Fight the flab, whether it's under your arms or around your waist. Working to make your body more toned can boost your self-image and help enhance your quality of life while lowering your risks of health issues such as high blood pressure. Several tips can help you get the most out of your workout to achieve a toned body even faster.
Focus on Full-Body Workouts
Lifting dumbbells are great for firming and toning your arms, and crunches are fantastic for toning your midsection into chiseled abs, but you can do a lot better. Focusing instead on full-body workouts, which helps you target more muscle regions than just one, is ranked as one of the top 10 ways to enhance your body's muscle fitness and tone, reports "Men's Fitness" magazine. Exercises that work several major muscle groups at once include pull-ups, dead lifts and squats.
Train Every Other Day
Strength training every other day will give you "superior results," notes the University of Notre Dame. If you have trouble getting those workouts in, whether it's because you're busy or need a little motivation, treat exercise like any other commitment and schedule it into your office computer, calendar or daily planner. A major obstacle for people who want to tone their bodies isn't the physical aspect, but the mental aspect.
Add Aerobics
Building your muscle strength is a critical portion of toning your body, but you'll also need to get rid of the excess fat that hangs from your muscles. Aerobics can help as it burns up your excess calories and helps to work off the fat faster than simply lifting weights. Aim to do 30 to 60 minutes of aerobics every day. When it comes to picking an exercise, choose something that you have fun at so that you're more encouraged to exercise, such as swimming or kickboxing. If you need an indoor aerobics option, run on a treadmill.
Rest and Relax
Working out too much can actually reverse your efforts to tone your body. First, your muscles need 24 hours between workouts to repair and rebuild into harder, firmer muscles. Second, your body releases growth hormones while you sleep, and not getting enough sleep -- at least seven hours a night -- can decrease your training results. And finally, not relaxing and letting stress run in your life can lead to a buildup of cortisol, which actually encourages your body to burn fat and increase fat reserves.
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