Body Toning Exercises

Obesity is a bane to the modern society, which is affecting millions around the world. The main cause of this endemic is a busy, sedentary lifestyle combined with poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Body toning exercises help achieve a well-toned body, achieve weight loss, as well as keep health problems at bay.

Exercises for Toning Your Body

They help in giving definitions to your body, like well-toned and flat abs, sleek and slender legs, shapely butts, etc. To achieve them, you do not really need a trainer. Most of these exercises are easy and can be done in the confines of your home. These exercises help in building lean muscle mass, which in turn, leads to increase in the metabolic rate of the body. Now, let's look at the exercises that help in body toning.

You will need some weights to do these exercises. You can use a dumbbell, barbell, or even water bottles, cans, etc. Biceps curls, hammer curls, shoulder press, triceps kickbacks, barbell extensions, triceps extension, etc., are some of the exercises, which you can use for toning the muscles of your arms.

Most women have problems in toning their legs; however, with these exercises, you will certainly be able to attain your goal. Squats, inner thigh squats, lunges, walking lunges, etc., are all compound exercises, which help in toning the thighs. The other exercises for the legs are step up, leg raises, leg lifts, kicks, etc. If you like outdoors, then you can opt for running and jogging as well. For an aerobics fan, step aerobics workout also proves to be useful.

There are a number of machine and free weight exercises that are beneficial in toning the chest and shoulders. Pushups, pec deck, bench press, shoulder press, dumbbell fly, dips, etc., are some of the exercises for toning the chest and shoulders.

To tone your abs, you will have to put in consistent efforts. There are three types of exercises for toning the stomach, namely upper ab exercises, lower ab exercises, and oblique exercises. To tone the upper abs, there are exercises like sit-ups, pushups, plank exercise, bicycle crunches, hanging knee raises, etc. Air cycling, leg lifts, reverse curls, alternate supine leg walks, etc., are exercises to tone the lower abs. For the obliques, the exercises are side bends, twisting, oblique crunches, side plank, oblique cycle, etc.

When you start off with these exercises, you will perform one set of 12 to 15 counts of each exercise. You can gradually increase the number of counts and sets over a period of time. Along with the exercises, you will need to include some aerobic or cardiovascular exercises. They will help you in weight loss as well as give better results in the form of a well-toned body.

There are some tips, which you should remember when you do the exercises to tone your body.

• Your body will need something to provide resistance to work against. You can use any sort of weights, including your body weight for the required resistance.
• Never repeat exercises very fast. When you perform your exercise at high speed, you do not give your body the required tension and do not get the desired results.

• Warm-up is absolutely necessary. If you do not warm up before the exercises, chances are high that you may injure yourself.

• When you initially start with an exercise plan, you may have a sore body, and the whole experience can be painful. However, you should not give up. After two days, you will start enjoying the whole exercise program.