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Toning up, and lifting heavy stuff

Every personal trainer, strength coach, athletic trainer or fitness guru on the planet know that one of the first things you ask a new client is:

‘What is your goal?’

In the world of personal training the answers are invariably something like:

“I want to get fitter.”

“I want to lose some weight.”

“I want to tone up.”

Tone

In the world of the strength coach or athletic trainer the answers are normally along the lines of:

“I want to run 10K in sub 50mins.”

“I need to compete in my sport at 80kg and be as strong and fast as possible.”

“I need to increase my power on my drive/backhand/service.”

The first three are vague, hard to define and are probably not the ‘honest’ goals that the person has come to see you for. The later three are very specific and things we can measure reasonably easily.

If someone gives me the first three as their goals, my normal comeback is:

“If you want to look good on the beach, there is nothing wrong with saying that. But if that is the true goal, then that is what you need to tell me.”

Let’s look at those first three.

I want to get fitter. Fitness is too vague a concept, fit for what? I have clients who powerlift, clients who are runners, clients who are involved in combat sports and clients who ‘want to look good nekkid’. Most of my runners are involved in 10K and half marathons and could absolutely leave my powerlifters looking at a cloud of dust or beat them up 10 flights of stairs. That said, if the marathoners were moving house, my phone is full of guys strong enough and willing enough to move sofas in return for a barbecue. The runners are fit to run, the lifters are fit to fit. The criteria are different. Both laugh at the other for not being able to do what they can.

I want to lose weight. Fine, I’ll tie you to a tree for three days. You’ll be lighter after that. The issue here is not normally the ‘scale weight’, but the dress size or the naked person looking back at you from the mirror. It’s image, not weight. Sometimes, it may be a health concern brought on by a lifestyle revelation.

I want to tone up. Many are the friends and colleagues who have borne witness to my hysterical lectures on this one. Tone is defined, scientifically, as ‘residual tension in a muscle’. Tone can be good (in that it is supporting posture our doing useful work), tone can be bad (pulling joints off of centre). What most people really mean is ‘I want to look good in a swimsuit’. That is accomplished through having a lot of lean muscle mass and a low bodyfat percentage, both are necessary to achieve ‘the look’.

So what has lifting heavy stuff got to do with getting toned/buff/ripped? We’ve basically got an equation:

Looking Toned = Lean mass + Low bodyfat percentage

Lifting heavy stuff goes a long way to accomplishing ‘lean mass’ and ‘low bodyfat’. Lean mass is the bit that gives the shape that you are after. The low bodyfat percentage is what allows it to be more readily seen. Also, those ‘metabolic’ workouts that ‘everyone is doing’ these days… they don’t actually work unless you already have a foundation in good movement and strength.

So let’s forget this antiquated idea that ‘to get toned’ is to use teeny weeny weights for ridiculous numbers of reps, and get with the proven fact that if you want to look hot then it’s about strength and it’s about diet.

Lift big, eat smart, move well, be strong!