How Many Reps Should I do to Get Toned

There are those who wish to build shape to their muscles and perhaps a little size. These same people may carry a fear of becoming too big and looking bulky. While you will not find the definition in Webster’s Dictionary, they often define their desired look as getting toned. Fitness professionals are very familiar with this statement and also the question of “how many reps should I do to get toned?”

The question from a scientific standpoint is hard to answer. The reason being, the image of what a toned body looks like differs from one person to the next. One person may see the shape of the quadriceps that are noticeable through a pair of pants as toned. From another person’s viewpoint, that same set of legs is not toned at all, but instead is big and bulky.

It is impossible to clearly answer the question of how many reps should I do to get toned. While impossible to define tone in a broad sense, it is possible to narrow it down, allowing room for interpretation. There are key fundamentals one can do to increase lean muscle through strength training but still put a regulator on the rate at which we develop muscle. We will provide these fundamentals in this article.

Building As Much Muscle As Possible

Before we get ahead of ourselves, allow me to plead my case. Those who aspire to build massive muscles will be the first to tell you how difficult that goal is. It takes years of intense hard-core training before a muscle can become too big for most people.

We need to address the false assumption that you can build bulky muscles quickly.It can still be hard to build bulky muscles even with years of intense training and a high calorie consumption. There are many other factors in play, such as your protein intake, that determine your ability to build muscle. Be careful not to limit your potential so much that you fall short of the toned look you desire.

In the initial article for this series, we answered the question, of how many reps should I do to build muscle. We then followed it up with the answer to how many reps should I do to burn fat . Be sure to read these articles as well for a further understanding of how reps influence your physique. Understanding all three will ensure you make the best decision about how you perform the sets in your exercise routine.

Putting in the Reps of Life

There is a second reason you will want to build more muscle if you are over the age of 30. Against our liking, our bodies naturally lose muscle tissue as we age. It will not serve you well in your later years to put a limit on the amount of muscle you can build.

If you wish to age well the goal is to safely build as much muscle as you can while maintaining optimal health. With that PSA notice in mind, it is time to talk about how we can limit the amount of muscle we build.

Limiting the Intensity of Your Reps

One way to get the benefits of resistance exercise while not subjecting yourself to bulky muscles is to limit intensity. You can limit intensity by performing fewer reps than you would if you were training to failure. What this does is reduce the amount of muscle tissue breakdown you experience in a workout.

The more breakdown a muscle group experience in a workout, the more chance your body will learn to adapt to a new pain threshold. Heavy weight training taken to failure along with increased calories is the way you build muscle mass. The muscle becomes larger because it needs to compensate, preparing for the next time you put it through a tough workout. It does not want to experience failure, so it prepares itself better the next time around.

Hitting the breaks before reaching failure will still allow for many benefits. These benefits include improved insulin sensitivity, blood flow, and increased metabolism. Deciding to restrict your ability to build massive muscles can still do a body good.

Are More Reps the Best Strategy?

Hang around the gym long enough and you will hear someone say that higher reps are best for getting toned. Gym chatter is often more wrong than right but in this case it is half true. Training to failure at muscular endurance rep ranges (exceeding 12-repetitions) will still result in significant muscle gain.

They showed this in a study performed by Dr. Brad Shoenfeld comparing 8-12 repetitions along with 30 repetitions for muscle gain. In the short term, those being introduced to resistance exercise, with light weights and higher reps, resulted in equal muscle gain.

The reason higher reps may be the best long term strategy for toning is because of the limited strength increase. This limit will eventually result in less growth because strength is one method of our body’s need to adapt. At some point, the limited strength increases may also limit the rate of building muscle. This is at least until science proves otherwise.

Circuit Style Training

The popularity of the circuit-style workout routine has always been a major draw by those who want to get toned. Bootcamps, TRX classes, and other fitness classes are filled by those who aspire to tone up. This form of resistance training is a fun and energetic social atmosphere. It is in this environment where the fear of massive muscles is removed. However, attending one of these classes is not mandatory for removing this fear and gaining the benefits of resistance exercises.

Where these circuit-style exercises can go wrong is that many do not track progress. There is no way to monitor progressive overload of the muscle. Progressive overload means to increase the demands of the muscle over time with a more challenging stimulus. We can achieve this through increased weight, repetitions, or the amount of time you take to perform your set.

We need progressive overload because going without it can limit fat loss. When you perform the same workout routine with the same level of difficulty, over time it slows down our metabolic response. This is one reason we hear so many people complain that they stop experiencing weight loss after a few months of strength training. They attempt to continue the same exercise program without increasing to a heavier weight or adding more reps to the previous workout.

Feel free to continue with a circuit style strength training program where you work the entire body rather than isolating a muscle group. These workouts can be the perfect environment and stimulus for many people. The limited muscle fiber damage will prevent muscle size from increasing quickly. Just be sure you are tracking progress to ensure are getting stronger.

The Right Reps to Get Toned

If at this point you still want to limit muscle growth, these steps will lead you in the right direction. You will still gain many of the benefits of resistance training and gain a lean physique with lower body fat.

1. Lift weights near but not at failure

2. Lift weights for repetitions greater than 12 for each set

3. Progressively overload your workouts with more weight, reps, or time in the set

With a healthy nutrition plan in place, following these steps can help you build a toned body. You will have more muscle than the average person but less than someone who desires to max their muscle out.

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