Exercise the key to a lean body
To some, saying exercise is the key to a lean body is controversial. However, being lean is more than just about having an absence of fat, it’s also about having muscle. If getting in shape was all about dieting, then everyone would aspire to look like concentration camp victims as they have very low body-fat.
But they don’t, in my experience, people want to look toned, with visible muscle definition. Although diet helps with this, it only helps if one exercises and develops muscle.
Muscle is what makes us look our best, it gives us shape, definition and strength.
This requires weight training. This can also be known as the principle of having muscle. As it is not really about what training you use to get the muscle, just as long as you have it.
It is not necessarily having a ripped 5% bodybuilder physique. For a male, it is having a muscular well-built stature with visible abdominals. For a female, having visible muscle definition.
Unfortunately, the idea of building muscle has been frowned upon by many people nowadays. As soon as anyone mentions weight training, people get the image of huge overly muscular bodybuilders. Paunchy strongmen or big bulky women. This is a huge misconception, building muscle is hard work. It doesn’t come easy and it is only when people take anabolic steroids that they become massively muscular.
Weights don’t make us big and bulky, steroids do!
As you can see from the above pictures, the difference between weight training with and without steroids and other drugs is huge. In both, the left pictures the male and females are extremely high level in terms of leanness and muscular development. Yet they look far from freaky and unattractive in my opinion.
Both the female and male bodybuilders using drugs, however, look overdeveloped and too muscular and less attractive, again in my opinion. When resistance training is used in conjunction with a good diet, all that happens is one builds moderate amounts of lean muscle and vastly changes how they look. Women develop curves and great muscle tone, but rarely if ever manage to build up more than that as it is more difficult for women to gain more muscle than men.
Men who weight train following the right principles also build moderate amounts of muscle and assuming they focus on developing a low body fat, end up with great athletic looking physiques, it’s that simple.
So does this mean to develop a lean body all you need to do is weight train? Unfortunately no, you need to eat the right diet as well. However, without the exercise, a lean, defined body will never be yours.