Let me tell you a little story. Back in the 50’s and 60’s the gym was a predominantly male space. It was also becoming a more popular activity for people to engage in. Gym owners recognized this and realized they were only capturing half of the clientele. But, they had a problem. The gym was associated with men building muscle and getting stronger. It was hard to get a woman to walk into a gym and pay for a membership, so they had a stroke of marketing genius and came up with a term that both dialed down the intensity and attracted a more female audience: tone your body.
For those of you who don’t know, “toning” or getting that “toned” look is when someone reduces their body fat and increases their overall musculature. To achieve this look you need to do two things: engage in heavy (relative term) resistance training and take a hard look at your nutrition. You MUST build muscle. Muscle is what gives the body shape. If you lose body fat but gain no muscle your body won’t have any shape or curvature to it, male or female.
In addition, building muscle also helps you lose body fat without killing yourself on a cardio machine. Muscle is a very calorically expensive tissue and therefore increases your overall metabolism. The more muscle you have on your body the more calories you will burn just sitting around watching Netflix than the average person.
It has been very cool to see the amount of women that are now engaging in regular strength training increase over the course of my Coaching career. I credit Crossfit a lot for kicking that into high gear. Weightlifting is extremely healthy for women and the amount it can do for you physically, mentally, emotionally, and hormonally is incredible.
So if you’re looking to get “toned”, get off the treadmill and hit the weight room. Start lifting heavy, whatever that is for you, and really look at your food — the two go hand-in-hand. If you are unsure where to start with either, I would highly suggest you find a knowledgeable Coach who can point you in the right direction.
