The 4 Best Exercises for Toning Your Body
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If you're looking to get in shape and feel more confident about your body, toning is a great way to start. Toning your body involves building lean muscle mass while reducing body fat, resulting in a slim, sculpted physique. While it may seem intimidating, with the right approach, anyone can tone their body and achieve their fitness goals.
That’s why in this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, I am sharing these four best exercises for toning your body.
What I discuss:
Anything resistance training is going to be more effective than cardio-based workouts.
Full body workouts.
BIG lifts that work multiple muscle groups.
Exercises that make you feel uncomfortable.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Episode 311 - 4 Things to Do Instead of Fad Dieting for Results
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Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let’s go!
Welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast. So lately we have been diving into the principles of building the body that you want through resistance training and really understanding how to do so optimally. And so in this episode, I wanted to kind of chat with you more about that and just kind of transparently share, you know, some of the best exercises for toning your body, building the body that you want. And let me tell you, some of these four exercises are not going to be what you think. So tune in to find out what they are. I'm going to be talking all about that. So whether you're new to resistance training, you're just coming back to it. Or maybe you're just curious, you're like, Hey, you left me on a cliffhanger. Now I need to hear it. Be sure to tune in this episode. I think you'll find very, very helpful.
Before we dive in, though, I wanted to share this review It comes from. Why are all the names taken? She gave a five star review and said Worth your time. This podcast is one of the very few that I will continue listening to. I'm generally not a huge fan of podcasts, but lately I've been trying to find help for my weight and muscle gain journey. This is a big help for someone in my situation. There are so many episodes and so many different topics that I can just go through and choose the one that I need to hear at that time. Super helpful. I highly recommend. Well, I'm so grateful. First of all, I love your name. We're all the name is taken very, very witty. So great. And also, thank you for tuning in to the podcast. I know not everybody are podcast listeners, but I personally think podcasts can be very beneficial because you can be doing two things at once. You don't have to be watching someone, but you can be listening as you're, you know, you're working in the background or you're cleaning or you're working out or you're driving or whatnot. But I fully understand that the podcast situation is not for everybody. So I'm grateful that I'm one of the few podcasts you'll continue listening to.
That really means a lot to me. And thank you so much for taking time out of your day to even leave a review that really does help us out in terms of just reaching more women. I have found by just being in conversation with people, I ask like, How did you hear about the podcast? And I do hear oftentimes people say, you know, I stumbled across your page, whether it was a recommendation under a different podcast that I was listening to or I heard someone talk about it. And then I just started reading some of the reviews and people do they base if they're going to listen to the podcast on reviews. So they really do mean a lot. If you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and leave rating interview, if you do have an Apple device, that would mean so much to me. If you are a Spotify listener and podcasts, you are awesome. I love that crew. You can also be sure to follow the podcast on Spotify and also rate the podcast on Spotify. Those are the two things that you can do to help us out over there. But we're grateful for you. We're going to hope to continue to provide more and more just encouragement, education, inspiration, whatever it is that you need, we are here for you. 300 plus episodes strong and we're just going to keep moving forward, baby.
Okay, so let's dive into the four best exercises for toning your body.
Number one best exercise. Any resistance training is going to be more effective than cardio based workouts. I've been chatting about this a lot on the podcast. Cardio yes is great for heart health. It's great for Cardi like Endurance. And yes, cardio can help you lose weight, but it's actually not going to turn your body. Those are two totally different things. In fact, I just chatted about this in episode 311 to help you fully understand the concept, I will link that in the show notes below so that you can easily go listen if you missed that episode, but essentially you need to build muscle to get more toned. Many of us think we need to lose fat to get more toned when in reality we can lose fat. But that doesn't mean that we're going to look toned if we don't have any muscle to begin with. On top of that, resistance, training has a greater impact on the body's metabolism than cardio. So when you perform resistance exercises, your body's actually going to burn calories well after you've finished your workout. And this is because building and maintaining muscle requires more energy than maintaining fat. In contrast, calorie burning effects of cardio tend to be very short lived, so resistance training equals building more muscle mass, increasing your metabolic capacity, and that equals a more stronger body, a more toned body, which leads to number two, best exercise.
Number two, full body workouts. So if you want more toned abs or a stronger core, you're not just going to do a million crunches a week and expect to have a rip stomach. Like, first of all, if you've learned anything from this podcast and nutrition has a key and holds a key role in building the body that you want. But on the flip side, you also just can't do, you know, a ton of glute races and think that you're going to have a killer. But like, that's just not how it works. If you want to change one part of your body, you're going to have to work on changing all parts of your body because they all work together. Plus, your body is naturally going to lose fat in different places. First, you cannot spot reduce your body. You may want to lose fat first in your butt or right underneath your butt, your hamstring area, but it might actually be natural for you to lose weight in your arms first. So please just know that spot reducing is not a thing you can't. No matter what you try, your body's naturally going to lose weight in certain areas of your body first when you're on this journey. And secondly, working the entire body can actually help to increase overall muscle mass, which can lead to more significant changes in the desired area that you want to toned. So, for example, if you want to get stronger arms, you want to tone your arms, you might think that, you know, only doing bicep curls are doing bicep curls, you know, three, four or five times a week is the best approach. However, by also working your back, your chest muscles, you can create a more defined overall body which can make your arms look even more toned. You're working your triceps, you're working your chest, you're working your shoulders, you're working, you rear doubts, all of those things. And when you perform exercises that engage multiple muscle groups, you're burning more calories than you would with targeted exercises. So this can help to reduce overall body fat, which can lead to a more toned, defined looking body. And lastly, working your entire body helps to ensure that you're keeping your muscles in balance. So focusing too much on one particular area can lead to muscle imbalances, and this can result in poor posture, muscle strains or other health problems. While I know that's not related to a more toned, defined body, you don't want these things to happen when you're working towards building a more stronger, defined toned body.
Exercise number three. Big lifts that work multiple muscle groups. And when I say big lifts, I mean compound movement. So compound exercises, as the name suggests, involve multiple muscle groups working together to perform a movement. So examples, squats, deadlifts, presses, lap, pull down, pull over dumbbell rows, leg raises, reverse crunches, pull ups push ups. These exercises require the activation of a large number of muscle fibers, which create a significant stimulus for muscle growth. So here's the thing. When someone wants to get toned, oftentimes they do isolated exercises exclusively isolated exercises or exercises that work one small muscle alone. But if you want to change your body, these isolated exercises need to be done in conjunction with compound movements in order to actually see results. So, first of all, isolated exercises can be less effective for building overall muscle mass, then compound exercises, because compound exercises place a much greater demand on the body that triggers your body to build new muscle. Right. Isolated exercises don't do this since compound exercises require a greater load to be lifted than isolated exercises, there are way more muscle fibers recruited. So when you're recruiting more muscle fibers during your workout, it's one of the best things that you can do for building more muscle and getting more toned. I hope that makes sense. If you need to rewind and listen to the last minute, I really think if you can get that key point, that will be a game changer in your journey. Plus the increased muscle activation that's required for compound exercises, that leads to a much greater release of your muscle growth hormones. These hormones play a seriously important role in promoting muscle growth repair. And guess what? They're also released in a way larger amounts during compound exercises versus isolated exercises.
So to sum it up, isolated exercises alone will make it very difficult for you to get a toned body, to get the defined body that you're looking for. But when you combine isolated exercises with compound exercises, you're setting yourself up to see amazing results.
And so that's why if you're following my programing inside me or Julie, we do tons of compound exercises, We do a lot of compound exercises. We also incorporate isolated movements to ensure that we are reaping the benefits from both to see optimal results.
Exercise number four, exercises that make you feel uncomfortable. You're probably like, What the heck are you talking about? To achieve a more toned or defined body, it's important that you are challenged. Your muscles in ways that make you feel uncomfortable. This discomfort and not discomfort leading to injury more so like mindset discomfort like, Oh, I hate this exercise. This is a sign that you are pushing your body beyond its current limits, right? Which is necessary to promote the muscle that you need to build in order to achieve a more toned, defined body. One of the main reasons why it's important to do exercises that make you feel uncomfortable is that it stimulates a process known as muscle hypertrophy. So also, when I say uncomfortable, I mean like pushing yourself in your workouts, not just coasting through. You're really trying to push yourself to activate each muscle fiber to get that mind muscle connection. It's so, so important. But we've been talking a lot about muscle hypertrophy on the podcast recently, but to kind of give another summary. Muscle hypertrophy is the process of muscle fibers increase when they increase in size in response to the stress placed on them during exercise. And this is what triggers the muscle growth and this is what will lead you to having a more defined overall body composition. Right. And guess what? When you get uncomfortable, when you push yourself in your workouts and you're pushing yourself through that last few reps, the last set you are experiencing hypertrophy, which then can lead to a stronger, more defined body. Another reason why it's important for you to do uncomfortable exercises is that it can help to increase your overall work capacity. So when you perform exercises that challenge your muscles in a new and difficult way, you're forcing your body to adapt and become more efficient at performing physical tasks. And this increased work capacity can actually translate to more muscle built. And this is also important because doing uncomfortable exercises can actually help you to break through plateaus. Yes, I said plateau. So if you're feeling like you've been in the same place for what feels like forever, even though you are working out regularly, it might be because you're not getting uncomfortable in your workouts. If you're doing the same workout all of the time, the same exercises, using the same weights, every single workout, your body is going to adapt, which is amazing for many circumstances that we as humans are so adaptable. I love that we can adapt to situations and we can adapt to new experiences and we can adapt to new places. But this can also work against you because your body can learn to adapt. If you just constantly do the same workout, you're pushing the same weights and you're not getting uncomfortable. This likely means that you're just going through the motions. You're maybe getting a little sweaty, but you're just kind of coasting through your workout.
You've got to get uncomfortable because here's the thing. When you perform the same exercises at the same intensity for a long period of time, your body can and your body will become accustomed to the stress that is placed on it, which can lead to a plateau in your progress. But if you are incorporating new exercises or you're increasing the intensity of your workouts, you can break through this plateau and continue to see progress. And this is one of the key reasons why I am a firm believer in my programing inside. Julie
You see five brand new workouts every single week to ensure that you're not only constantly working your body in new and challenging ways, but the way that the programing is structured is from week to week you're working the same foundational body parts. So in both, like I mentioned earlier, in both compound exercises as well as isolated exercises, we're switching up variations to ensure that you don't get bored with your workouts because that's the number one thing that I see people do is they say, Well, yeah, I was doing it for a week or I was doing it for four weeks, but then I just kind of quit. I'm like, Okay, if you're doing a program and you quit, the consistency is key. And so I would much rather you follow something like my workouts where the workouts are switching from week to week, but not so much drastically that you're not able to make any progress.
For example, you we know on lower body days you are going to work your glutes with some sort of deadlift, whether it's a single leg deadlift, it's a stiff leg deadlift, it's a Romanian deadlift. We also know that you're going to work your legs, your glutes, your quads with some sort of goblet squat or some sort of suitcase squat. So the variations switch to make it fun and exciting. But. We stick with the same, you know, compound exercises, isolated exercises. You do try sets, you do super sets, you do amp sets, you do a burnout circuit, all of those things to ensure that you are staying consistent.
So I hope that this episode gave you some good just information in this, because I know that you tune in to this episode to get like exact exercises to get a more toned body, but it's not as simple as that. Just like so many of the other topics that I talk about on this podcast, like most magazine covers, will say, okay, do these five exercises for more toned legs. And yes, there are great, you know, foundational moves. So I do some posts that are like, these are four staple exercises in my lower body routines, reverse lunges, step ups, Romanian or some sort of deadlift squats. Like those are foundational things, but it's also really important to understand the ins and outs of how your muscle grows and understand how to actually achieve a more toned and defined body.
So this is what I talked about in today's episode. The exercises that you need are anything resistance based, anything resistance training based, They're going to be a lot more effective than cardio based workouts. Number two, full body workout. So only working out, you know, parts of your body that you want to be more toned while neglecting other areas isn't going to be the most effective. Number three, big lifts that work multiple muscle groups at a time. Isolated exercises should be in conjunction with compound movements in order to see optimal results. And lastly, number four exercises that make you feel uncomfortable. You got to get outside your comfort zone If you want to push your body and start to build the body that you want. So if you want to start doing resistance training based workouts, if you want to start training, full your full body with compound movements and isolated movements, if you want to get outside your comfort zone and not keep doing the same workouts that you've been doing, you know, week in, week out, month in, month out with the same way and you want to be pushed and you want to learn new movements, but also have fun while you're doing it. I've got a program for you. It's called Movement With Julie. You can head over to sale. That's elite movement. Julia dot com I will LinkedIn this generous that you can easily check that out 50% off your first month so the entire month for your first month is ten bucks and then it's $20 month you get five brand new workouts. Cancel any time. You're not locked into any sort of contract and you get five brand new workouts that are released on Saturdays at 12 p.m. on Standard Time for the following week. We have a 30 minute and a 60 minute workout for you on each day. So depending on your time constraints, we've got a workout for you there. Go at your own pace. There's video demos for every single movement, alternate exercises. So we've got no bench alternates, body weight, alternates, easier alternates. I really try to incorporate all types of exercises and alternates that are for all different fitness levels. So check it out. You can learn more. Again, go to sale that's sale dot movement Julie dot com. But I hope that this episode gave you some insight. I know it was kind of a trick, but not really a trick. I feel like I gave you a good amount of information so that you can walk away from this feeling like you are educated in this certain area of your health and fitness journey. But if you have a friend or a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this specific episode or this podcast in general, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the links, you can send it to them in a text message. You can also screenshot this and post it up on your story. I love connecting with the guys. I love hearing your aha moments, so thank you in advance for doing that.
That is all that I have for today. I love you so dang much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, It's with a name in the middle for that daily poser about real talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.