Improving Muscle Tone: the Lesser-Discussed Approaches

Source – CC0 License

While lots of us look at getting stronger is going hand in hand with muscle tone. In fact, you can get stronger without necessarily improving your physical tone, but if you’re looking for that definition, improving muscle tone involves a combination of different approaches. So how can we work at improving this aspect?

Improving Your Human Growth Hormone (HGH)

While there are supplements to increase growth hormone, such as Ibutamoren which you can easily purchase online, you can improve your HGH in a number of other ways. Human growth hormone is an amazing way to support muscle groups and lean body mass. You can lose body fat, do intermittent fasting, and there are other types of supplements as well that you can use, like amino acids which are the building blocks of protein. However, we should also remember that stimulating human growth hormone is also about resting as this is when HGH is at its highest.

Stretching

If you want to manipulate the shapes of your muscles, it’s possible to do it away from strength training. Stretching is one of those things that works wonders in combination with strength training, and there are practitioners who talk about the benefits of stretching in between sets. If you are not looking to get stronger but just want to have a more defined muscle tone, stretching in between your sets is an amazing way to place tension on the muscle. We have to remember that muscles are two things: blood and water, and there are plenty of people who have muscles, but don’t have strength. This is because they’ve learned to manipulate the shape of their muscles through the right exercises for them.

Alternative Exercises

There are two approaches that are considered somewhat niche in exercising circles. Firstly, isometrics have been around for a long time and involve doing a movement with as much tension as possible but not actually moving the muscle. There are two different types of isometrics: overcoming isometrics and yielding isometrics, where you are either pushing something immovable, for example, a wall, and yielding isometrics, where you are holding something in place, for example, a heavy dumbbell. The other approach is blood flow restriction training. It’s important to use the right methods here because you are essentially applying a tourniquet to your arm or body part and lifting a lightweight. Be sure to do it safely because you can clot if you use any form of tourniquet. There are very specific restriction cuffs that cut off the right part of the arm or body part.

Don’t Forget the Protein!

If you are putting your body under a lot of stress and strain, you need to consume enough protein to support that muscle repair and therefore growth. It’s something that so many people underestimate, especially when they’re not looking to bulk up. But you still need to have that balanced diet, and that also includes carbohydrates.

Whether you’re getting back into exercise after a while or you are trying to figure out approaches to improve your physique, there are so many ways to get that defined muscle tone you’ve always wanted. Just make sure you get the basics in places, like proper form, consistency, and sleep.