When most people say "toning" they think of working out in such a way that lowers your BF and gives you muscle at the same time, so we say it's BS.
However, what toning really reffers to is how contracted the muscles are at rest (myogenic tone, if I'm not mistaken) which is how "hard" the muscles look while resting. Isen't there a way to train to improve this tone? To make the muscles look harder when you are resting. And if there is, doesn't that mean that you really can tone a muscle?
Or have I gotten it all wrong? Something that is quite possible.
I don't think that the word "Toning" is the problem just what people do when they say they just want to tone. When I see people doing toning workouts they are generally lifting light weights for a bunch of reps because they think they will get all bulky if they lift anything heavier than a pink dumbell. Making muscle look good either flexed or relaxed is a more about total fitness. If you have a lot of fat covering whatever muscle you have it will not look very impressive. On the other hand if you are lucky enough to be sporting a lower body fat % whatever muscle you have will most likely look pretty good. IMHO
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There is no physiological process called “toning.” The term is probably a distortion of the concept of muscle tonus, the passive partial contraction within a muscle sustained by the CNS during rest. (Tonus can be lost if there is insufficient stimulation of a muscle over an extended period of time—think coma patient, prolonged bed rest during illness, that sort of thing.) But you can’t create “tone” in a muscle with any particular type of training.
Toning is a euphemism used by the popular media, along with its evil cousins firming, sculpting, tightening, and shaping, to describe light weight, high rep training with little intensity and lots of volume. The desired outcome is to remain “small” and create a feminine appearance. The term is so hated by fitness professionals because it keeps the misperception alive that light weight training and lots of aerobics are the smart choice for women.
There are only two factors of body composition that you can control: fat and muscle. You can add fat or lose fat. You can increase the density and/or size of a muscle or let it atrophy. That’s it. What people think of as "toned" muscles are simply muscles that are not hidden by a lot of bodyfat.
Karky, what I think you’re getting at is muscle density with leanness. It’s semantics, but I think it’s very important to get the terminology right when the word “toning” is associated with so many misconceptions.
But what about myogeneric tone, or what it's called?
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
tone [tohn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, noun, verb, toned, ton·ing.
–noun
...
12. Physiology. a. the normal state of tension or responsiveness of the organs or tissues of the body.
that was what made me start this post. And the fact that someone said "tone" was really reffering to how contracted the muscle was at rest, and that "toned" muscles, have more myogeneric tone, than those not toned. So toning really is training in a way that improves this myogeneric tone (I'm still not sure if that is the correct word, but it's something like that).
Though I realize most people have got it totally wrong. I was just wondering what it REALLY is.
When I think of myogenic (not generic) tone, I think mostly about blood vessels and medical topics that are way over my head. I'm not sure if myogenic tone refers to muscle tonus, but if it does then my comments above are unchanged. You would not even want to change the normal passive tonus of your resting muscles, even if you could. That would be unhealthy. I've got a mental picture of either someone totally slack (like the coma patient) or someone in a complete knot while at rest!
You might, and probably do, want to increase the density of your muscles, maybe the size of your muscles, and reduce your body fat so that they show.
You might, and probably do, want to increase the density of your muscles, maybe the size of your muscles, and reduce your body fat so that they show.
Okay, I know adding size = hypertrophy, but what is increasing density? Would that equal strength, or is it possible to just increase density through exercise? And if so, what does increasing density accomplish?
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
It amazes me that this type of fitness paradigm is so hard to debunk. Even many of us who know more than most about fitness can still get confused because of the prevalence of misinformation.
Here's another mind scrambler I come across pretty often:
Many women prefer ab work over lower body work because they think ab work will make their waists smaller and comparable sets/reps of lower body work will make their legs bigger.
Okay, I know adding size = hypertrophy, but what is increasing density? Would that equal strength, or is it possible to just increase density through exercise? And if so, what does increasing density accomplish?
You can think of it as strength because density is created with strength training. If you think of a cross section of muscle, it has muscle fibers, sarcoplasm, and some fat (think of the marbling in a soft, delicious steak). A denser muscle contains less fat between muscle fibers and thicker, more tightly packed muscle fibers (think of that piece of meat you can hardly bite it's so tough). If you can imagine a bodybuilder that looks "hard." That's partly a function of leanness, but it can also be due to muscle density.
This picture doesn't label fat necessarily, but you can get the idea that more tightly packed muscle fibers would create a denser muscle. When density is increased the muscle is stronger, but it would not necessarily have to become bigger around (hypertrophy).
While I don't disagree with the overall purpose of Tony's article, remember that it's purpose was not to clarify myogenic tone specifically. After you read the paragraph where he mentions myogenic tone, be sure to also read this post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by peterm533
Tony - You write about muscle "hardness" and say:
"Simply put, there are two types of muscle tone: myogenic and neurogenic. The former refers to your muscle tone at rest; the latter refers to muscle tone that's expressed when muscular contractions occur.
Low(er) rep training increases the sensitivity of various motor units resulting in increased neurogenic tone. On the other hand, myogenic tone is correlated with the overall density of your muscles (specifically the contractile proteins myosin and actin) and is vastly improved by lifting heavier weights."
Is this just your belief or is it established science?
I must say that I had always thought that muscle "tone" here meaning the residual tension in a resting muscle was not affected by training and speaking personally I could not say that my muscles when relaxed were any "harder" through longtime lifting weights.
I would have thought that developing "hardness" in a relaxed muscle would run counter to developing high levels of tension and relaxation and would not be conducive to athletic performance.
The thread got side-tracked and Tony never responded to this poster's question. My own understanding is stated in my previous posts and I'd welcome any of our members with medical training to come in and clarify the terminology for us. (I think we're actually all on the same page with the practical applications of training for specific goals.)
Superb explanations. Thanks, Lisa! If you wrote a book, I'd buy it without hesitation!
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
I remember a question on muscle tone in Lou Schuler's "Ask the Muscle Guy" (or whatever it was called) column from MH years ago.
Lou's response was similar to karky's....Showing muscle tone meant showing muscle contraction. I think Lou told him to walk around with his muscles contracted to looked "toned."
While I don't disagree with the overall purpose of Tony's article, remember that it's purpose was not to clarify myogenic tone specifically. After you read the paragraph where he mentions myogenic tone, be sure to also read this post:
The thread got side-tracked and Tony never responded to this poster's question. My own understanding is stated in my previous posts and I'd welcome any of our members with medical training to come in and clarify the terminology for us. (I think we're actually all on the same page with the practical applications of training for specific goals.)
What do you have Lisa? I database that links articles with the posts and cliarifications from various boards that have been posted!?
GAH!
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
Well, for what it's worth, in physical therapy school, what we learned as "tone" was the underlying tension that muscles exert when there is normal neurological function. You can have excess tone (think of someone with cerebral palsy) that is neurological in origin, or excess tone that is non-neurological (think of the knots in the muscles in your neck and shoulders when you are stressed). You can also have reduced tone (like in the legs of a person with spinal cord injury, or in a person with hemiplegia after a stroke - although both of those scenarios can also result in increased tone). In a non-neurological injury, reduced tone comes about with deep relaxation.
As for increasing the "tone" of your muscles, I'm not sure that is something physiologically "real" ... except just getting them stronger and reducing the overlying fat so that they are more visible. I do know that increased tension (from stress or whatever) is NOT desirable as it leads to improper function of the muscle and thus surrounding joints, over time leading to imbalances, dysfunction, and often pain.
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What do you have Lisa? I database that links articles with the posts and cliarifications from various boards that have been posted!?
GAH!
HAHAHAHAHA I don't have any special software for my computer. I just reread the article and then read the associated thread. Sometimes I have the time and interest for that sort of thing and sometimes I don't.
Julie, thanks so much for your post. I think that what you wrote agrees with what I wrote.
Toning. Read before you flame :p
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