You don’t need any complicated toning workouts that require skill and training to perform in order to get firm muscles and a toned body. A lot of what we consider regular aerobic and cardiovascular exercises are actually excellent toning workout as well, which can help to offer definition and stiffness to muscles. Consider the following exercises that you may not have thought of as toning workouts
Weights as a toning workout
Weights and resistance exercises are the most obvious toning workouts since they challenge the muscles to work hard and help the body to create the toned and firm lean muscle that we all desire.
Rather than doing light weights and high numbers of reps, it is important to use weights that are heavy enough to challenge you and stress the muscles used so that they can be effectively toned.
Swimming as a toning workout
Swimming is a terrific all over exercise that helps tone the muscles of the entire body.
Unlike walking and jogging, which tone only the lower body muscles, or other exercises such as pushups and weights that may engage only some muscle groups, swimming offers a toning workout simultaneously to the upper and lower body. Strengthening the legs, toning the shoulders and adding definition to the arms, swimming can do all this at the same time.
Pilates or Yoga toning workouts
One may think of these exercises as being not too vigorous and hence they may not immediately come to mind when you think of toning exercises. However the deliberate, controlled and measured Asanas of Yoga and the self aware movements associated with Pilates are great for toning the muscles, strengthening them and also increasing their endurance and balance.
Lunges, squats, pushups and chin ups
These are exercises that effectively use the body’s own weight to create resistance and help in toning the muscles. They require no equipment or special skill or even a lot of room, they can easily be performed at any time and place.
So long as the exercises are performed in an optimal manner and with correct form, they could help supplement a weight loss routine and can constitute to an effective toning workout. While push ups and chin ups can be very effective exercises for toning the muscles of the upper body, squats and lunges help workout the lower body. So it is best to work out a combination of these exercises to help tone the whole body.
Toning workouts for Abs
Effective ab exercises should also be made part of the workout since the ab muscles are not used in the normal course by an overwhelming majority of us. So in order that one tones the ab muscles, it is necessary to do separate ab exercise as well.
Other requirements to get toned muscles
Subcutaneous body fat which underlies the skin can obscure toned and firm muscles. So apart from toning workouts, it is important to also create a calorie deficit by eating healthy and losing body fat. It is only when body fat is low that toned muscles will become visible.
