If you want a toned, athletic body with defined muscles, you need to adopt some specific strategies and not train in a haphazard way. Here are 5 mistakes you are (probably) making and should avoid.
1. Not doing enough weight training
If your aim is to increase your muscle tone, you need to train in a weights room (strength training, also called resistance training): only by adequately stimulating the muscle will you get muscle growth.
There’s tonnes of equipment you can use: free weights (dumbbells and barbells), machines for specific muscle groups, and kettlebells. As you can see, there are many options, and you can choose what you enjoy most and what is best suited to you: that way you’ll be consistent in your training and you can gradually increase the work you do.
2. Doing too much cardio
Aerobic activity is important and has many benefits: it improves your cardiovascular and respiratory systems, making your heart and lungs more efficient; it plays a protective role against many diseases, guaranteeing a good state of health, and it helps manage weight and relieve stress. Walking or running, cycling or swimming, are all fundamental activities for the healthy functioning of your body.
However, remember that if your aim is to build an athletic, toned and sculpted body, doing too many aerobic activities will not help you reach your goals. On the contrary, you’ll burn a lot of calories, but you won’t have what you need to build muscle mass. So, you need to find the right balance between cardio and resistance training!
3. Not eating enough
Eating plays a crucial role in reaching specific objectives, and food is our fuel! It’s what gives you the energy you need to do all the various activities, to do intense training and build muscle.
Don’t make the mistake of eating too little: if your body doesn’t have enough energy from food, it will draw it from your muscle mass, reducing it, which is precisely the opposite of what you’re aiming to achieve.
4. Training too much
Overtraining is counterproductive: you’ll often feel tired, you’ll be more vulnerable to injury, and you won’t be able to guarantee the right intensity when you work out. If you do too much, you’ll get to a point where you won’t want to go to the gym: that’s not the right way to go, is it? Busting your body with endless training sessions at the gym, day in and day out, is something to be avoided. Train seriously, of course, but it’s quality not quantity that counts!
5. Not getting enough rest
Closely related to the last mistake is the subject of recovery: a well-balanced training programme has the right rest periods. After training, your body needs to rest, and this is precisely the time that muscle growth happens. Rest between one training session and the next, get enough sleep (around 7/8 hours a night for adults), and take a break from training at least one day a week: your body will thank you!
