ronnymar

I started lifting serious about 2 months ago. I am lifting 5 times a week and I am eating like 6 times a day. Im using muscle milk as a protein sources for 2 of my meals. I have greatly increased my strength but I am not getting the tone results I want. I do cardio twice a week. I like packing the calories because it gives me the energy to have killer workouts.

Does anyone have a training program or suggestions for improving tone, because I'm happy with my strength results but I want to get more toned. Thanks

soccerchamp76

Well, it is well known in the weight-lifting and fitness world that there are two distinct and separate phases in personal fitness:
1) Cutting - losing fat, slimming down
2) Bulking - increasing muscle mass

What most people do is do their bulking phase in the winter months, and their cutting phases in the spring months (before summer warm weather, etc.)

The reason for this is that cutting (i.e. getting "tone", decreasing body fat %) must happen at a caloric deficit (i.e. burning more calories than you consume). Bulking requires you to eat at a caloric surplus (more calories than you metabolize). That doesn't mean eat a McDonald's meal for calories, however. Most people do gain a small amount of fat during their bulking phase, but nothing compared to the muscle gain. The fat is easily lost during the cutting phase as well.

So, if you want to improve "tone", you have to lose body fat. Drop the weights, hit the treadmill and bike, and eat healthy. You can continue to lift lightly, but not too much. In just a few weeks (if you are true to your diet/exercise), you'll notice results.

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Vincentt

Don't ever go light on the weights!

If you are going to go light, you would just be doing fancy cardio.


Reduce your calories and fat. Muscle milk has a lot of fat. Start doing HIIT cardio for 20-30 min every day. Continue to work on your strength, it will be harder because of the lack of energy.

A solution is to work with very heavy weight. Doing less reps.
I read some research that said the difference between 1 set and 3 was about 5%. Try doing only one set, but make it very heavy.

http://apt.allenpress.com/aptonline/...e=01&page=0035

This article says that more sets IS better for muscle growth in trained people.
There is no diffrence in untrained people.

So, that of course depends on what trained and untrained are

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thingstodo

First of all you've only been lifting for two months. Patience, grasshopper! It takes three months to achieve noticable results. Second, lifting five times a week is a bit much, especially with another two days of cardio.

One of the most important aspects of working out is letting your body recover. Lift tears up muscles and recovery time builds them up again. If they don't rebuild, you waste time and only hurt yourself.

At the most you might think about lifting three days a week, doing cardio in between (but not on the day after legs) and take one day off.

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intellijence

I like what soccerchamp76 had to say but I'm going to have to disagree with a few of the posts.

Lifting light and doing more reps (15-20 at about 50-60% of your max) will tone you more. Lifting heavier and less reps (6-12 depending on how many sets) is where you will gain muscle. Cardio is good but make sure you have variations in your work-out. Make sure to alter the intensity, the type of cardio, the length of time and the amount of times during the week you do cardio.

Use 100% Whey for protein instead of Muscle Milk for fewer calories (or Muscle Milk Light, although I haven't tried it before).

Lifting 5-6 times a week is fine as long as you target a different muscle group each day. Example, my routine consists of: Mon - Chest, Tues - Back, abs, Wed - Arms, Thurs - Legs, abs, Fri - Shoulders, Sat - Cardio+abs (I also do cardio every day but I'm trying to lose weight; cardio after lifting burns fat...). If you are to take up a routine similar to mine, make sure you exhaust your muscles until the next week.

Hope this helps

elydian

Okay, some of the stuff that's been said is dead-on, some of it isn't.

The single fact that you need to know about muscle definition is this:

It's a question of fat and fat only.

Muscles do basically one thing, they get bigger (or smaller). Their definition is already there and the only reason you would appear not to have it, is because it's covered with a layer of fat. The only way to gain muscle definition is to lose fat, and that's a case of burning more calories than you consume.

Do not do higher rep sets. Doing higher rep sets for definition is a complete myth, and all it will do will lose you muscle size instead of losing you fat (and consequently gaining you definition). In fact, during a cutting diet, it's more important to keep the weights heavy in order to make sure your muscles continue to get the message that you want them to stay big, forcing your body to burn more fat when it loses weight (and less muscle).

What's been said earlier is generally true. Most bodybuilders have a bulking phase and a cutting phase. They bulk by eating in slight excess of what they burn off, using high protein, medium carbs, and low or medium fat (these ratios differ between people). That achieves them the muscle growth, which is usually accompanied by a little fat too. They'll then cut usually by dropping the carbs (and maybe the fat) and keeping the protein high.

The important thing is that there's no real reason to change your actual workout between the phases. You should be lifting heavy always (some people find 6-8 reps to failure per set is a good range, although I've heard people going as low as 4-6).

Cardio will lose you weight but only because it adds to your calories burned. An alternative is just to reduce your calories consumed by eating less. However, including some cardio is generally a good idea anyway, for a healthy heart, but there's no reason to do over about 15 medium-high intensity minutes, 5 times a week (I, personally, maintain about 45 bpm rested heart rate, doing just this).

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