5 Tips for Women to Build Lean Muscle Tone
Many women want to improve their fitness levels, partly for health reasons and partly for their general appearance. For women who want to look more toned, they can do so by building muscle tone and making those muscles much leaner.
Here are the top 5 ways women can achieve good muscle tone and improve their overall appearance.
How to Build Lean Muscle Tone
Muscle tone improves when the muscle fibers become larger. This is accomplished with regular weight training. Women often worry about building muscle primarily because they think they will develop a bulky male bodybuilder shape. But men’s bodies only develop that way because of the hormone testosterone which has trace amounts in women.
1. More repetitions when training with weights
When you’re weight training, you need to increase the number of repetitions you’re doing to further stretch your muscles. A good exercise routine would be to lift a reasonable weight for six to twelve repetition sessions.
2. Eat more protein
Women can also get a good body tone with a healthy and balanced diet. This includes eating a good amount of protein whether or not you exercise. Protein is basically the building blocks of muscles. The more you have, the more you can build your muscles. Protein also fills you up, so you’ll feel fuller for longer and help you eat less between meals.
3. Reduce carbs
Although carbohydrates are a necessary part of a healthy diet, you want to reduce the amount you eat if you’re trying to build lean muscle tone. This is not to say that you eliminate them completely, as they help your body release insulin, which is needed for energy and help with muscle repair.
4. Eat more vegetables
Eating vegetables is part of a healthy diet. Vegetables are usually low in calories and require a lot of energy to eat and digest. This helps build muscle tone, especially if eaten raw or lightly cooked.
5. Limit your cardiovascular exercises
If you are concentrating on building a lean body, then you need to limit the amount of cardio you do. For example, running long distances actually promotes muscle wasting. Instead of stopping all cardio workouts, you can still build muscle tone by including very short bursts of high-intensity running or cycling workouts.
