There is so much confusion in fitness these days that many women are under the impression that a toning workout is just a circuit routine with light dumbbells or bodyweight exercises that's intended to firm up your trouble zones without building bulky muscle.

Well this couldn't be further from the truth and if you're one of the many women who's been trying to get toned with this type of workout and you're not getting very good results then this article will provide all the solutions you need to start seeing visible changes fast.

The Bulking Up Myth
Many women are still under the impression that lifting anything heavier than an 8 to 10 pound weight will build big bulky muscles. The truth is that building muscle is incredibly hard, even for guys. It's so hard there are literally thousands of bodybuilding sites, products, blogs, and supplements designed for guys having trouble putting on muscle. If it was so easy do you think guys would bother spending so much time and money on all this stuff? I can tell you from my own experience that lifting 25 lb dumbbells NEVER bulked up my arms, legs, or butt. It actually burned a ton of fat and built some much needed lean muscle mass that transformed me from flabby to toned much faster.

Toning Workouts Solution
Ditch the pink weights and start lifting weights that feel challenging. You will tone up so much faster but there's a trick and I'm getting to that next.

The Lean Muscle Trick

Obviously no woman wants tree trunk looking legs or arms like a dude but doing tons of reps or circuits or cardio isn't the secret. The secret is finding workouts that boost your body's fatloss hormones. This is what allows you to build lean muscle while burning loads of fat at the same time. Performing light weight circuits on all your trouble zones only improves muscular endurance (that's why you feel that burn) but it doesn't trigger any of those fatloss hormones you need to build lean muscle in the first place. So even though you might be fit and feeling the burn, you have no lean muscle underneath so all you'll get is smaller but flabbier arms.

Toning Workouts Solution
Forget about spot toning exercises and focus on exercises that boost your body's fatloss hormones. Try any of my toning workout routines to see what I mean.

The Cardio Toning Secret

This is probably the best kept secret of all the best trainers in the world and it involves using bodyweight exercises to perform cardio. Using your bodyweight for cardio not only burns fat, it also increases your body's fatloss hormones and depending on which exercises you choose can help get toned thighs, toned arms, toned abs, and a toned butt. The best part about cardio for toning is you can do it anywhere, with virtually no equipment, and it burns more calories than regular old cardio on the treadmill.

Toning Workouts Solution
Mix and match bodyweight exercises into a calorie torching circuit just like Valerie Waters did for Rachel Nichols, the star of G.I. Joe. Get started with one of Val's bodyweight cardio circuits.

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