Getting a toned and sculpted body is attainable for everyone, but the journey is a bit different. It depends on more than just how much you work out. You need to live a balanced lifestyle that focuses on a bunch of things including how much rest you get and eating healthily. There is no one-size-fits-all, but there are a few general rules that you can follow and still see great results. Let’s take a closer look at what you can do to sculpt your body.
Strength Training and Cardio
Strength training is an important part of sculpting your body. It helps you build more muscle and to define their shape. But it isn’t the only type of exercise you need to be doing. Getting your heart rate up helps you burn calories and gets rid of those fat layers. If you don’t do cardio, your hard work will be for nothing because everything will be hidden under a fat layer between your muscle and your skin. You’ll be big, but there will be no definition. You’ll need to be making use of the right equipment. When it comes to cardio, we highly advise a spinning bike or treadmill, and a body-solid smith machine when it comes to strength training. It’s up to you to figure out the ratio of cardio to strength training that works best for your body and sees the best results. Each body is different, so take it from your current fitness level and build your way up from there.
Set Realistic Body Goals
Getting really specific about what your goals are and what changes you want to see can help determine the steps you need to take to get there. It’s important that you set realistic body goals and take note of how far you’ve come. You’ll need to get into a routine. It’s unrealistic to expect yourself to be able to work out twice a day every day. It’s also just plain unhealthy. Start out by exercising for 30 minutes five days a week. This is realistic and you’ll see results. Be realistic about weight goals. You’ll be losing fat, but gaining muscle mass at the same time. Muscle weighs more than fat, so relying purely on weight goals is unrealistic.
Remember Rest Days
Resting is as important as exercising. In fact, your body needs these rest days in order for your muscles to actually grow. When you exercise your muscles get tons of micro-tears. Your body healing these tears is how you bulk up and during the repair process, your muscles actually get stronger. But what are rest days? Rest days fit into two categories – resting your entire body and resting certain muscle groups. You should rest your entire body at least once a week. This means you shouldn’t do any high-intensity training, but if you want you could go for a run or a hike. When it comes to resting muscle groups, you should rest a group for about 48-72 hours before targeting it again. Keep in mind that overtraining is bad for you and could stump your progress.
Exercise Correctly
Exercising correctly is incredibly important for good results. You need to have good posture for one and you need to follow through with your exercises. Muscle training consists of three parts – extending the muscle, holding it, and shortening or relaxing the muscle. It is important that you hold the muscle and don’t immediately go between extending and relaxing the muscle. It isn’t about how quickly you can do an exercise, it’s about doing it correctly. Be sure to have a mirror nearby to make sure that your posture is on point when carrying out your exercises.
Your Workouts Should Always Challenge You
Those aches you get after you start working out shouldn’t really stop. The idea is that every workout should feel like a workout and being a little sore afterward is healthy. This means you’re constantly building muscle. You want your muscles to be a little fatigued after a good workout, but not so much that they’re hurt and damaged. Your goal is to strengthen, not strain. As soon as things start becoming too easy, you need to step things up. You should gradually add more weight, rather than trying to do more reps faster and for cardio, you should run or cycle a longer distance.
Be Consistent About Exercise and Diet
Consistency is key. It takes a while for you to see results and it may take even longer for others, but you mustn’t let that discourage you. It can take four weeks for you to see a noticeable difference yourself, 6 weeks for people you see regularly to notice a difference, and up to several months for others to notice. You shouldn’t let people not noticing a change in your appearance let you lose your motivation. You might not feel like you’ve made any progress, but the only way to see results is if you stick to it. We haven’t discussed diet that much, but as we said earlier, diet is also incredibly important. The saying “abs are made in the kitchen” is partially true because you are what you eat. If you eat unhealthy fatty foods, you will continue to have excess weight and all of the exercising will be for nothing. Eating a healthy balanced diet is more than half of the challenge. Be consistent in your exercising and your diet.
A big mistake people make when trying to sculpt their bodies is focusing on one aspect of the process. Weight training is only one part of several things you need to be doing. Don’t target one part of the body. Be sure to exercise multiple muscle groups, letting them rest between sessions and doing a healthy amount of cardio. Taking care of your entire body by exercising correctly and eating a healthy balanced diet is the only way you’re going to get real and long-lasting results. We hope that this helps you out on your journey.
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