So, you say you want to get toned, huh

It's too bad that Eugene Sandow (pictured above) didn't know the benefit of high rep training for "muscle tone" and "shaping." If he did he might have had some definition in his physique.

As you can tell I'm being a smart ass. Sandow was one of the strongest men of his time and an absolute stud who trained hard, really heavy with low reps, and frequently.

So what does that have to do with anything?

Glad you asked. More often than not you'll hear people say that they don't want to get to big or muscular, that they just want to get "toned."

This is the rationale that they usually give to you to explain why they're using pathetically tiny weights while doing countless reps for their exercise. They'll then go on to tell you that everyone knows you use heavy weights and low reps for size an light weights with high reps for tone and definition.

Apparently everyone should have attended physiology 101, or simply looked at bodies like Sandows and really every single male gymnast in the world to see how horseshit that is.

Myogenic tone, or tonus is what people usually refer to as muscle tone.

Tonus is a state of stored residual tension inside of a relaxed muscle. In other words, muscle tone it where you're muscle are slightly flexed no matter how relaxed you are. This is what gives muscles that "hard as stone" look even when they're not being flexed.

Now, how does one go about creating stored residual tension in a relaxed muscle, or muscle tone?

It's easy. Put your muscles under conditions where they have to create loads of tension.

How do you do that?

Again, very easy. Take a big movement like a squat or a deadlift, load it to 85, 90, 95 percent or more of your 1 rep max; then hit 1-3 reps with it. Rest for a little bit and repeat often.

If you're a bodyweight enthusiast, take a movement like a Maltese or an Iron Cross that takes a ton of tension; hold it for 5-10 seconds, rest a little bit and repeat often.

In other words, muscle tone is best created by training with high resistance and heavy weights for low reps quite frequently.

This explains why Olympic lifters look like this:

Why gymnasts look like this:

And why old school strongman and bad asses looked like this:

I'd say that all of the above are pretty fucking toned!

And all of them trained hard and heavy on full body movements with low reps. And they trained that way often.

Now, go squat, clean, press, deadlift and snatch hard.