Question about toning obliques

So I saw a video today on Youtube about losing love handles by toning obliques. Obviously I realize it's impossible to spot reduce, so one would have to lose the fat anyway, but here's how I understand it:

-Toning/exercising a muscle makes it bigger (right?), so wouldn't exercising your obliques make them bigger, therefore making your love handles bigger? So someone with bad love handles should avoid exercising the obliques because they'll only make your sides bigger, right?

I'm confused why supposed "personal trainers" are advertising these exercises in order to make an area smaller when really it makes it bigger, shouldn't they know that?