Response to an email inquiry

“I need help, like many girls. Can you maybe post something or give me advice on how to work out my legs WITHOUT gaining more muscle and make them somehow smaller but toned.”

To “tone” legs or any other body part, there is a process that must occur:

1. Build lean muscle through lifting challenging weight - you can’t build a house without its base structure
2. Lose body fat in the given area. This is accomplished through high intensity interval training with both weights and cardio
3. This step is only relevant after one & two, use a higher rep count with your exercises - while making sure the weight is challenging for the entire set

Now that there’s a basic understanding into the process of toning, it’s important to understand that genetics play a role here too. Everyone is born with a unique genetic code e.g some people have a bigger skeletal structure, some do not. When setting your goals, your goal should be to achieve your best body, not someone else’s.
Here are a few tips to “tone your legs”

1. Train with challenging weight
2. Incorporate stretching movements into your routine; bent knee deadlift, plie squat, deep squat, lunge variations etc
3. Incline cardio: Turn the incline up as you perform your HIIT cardio training, this uses a larger part of your leg muscles (especially in the back part of your body)

Keep working towards your goals and make the appropriate changes to your routine, you’ll be amazed the great things that will happen.

I appreciate this reader’s email. If there is a topic that interests you and would like to see it on my blog, email it to me at joe@carabasetraining.com