Comments on: Muscle Tone VS Muscle Mass Workout Routines

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:35:53 +0000

I think this is the worst information I have ever read!!! I can't believe it was ever published. Of course, I am reading it almost 5 years after it was published, so maybe this was the "correct" information back then…
Who knows…but honestly, I teach a muscle toning/muscle endurance class and he whole class is based on high reps, low weight, go to failure. And we see fantastic results. Maybe because we use LOW weight (ie, 2.5/5 lb dumbbells)? That should be clarified in the article. Anyway, just needed to interject my thoughts here….I do exactly what you say NOT to do and I am in the best shape of my life…very tone, very defined and loving every minute of it.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:56:18 +0000

Hey, Love the site your articles are great. Would you say the type of physique you recommend would be similar to Joe Manganiello off of the show true blood. He has a great athletic lean physique, I was wondering if you would ever consider doing an article about achieving this type of physique and maybe post it in the celebrity section. Just a thought anyways great site!

By: Cary

Cary — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:02:35 +0000

Dear Rusty,

I just reviewed your actual workout (Day 1: back and chest; Day 2: shoulders, biceps and triceps), and I was wondering about whether you incorporated circuit training too, or if you rested between each set?

I am into circuit training right now to keep my heart rate up. Would your workout routine work just by alternating each set (e.g. Day 1: One set of Incline Barbell Press, then one set of chinups, and so forth, then one set of Incline Dumbbell Press and one set of Lat Pulldowns, and so forth)? Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Cary

By: steven

steven — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:51:06 +0000

Hi Rusty. Just saw this forum upon researching muscle tone vs muscle mass, and i do have a little concerns which I hope you can help me with.

The story is, i used to be a very thin guy who was 177cm and only about 56 kgs. About two years ago i decided to take up muscle training and have been at it ever since. I got a trainer about half a year ago who i see once every week. With him, I have put on more mass than I did on my own, and now im at a 68 kg range, packing a lot of mass on my upper torso and some on my quads.

However, now i have come to realize that some parts of my body is too big, espcially the arms which is out of whack with the torso. So I am wondering if it is possible to reduce the size of them without necessairily stopping training or losing A LOT of my hard-gained mass.

Just to give you more information, The exercise I did with my trainer was usually spilt into 3 days a week: chest/back, legs/abs and arms/shoulders. About a month ago we did a low rep high intensity strength training for a couple of weeks and then rebounded to a mass gaining program.

I have not raised the issue with my trainer and would like to hear your thoughts on it. He did once mention that i may need to get on the treadmills for a week to lean up a bit…but do you think this is would be sufficient? Also, i always drink a protein after workout, but if i were to bulk down/muscle tone as you have described…is protein shakes still necessary??

sorry for the looooong message, and i hope you can help! thanks so much!

steve

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:52:43 +0000

Hello,

I'm loving this blog! Happy I stumbled across it. I'm getting married in 6 months and I'm looking to tone up and lose about 15 pounds. I am 5'6" and 140 pounds. Working out has always been a part of my life but it seems to in spurts. I'll work out for a couple of months and then get lazy and/or burnt out and quit for awhile. Can you recommend a good workout routine for me to slim down and tone-up for recognizable changes within 6 months? I know eating well is a huge part of it which I've been doing pretty well at. I'm not interested in bulking up at all…just seeking toned arms, legs, stomach and overall better physique. Help! Thank you so much.

By: Jasbir

Jasbir — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:18:02 +0000

Hi,

I bought your e-book Visual impact for women, fantastic book, totally fits into what i was looking for for a long time as i was scared to workout with weights thinking that what if it will change my hour glass figure.. I really love your book, would encourage to make it a real book for life time collection of books.
One question I have is sthough that most women say that when they drop down body fat, their bustline becomes smaller and then most fitness models end up getting implants. I want to get really fit and if i do intense cardio, wouldn't it affect my chest size especially if they are already small size? Does it really happen like that? Can women retain their feminine curves if they do intense cardio and reduce fat levels?
If i do shoulder exercise according to your instructions, it wouldn't widen my shoulders right? I love my proportionate body and I do not want to change any dimensions but i want to get stronger and remove the jiggles that I have.
Thanks
Jasbir

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:48:05 +0000

This is a great site, I am ready to try out this workout to see if it really works! I did have a question rather, this workout focuses on toning muscle. Does it also build a good amount of muscle? My arms are very thin and I am afraid that only using this workout would not give it that muscular but defined look that I want. (aiming for ryan reynolds or brad pitt, or possibly just even ryan gosling) Do you think it would be a good idea to switch every 2 weeks or so between this workout and another workout that focuses on building muscle mass?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:58:55 +0000

My workout needed and overhaul. I decided I need to changing by creating a new workout lifestyle lift ing by adding weight training. This made all the difference in the world and has really been what has helped me lose weight. Obviously with that has come toned muscles too.

By: stacey

stacey — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:29:20 +0000

Hey there! I don't see any leg workouts! I am currently 5'6, 134..I bicycle 15 miles 4 days a week minimum. I used to do 2 day full body workouts since I waitress as well and we're very busy all 4 days I work/bike. I have amped it up to split days but have a very hard time getting definition in my legs, ha?strings specifically, and I want to get rid if bulk, fat or just size in general. I want sleek, defined, great legs! My previous weight was 165 and my goal is another 10#…14 maybe! Can you help?

By: scott

scott — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:16:24 +0000

for building muscle, 5 days a week is too much, 45 minutes per session on one set of muscles is the right amount, any longer and you are wasting your time as you won't gain anything, also not giving your muscles time to recover will increase you muscle mass, but you damage you muscles too much and will then take longer to recover or worse damage a muscle too much causing it to fail and then you will be off of weight training for a long time and end up losing mass, but, not giving your muscles enough time to recover will also result in bigger muscles but no increase you strength.

By: Deepak

Deepak — Sun, 22 May 2011 06:32:34 +0000

Hey Admin,,
I am Skinny guy with a weight of 110 pounds which workout routine i should follow for gaining mass

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 13 May 2011 08:01:44 +0000

I used to be a fan of buying my supplements at BodyBuilding.com. I have since found DPS.com. MUCH cheaper! No problem with bodybuilding.com. Just throwing another out there.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:10:55 +0000

hi,

I'm 169 cms with 164 pounds weight. I just started out my workout going to a gym. I am in for the toned body look and the question i have in my mind is like – dont i need to have some muscles on my body to even start with the toning?
I am not that bulked up with muscles right.
So i go to the gym start up with some warming up, then hit the treadmill, go walking in it for about 2 minutes and then enter sprint mode and run for 3 minutes and again go to walk mode for 2 minutes and then sprint for 1 minute.
Then i do some exercises on my hamstring..and my leg area followed by chest press, then legs again, then abs exercise followed by some chest exercises again. Then i'd move to biceps exercise and then do some pullups.
This pretty much sums up my exercise routine every day – 5 a week.

I am starting from the scratch nd have extra some fat over my stomach and my chest, which i'm hoping would burn out during my treadmill, chest and abs exercises.
Am i doing something wrong here? I am thinking of building some muscles first and then tone it?

By: Naveen

Naveen — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:57:06 +0000

Hi rusty,
Im 6' and weigh in at abt 190lbs with a BMI of about 27. Im currently working on my cardio by way of doing intervals. I do it all on a cross trainer (eplitical machine – hope I got that right). It's like a stepper sort of thing which has handles for arm movment as well. And I keep my wieght training to a minimum (40 mins max) with abt 2-3 exercises per body part. Training split consists of chest & back on one day and arms+shoulders on the next. also i tend to do a bit of leg work cos i feel my body is slightly out of proportion. Is it possible for me to come out of this rut and get super lean or is it a pipe dream?

By: Serious mass

Serious mass — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:13:11 +0000

Muscle mass looks better than muscle tone
Women like muscular body but not too bulky like Arnold Schwarzenegger and jay cutler , it fells good and confident to look like Jean Claud van damme or Sylvester Stallone they have muscle mass but not too bulky
If you have muscle mass even if u are with a shirt it will look like a bodybuilder but a toned man just looks fit he has to take off his shirt to show his muscularity

Muscle mass shows strength and power a person has I mean you look strong and you feel strong but not in toning

I have blasting biceps, awsome chest that pierces my t shirt and cobra lats
People see me they feel envy
I don't have 6 PAC but muscle mass
But guys having 6 PAC abbs feel envy

Anytime muscle mass is better than muscle tone.

By: vikas chaudhary

vikas chaudhary — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:04:51 +0000

NONVEG IS COMPULSARY FOR FOOTBALL IF YES THEN TELL ME

By: MR

MR — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:29:44 +0000

Hi,

I am so glad i came across your website. I have been looking for this information for such a long time. I have never been so confused as there is so many websites out there that concentrate of building muscles. I been wanting to tone my body.

I hope you have time to answer my questions so i will post incase you do have some time.

I have been very over weight all my life until 5 years ago. 5 years ago i lost 13 stone. I am now at 75KG althou i would like to be less than this. But please read for the reaons why.

As you can imagine i lost allot of weight and done it in 9 months by natural exercise (walking on treadmill) and eating healthy.

Problem was i had so much excess skin i had to have it removed.

So far i had an abdominal plasty and chest lift. They cut and tightened the muscles as everything was stretched and could not be corrected through exercise.

Currently althou i lost allot of weight and have had the excess skin removed from my stomach and chest lift i still find my skin to be loose if you get me, i really would like to get my skin tight all over my stomach and sides.

I am currently awaiting to have the excess skin removed from thighs and buttocks, again there is loads of skin but i still want to tone my muscles for when it is removed. As i think i am going to get allot of loose skin on the thighs aswell once removed.

Because i went below 10 stone as i had an eating disorder i had to go upto 75KG approx otherwise my surgeon would refuse to do the operation.

My question to you is:

I want to tone and tone only. I want to have nice abs but nothing major like a body builder. I am new to all this so your advice will be much appreciated. I have been trying to find these answers for the past 5 years but i got so confused with all the information i gave up. But reading this blog post it has given me the determination to start.

1) Can you recommend what exercises i should do and how many sets/reps? are there any DVDs or equipement i should get that you recommend for toning?

2) Do i eat like if i am on a weight loss diet or do i have to go on some sort of special diet?

3) Is there anything that i should eat that may help in getting the abs i want (toning) ?

4) What body fat % should i be aming at? i am 75KG at the moment, 22 years old.

5) I have very thin arms and would like to tone them up. What do you recommend for this.

6) How many times a week should i do the exercises and for how long?

I have always been worried as because of all the excess skin that i would never get toned, but your website has given me the confidence and reassurance i need.

Sorry for all the questions and i hope you can reply as i have been waiting to find a site like this for a very long time. Knowing this information i can finally get doing what i have been desperate to do for a long long time.

Thanks
MR

By: patrick

patrick — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:08:49 +0000

i was wondering can i substitute regular leg work out with air alert and still lift for upper body?

By: John

John — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:23:35 +0000

what excersices we must do to build chest like cristiano ronaldo?
and how many reps and set?

or it is from his genetic?

sorry 4 my english..Thx

By: Crista

Crista — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:16:33 +0000

This is awesome. I've been doing research for so long on how to lose muscle (or just not gain muscle mass) while still working on tone and being in bikini shape. it's hard to find anyone willing to talk about the fact that you really can desire to lose muscle mass. I'm a woman, a professional aerialist, who gets comments on her "big muscles" all the time. I've been doing P90X for 8 months with admittedly wonderful, body changing results. however, being a mesomorph my arms back and shoulders have gotten quite bulky and my legs are bulky already. i want to keep my near six pack AND my Madonna toned arms but scale it down. everyone says to do high high reps low weights??

Crista