Difference Between Muscle Tone And Muscle Mass Workout Routines
Rusty Moore
I don't believe in damaging a muscle when you are going for tone. If you want to build muscle mass (which I don't), then you want to do enough volume of lifts to induce a bit of damage. After this, you need to allow the muscles enough time to recover to rebuild themselves a bit bigger than they were before. If you are going for tone...you want to do less sets and volume so you don't damage the muscles. Since you are not damaging the muscles, you can work those same muscles out more often.
How Many Sets Do You Need to Do For Muscle Tone?
Remember, your goal for muscle tone is to avoid damaging the muscles. If you get sore the following day, back off a bit the next time that you work those same muscles. I like to do 3-4 sets of anywhere between 3-10 reps for muscle tone. I chose 2 exercises per body part.
How Many Reps in Each Set?
Believe it or not, strength training can bring out amazing muscle definition. You can get pretty toned with medium to high reps in each set, but you won't reach your full potential until you include sets in the lower rep range. It is good to vary your rep schemes. Do 4 sets of 3 reps for a period of time, then switch to 3 sets of 8 reps, etc. Just make sure you include strength training in the lower rep range every now and then.
Why Work The Muscles Frequently When Going For Tone?
This is an overlooked tip that will quickly accelerate your ability to increase tone in a worked muscle. Muscle tone is basically the partial contraction of a muscle in a relaxed state, so your muscles are contacting a bit on their own even when you are completely relaxed. The way to increase this is to contract you muscles hard (workout) on a frequent basis. Again...you want to avoid muscle damage, otherwise you will over-train the muscle if you work it soon. Another problem with working a damaged muscle it that it won't contract as hard, so the workout will have less toning benefits.
Forced Reps and Training to Failure is a BAD Idea When Going for Muscle Tone
If you do a set to failure you are essentially "training your muscle to fail". This induces a large amount of damage, which is great for muscle mass but bad for muscle tone. Training for tone is similar to training for strength. Elite power-lifters rarely train to failure for the reason stated above. The problem is that your muscle will not contract as hard the following set. You want hard contractions when going for tone, so don't train to failure and don't even think of doing forced reps.
A Typical Split Routine for Muscle Mass
A popular mass building routine is the "3 day split". A 3 day split simply means that all the muscles in your body are worked in 3 different workouts. So what a lot of people do is work chest, shoulders, and triceps on one day...back and biceps on another day...and legs and abs on the third day. The benefit here is that since the muscles are getting damaged, they need more recovery time. Also since you are only focused on a couple of body parts, you could really do a high volume of intense lifts for each body part.
The 2 Day Split Muscle Tone Workout Routine
Since you want to work each muscle group more often when going for tone, you should try to split you workout over two days instead of three. The great thing here is that you don't need much recovery time when you don't damage the muscles.
Note: I'm just barely scratching the surface here when it comes to setting up a good workout routine. The main goal for muscle tone is that you just need to remember that muscle damage and sore muscles are not your friend. Lift just enough to generate strong contractions, and spend the rest of the time burning off body fat with intense cardio...also don't be afraid to lift heavy as long as you do not reach failure.
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