"I just want to tone up."
Where do I start with what goes through a Trainer's head when we hear these words...
"What exactly do they mean 'tone up'?"
"Do they really know what they want?"
"I wonder if they really know there's no such thing?"
"How am I going to make it seem to them like that's exactly what they are doing?"
When Client's tell us they just want to "tone up" it can be difficult to understand exactly what a client wants. We can assume that they are meaning they would like to have less visible body fat and a more sculpted physique. Here's the thing; in order to achieve these goals you really do have to build muscle. The technical term is Hypertrophy, and yes, we can train our clients in a format that focuses on Hypertrophy. This will build muscle, which helps improve metabolic rate, which helps burn fat.
The other part of the equation is actually burning fat. You can spend quality time building those muscles, but if they are covered in too much fat you will never achieve that "toned" appearance. Sometimes when a new client comes to their Trainer we can tell that the client believes we can guide them through a program that will conveniently turn their body fat into muscle, that simply cannot happen. Just like the old football players who think all their muscle turned to fat, we cannot facilitate fat turning to muscle. Fat and Muscle are completely different products in the body. Fat is fuel, Muscle is and active fiber and will help consume the fuel when trained and used. No Trainer or Coach can help you turn one thing into the other. We've all seen the image, right?
How do we go about measuring "tone up"? The obvious answer is body fat. However, often times the clients who come in do not understand the relationship between building muscle and burning fat. They often feel they can just tone up by losing a little bit of weight, when quite the opposite may happen. Most often the clients who present wanting to "tone up" are of a healthy weight range, so they may not see weight loss in the process of "toning up", they may actually gain a few pounds. In this situation we will remind the client to focus on how their clothes fit, how they look in their clothes, or maybe even a bathing suit.
"I just want to tone up." This is a hard goal to nail down. A Trainer will try to transition the Client to a SMART goal; a Specific body fat percentage, a target that has Measurable terms (if there is a long way to go set some check points), a goal that is Achievable (it's going to take more than 2 days to reach your goal), it has to be Realistic (you need enough body fat to sustain life, 2% isn't going to happen; and your diet will be key) and Relevant to your other goals (you're not going to lose a lot of body fat while you are pregnant people), and it needs a Time Table (again, maybe some specific check points, especially if the time frame is long). Once you have set your SMART goals then you work through them one step at a time.
Need help setting your SMART goals so You can "tone up"? Give me a call ~ I am here to help!
Michelle Peacock, NSCA~CPT
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