The term ***8220;muscle tone***8221; or tonus describes an electrophysiological phenomenon, a measure of ionic flow across muscle cell membranes. It can be thought of as the muscle***8217;s readiness to do anaerobic work. The more fit the muscle, the more electrophysiological activity it exhibits at rest. Lack of exercise leads to poor tone, aerobic exercise improves tone a little bit, low-intensity weight training improves tone more, and high-intensity training improves tone the fastest***8221; So here we get a pretty scientific sounding definition of what tonus really is, but most importantly two terms stick out, anaerobic work and high-intensity training. Interestingly enough, weight training is described as an anaerobic, high intensity activity. Rippetoe goes on to say the following ***8220;As a test, go poke the traps or quads of an elite weightlifter at rest, if she***8217;ll let you. They***8217;ll he hard as rock. The same muscles of an elite road cyclist at rest will be firm, but not hard. Then compare the athletes***8217; muscle tone to that of a sedentary person. The results will he quite enlightening. Most exercise programs that claim to improve muscle tone are actually lower-intensity hypertrophy programs and are only moderately effective for improving muscle tone. If ***8220;tone***8221; is the goal, strength is the method.***8221;
