Can cardio have a toning effect ?

blunomore

blunomore

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Good people,

Q for the fitness experts (keep in mind I am asking this from the point of view of a woman):

Ideally one does cardio and then move on to resistance training to tone, sculpt, etc.

If you do enough cardio, will that have a muscle toning effect in itself or not at all? If all body fat is stripped away, I suppose muscle tone is the result of that low body fat then? Maybe I answered my own Q !!
 
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Didnt you do Phys ed in school?
In my opinion it does.
 
HIIT Cardio will tone and you'll lose more weight doing 15 minutes a day than doing normal cardio for an hour a day.
 
It should Blu

Reason is, you still do resistance training but with much less resistance.
If you run a treadmill you still need to lift your legs to run. If you cycle you still have to use your mucles to lush the bike forward.

You will tone yes.
 
I definitely does. Anything that gets the heart rate up burns fat and that is a form of toning. To tone more precisely you would need to do exercises for specific muscle groups.
 
JUGGY said:
I definitely does. Anything that gets the heart rate up burns fat and that is a form of toning. To tone more precisely you would need to do exercises for specific muscle groups.
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Just beware of "Spot Reduction Myth"
 
Spot Reduction Myth
Contrary to what the infomercials suggest there is no such thing as spot reduction. Fat is lost throughout the body in a pattern dependent upon genetics, sex (hormones), and age. Overall body fat must be reduced to lose fat in any particular area. Although fat is lost or gained throughout the body it seems the first area to get fat, or the last area to become lean, is the midsection (in men and some women, especially after menopause) and hips and thighs (in women and few men). Sit-ups, crunches, leg-hip raises, leg raises, hip adduction, hip abduction, etc. will only exercise the muscles under the fat.
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remybfg10k said:
blu, sometimes i get the feeling that you are a lost cause :)
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Generally, women would tone the following body parts -

Back
Stomach
Upper arms
Chest
Butt
Upper legs
Calves

I am a woman, therefore those would be the areas I focus on in the gym. I just thought it would be obvious :confused:
 
blunomore said:
I am interested in toning.
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You could take a look at www.collagevideo.com to see if there are any DVDs that might be suitable. There is a short clip for each DVD so that you get a better idea of what to expect. Take a look at Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred for example or some of the Pilates titles to see whether or not they might be suitable. Some of this material can be downloaded or bought very cheaply if you know where to look. Post again if you want more details.
 
JUGGY said:
I definitely does. Anything that gets the heart rate up burns fat and that is a form of toning. To tone more precisely you would need to do exercises for specific muscle groups.
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not entirely true, you would burn more fat using 65% of ur max heart rate than at 80%+

but yes ur right about toning and area specific toning.
 
cardio is a great way to start toning. yes, you do get some tone out of it (stripping all fat away)

however, like pitbull said, cardio is a much lighter form of resistance training so not as effective. when you get to a body fat percentage of around 20% you should generally start weight training (not light resistance training)

But besides the point. Try changing up your cardio exersizes to include other parts of your body. This will generally tone you everywhere and get a lot of cardio in at the same time
 
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