How to tone your body female body fast, tips and exercises that actually WORK!
Medically reviewed and approved by Nataniel Josue M.D.
How to have a toned body? How to tone up a woman's body? In the former Soviet Union, they determined the beauty of a body by measuring its muscle tone.
To have a woman's toned body, you must lower the percentage of body fat and train the muscles to achieve a proportionate and striking muscle tone. This "muscle tone" is achieved by training moderately with weights and a diet high in protein with moderate fats and carbohydrates.
If you want to have this tone, a little training is needed so that when the muscle is relaxed, it looks toned.
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The theme of training and exercise for women has more nuanced than that of men. For example:
- The concern about hypertrophy with the muscle.
- Typical bodybuilding programs are not suitable for women.
- Targeted or group classes are not usually very useful.
- Some exercises increase the volume of some areas too much.
- What and how much to do to tone the body
Women have a variety of needs to have a (more) attractive and healthy body.
You may need to lose 10, 20, 30, or more pounds of fat, you may need to gain muscle (and maybe fat) throughout your body, or you may need to increase the size of specific muscles (typically the buttocks).
Because of so much variation in what women should do, I'm not too fond of the typical collective classes (for women), which are usually too generalized, among other reasons.
You may want to tone up and lose a little bit of weight in the reader's case. Although it seems simple, several questions arise from this, and we will answer them in this article.
What does it mean to have a toned body?
As I wrote in the article, the truth about toning, toning is not something that exists, and you cannot quantify it. It is the opposite of what you can do with body fat and muscle mass, measured.
So, even though it seems like I am crazy to say it, there are no toning exercises (nor definition exercises). Wait, don't tell me off yet. Let me explain.
We describe a body as toned or defined when it gives a particular visual impression. It is a result of the following:
- Low levels of body fat
- Having enough muscle
- These muscles should have the right muscle tone.
These results from your lifestyle, precisely how you train, how you feed yourself, and how much you move in general.
It is essential to know this to do what works for an attractive body and tone a woman's body. Results may vary from person to person.
Still, don't believe me that toning and definition are nothing more than visual impressions? How does your body look after a few days of sunbathing or tanning? More toned/defined?
The same thing happens right after a resistance training session, as at that time, there is more blood flow to the muscles. They swell up a bit (bodybuilders say they pump), decreasing the appearance of fat.
For an hour or two, the area of activated muscles appears to be more toned or defined. This effect is not long-lasting, but the cumulative impact from session to session may be.
Fitness and bikini models and bodybuilders take advantage of these two visual effects before competing or doing photo shoots etc. because it makes them appear more "toned" or "defined."
Toning up a woman's body, more aesthetic
Let's see, I use terms like toning, defining, etc. a lot in my articles because it saves time, and each person has a clear idea of what a toned/defined body means to them.
Experience tells me that I don't help a person get what I want to say if I talk too technical, something we coaches do a lot.
If I describe an exercise or workout as toning or defining, people understand it better (with their subjectivity).
Well, let's leave the semantics now. I want to talk about what a woman like a reader has to do to achieve her goal of "toning up the most critical areas." And see if I can solve some of the problems I mentioned earlier.
By the way, if you are reading this, when I say the abductors in, I don't mean adductors (without the b), which are in the inner thigh.
The abductors are the buttocks, whose function (among many others) is to open the legs laterally. To remember this distinction, the abductors spread the legs.
God, again I'm talking about semantics, not two paragraphs after I said I'd stop. Well, now we're getting down to business.
How to get a toned, feminine body
What does a girl do when she has a few extra pounds and wants to tone up the critical areas? Let's review the elements necessary to tone up a woman's body.
- Having a low percentage of body fat.
- Having enough muscle.
- That this muscle has a right muscle tone.
If a woman in the reader's situation worries about getting these three, her body will stay toned, just like that. You have more information here in the article on how to get a perfect female body.
To get it, you have to do the following:
Train with weights
Almost all women think that to tone their bodies. They need to do some aerobics. That's partly true because, yes, you do burn body fat. But I tell you from experience that including a weight training program accelerates fat loss and will also make you have a very aesthetic curve in your figure.
Find your ideal heart rate
Search my perfect heart rate. Yes, you heard it right. To lose weight efficiently, you don't need to be 2 hours sweating. People who have a defined body achieve this by doing aerobics at a heart rate of 60-70% of their maximum pulses.
We use this 226-age formula to calculate the maximum heart rate. For women, subtract the age minus 226 (for men, it is 220).
Look for the caloric deficit you need
If you want to lower fat, there has to be a caloric deficit, either by decreasing the number of calories, you take in (without reducing physical activity) or increasing the physical activity you do (without increasing caloric intake).
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Eat five small meals
Most women say they like to eat three times a day (full and satiated), and there is no need to increase or decrease the frequency of these meals.
I always recommend making five meals, but can I go into caloric deficit by eating five times? The answer is YES.
Believe it or not, by eating five times, you increase the speed of your metabolism by keeping your digestive system working longer. That will help you burn more calories.
To burn that fat, you have to eat a little less at each meal without getting depressed or deprived of the food you like.
Eat foods with protein
All your meals should contain protein foods and plenty of vegetables to take advantage of their satiating effects and provide adequate nutrition.
Eat slowly
Eat more slowly and attentively, and when you feel 80% full, stop eating and wait 20 minutes for your brain (the hypothalamus) to have adequate time to decide if it is satisfied.
The brain takes longer than the stomach to register how much it ate. The goal of eating is to take away hunger, not to become saturated. If you are still hungry after 20 minutes, you can intake a little more.
Use small plates
Serve meals on smaller dishes. An amount of food served on a smaller plate satiates more than the same but served on a larger plate.
This fantastic trick works for everyone, even if you want to believe that it doesn't. The same amount of food seems to be more abundant on the smaller plate.
I'm not saying that it will drastically reduce the amount you eat and decrease it slightly. It's essential for toning up a woman's body.
Use a scale
Exercise to tone up
Now it's time to talk about women's body toning training. I have to make it clear that it is not advisable to believe the popular myth that you can lower the volume of an area by increasing the work you do on the muscles in that area, another day I will explain this in more depth.
The best way to train to burn fat for women is with high and medium intensity intervals, with 2-5 (depending on time available) weekly sessions you get good results. Interval training and endurance exercise should be the cornerstones of any training program (with cardio supplement time).
Unfortunately, women tend to run away from the second because (among other reasons) they don't want to get muscular, as if it were inevitable. It is practically impossible for the vast majority of women to become as muscular as a man.
But any increase in muscle mass is much more noticeable in the female body (not obese) than the male body, and for some women (even if it suits them), it's too much. So women shouldn't be afraid of any resistance training, but they have to be careful to do things right and who they listen to about it.
The problem is that many times women have two options when they ask for help in the gyms:
- The (flabby) classes of toning and GAL (glutes, abs, and leg training), etc.
- A training table based on bodybuilding (or boring machines) but with excessive and ineffectively low loads.
And they tend to opt for classes, which usually (sometimes yes) are not very effective.
In general, I recommend that you do 2-3 resistance training sessions per week, touching all the body muscles with global/multiarticular movements. This exercise will bring many benefits. The three most relevant are: an increase in the amount of fat burned by the body increased muscle tone and favored a small muscle development in the "critical" areas.
Do you remember the three elements necessary to have a toned body?
They can also complement these global exercises with one or two more specific movements for the critical areas they have, for example, the buttocks or triceps.
The problem with leg exercises
As the topic of training to tone a woman's body was not complicated enough, It is recommended that a woman does not engage in a high volume of exercises involving the muscles of the areas where they do not want to increase volume (and vice versa). In the reader's case, the area is the thighs, the muscles responsible are the quadriceps (and possibly the hamstrings).
There are essential exercises that can quickly increase the volume in legs and glutes; it is not likely to be much, relatively little, But it can be enough to make a girl's jeans like the reader stay very tight.
When training with leg exercises, women tend to increase volume in the quadriceps should be careful or avoid exercises in which the quadriceps are the primary muscles. I recommend avoiding leg extension machines, squat machines, and all leg press machines in these cases.
And it would help if you were careful with the following exercises (called "knee-dominant"): the strides, the squat, the splits, and the (Bulgarian) squat of one leg. I'm not criticizing the squat; it's one of the loves of my life.
I could write five long articles on the subject of squats in women's training. Still, needless to say, that it is not the best option for all women. Made with a high volume is a movement that can have the effect of increasing too much size in the thighs/quadriceps (a client once told me when I doubted that it would happen to her "jeans don't cheat").
The technique with which you do it, your morphology, the variation you do (from the squat there are many), or the intensity and volume of the work can contribute if it happens to you or not. A safer strategy is to put the so-called "dominant hip exercises" such as dead weight, hip lifts and deadlift of a leg, kettlebell swing, etc. as main exercises for the lower body.
If the squat is the king of the exercises, the deadlift has to be the queen, the buttocks are much more involved, and the quadriceps much less. I should add that with all this, and I am talking about women who already have more or less normal body weight and want to lose a few klicks and tone the body, not girls with overweight or excessive thinness.
Are more reps better for toning?
Concerning the series and reps, a good starting point is to do 2-3 sets of 15 repetitions. In general, (toning) exercises done with very high repetitions (>20) are not efficacious, except for increasing muscle endurance.
Ideally, women should rest less between sets to increase their metabolism, which happens in metabolic training. Once a week, if you do some exercises with more weight and less repetition (4-8), it dramatically increases muscle tone and strength.
Whole-body tone up workout for Women
Exercise table for toning up women. As we told you before, you don't need a bodybuilding routine to tone up a woman's body. Do exercises of all muscle groups with moderate weights to perform them with the correct technique.
Here are a few exercises that will help you tone your body effectively. You always have to compliment them with a balanced diet. This routine will last five days, three days of exercises with weights, and two aerobics days.
Five-day routine to tone a woman's body
Monday | Weights |
Tuesday | Cardio |
Wednesday | Weights |
Thursday | Cardio |
Fryday | Weights |
Saturday | Rest |
Sunday | Rest |
WEIGHT TRAINING
Lunges | 3x15 |
Deadlifts | 3x15 |
Pushups | 3x15 |
Cable row | 3x15 |
Biceps curl | 3x15 |
Triceps kicks | 3x15 |
Lateral raises | 3x15 |
Flutter kicks | Until failure |
Lunges
This exercise is wonderful for our legs and buttocks. If you realize it, in the gym the ones with the best bodies do it. we recommend you do 3 sets of 15 repetitions with a moderate weight.
Deadlifts
This exercise is a basic exercise for the toning and strength of the lower back, legs, and buttocks. We recommend that you also do 3 sets of 15 repetitions with a moderate weight.
Push-Ups
This exercise is another basic exercise that should not be missing in any exercise routine. It helps us to work the upper part of our trunk: chest, shoulders, and arms. You also have to do 3 sets of 15 repetitions.
Cable row
This is a very important exercise, this will help you have a denser back. We also recommend that you do 3 sets of 15 repetitions with moderate weight and correct technique.
Biceps curl
This exercise will help you tone your arms, giving them a very attractive appearance of firmness. We also recommend a range of 3 sets with 15 repetitions each. Remember, do it with the right technique.
Triceps kicks
This exercise will help your arms not to look droopy and looking firm and toned. We will continue executing the exercise in the range of 3 sets by 15 repetitions.
Lateral raises
In this exercise you will work the shoulders, with this you will obtain that they seem a little more rounded and less fallen. We will continue in the range of 3 sets by 15 repetitions.
Flutter kicks
We could not miss an abdominal exercise in our daily routine, this is very effective for the entire abdominal area. Besides, it doesn't damage our back. This time we don't give you a certain range of repetitions, do as many as you can. We recommend three series as in the whole table.
AEROBIC OR CARDIO TRAINING
Treadmill | 20 minutes |
Elliptical | 20 minutes |
Stationary bicycle | 20 minutes |
If we want to tone up our bodies, cardio is fundamental. When you do cardio, remember what I said about having a reasonable heart rate to burn fat. It is not necessary to take your body to the limit to achieve this.
You have to reach 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. To keep track of these, almost all machines today have a heart rate monitor.
If they don't, you can track them with an activity bracelet or a smartwatch that measures your heart rate.
Treadmill
When you do this excellent cardio workout, look for the right rhythm to take you 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. To achieve this, you'll probably only have to walk at a brisk pace. Do this exercise for 20 minutes
Elliptical
This exercise is excellent because it manages to activate our whole body. Do it for 20 minutes.
Stationary bicycle
A classic of aerobic exercises, with it we will finish our cardio circuit. We will finish with 20 minutes of this great exercise.
Conclusion
I want to tell you that this table is one of many that you must follow; you have to change it every one or two months. After this time, the body begins to get used to the exercises and becomes less and less effective.
Finally, it is very important to be consistent in each of the advice we have given you. If you are constant and persevering, you will obtain an aesthetic and toned body.
YOU CAN DO IT!!
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[author] [author_image timthumb='on']https://buildyourbody.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Nataniel-Josue-Alvarez.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]The article was reviewed and approved by Nataniel Josué Alvarez. Medical Doctor graduated from Medical School Universidad Nacional Experimental Francisco de Miranda. Área Ciencias de la Salud. •Awarded winner IV Science Fair of Research Methodology - April 2012 •Recipient of Asesor Estudiantil Institucional Scholarship •Thesis: Relationship Between Parasitosis, Anemia and Hygiene Habits in patients aged 20 yo 70 years old in Amuay, municipality of Los Taques, Falcón State, Venezuela •Thesis: Intervention Plan in Rural Healthcare in Monte Verde and La Puntica sectors, of the Amuay Community, Los Taques parish, Los Taques municipality, of the Falcón State, Venezuela. During the period March 2018 - July 2018[/author_info] [/author]