, talking proof of why more women should cut back on the endless cardio and start working in the weights.

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Am I Fat? | Why Body Fat Percentage Is More Important Than Weight

Here’s a Little Secret: The scale lies. Learn why you should focus on decreasing your body fat percentage, instead of just your weight.

Stepping on the bathroom scale is a daily ritual for many dieters, athletes and fitness enthusiasts. After all  being healthy and in-shape means weighing less, right?

Scales seem to be everywhere: The home bathroom, the gym or health club locker room, and – of course — the doctor’s office.  We’re a society increasingly obsessed with our weight, but ironically, one that is becoming fatter than ever.

But what if you knew that your trusty scale was deceiving you? What if you found out that losing a pound or two (or even five) doesn’t mean you’ll look any thinner or more in-shape? What if I told you that losing weight is actually making you fatter?

Why Weight Loss Should Never Be Your Goal

Our preoccupation with moving that pointer on the bathroom scale down closer to zero is at the root of most people’s frustration with becoming healthier and more fit.  Crash diets, fad diets, endless hours of cardio, extreme calorie restriction and eating disorders can be traced directly to our desire to step on the scale and see that we’ve lost weight.

Yet the number that you see on the scale each morning is a terrible indicator of body composition.  Weight alone can’t tell you anything about the distribution of that weight. It doesn’t take into account the ratio of fat to lean tissue, which can cause very lean people to think they are fatter than they really are, and fat people to think they are leaner.  

In other words, losing weight can actually be a bad thing, especially if you are doing it at the expense of lean tissue like muscle.  If all you are using to gauge your fitness progress is scale weight alone, you are only getting half-the-picture.
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