Q & A: How Long Does it Take to See Results from Exercise?

Q. What is the best way to tone and how long does it take to see results from an exercise routine?

A. The best way to tone up your muscles is with weight training. There has been a lot of discussion about low weights and high reps for toning and low reps and high weights for building muscle. While the later is true, many women think that if they use very light weights that they will “tone” their muscles.

The fact is, that the only way to tone your muscles is to train them to failure (the last couple of reps should be hard to complete) which is something that you can’t do with extremely light weights. If you want to tone your muscles without necessarily getting bigger, you can perform 15-20 reps per set but the weight heavy enough to stimulate results.

If you already think that you look too big, you may want to lower the weight slightly and perform the 15-20 reps instead of 8-10 reps with the heavier weight. Most people will start to see results from their efforts in 6 weeks. Some people see results sooner and for some, it takes slightly longer.