TITLE: "Exercising for A Slim Toned Body"

Dear David and Trish:

I know… you’ve heard it before… I want to shape, tighten and tone, but DON’T want to put on a lot of mass. I am genetically inclined to put on a lot of muscle. Exactly HOW should I train to get the gorgeous trim toned body that I want.

-Shape Me in Severna Park
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Dear "Shape Me",

You’ve come to the right place for your answer!

Many people are hesitant to do resistance training for fear that they will "bulk up". Others are afraid to exercise because they feel that muscle eventually turns to fat. Well, muscle does NOT turn into fat. But many of the types and styles of exercises being performed in gyms ARE designed to increase muscle size! The term that is typically used is "hypertrophy". It means "promoting muscle growth".

Muscles grow after being stressed in a certain way. It is a pure survival mechanism… a very efficient and predictable one. When your body is challenged or threatened, it responds by building extra muscle to make assure your survival. Physiologically, intense exercise creates 'micro-tears' in the muscle fiber. When the body repairs the damage (recovers from the workout), it actually overcompensates a bit, thus either increasing cell volume and/or the numbers of fibers.

In short, if you want your muscles to grow, give them as much stress as possible in the gym, then provide them with everything they needs to recover and grow (time and proper nutrients). So how can one get stronger, increase endurance, flexibility, and shape and tone without actually increasing muscle size?

If you visit any gym or Fitness Center, you will see members grunting and rushing through "sets" of exercises. Looks like "beat the clock" (remember that show?). Fast explosive concentric (power) movements, quickly followed by slower eccentric (return) movements. This is the classic method of resistance training. The problem is, it isn’t effective for sculpting, toning and tightening. YIPES… how can so many people be so wrong?

Actually, they’re NOT wrong! They are often there to build bigger and stronger muscles. Many can actually be seen measuring bicep and quad size. This is THEIR objective! For them, bigger is better.

Your goals are different. You need to become a knowledgeable and skilled body sculpture! What a wonderful challenge! And with the information available, your success is guaranteed!

The classic approach to exercising for endurance and composition is "low resistance/high rep". In other words, keep the weight low, and do a bunch of movement. This is more effective than traditional power training, but still falls short of being truly effective.

From years of training professional models, we have learned that the exercises themselves must be specific for the purpose of toning, tightening, and shaping, as does the execution (form, speed, and range of motion).

Movement must be slow, complete, and angled to fully recruit ALL of the muscle fibers. Each rep (cycle of movement) needs to be fluid, and the pace needs to be implemented to keep stress on the muscles at all angles (NO RAPID INTENSE MOTIONS!).

If you want toning and sculpting, please, drop the idea of the intense, high resistance "GRUNT" exercises. NO explosive movements, please! Generally, Trish and I have found cables and pure bodyweight exercises to be the best!

And to complicate the situation even more, it is necessary that you choose an exercise program based on your "body type". The three basic types are ectomorphs (higher metabolic rate-slim), endomorphs (lower metabolic rate-heavy), and mesomorphs (highest testosterone, and retain more calcium which builds stronger bones and thicker muscle mass).

Eating for Improved Composition

One thing you need to watch in your weight training program is what you eat, and when you eat it. Certain foods, and the amount of those foods eaten, can cause you to bulk up, rather than reduce your body size or to cut up rather than bulk up.

How Eating Affects Your Size and Shape in a Training Program

When most people start training they find that they become very hungry, because they are expending more energy, which then leads them to eat more. The most common food people reach out for when they are super hungry is either really fatty foods, high sugar foods or foods that are extremely high in starchy carbohydrates. Rice, pasta, bread, cereals, grains, etc. Don’t do that!

Steps to Prevent You from Bulking Up

• Eat Low Fat Foods
• Reduce your fat and oil intake
• Reduce your Starchy Carbohydrates - breads, cereals, potato, pasta and rice etc towards the end of the day.
• Make sure you are performing a Fat Burning Program 3-4 times per week.
• Perform SLOW, fluid movements when exercising. Use resistance that is constant, and NOT prone to momentum
• Use Variety in your Resistance and Aerobic Exercise. Get your workout weight resistance program renewed every 12 weeks or 3 months, no longer.
• Reduce your alcohol consumption.
• Make sure you take one day off from your low fat eating program per week.
• Increase Lean Meat intake and / or low fat protein in your diet.
• Eat more veggies and salads, rather than filling up on starchy carbohydrates.
• Limit your Dairy Queen ice cream (NO FRILLS) to no more than once a day (yes, we mean that!)
• Measure certain parts of your body to keep track of size and fat reduction. Don't rely on what the scales say. Muscle weighs more than fat, so concentrate on taking your measurement only.