The Vanguard app · Build muscle
Toned is muscle
Toning is not its own kind of training. Toned is muscle you can see: built by hard sets, and shown when there is less fat over it.
Light or heavy
The sets build the same thing
High reps with a light weight are not a toning setting. Taken close to failure, light, moderate and heavy loads grew similar muscle.[1], Lopez, Radaelli, Taaffe et al., 2021 Heavier loads built more strength.[2], Schoenfeld, Grgic, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 What matters for muscle is that the sets are hard.
One spot
You cannot tone one spot
Training a body part builds the muscle under it, not the fat over it. Fat over a trained limb fell no more than over the untrained one,[3], Ramirez-Campillo, Andrade, Clemente et al., 2022 and ab exercises five days a week did not change belly fat.[4], Vispute, Smith, LeCheminant, Hurley, 2011 The fat comes off the whole body, when it comes off.
Women and men
Muscle is built the same way
On the same program, women and men grew muscle at similar rates. Women gained more upper-body strength relative to where they started, though the studies were mostly short.[5], Roberts, Nuckols, Krieger, 2020 Toned, shaped and stronger are the same work.
The dose
Muscle grows from weekly sets
Each extra hard set a week added a little more to the gain in size, with less from each one as the sets climbed.[6], Schoenfeld, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 That is why the Vanguard app counts hard sets per muscle, every week.
In the app
How the Vanguard app runs it
Choose Build muscle, then where the focus goes: legs, glutes, chest and back, shoulders and arms, or everything. The app counts your hard sets per muscle every week and adds while your lifts climb. To show more of it, Get leaner keeps you lifting the whole way down.
The research
The research, paper by paper
Six papers, each one linked, with what it found.
Lopez, Radaelli, Taaffe et al., 2021 · Med Sci Sports Exerc
Network meta-analysis · 28 studies · 747 people
Muscle growth did not differ between low loads (more than 15 reps), moderate (9 to 15) and high (8 or fewer), with every set to failure. A 2022 correction changed three effect sizes, not the conclusions.
Read the paper by Lopez, Radaelli, Taaffe et al., 2021 (opens in a new tab)Schoenfeld, Grgic, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 · J Strength Cond Res
Meta-analysis · 21 studies
With sets taken to failure, growth was similar across loads; one-rep max gains favoured heavy loads.
Read the paper by Schoenfeld, Grgic, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 (opens in a new tab)Ramirez-Campillo, Andrade, Clemente et al., 2022 · Human Movement
Meta-analysis · 13 studies · 1,158 people
Fat over a trained limb fell no more than over the untrained one (effect size −0.03). A single small study has argued otherwise, and it stands alone.
Read the paper by Ramirez-Campillo, Andrade, Clemente et al., 2022 (opens in a new tab)Vispute, Smith, LeCheminant, Hurley, 2011 · J Strength Cond Res
Randomised trial · n = 24 · 6 weeks
Seven ab exercises, five days a week: no change in belly fat.
Read the paper by Vispute, Smith, LeCheminant, Hurley, 2011 (opens in a new tab)Roberts, Nuckols, Krieger, 2020 · J Strength Cond Res
Meta-analysis · the same program in men and women · young to middle-aged adults
No difference between the sexes in muscle growth (10 studies) or lower-body strength (23 studies). Women gained more upper-body strength relative to where they started (17 studies). The studies were mostly short, and the authors ask whether that edge is learning rather than muscle.
Read the paper by Roberts, Nuckols, Krieger, 2020 (opens in a new tab)Schoenfeld, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 · J Sports Sci
Meta-analysis
Each extra weekly set added about 0.37% to the gain in muscle size.
Read the paper by Schoenfeld, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 (opens in a new tab)
Research describes groups of people, not you, and none of it is a promise about you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Read on
The goals
- Build muscleTone, shape or size, with the focus where you want it.
- Get strongThe squat, bench, deadlift and press, set from your own estimated max.
- Get leanerLifting the whole way down, with a heavy week held rather than piled on.
- Move better for lifeGetting off the floor, carrying, holding a position under load.
- Build an engineConditioning set per machine, with strength alongside it.
- Train for a raceA run or a hybrid race on the calendar, worked back from race day.
The Vanguard app
Try it on your own training
Fourteen days free, then $19.99 a month or $199 a year, in Canadian dollars. In your browser, on any phone or computer. Cancel in the app in two taps.