Warning: Light weights and high reps won't tone your muscle
Written on 11:28 PM by trif_m
After years of being told that high reps increase muscle tone, I'm here to tell you to take the opposite approach. Read on to find out why it is actually heavy weight/low rep training that tones your muscles.
The question most asked by novice trainees is: “How do I get the firm and toned body I always wanted?”
The answer they will likely receive to this question is: “If you want to tone do light weights and high reps.”
But guess what… your personal trainer or good intentioned friend is wrong!
Read on to find out why light weights and high reps don’t tone your muscle and what should you do for excellent muscle tone.
What is muscle tone anyway?
Muscle tone is residual tension in a relaxed muscle.
What this means in layman terms is that even when a muscle is relaxed, nerve impulses from your brain stimulate the muscle fibers within it to contract; so the muscle is in a constant state of partial contraction which keeps it firm, healthy and always ready to use.
So, basically, you already have a certain amount of muscle tone.
How can I improve my muscle tone?
Because, as you learned earlier, muscle tone comes from neurological activity increased muscle tone is not the result of a physical transformation of the muscle but rather an increase of residual tension in the muscle as a result of the nervous system being more alert.
Again, what this means in layman terms is that in order to increase muscle tone you must increase the tension in the muscle. Lifting heavy weights generates higher tension in the muscle than light weights therefore should be practiced for muscle tone.
But if high reps/light weights don’t work, how come I feel so hard and toned after such a workout?
Good question!
The way muscle fibers work is that they can contract on their own but need energy to de-contract. The energy compound that relaxes the muscle is known as ATP.
High reps exhaust ATP in your muscle which leads to a temporary hardness (due to impossibility to de-contract) also known as the pump which is just temporary muscle tone.
But won’t training hard bulk me up instead of tone my muscle?
This depends on the volume of work (number of sets and reps) performed.
The key to getting strong and hard (toned) without the added bulk is to train heavy but keep the volume low.
How you should train and how low is enough is the subject of a upcoming post, so I won’t go into details here.
I realize that just this single post is not enough to convince you to give up on the idea that high reps = high tone that you’ve been indoctrinated in all of this years but I hope that at least it got you thinking a bit.
Until next time!
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Actually, lower repetitions work fast twitch muscles, which are most involved with muscle size. (example: sensation of no more strength left in exerted muscle)
Higher repetitions with less weight work slow-twitch muscles, which are most involved with density. (example: sensation of burning)
Bodybuilding routines for size consist of high weight with low repetitions, especially for advanced bodybuilding for size. Residual tension (emphasis on residual) is not the same as muscle density.
Here are the scientific facts:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:Yr7uO7rTKnkJ:www.sergiogregorio.com.br/artigos/schoenfeld_2000.pdf+higher+repetitions+muscle&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=us&client=firefox-a
http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/shane6.htm
#1. Buddy, I may be confused or the article changed since I last seen it BUT I don't remember saying that Residual Tension is the same as muscle density or even mentioning what muscle fibers lower reps work.
Let me ask you this: If I do Low Reps with 20% of my 1 RM am I working fast twitch fibers. I think not, so you can't talk about motor unit activation just by taking reps in account.
#2. Next, it is really cute how you explained to me the sensations and it's funny how you start with Actually when such things aren't discussed in the article.
#3. I Read the articles. One articles clearly say:
"Low repetition work (in the 1-5 rep range) provides an extremely unique adaptation.
.....
Strength gains in the 1-5 rep range can take place without muscular hypertrophy.
......
This is due to signaling problems occurring in the nervous system. These problems occur because the nervous system is asked to act extremely fast and furious and is taxed to its limit. Second, contractile proteins in a cell are responsible for muscular growth and must be exposed to enough stress (which they aren't in low repetition sets) or they will not be damaged enough to overcompensate and increase in size."
But let's assume that you think 6-8 reps or even 9-12 reps is low rep. Indeed it says that they generate very good hypertrophy. But you are forgetting one thing - the total volume of work (number of sets).
If you don't do enough sets to damage muscle fibers than you mainly have the CNS and SNS adapations and improve muscle tone.
And what did I say about Volume of work?
let me quote it for you:
"The key to getting strong and hard (toned) without the added bulk is to train heavy but keep the volume low."
That's right - LOW VOLUME BUT HIGH INTENSITY WORK.
#4. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to make a comment, I appreciate it. I want to hear from you again, maybe we can bash each other some more ;)
Hello,
I spoke from experience when I was mentioning the symptoms, cute or not. These assumptions I wrote may help explain why many people who do high repetitions do not always experience increased muscle tone - they don't do enough repetitions to get the muscles burning.
Repetitions in the 1-5 range may indeed provide a unique adaptation, though if memory serves me correctly Arnold Schwarzeneger's routine consisted of many sets of 5 repetitions.
However, you certainly implied that residual tension was muscle density when you said that "muscle tone is residual tension in a relaxed muscle".
The teen bodybuilding article I hyperlinked mention that 1-5 repetitions result in strength gains - I won't pretend I understand that. However, the fact is that [lighter weights] and higher repetitions will tone your muscles, that fact is supported by that article.
About volume of work - I'm not sure what you are trying to say. Naturally, the number of sets and weight of the resistance should correspond to the number of repetitions you do, or no progress will be made either due to insufficient muscle work or impractically difficult exercises.
Thanks for engaging!