Dave said:
Thanks for the advice! I forgot to mention one of the exercises that I did was essentially like a scarecrow. Lying face down with my chest on a stability ball, I then lifted small weights with my arms fully extended to the side. The thing is, both my chest and underarm muscles are really tight, so I have flexibility issues that make that exercise a lot tougher.
Just means that I have to work harder at it though! I'm not really going for mass, but rather tone and overall strength. Mass will come I'm sure, but it's more of a pleasant side-effect rather than a goal.
that's a great one - sans bosu/stability balls. I hear they "train the core/stabilization" muscles, but the reality is those are trained into oblivion (hah! firefox has spellcheck built in! sorry nm) through any proper program from lifts like overhead presses, squats, deadlifts, bench, etc. So, in reality, you're actually doing a slight disservice to those "db scarecrows" by reducing weight to maintain balance. I'd swap the ball for a bench, stat %)
There's no such thing as "tone", well not in any sense that'd concern someone about aesthetics or strength. People use it to refer to how "tight"/"ripped"/"shredded" they are, "tone" usually describing a milder degree of it. It's really simple - your muscles will appear the way they do due to a combo of their actual size, and the fat surrounding them. Wanna look like arnold? Just lifting and building big muscles won't do it - you need to diet as well to lose the fat shrouding said muscles. Now, since they (losing fat / gaining muscle) require two opposing states (caloric surplus / caloric deficit), you need to do one at a time, this is what bodybuilders refer to as "bulk" and "cut" phases, many doing bulks during the winter for size, and cuts during the summer for the beach
(and remember, as I said, it's all about the kitchen - you'll never hit your "tone", lol, if you don't get the bodyfat% to the level desired for the "tone" level you desire - you need to decide if the muscle you have is sufficient and it's time to lose some fat <reduced calories and, but not even necessarily, increased calorie expenditure through training>, or you need to bulk longer before your cut. Good luck!)
