How often do you hear I am lifting light weights to ‘tone up’ or ‘I don’t want to get bulky muscles’.

The fact is you perform strength work to either build muscle or maintain it. So lifting light weights to tone up doesn’t fit in here does it?

When you lift light weights, what you are actually doing is just trying to burn calories through strength work and if fat loss is your goal is then go for a run, as the energy expenditure totaled for running is far higher than weight lifting.

However, if you were to say that you are performing a high repetition and challenging weight circuit for fat loss, then this would suffice. The difference is that you are now choosing to perform strength exercises consecutively of a compound basis in order to get your heart rate up and burn fat. In this case, then you do not stop and rest after sets. Try measuring the time it takes for you to complete the total circuit and measure this with the same weights and loads the next time with the goal of beating your time. This acts as your progression and this style of circuit training is sensational for fat loss but not muscle building. You will, however, maintain muscle mass, increase movement patterns, energy levels and muscle endurance from this style of training, so for fat loss clients, this could definitely be included into your weekly program.

The tip is to definitely time your workouts but do not cheat or sacrifice form for speed and remember if you are after growing better-defined muscles then you still need strength training in your program with repetitions of no more than 12.

Happy stimulating!