Will 30 mins each day on a cross trainer tone me up?

[PoreofWiner]

i've recently lost 3 stone. am more or less at target weight now but really need to tone up.

i have a cross trainer. i am quite unfit. i am also super short of time and can't get out of the house of an evening as DH works shifts

will 30 mins every day be enough to make a difference?

Resistance training would be better for you :) cardio is good but won't tone you up

It will help if you combine it with a healthy diet and other cardio and exercise. It will not help if you just do that and nothing else, and have an unhealthy diet. Otherwise we'd all just do 30 mins on a cross trainer and there would be no need for gyms. Best thing to tone up; cardio and weights. Yes, I know it's a pain. Yes, I hate every minute of it. But yes, it's worth it.

I would do 5 minutes warm up on the cross trainer, then 20-25 minutes of a mixture (each day focused on a different area). HIIT, strength/weights, focusing on upper body, then legs, then abs for example. I really like Fitness Blender for this kind of thing (I do 90% of my exercise at home).

Not really. Try 10 mins of hard cross trainer then 20 mins weights. You need to mix it up a bit.

Ok so I need weights. Do you just buy these in a shop? Any advice on which would be best would be great

And is the fitness blender on YouTube? Will have a Google

I bought a cheap set of 3 weights from Argos or similar - 1.5, 3 and 5kg pairs of dumbbells. These have served me well for YEARS, but I really need something a bit heavier now (I've got a Kettlebell of 8kg too). Remember you can do loads of body weight exercises too (push ups, tricep dips, lunges, squats, crunches, burpees...)

Fitness Blender is loads of free workout videos, has its own website, but also on YouTube.

You need to build muscle to 'tone'. A cross trainer won't do this unless you put the resistance VERY high.