Toning

[DaSand]

I don't know if this topic has been addressed, but is the proper way to tone muscles light weights, high reps? I'm looking to tone my body up for my sister's wedding coming up? I'm also celebrating a year that I've kept off 20 pounds.

I sprained my ankle recently and can't run, but I'm riding my bike 4 days a week. I'm going up a hill that leads to a country club. Does anyone here like running or biking up hills?

 

[dem]

that was the method i had followed in the past. It worked well for me. I worked it to the point which my muscles started to burn and then eventual muscle fatique

i suppose it also depends on your physique now. Are you slim?

 

[CCS]

toning is just about having a low body fat percentage. Being small is not the same thing as being toned. I'm small and have 15% body fat, which is OK. But 8% is better, which is what I want. Some crazy giuys deliborately get down to 5%.

It is also good to have reasonable sized muscles, or even the thickness of your skin will hide them.

finally, you need to give your skin time to adjust to the size changes, if you made them fast. Fast changes = cellulite (too loose) or stretch marks (too tight).

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To accomplish this, you need to build muscle without putting on too much fat (at least 2/3, preferably 80% of your new mass should be muscle).
You also need to loose weight that is mostly fat (2/3, preferably 80% fat, and rest muscle).
I don't know if it possible to lose less than 10% of the weght as muscle unless you naturally have lots of testosterone or HMB.
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Eat biggest meals after high intensity workouts.
Do low intensity fat burn when your blood sugar is lowest. This just saves time and beats being hungry all day instead. Low intensity should not burn too much muscle. I don't know if the testosterone boost of HIIT would outweigh the extra cortisol, or if you can even make testosterone on an empty stomach.

 

[CCS]

we need a drug that will work like cortisol to release fat into the blood stream, yet not cause muscle break down.

ephedra just increases metabolism -- no good.

testosterone helps revent muscle break down by rebuilding it as it is broken down, but we can't keep levels elevated too long.

HMB seems like the only good thing we got, but I don't know how good it is. They say it reduces catabolism by 20-40% while resting.

I just bothers me that if I get on the bike in the morning and do intense interval training, and burn 1000 calories in an hour, probably 30-40% of the weight will be muscle. But if I go slower, I only burn 500 calories, and take over a week to lose a pound of fat. I should not be complaining since I only need to lose 5-10 pounds, and probably only need 2 months. But I want faster results and want to work instead of wait. And to get my glycogen low, I have to go without eating for a while, which is less time to build muscle.

 

[DaSand]

that was the method i had followed in the past. It worked well for me. I worked it to the point which my muscles started to burn and then eventual muscle fatique

i suppose it also depends on your physique now. Are you slim?

I am slimmer than what I was before.

 

[CCS]

Cortisol: it is in high amounts during the fat burn, taking fat and protein out of cells and feeding them to muscles for fuel. But once you stop exercising, cortisol levels take time to drop, but the muscles are no longer burning fuel. Cortisol then takes more fat and protein out until insulin finally comes out and puts this back into fat cells. It is better to have a small sugar spike at the end of fat burn to stop cortisol sooner, so less muscle is turned into fat.

And cortisol shuts down testosterone production. You need testosterone to preserve more muscle. So steroids can both build muscle, and help you cut. But you can get there yourself in a lot more time.

I don't think heavy exercise will make testosterone on an empty stomach because of the cortisol. It will make higher cortisol levels, though. Also, fast twich muscle have bigger muscle tears, liberating more amino acids that get metabolised, so you lose more muscle this way.
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The best way is lower intensity exercise on an empty stomach in the morning, with some BCAAs and HMB, and end the session with more BCAA's and glutamine and maltodextrose in a small spike. 1 hour is ideal. And drink lots of water.

Eat normal the rest of the day, filling up glycogen stores a bit. Then lift weights, eat above normal, and repeat. Keep fat intake around 20%, and protein intake at least 20%.


and efedra is BS. It will burn fat, but also muscle. No good.

 

[CCS]

OK, I just figured out more from what I read before:

The higher the intensity of exercise during fat burn, the more cortisol is needed to maintain that fat release rate, and higher the proportion of fuel that will come from muscle.

In a very controlled study, with fat people who just dieted with fixed meals in a lab, and fat people who dieted less and exercised, both at a 500 calorie defficit, both groups lost the same amount of weight, and in both 25% was muscle weight.

I'm sure that fat people have little testosterone, and conditioned athletes have higher base rates, and probably would have lost 10% instead of 25% muscle. But if they do it at higher intensity, they may hit 20%, whereas the fat people may hit 40%.

So before starting a morning fat burn program, first get into shape, and get those testosterone levels up naturally. Then do low intensity cardio in the morning before breakfast. Take 4 grams of BCAAs and glutamine and a gram of HMB before hand. Then end your workout with with a small glucose spike from a little bit of sugary drink, to shut down the cortisol. Otherwise, cortisol will keep taking muscle protein at the previous rate until (because it is not longer being burned as fast since exercise is over) the liver turns the protein into suger (or stores some) and that sugar spike finally makes insulin shut off the remainder of the cortizol. Or some other mechanism metabolises the cortisol. All these organs just know what is in the blood.

So I'll do my epi cycle first. Then my PCT. Then my estrogen inhibiting high natural testosterone cycle. It will be during that last cycle that I'll do the most cutting. I think 5-8 pounds of muscle on my upper body, followed by cutting 5 pounds of fat, should make me look a lot better. Right now I don't blame women who get turned off by my gyno chest or 32 inch waist or 13 inch arms. I hit on women because maybe they will like me, but I feel bad pushing it since I know I can improve and am not that good yet.

 

[hair today gone tomorrow]

OK, I just figured out more from what I read before:

The higher the intensity of exercise during fat burn, the more cortisol is needed to maintain that fat release rate, and higher the proportion of fuel that will come from muscle.

In a very controlled study, with fat people who just dieted with fixed meals in a lab, and fat people who dieted less and exercised, both at a 500 calorie defficit, both groups lost the same amount of weight, and in both 25% was muscle weight.

I'm sure that fat people have little testosterone, and conditioned athletes have higher base rates, and probably would have lost 10% instead of 25% muscle. But if they do it at higher intensity, they may hit 20%, whereas the fat people may hit 40%.

So before starting a morning fat burn program, first get into shape, and get those testosterone levels up naturally. Then do low intensity cardio in the morning before breakfast. Take 4 grams of BCAAs and glutamine and a gram of HMB before hand. Then end your workout with with a small glucose spike from a little bit of sugary drink, to shut down the cortisol. Otherwise, cortisol will keep taking muscle protein at the previous rate until (because it is not longer being burned as fast since exercise is over) the liver turns the protein into suger (or stores some) and that sugar spike finally makes insulin shut off the remainder of the cortizol. Or some other mechanism metabolises the cortisol. All these organs just know what is in the blood.

So I'll do my epi cycle first. Then my PCT. Then my estrogen inhibiting high natural testosterone cycle. It will be during that last cycle that I'll do the most cutting. I think 5-8 pounds of muscle on my upper body, followed by cutting 5 pounds of fat, should make me look a lot better. Right now I don't blame women who get turned off by my gyno chest or 32 inch waist or 13 inch arms. I hit on women because maybe they will like me, but I feel bad pushing it since I know I can improve and am not that good yet.

 

[CCS]

toning is ALL about your ability to lose fat without losing much muscle, and gain muscle without gaining much fat. If your ratios are too bad, you won't be able to change your composition much. It takes time just to change weight. Going back and forth takes longer.


You can't burn much fat until your glycogen is gone. At most 20% of the calories will be fat, and 80% carbs.

If someone has elevated cortisol levels all the time, when not exercising, cortisol will take fat and some protein out of cells, and as blood levels rise, insulin will put it back into cells, and probably just the fat cells. That is how high cortisol levels can make someone fat. This happens right after every fat burn exercise, but levels come down, so it is not an issue.

HIIT is great when you have glycogen because you have the fuel you need, and make testosterone instead of cortisol. In the morning with no glycogen, I guess fast changing intervals would be better than slow changing ones. I mean if you do high intensity for 5 minutes, then low for 5, alternating, you'd build up lots of cortisol to maintain the high intensity, and it would not go away while you did the low intensity, so the extra fat and protein liborated would be turned into fat during the low intensity period. So that is why you need to change back and forth fast so blood sugar levels stay constant, or just stay at the same intensity.

Your muscles will hang onto protein better if they have more testosterone around, or they are sensitive to the testosterone. They become sensitive to testosterone and HGH right exercise. Not sure how much you need. I get pretty strong just by doing 6 sets of chin ups spaced evenly throughout the day, probably by keeping muscle sensitivity up. I don't know if that raises testosterone levels much, though. I think roid users would be wise to keep sensitivity up by throwing in a few extra sets spread throughout the day. To minimize how much muscle you lose during fat burn, you need to be in shape so your testosterone levels are higher, and exercise every muscle regularly so they are sensitive to that testosterone. Then, do not do fat burn right after high intensity work, since that is when a lot of broken down amino acids are floating around and could be used for rebuilding or get metabolised by the liver, depending whether you eat or do cardio.

You can do cardio in the morning, or diet all day. But if you diet all day, you can't use that time to build as much muscle, and you will feel weak for many hours that you could have done in just an hour of cardio. I don't think you burn more muscle to fat during low intensity cardio on an emtpy stomach than during dieting. But at high intensity, you can. 500 cal/per hour still is not bad, though 1000/hour would be nice.

So to preserve the most muscle, you have to work it all regularly. Next trick: build muscle fast without gaining too much fat.

 

[muaythai187]

lots of cardio and weights is good for you if you want to tone. I ran about 7 miles out of 4 days of the week and lift weights on the rest of the 3 days. It also helps to keep me tone and not have that bulky bodybuilder look. Also having a healthy diet is the most important thing in getting tone.

 

[Harie]

I don't know if this topic has been addressed, but is the proper way to tone muscles light weights, high reps? I'm looking to tone my body up for my sister's wedding coming up?

This is why bbers bulk and cut. Calorie excess (bulk) = weight gain & muscle growth. Calorie deficit (cut) = weight loss & muscle loss. To look "toned", simply lose weight while trying to keep as much muscle as possible (hence why cutting steroids are so popular). If you have no muscles to speak of, see bulking.

There's no magic # of reps or sets to get "toned". You can build muscle and keep muscle, under the proper conditions, with 20 reps, or 3 reps.

 

[CCS]

I don't know if this topic has been addressed, but is the proper way to tone muscles light weights, high reps? I'm looking to tone my body up for my sister's wedding coming up?

This is why bbers bulk and cut. Calorie excess (bulk) = weight gain & muscle growth. Calorie deficit (cut) = weight loss & muscle loss. To look "toned", simply lose weight while trying to keep as much muscle as possible (hence why cutting steroids are so popular). If you have no muscles to speak of, see bulking.

There's no magic # of reps or sets to get "toned". You can build muscle and keep muscle, under the proper conditions, with 20 reps, or 3 reps.

Harie said what I said, but without going into depth on other ways to maintain muscle while losing the fat. I don't think steroids are bad at all, as long as you use them to get somewhere fast, and then you stay there on your own. There is no point in using them if you don't have the discipline to keep your results once you are there. Not worth the health effects. Winny is supposed to be a good cutting roid, but I plan to just use a mild estrogen receptor inhibitor that causes my body to make more testosterone.

 

[CCS]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jon6.htm

steroids don't increase metabolism. They keep the muscle from getting burned. That way the weight you lose is all fat. Metabolism boosters are dumb. Boosting metabolism is so easy. Just exercise. I'd run all my excess fat off in less than a week, but I'd lose too much muscle in the process. The key is not upping your metabolism, but rather keeping your muscle when you do your cardio or whatever. I listed some simple ways to help with that a bit. But testosterone and other steroids are very good for doing this. Stronger than anything else.

When I come off my 3 week epistane cycle, I will use an OTC general estrogen inhibitor to raise my testosterone levels. After a week, I'll start simultaneously cutting and bulding, and then tapper off to end so I'm only on the AI for 4 weeks. I think Nolva is overkill. $40, but I'd rather use the OTC, which actually increases testosterone levels above normal.

 

[CCS]

When I do my cutting cycle for about 2 weeks (plus taper on and off), I'm not going to do high intensity stuff in the morning. Instead, I'll just do low intensity stuff for longer. I'll eat just as many calories as I would need for weight maintanance and mild gain: about 25-2700 calories. But in the morning, I'll burn about 1000-1200. Only there will be my deficit, so I have energy the rest of the day. Maybe my total intake will be 3000, if I think I can put the muscle on at the same time.

Anyway, when my heart rate rate is at 118, I burn 480 calories per hour.
At 125, 505. At 135, 520.
At 150, 700.
at 172, maybe 820.
So high intensity does not seem to burn a lot more calories, but may burn more muscle. Not sure how strong the testosterone is at hold the muscle on. But I'll shoot for about 520 and do that for two hours, alternating between bicycle, inclined treadmill, and rowing, probably 40 minutes each, with some water and a little BCAA's and DMB. I can also move my arms around a bit, but mostly will use them for holding a book.

Losing 2 pounds per week with the help of testosterone sounds like under use, but at least I'll be bulking a little too, and using this as the tail end of my PCT. I think dieting is a waste of time, because I burn at most 120 calories per hour, which means I need 4-5 hours of dieting instead of an hour of bike, and I could have used those 4 hours to build muscle. Unlike other roid users, I don't have tons of fat that is gained with tons of muscle. I just need to lose 5 pounds of fat, and will easily accomplish that in my 2 week cycle.

 

[Harie]

I don't know if this topic has been addressed, but is the proper way to tone muscles light weights, high reps? I'm looking to tone my body up for my sister's wedding coming up?

This is why bbers bulk and cut. Calorie excess (bulk) = weight gain & muscle growth. Calorie deficit (cut) = weight loss & muscle loss. To look "toned", simply lose weight while trying to keep as much muscle as possible (hence why cutting steroids are so popular). If you have no muscles to speak of, see bulking.

There's no magic # of reps or sets to get "toned". You can build muscle and keep muscle, under the proper conditions, with 20 reps, or 3 reps.

Harie said what I said, but without going into depth on other ways to maintain muscle while losing the fat. I don't think steroids are bad at all, as long as you use them to get somewhere fast, and then you stay there on your own. There is no point in using them if you don't have the discipline to keep your results once you are there. Not worth the health effects. Winny is supposed to be a good cutting roid, but I plan to just use a mild estrogen receptor inhibitor that causes my body to make more testosterone.

I wasn't advocating steroid use for the OP though, even though I'm very pro AAS & PH. I still think that you're crazy for using a PH since you aren't even close to your genetic limit.

Don't use Winny without a test base. In fact, don't use any steroid without a test base.

CCS - it's not only about how many calories you can burn while doing cardio. It's also about how many extra calories you burn after doing cardio from increased metabolism. Studies have shown that short bouts of high intensity cardio, while they won't burn as many calories as long duration low intensity cardio, keep metabolism ramped up for 24 hours after the session. Which means that you're more likely to burn more calories from a 20 min session of high intestity cardio than low. Plus, IMO, you won't burn as much muscle as you would at long duration low intensity.

 

[CCS]

[CCS,] I still think that you're crazy for using a PH since you aren't even close to your genetic limit.

Noted. Like I said, I don't plan to go to my genetic potential, and definitely not past it. Though I don't know what it is, either. 16 inches would be the absolute biggest arms I'd ever want, though I think I'll shoot for 15.

Don't use Winny without a test base. In fact, don't use any steroid without a test base.

I know that. I should have posted that for others. I'm affraid of Winny, though, so I'm not going to take it. If I were to take a different one, Winny is probably the next safest. I'd say AI is the safest, followed by epistane, followed by Winny. I'll also state that long lasting injectables are dangerous because if you get side effects, the drug is already in your and will be there for how ever many weeks it lasts.

CCS - it's not only about how many calories you can burn while doing cardio. It's also about how many extra calories you burn after doing cardio from increased metabolism. Studies have shown that short bouts of high intensity cardio, while they won't burn as many calories as long duration low intensity cardio, keep metabolism ramped up for 24 hours after the session. Which means that you're more likely to burn more calories from a 20 min session of high intestity cardio than low. Plus, IMO, you won't burn as much muscle as you would at long duration low intensity.

I'm aware of this too. Like I said, I'm not trying to shoot for the biggest calorie deficit out there. I want to be in a calorie deficit for only a few hours, and then be anabolic or at least neutral the rest of the day. You don't burn much fat unless your glycogen store are almost empty. So the whole time you are burning those extra calories 24/7, you are just burning glycogen, and don't start burning the fat until the glycogen is gone, and then you feel weak for hours. Please correct me if I am wrong about the body mostly burning glycogen instead of fat as long as it is present.

 

[Harie]

Please correct me if I am wrong about the body mostly burning glycogen instead of fat as long as it is present.

You are most definitely correct. Which is why carb cycling is becoming so popular among the weight loss crowd.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=835725

Great article about fasted cardio.

 

[CCS]

Please correct me if I am wrong about the body mostly burning glycogen instead of fat as long as it is present.

You are most definitely correct. Which is why carb cycling is becoming so popular among the weight loss crowd.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=835725

Great article about fasted cardio.

I'm still a bit afraid to dabble in the adkins diet in any form, though there have been days when I lived on mackerel and yogart and tomatoes because I was out of oats and did not feel like going to the store.

Increasing your calorie burn for 24 hours with 20 minutes of HIIT is good for eating more without getting fat, but not something I'd use to cut with, since I don't want to run a calorie deficit for hours at a time and feel weak and not be able to think and cheat on my diet and not build muscle those hours. I'd rather get it out of the way for an hour in the morning. Anyway, I will be doing HIIT as part of my anabolic workout, later in the day.

 

[CCS]

Carb cycling:
Given the choice between eating the same calories of carbs or fat, it is better to eat the carbs, because when you burn them, you don't burn muscle. Also, they can have a slow release with fiber, and are not deposited in fat cells as easily, but can fill glycogen stores. Glycogen is not bad, since it gives energy, and whether you burn the glycogen, or the fat that would have been put in the fat cell, you would still have to burn those calories before you can burn the other original fat.

HIIT:
Do HIIT an hour or two after you had a meal, so you are doing it on carbs and not fat. That will save muscle during the high intensity part. Then if you want to diet the rest of the day, I'm sure the HIIT is healthier than effedra and will up testosterone more. I'm sure they mean't metabolism is statistically significantly greater at the 24 hour mark, not that it is 100 cal/hour greater the whole time. 10-20% increases are believeable, though. I recommend using your quads 20 minutes every day, since they can do that, and then doing upper body+ab+hamstring circuit training for 20 minutes 12 hours later, again a few hours after eating a meal. Do 3 compound heavy sets to make testosterone, then do the rest at a lighter weight you can recover from. Eat 1.5g protein per pound body weight.

So that is a more agressive, healthy calorie deficit, which probably would not build much muscle. My method of low intensity in the morning, followed by a normal anabolic day, should cut less fat, but build more muscle. It might not reduce my muscle building at all. I think the HIIT diet may be worth trying for a week, though.

 

[DaSand]

Hey guys, since I've been biking and running for the past few months, I can start to see an outline for my abs as well as a slimmer stomach. It will take longer to tone and I'm joining a good gym soon.