educate me on metabolism please

[Steve]

Wrangell-

I did understand what you were doing. You were giving the technical side of things. Which is great, IMO.

If you put 100 people in a room, randomly selected from the general public, I bet you 99, it not 100 of them would assume toning means light weight, high rep training to become lean.

I just don't see a need to bring up the technical version of muscle tone with the average person. I think it better suits him/her to explain that toning, in the context of their understanding, is not possible.

Kind of like when I go to get my taxes done. The last thing I want from them is a technical evaluation of how the CPA saved me X amount of dollars. I just want to know he used his expertise to create a savings.

Honestly, I am not arguing here. Just conversing. I take it you are a trainer, no?

 

[Wrangell]

Wrangell-

I did understand what you were doing. You were giving the technical side of things. Which is great, IMO.

If you put 100 people in a room, randomly selected from the general public, I bet you 99, it not 100 of them would assume toning means light weight, high rep training to become lean.

I just don't see a need to bring up the technical version of muscle tone with the average person. I think it better suits him/her to explain that toning, in the context of their understanding, is not possible.

I hear you. You make a good point.

Thing is, on a couple of other forums I post on, I had questions from newbies about what " toning " actually means before, so I simply saw your comments and put in my 2 cents - sorry, force of habit . So when they ask, " How do I tone my muscles ? " - you have to get to the very point you touched on making in making a reply. You don't train or design an exercise program for " toning " per say - that is a myth. But, you do design training you do to optimize fat loss, or muscle mass, or mucle strength, or muscle spped, endurance...thing is, the improved " toning " of your muscles is simply a side-benefit or consquence of the training related to those goals above.

Kind of like when I go to get my taxes done. The last thing I want from them is a technical evaluation of how the CPA saved me X amount of dollars. I just want to know he used his expertise to create a savings.

Honestly, I am not arguing here. Just conversing. I take it you are a trainer, no?

No worries.

I'm a newb on this forum, so I guess I'll have to try get a better feel if my replies are going too far off tangent..be sure and let me know if i do

Trainer ? No way...not even close. I've just spent WAY too much time in the gym and rerading is all .

Started serious training for hockey - I'm in Canada eh - in high school / college ( business degrees ), then with coaching teams and training hockey players. Since then, I've spent over 25 years in the gym and simply got sick and tired being told by " experts " of all the mistakes I was making ( which I was ) and getting conflicting advise from so-called " expert " trainers. So, I simply started to read everything I could on training on my own ( up to about 150 books in my library so far ) to understand the proper " how-to's " & why some things work and some don't.

And all I've really learned is, after all that reading, I don't know as much as I think I do. And I've still got a heck of a lot more to learn. That's why I joined this forum.

 

[Steve]

With that reply, my friend, I hope you stick around for a long time!

You are free to makes posts about whatever you want. That is the point of the forum, and when someone picks my interest enough, I will almost always reply... with no bad intentions. I was simply explaining my thoughts of in-depth physiological descriptions to the average person looking to lose fat. Ya know? If your opinion conflicts with mine, that is fine and dandy. I just like conversing about this stuff.

And I am always more then willing to agree to disagree, not that we are in this particular instance.

And I am right there with you. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I DON'T know. That is the beauty of the subject at hand. It is a never-ending field with endless amounts of information.

You know your stuff, and I hope you continue to post here. A lot of people would love for you to share your knowledge around here.

 

[lilone]

Sorry to be a hindrance but since you mention it:

And I agree with you, ......the " highs rep lead to definition " or " the high reps leads to ' toning ' " are clearly myths...one's I can't believe many people still seem to cling to. The fact is, if you do hi reps with low resistance or low reps with greater resistance, you're going to see the same improvements in “muscle tone ".

If I want to 'tone' my muscles; And, when I say tone I mean it in the context of which you spoke of:

tone " begins with the degree to which your muscles remain contracted or tensed while at rest - i.e or even when you're sleeping. People who are not fit ( i.e really out of shape ) tend to have pretty poor muscle tone/low contraction at rest whereas very fit people have good muscle tone/high contraction.

Then I should be doing cardio to reduce the fat, but also weight training won't hurt, right? so with that in mind going back to this talk about reps...if I use 5lb. weights how many reps should I be doing?

 

[Steve]

Yes, the toning you speak of comes from a reduction in body fat.

The way to decrease body fat is through a synergistic push using proper nutrition, weight training, and cardio.

You ask how many reps you should do using a 5 lb db. Weight lifted dictates rep range. So the heavier of a weight you lift, relative to your strength, the fewer reps you will be able to do, and vice versa.

While dieting, you must be in a caloric deficit. I suggest you find a recent post made be TomO titled, "words of wisdom." I think that is what it was called. I also suggest reading a post I made regarding setting up a resistance training routine for the beginner looking to lose weight. It is found in the "weightloss through exercise" section of the site. The thread is titled "workou" and it is stickied.

5lb weights probably aren't going to do much for you.

 

[cym]

Muscle " tone " has to do with how contracted your muscle stays when you relax. When you're out of shape, you have poor tone and your level of contraction when at rest is low...your abs and arms and legs look "mushy" even if they're thin. When you're in shape, you have good tone and your level of contraction when at rest is high.

Wrangell, without knowing it - cause I never asked - you have just exactly explained something I have been confused about in observing my own body's development over the last few months. The big joke these days among my friends and co-workers is to accuse me of "always walking around flexing"...and even to me it basically does look like I'm purposely trying to "contract my muscles" even when I'm just sitting there - I just couldn't figure out what the deal was but that makes so much sense. Thank you.

 

[Wrangell]

Wrangell, without knowing it - cause I never asked - you have just exactly explained something I have been confused about in observing my own body's development over the last few months. The big joke these days among my friends and co-workers is to accuse me of "always walking around flexing"...and even to me it basically does look like I'm purposely trying to "contract my muscles" even when I'm just sitting there - I just couldn't figure out what the deal was but that makes so much sense. Thank you.

No need to thank me.

If your muscles are taut & shapely enough so that " friends and co-workers " can't help but take notice.......congrats go to you........pat yourself on the back.

 

[Wrangell]

Sorry to be a hindrance but since you mention it:


If I want to 'tone' my muscles; And, when I say tone I mean it in the context of which you spoke of:

Then I should be doing cardio to reduce the fat, but also weight training won't hurt, right? so with that in mind going back to this talk about reps...if I use 5lb. weights how many reps should I be doing?

Actually, the question should be the other way around IMO...." If I want to lift for an " opitmal " number of reps, how heavy a weight should I lift ? "

As I see it, basically you want to change the " shape " of your muscles. In other words, you want change how your muscles look. Men want the same thing. So, the way you train should be very similar to the way men train. I had the text ( below ) bookmarked from another forum that discusses reps in the context of getting " shape " in muscles. It does a much better job of explaining how you can apply generic training principles to change the shape and " tone " of your muscles with some highlighted text areas for your attention.......

" Many women are afraid of strength training because they believe that it will create large muscles that are unattractive. "I’ll weight train once I get this fat off. I don’t want to turn it into muscle". This is a prevalent misconception. The vast majority of women cannot build large muscles because they are genetically incapable of doing so. It is impossible to turn fat into muscle, or muscle into fat, as each cell is unique from the other.
"the physiology of strength training" In order to dispel these types of myths, we need to understand the physiology of strength training. Strength training results in an increase in muscle fiber size. As the muscle fibers increase in thickness, the shape of the muscle changes, getting thicker in the belly, or middle, of the muscle. This results in a change in the shape of the muscle. How much the muscle changes in shape, and how large the muscle gets, depends on the amount of work the muscle is asked to do (as well as other factors discussed later). If the muscle is asked to lift very heavy loads, it will respond with a significant increase in fiber/muscle size. (The goal of most men.)

In order to avoid this gain in muscle mass, women are told to lift very light weights. This recommendation is oftentimes interpreted to the extreme, and women perform many repetitions with 3 or 5 pound weights. Unfortunately, without sufficient load (weight), the muscle will not change, and the goal of "tone" and "shape" cannot be achieved. A change in the shape or tone of a muscle is created in the same way that size is created, with hard work and consistency!! In order to shape or tone your muscle, you must lift a weight that is heavy enough to create muscle fatigue (also known as failure). Working your muscles to fatigue means that your muscles refuse to lift/move the weight in a correct and safe fashion. Working your muscles to fatigue will not necessarily create large, unsightly muscle mass. Even if you work your muscles to extreme fatigue, rest assured, that the majority of women are genetically unable to create large muscles because they lack sufficient hormones or body structure to do so.

All major muscle groups need to be worked to avoid muscular and postural imbalances. It is recommended that you choose a weight or load that produces muscle fatigue somewhere between 8-12 repetitions of an exercise for the upper body, and 12-15 repetitions for the lower body. Most current research recommends 1-3 sets per muscle group, depending on your goals and current fitness level. (A set is equal to the number of repetitions (8-12 or 12-15) you are currently able to do safely and with correct posture.) "​

.....so , in answer to your question, choose the weight that gets you a fatigue level at around 8-12 reps. If you can achieve that fatigue level using 5lbs - fine. But if you only get to that fatigue level at 25 reps using 5lbs., you need to increase the weight to more than 5 lbs - i.e 10 lbs, or 15 lbs. . So that lifting 10 lbs now brings you to that fatigue level at around 8-12 reps.