Training for Muscular Endurance

I can think of no term used in training language that is more misleading than the word toning. People say things like, "I just want to tone-I don't want to get big," or "If you do a lot of reps you will just tone instead of build." In truth, there is no scientific explanation for toning. Your muscles either hypertrophy or they do not. The amount and quality of hypertrophy vary among people and depend on the training method they use. Technically, muscle tone is used in a neurological setting to describe the resting tension of a muscle and to denote how that muscle responds to either passive stretching or stretching by a therapist. Most people have normal tone in their muscles. Abnormal tone is the result of a central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) problem. It has nothing to do with how long or hard you are working out or how good you look.

Maybe people who talk about toning are referring to the muscular endurance exercises that they typically see in the gym. It has been (incorrect) dogma for quite some time that women should lift light weights for many repetitions to sculpt their bodies, whereas men should go heavy with fewer repetitions to define their muscles. Lifting light weights for many repetitions only succeeds in giving you the muscular endurance to do that particular movement over and over again. It does not produce muscular hypertrophy, it does not have a high caloric cost (because it's not difficult), and it does not increase your RMR or help you burn fat. If you want to achieve the lean, athletic look that many associate with so-called toning, incorporating strength-training exercises is the key.