If your main fitness goal is to tone your muscles and streamline your physique, strength training is the key. It's common to put in marathon cardio sessions at the gym and neglect weightlifting and other resistance-training methods, but they may be the most effective ways to build muscle and help you sculpt a fitter body. Keep a few simple tips in mind to get the most out of each strength-training session.
Increase the Weight
When lifting free weights, it's important to challenge your muscles. If you've completed the same strength routine with 3-lb. weights for months and it's become easy for you to lift them, you'll likely stand to gain more benefits from moving up to heavier weights. You can experience similar gains in muscle strength and endurance with both low weights and high repetitions and heavy weights and low repetitions, but you must choose weights that will fatigue your muscles within 90 seconds of starting the exercise.
Do Calisthenics
If you can't get to the gym and don't have any exercise equipment at home, you can still squeeze in a short strength workout with calisthenics. Calisthenics are classic toning exercises that require only a small amount of space. A few examples of popular calisthenics are jumping jacks, jump rope, situps, pullups, lunges, squats, crunches and pushups. When done in sequence, all of those exercises tone leg, arm, back, chest and midsection muscles, and you can modify all of them according to your personal fitness level.
Perform Proper Technique
At best, strength training with improper technique will prevent your muscle development from reaching its full potential; at worst, it can cause serious injury. You must do exercises correctly to see the best results, so go over your technique and form with a personal trainer, physical therapist or fitness professional before you do movements by yourself. Begin with a five- to 10-minute warm-up of stretching and light cardio, which can help reduce your risk of injury.
Take Five
Sometimes, rest can be more effective than exercise for building healthy muscle. When you lift weights and work to become more toned, your muscles experience small tears that consistently rebuild themselves. If you regularly lift weights, take a day off in between sessions to allow your muscle tissue enough time to recover. Neglecting to take that time could shortchange your results. Keep in mind that you can still do flexibility and cardio exercises on off days.
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