Develop Muscle Tone

Develop Muscle Tone


Training your body to develop muscle tone is completely different from training your body to build big muscles. Muscle tone is important whether you are simply trying to be healthy and thin or if you are going for a bodybuilding physique.

If you want large muscles, you train extensively with heavy weights and push yourself to the point of failure. If you want a dense muscle tone, you do more reps at a lighter weight. Even if you are going for massive muscles, it is important for your health to include muscle toning exercises in your routine.
Anyone, regardless of age or gender, can benefit from toning their muscles. Having good muscle tone is achievable even if you just have a few minutes a day for exercise.

The first thing you need to do is plan your exercise routine. Give your body at least one day off, more if you have long routines that train multiple muscle groups. If you want to work out almost daily, plan your exercises so that you are focusing on different muscle groups each day. For example, you might do push ups on one day and leg lifts on the next. By alternating days, you give all of your muscles a chance to rest.

Choose two exercises that focus on the same muscle group for each day. Do eight reps of one exercise and then switch to the next. Do around four sets like this. Some of the exercises, such as push ups, require no equipment. The only thing you should need to invest in for toning muscle is a set of dumbbells.

Before you do your routine, you should first warm up your muscles. This is especially true in the morning. If you don't warm up you are more likely to injure your muscles. Running in place for a couple of minutes is a sufficient warm up.
After you warm up and do your muscle training exercises you should stretch. The goal of stretching is not to reach as far as possible. Instead, proper stretching can help you reduce the chances of injury.

When you are working out and when you are stretching afterward, breathe properly. Proper breathing is important to muscle tone because the muscles need oxygen. Breathe in on the incline, and out on the decline. Your breathing technique is part of the proper form.
After a couple of weeks with this exercise routine, you'll begin to notice an increase in muscle tone, energy, and a decrease in weight.

Rob Stephens is the editor of http://muscle-facts.com a site dedicated to providing visitors with articles and tips on how to Burn fat and build muscle. Muscle-Facts.com focuses on topics such as how to develop 6 pack abs, build bigger biceps and burn body fat while building muscle. You can also download a free report on how to build muscle.