In a world that is filled with overwhelming fitness information, finding the right workout plan for women to tone can feel daunting. The right routines for toning exercises for women are all about consistency, balanced movement, and building strength, not quick results or extreme measures.
Whether you’re a beginner or getting back into fitness after a break, the best routine for you is one that suits your lifestyle. In this guide, we’ll help you create the best workout for you, talk about milestone timelines, and much more.
What Is a Workout Plan for Women to Tone?
A workout plan for women to tone is a fitness routine that is designed to help women simultaneously reduce body fat and increase lean muscle definition/appearance. This is also known as body recomposition (1, 2).
Note that such a routine is not meant to increase ‘bulk’. You’re not going to look ‘bulky’, ‘like a man’, or resemble a bodybuilder.
Instead, such a routine helps you create a more defined body shape through the reduction of excess body fat and strengthening the muscle that lies beneath the fat.
What Is the Best Workout for Women to Tone?
The best lean body workout plan for females combines resistance training and cardio/endurance training. This statement is also supported by several scientific studies.
- Body Recomposition: Can Trained Individuals Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time?
In this study, researchers stated that multiple studies have shown that a combination of both resistance training and aerobic training (also known as concurrent training) can help optimize body recomposition. The researchers recommended that fitness practitioners and professionals should recommend this workout combination to all individuals who are aiming to subsequently gain muscle and lose fat (3).
- Functional and Combined Training Promote Body Recomposition and Lower Limb Strength in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial and a Time Course Analysis
In this study done on postmenopausal women, researchers found that 16 weeks of training through either combined training or functional training promoted similar adaptations in body recomposition (4).
It should be noted that combined training refers to a routine that incorporates strength training and aerobic training in the same session. On the other hand, functional training is a multicomponent routine that trains your strength, coordination, flexibility, power, aerobic endurance, and balance in the same session (4).
In short, both routines include cardio and resistance training, and they are both effective ways to help the body undergo recomposition.
- A Review of Strategies for Achieving Simultaneous Muscle Mass Gain, Maintenance, or Minimal Loss During Fat Reduction: Insights from the Last 5 Years
In this study review, researchers found that exercise routines that combine both cardio and resistance training had better results than those that only focused on one option. For example (5)
- An HIIT (high-intensity interval training) + RT (resistance training) routine had a greater increase in the percentage of lean muscle mass created than either MICT (moderate-intensity continuous training) or HIIT on their own, which helps provide further evidence for the importance of combining cardiovascular training with strength training.
- A COM-HI routine, i.e. a combination of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) with resistance training (RT), was also great for body recomposition. This type of routine focuses on continuous or longer bouts of aerobic training combined with intensive resistance exercises. Results showed that it had incredible results in abdominal fat reduction and muscle mass increase, in addition to the highest results in reducing waist circumference and body fat percentage.
However, it’s important to remember that just core structural exercises on their own won’t get you your dream body. You must eat a healthy diet and maintain a calorie deficit throughout your body recomposition journey. This is when you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming. Pairing a healthy diet with strength training is the best way to reach those toned body goals that female exercisers desire.
In addition to a calorie deficit, studies and experts specifically call for an increased protein intake when doing an at-home or gym routine for weight loss and toning.
Increasing your daily protein intake from the recommended 0.8g/kg/day to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day (g/kg/day) is seen as the best intake for body recomposition (1, 5).
Read more: The Daily Full-Body Workout Routine That Actually Fits Into Your Life
What Exercise Tones the Fastest?
There is no single exercise that tones faster than all others. As seen above, you should combine a healthy diet with both cardio and resistance training to help your body create that toned appearance. Here’s a simple sample workout program that can help you do this:
Cardio/Aerobic Workouts
These include jogging, swimming, Zumba classes, walking, hiking, and cycling.
Resistance Training Exercises
These exercises can be done using only your body weight, with the help of resistance bands, free weights, or gym machinery.
Lower-body resistance training exercises include
- Lunges – e.g. side lunges, forward and reverse lunges, jump lunges, and curtsy lunges.
- Squats – variations include Bulgarian split squats, goblet, sumo, wall squats, plie squats, and jump squats.
- Deadlifts
- Glute bridges
- Calf raises
Upper-body workouts include
- Bicep curls
- Tricep dips
- Lateral raises
- Push-ups
- Pull-ups
Core exercises include
- Plank variations
- Dead bugs
- Torso twists
- Hanging leg raises
- Bird-dogs
Check out these core structural exercises to help strengthen your back and improve your stability.
BetterMe: Health Coaching app helps you achieve your body goals with ease and efficiency by helping to choose proper meal plans and effective workouts. Start using our app and you will see good results in a short time.
What Are Other Tips to Tone up as a Female?
- Be consistent – to see results from your routine, you need to be consistent. Keep up with your routine for several months, not just every other day or every other week. Try your best to do at least 3 workout sessions a week as a beginner.
- Combine compound and isolation exercises in your routine – This helps with increased calorie burning and balanced muscle development.
- Practice the principles of progressive overload – This means gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts. This can be done by:
- Increasing the amount of time spent on your workouts – This could be either by the minutes spent per workout or the number of days that you exercise, but don’t ignore rest!
- Increasing the intensity of the exercises – Switch up from moderately intense routines to high-intensity exercises or do higher reps or more sets of the exercises per session.
- Increase the weight used – From light weights to heavier weights. If you’re not using weight, find tighter resistance bands or do harder variations of your preferred exercises.
Can A Woman Tone up Fast?
It comes down to what you consider “fast”. 10 days? Absolutely not. 10 weeks? Absolutely! But overall, there’s no way for a woman or anyone to tone up fast. It takes time to see results from any workout routine. Unfortunately, some sources online spread misinformation that there are special ways to help you see weight loss or even muscle tone results faster than usual.
None of this information is based on scientific exercise facts or healthy nutritional advice. Following such advice could lead to adverse effects on your body and overall health. For more details about gym routine for weight loss and toning female, take a look at our prior publication.
Can A Woman Tone up Fast for Weight Loss?
No. As explained above, there’s no healthy or scientifically proven quick fix for muscle toning or weight loss. You need patience and consistency over several weeks (possibly months) to start seeing the initial physical results of an effective routine.
Whether you’re a workout beast or just a beginner making your first foray into the world of fitness and dieting – BetterMe has a lot to offer to both newbies and experts! Install the app and experience the versatility first-hand!
Can a Woman Tone up Fast at Home?
While toning up fast isn’t a possibility, be it at home or in the gym, a woman who does at-home workouts can still experience body recomposition. By changing up her diet to eating healthier, high-protein meals and exercising (even at home) at least 3-5 days a week through a combination of cardio and strength training, she can see the desired results.
Can I Get Toned in 3 Weeks?
Generally, it takes about 6 weeks to start seeing the initial physical results of any exercise routine. This means that you may not achieve your hourglass-toned body female goals in 3 weeks. This is especially true if your initial weight or body fat percentage is on the higher side.
However, this doesn’t mean that your routine isn’t working. It is working, you just need more patience and to put in more work before the physical changes start coming through. Building a new routine and lifestyle takes a little time, but 3 weeks of consistent effort can set you up for success as you continue on your body recomposition journey.
Read more: Dumbbell Only Workout Plan: Build A Big Back Without A Gym
How to Tell If Your Body Is Toning
Some physical and non-physical ways to help you know if your body is toning (strengthening while simultaneously losing body fat) from your routine include:
- Clothes fit differently – They may start to feel looser around the waist, arms, chest, etc.
- Increased muscle definition – You may start to see some muscles once you flex, e.g. bigger biceps or muscle definition in your thighs
- Increased strength – If you use weights or gym machinery, you may feel the weights becoming lighter and want to move to heavier weights during exercise.
- Workouts feel easier – What felt difficult a few weeks ago now feels simple or too easy, and you get the itch to look for harder variations to perform.
If you’re curious about toned body goals for a female, check out our earlier article.
How Long Does It Take to Get a Toned Body for a Female?
There isn’t a standard time frame within which every woman will get results from her workout routine. However, as previously mentioned, it takes about 6 weeks to start to see the initial results from your toning routine.
Yes, you can tone saggy arms through exercise. This is best achieved through a combination of isolated and compound exercises that target the arms. You should also fix your diet, eat healthier, and remain in a calorie deficit for multiple weeks to help support the effects of your exercise routine. This depends on how much fat you have in this area. Those with a smaller percentage of overall body fat may see significant results in 3 weeks. However, those with more abdominal and overall body fat may need longer than 3 weeks to see toning results in the tummy. A combination of heavy and light lifting is the most effective option for toning as opposed to choosing one over the other. Light lifting can help you build endurance, while heavy lifting will help with increased muscle mass (size) and strength. Walking can help with reduced fat loss, but it may not be enough to help with muscle toning on its own. Walking is a cardio workout, so you should also add resistance training workouts to the routine to help with toning.Frequently Asked Questions
Can saggy arms be toned?
Can I tone my tummy in 3 weeks?
Is it better to lift heavy or light to tone?
Can you tone by just walking?
The Bottom Line
A workout plan for women to tone combines cardio and resistance training workouts for the best results. When following such a program, aim for consistency and progressive overload to ensure that you’re constantly working and challenging your muscles to reach your goals. You should also fix your diet and eat more protein to support simultaneous fat loss and increased muscle mass.
DISCLAIMER:
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not serve to address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on for making any kind of decision-making. Any action taken as a direct or indirect result of the information in this article is entirely at your own risk and is your sole responsibility.
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You should always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of BetterMe content. If you suspect or think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor.
SOURCES:
- Editorial: New insights and advances in body recomposition (2024, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- Effects of resistance training on body recomposition, muscular strength, and phase angle in older women with different fat mass levels (2022, researchgate.net)
- Body Recomposition: Can Trained Individuals Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time? (2020, journals.lww.com)
- Functional and Combined Training Promote Body Recomposition and Lower Limb Strength in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial and a Time Course Analysis (2024, mdpi.com)
- A Review of Strategies for Achieving Simultaneous Muscle Mass Gain, Maintenance, or Minimal Loss During Fat Reduction: Insights from the Last 5 Years (2025, researchgate.net)
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