Thread: 3 types of workouts?

Toning?

You're kidding, right?

Okay - I'll take a stab at it.

Muscle building: lift all kinds of heavy shit and eat too much.
Strength: lift heavy shit and maybe eat a little too much, or eat just enough.
Toning: lift heavy shit in short, low-rep workouts, low volume, heavy compounds, little or no direct "bodypart" training, and don't eat quite enough.

I googled "toning". Seams like a popular word used to describe half assed fitness training.

It was invented by the fitness industry. Tone is a noun that got turned into a phony verb, ostensibly to convince plump women they can somehow flex fat and make it go away with no risk of developing any ugly muscle. (God forbid we do THAT!)

It's not true, and of course it doesn't work, but it sure sells a lot of gym memberships!

In my opinion:

Muscle growth = various rep ranges (5-15 reps), but typically never below 4-5 reps.
Strength = always low rep ranges, including 1-2 rep sets frequently.
Toning = does not exist

Oh....srry guys...I got toning from my old weight training coach. Guess he didn't know what he was doing.......
So how long should I follow a strength or muscle growth workout? I'm still to unsure from what to do

Originally Posted by Infinatrix

I know there is three main types of muscle workout, strength, muscle growth and toning. Can anyone tell me the main difference between strength and muscle growth training? Plus can anyone tell me how long I should do strength training? How long should I do muscle growth? Since its hard to tell whether I grew enough muscles or gained enough strength for a certain amount of weights.

There's two types of hypertrophy- Sacroplastic & ryofibrillar. Sacroplastic refers to primary muscle size with small muscle strength gains, ryofibrillar means primary muscle strength and secondary muscle size.

To get stronger you need to be efficiently training your CNS- Increasing your bodys capability to use your muscle more efficiently by allowing the CNS to adapt to heavier training.

To get bigger you want to provide loads of microdamage to muscle tissue since when it grows back it grows back stronger / bigger (assuming it was given proper nutrition) whilst damaged.

Toning is done by maintaining a low bodyfat % which is specifically executed through proper diet and intense cardio / training.

Muscle strength (according to scientific studies) is best in the 3-7 rep range. Whilst more people respond better to 8-10 reps for muscle size. However- Everyone is different, they will respond differently to each rep range. I prefer to mix my rep range up. So therefore with this said- Although more people get better size gains using 8-10 reps, you might not be one of these people.

Eat to gain size, and that's what will happen. Lift heavy without strict eating habbits and your CNS will adapt to this style and begin to learn to use the muscle it has more efficiently (think lightweight powerlifters here).

Originally Posted by Plataeu

There's two types of hypertrophy- Sacroplastic & ryofibrillar. Sacroplastic refers to primary muscle size with small muscle strength gains, ryofibrillar means primary muscle strength and secondary muscle size.

You mean "myofibrillar".

Originally Posted by Plataeu

To get stronger you need to be efficiently training your CNS- Increasing your bodys capability to use your muscle more efficiently by allowing the CNS to adapt to heavier training.

To get bigger you want to provide loads of microdamage to muscle tissue since when it grows back it grows back stronger / bigger (assuming it was given proper nutrition) whilst damaged.

Toning is done by maintaining a low bodyfat % which is specifically executed through proper diet and intense cardio / training.

No, it's not. The fitness-industry's so-called "tone" is a product of being lean and muscular, it happens when you drop bodyfat. This means:

• running a caloric deficit, to ensure weight loss
• sufficient stimulus to retain muscle - ie sufficient protein, not too much of a deficit, and heavy, low-rep training

Cardio can be part of this deficit (although it is by no means required), but the main effect is going to be diet with heavy lifting, flat out. Otherwise you'll lose all your size.

Originally Posted by Plataeu

Muscle strength (according to scientific studies) is best in the 3-7 rep range. Whilst more people respond better to 8-10 reps for muscle size. However- Everyone is different, they will respond differently to each rep range. I prefer to mix my rep range up. So therefore with this said- Although more people get better size gains using 8-10 reps, you might not be one of these people.

Eat to gain size, and that's what will happen. Lift heavy without strict eating habbits and your CNS will adapt to this style and begin to learn to use the muscle it has more efficiently (think lightweight powerlifters here).

See? Even though you know heavy lifting with insufficient nutrition to ensure gains will lead to a hard, tight body.

Originally Posted by Built

You mean "myofibrillar".

Yes, my bad.

Originally Posted by Built

No, it's not. The fitness-industry's so-called "tone" is a product of being lean and muscular, it happens when you drop bodyfat. This means:

• running a caloric deficit, to ensure weight loss
• sufficient stimulus to retain muscle - ie sufficient protein, not too much of a deficit, and heavy, low-rep training

Cardio can be part of this deficit (although it is by no means required), but the main effect is going to be diet with heavy lifting, flat out. Otherwise you'll lose all your size.

I agree with this.

Originally Posted by Built

See? Even though you know heavy lifting with insufficient nutrition to ensure gains will lead to a hard, tight body.

I don't understand what you're trying to say here, sorry.

You said it yourself - light weight powerlifters are strong without size. And still you suggested cardio for "toning".

Those are my abs in my tar. I'm 42 in that shot, and I had been a fat jogger for about ten years prior.

I did about 20 minutes of cardio four days a week while cutting on high protein, high fat, cycled carbs and heavy lifting.

Sure worked better than all that cardio I used to do on my high-complex-carb, lots of whole grain diet.

Originally Posted by Built

You said it yourself - light weight powerlifters are strong without size. And still you suggested cardio for "toning".

The only reason I suggested cardio was to burn the extra calories. Not only that- But it's beneficial to heart, lungs, and blood circulation and allow the body to work more effficiently, I agree, cardio is no magical way to burn fat it's more in the calorie deficient.

Three Types of Workouts? Not for me.
Leave the thinking at the door!!! Train with absolute intensity all the time, AND ABOVE ALL LAUGH AND HAVE FUN!!!!!! YOU NEED TO BE ALITTLE WARPED MENTALLY TO ENGUAGE IN THIS GREAT ACTIVITY, SO " DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF PAIN, EVERY DAY YOU TRAIN"!!
Challenge yourself every day like you`ve never done before!
Big Back 51

i just walk in pick up the heaviest fucking thing i can possible pick up without loosing form
and pump out as many reps as i can before i failure

sometimes that means i do 5 pullups with a weight between my knees

sometimes it means i do 3 bodyweight barbells shoulder press

sometimes it means i deadlift 315 5 times

sometimes it means i do 100 squats with 135lbs

but i always push myself to the absolute limit
to the point that my throbbing legs can hardly walk me out of the gym

to the point that flexing my bicep enough to eat dinner is strinuous

to the point the getting out of bed required 30 seconds of chest massage afterwards



the way you exercise has little to do with bodyfat in my opinion

but the way you eat has everything to do with growing muscles

work=stimulous
results=diet

Ben dur....exactly what I want to do. But when i get that rush of adrenaline or fatigue, i want to know that I gained something from it. Plus, i think I got the whole "each person has his own workout thing". I am currently doing 9-12 reps, I think that the best way for me to improve.

then pick up the absolute heaviest weight you can possibly press out 10 reps

and if you only get 8
fuck it

and if you get to 10
push for 12


my thing is that i train NEAR failure on each set
and i often choose the rep range by complete random


absolutely as intense and powerfull as i can possibly go

but then again
alot of people dont like my techniques