Ok so I do three reps of 10 of each excersise and for each rep I increase the rep by 10 pounds. I do them in succession. Someone recently told me that this would make me gain muscle instead of just tone up. They suggested I do three reps of 10 at the same weight each time and to space them out instead of doing them one right after the other. How does everyone else do it that is trying to tone and get definition but not big muscles??
Women lack the testosterone needed to get big, bulky muscles. Don't be afraid of a little weight. You should be lifting a weight that is heavy enough that you can only do 8 - 15 reps each set. Then, you need 60 seconds to let your muscles recover in between sets.
I forget what it's called, but I do pairs of exercises where I do a set that works, for example, my biceps, then I immediately do a set that works my triceps, then back to my biceps. While I am working one muscle, the other muscle is recovering - and it makes my time at the gym go faster.
Well, first of all, there is no such thing as toning up. It's a gimmick, the same as "six pack abs" from a stomach routine is a gimmick. The only way to "tone" or to have a "six pack" is to lose body fat. Weight lifting will create muscle but you are NOT (I repeat, NOT) going to get "bulky". Muscle is beautiful and burns calories- it's a metabolically active substance. Fat is NOT, and as you add muscle your metabolism will increase and you will burn more fat and your clothing sizes will go down, not up. I started lifting (again, after a 10 year hiatus) in February and have lost nearly 25 lbs and 2 dress sizes. I've got a ways to go, but weight lifting is definitely going to be part of my plan. I'm getting ready to start P90X this week.
Check out the book "new rules of weight lifting for women" - they present the information in laymans terms and debunk a lot of myths.
And what you are doing is 3 sets of 10 reps each. There's no reason to move up each set, though you might do a lighter set first to warm up. But your "working sets" should all be the weight you can do the number of reps with the last one or two being harder but you can still do them with good form. Keep up the good work!
DITTO DITTO Eagle Rivers Response.
Tonining is a made up magazine word, to get women hooked, basically. you cant "tone" a muslce. You can only BUILD a muscle, or LOSE Muscle. Seeing your muscle underneath requires fat loss.... when you hear a woman who is "toned" you can just see her muscles well..... You have to challenge yourself. End of story. you cant get bulky-- unless you try REALLY HARD to, and work at it for years and years and years.
I do the increasing sets as well, started when I did BFL in 2008 and it's just been my routine ever since. I've been doing them for years and even when I was at my best with eating clean and doing my workouts every day I didn't get huge muscles. Well defined muscles, yes but no larger size wise than before. Mostly smaller measurements, really, just tighter and more 'cut' than before.
Doing increasing sets is ok, but if you are doing 10 reps each time then they probably are not the appropriate weight. BFL does increasing sets but it is to the # of reps and the reps by necessity decrease.
If for an upper body exercise you can do 10 reps at your heaviest weight, your first set, 10 reps 20 lbs lower is probably not doing you much except a warmup.
Whether you rest or not is a bit in how you design your program, how much time you have and what you are trying to accomplish. If you are doing 1 type of exercise at a time then generally you rest a bit. Doing opposing muscle groups without rest is called compound supersetting and is a great way to save time. Doing supersets within a muscle group also has value, but it is often best done the first few times using guidelines in a reputable weight training book as there are some concepts to think about in laying out the order of the exercises.
Doing them in succession like you do is a reverse dropset and I cant think it has much benefit(?) While prefatiguing is a training technique, you would probably get better prefatiguing with traditional methods.
Question about reps
There's no reason to move up each set, though you might do a lighter set first to warm up. But your "working sets" should all be the weight you can do the number of reps with the last one or two being harder but you can still do them with good form. Keep up the good work!
