What's the Difference?

Question

As far as fitness wise, wats the difference between toning up and bulking up your body? Im a female wanting to loose weight and i know some resistance excercises are good but Can someone explain the difference?

Answer 1

Muscles are never 'off'. They actually twitch all the time.

'Resting Tone' is how often your muscle units twitch when the muscle is 'relaxed'. When you think about moving, the rate starts to increase, and when it passes about five twitches a second, the whole muscle will be contracting hard enough to move the limb.

With training, your Resting Tone will increase, because the muscle units are learning to expect more work, so they stay ready to do some. Of course, I'm talking about microscopically small structures; all you would notice is that the muscle is less floppy. (it feels as if it stays more tense when you're not using it)

'Bulk' is the muscle's reaction to overloading. Bodybuilders use an 'overload principle' to trigger the right amount of reaction. If you give a muscle TOO much work to do, it will call for reinforcements; next time you work it, it will have more leverage and more fuel to work with, so the work should be easier. But the bodybuilder has given the muscle enough time to reinforce itself, and lined up a bigger weight to lift. Each time the muscle thinks it's solved the problem, the bodybuilder gives it a new problem to solve, so it has to keep on growing.

For BULK you need HEAVY weights and SHORT sets (under twenty repetitions at a time), with plenty (up to three days in some systems) of recovery time between sessions. Usually, you will concentrate on one area of the body each day, and rest it on the days when you work another part.

For TONE you need MODERATE loads (your bodyweight counts as a load for some exercises) and LONG sets. Ideally you'll work your whole body at once, by moving fluidly from one bodypart to another. This can be done with weights and weight machines, (usually alternating upper and lower body exercises eg bicep/thigh adductor/tricep/hamstring curl/pec deck/thigh abductor etc) or with adapted endurance work (eg triathlon with resistance parachutes, hand weights, & flippers), or with specialised classes such as Pilates.

This kind of work is best done every other day, so you can work hard enough to ache a little the next day; if you still ache 48 hours afterwards, you worked too hard.

The best toning systems will work different bodyparts together, so that you increase your mobility and versatility as well.

If you're worried about gymwork making you all muscly, DON'T BE.
Firm muscles are curvy and feminine. Even for guys, it takes some specialised techniques and plenty of determination, to end up looking like an east german ladies champion (and sometimes the same drugs).

Good luck with your programme. Find a sympathetic trainer, instead of a hardcore brutalist. Enjoy yourself.

Answer 2

There is a huge difference. A puppy needs housebreaking. You can't do that if you are away 8 hours a day. A puppy needs to be socialized. You can't do that if you are not home. A puppy needs lots of time and attention throughout the day to stop it becoming distructive. If you are at work all day the only way to avoid the distruction is to leave it in a crate all day. By the time it becomes a dog it should already be housebroken and have more control of it's bodily functions so yet it can go from the time you go to work until the time you get home. A dog should be socialized by the time it's a dog and no longer a puppy. A dog often would rather sleep all day and be ready for play and attention when it's owner gets home. It should also be trained so it won't be distructive once you are gone so it won't need to be left in a crate for 8 hours a day.

Answer 3

Toning up is simply losing weight and allowing the muscles to show. Bulking up is something body builders do. Females DO NOT have the testoserone to BULK up the way men do. If you are looking to lose weight, then lifting weights is your best answer. Talk to a personal trainer not just some girl at the gym lifting weights. A professional will tell you that you will never look like a man if you lift heavy weights. Where as some girl lifting 5lb to do dumbell curls will tell you. I lift 30+ lbs to do bicept curls and am a size 4.

Some good exercises, if you are at home with no access to a gym, then simple push up, crunches, pull ups, squats will do the trick. If you have access to a gym such as the YMCA, I would always suggest going there. They have such a wide variety of exercises and equipment and instructors.

Answer 4

Toning up is usually refering to long lean muscle mass. Think more of a dancer or a long distance runner. You get that by doing a lot of reps at a low weight or doing something like pilates. Bulking up is shorter muscles that are more bunched together, think more of a body builder. That's achieved by doing fewer reps at higher weight. Women generally go for more of a toned look. To some extent, how you gain muscle is determined by how your body wants to put it on. Look at your family history. If the people in your family (male and female) are built more like runners, you probably will be too.

Answer 5

Toning is firming up your muscles. Bulking up is extending the toning far past the physical limit of your skin (creating muscle mass like a body builder). If you stretch the skin out, then it's bulk. If you firm the skin and muscles, then it's tone.

Answer 6

toning is creating lean muscle and bulking is like building more muscle on to of muscle, thus making you bigger and badder. however, since you are a girl, unless you want to look like some kinda body builder i would go for toning.

to sum up : tone - lean; bulk - gaining mass

Answer 7

Toning up just gives you some shape and eliminates the jiggle. Bulking up is when you are gaining muscle mass, going for bulging, defined muscles.

Answer 8

bulking up makes you bigger it is usually heavy weights at lower reps trying to push beyond your max is bulking up

toning is when you use lighter weights or weights and more reps you tone the feature of the muscles also stretching helps tone it makes the mucles longer

Answer 9

toning your body is working your muscles to improve tension and generally lengthen the muscle mass without giving up any actual strength (like a lean dancer's figure,) while bulking is just working your muscles to build mass, leaving that hard, lumpy schwarzenegger look

Answer 10

your just gunna lose weight when you tone up