Building the perfect or ideal male body is a tall objective, and if you want to achieve it in your lifetime, you must follow a plan specifically developed to assist you in doing so.
While lifting heavy and eating well is a good start, if you want to grow a truly stunning physique, an ideal male figure with symmetrical proportions, you must structure every area of your programming to accomplish this in the shortest amount of time.
I’m referring to the kind of male form that has broad shoulders, a thin waist, and strong legs. The type of body that meets our biologically encoded standards and follows the Adonis Golden Ratio (but is not a dad bod).
It’s not easy, but as you’ll see below, it’s doable no matter what your body type is. And we’ll show you how in five easy steps.
The issue is that we have a huge toolbox full of tools, and it’s easy to forget that not all ways are effective for all aims.
Athletes training for their sport perform very precise drills, which they exhibit in combines.
Bodybuilders and fitness competitions prepare for fat loss, which necessitates a change in nutritional approach.
Powerlifters practice their key lifts to become more competent and efficient.
Of course, these are only a few examples, but the point is that you must train particularly for your goal.
In none of these instances would it be beneficial to use techniques designed for one goal to achieve any of the others.
As a result, if your aim is just to construct a lean, symmetrical, appealing, and seductive physique, you must tailor your diet and workout program accordingly.
Five Things You Should Know About Building an Ideal Male Body
The ideal male body shape is X-shaped.
It’s critical to recognize that particular body measurements are aesthetically crucial from an evolutionary standpoint when it comes to being physically beautiful to the opposite sex.
Our forefathers attributed desirable features such as strength, productivity, and virility to matching physical characteristics. While societal ‘needs’ may have altered in such a way that it is no longer ‘essential’ to have the attributes to succeed, we do carry our predecessors’ tastes to some level.
This indicates that physical characteristics that indicate the presence of “mating qualifications” are essential for growing your stock with the ladies.
An X-shaped body has broad shoulders, a tight waist, and powerful, well-developed calves.
Focus on core activities that allow for maximum activation, such as the push press, as well as isolation exercises that target the medial delts and promote width, such as lateral raises, for broad shoulders. You can, on the other hand, make it easier on yourself by only doing this 15-minute shoulder workout or this slightly longer one.
Obviously, a thin waist is caused by a low quantity of body fat. It is important to note, however, that the muscles around your waist respond to weight training in the same manner that all other muscles do: by expanding. So, while I never recommend completely skipping particular exercises, I do recommend avoiding training rotating exercises with either excessive weight or high volume.
Strong, well-developed calves are difficult to find. Calves are notoriously difficult to grow, so I recommend exercising them several times per week. Work your calves first, not last, in your exercise session.
Impressive calves are required for the ideal masculine physique.
Impressive calves are required for the ideal masculine physique.
You should also explore why calves are so obstinate and how this should (or should not) affect your training. Calves do not grow because they are difficult to overburden.
This is due to your Achilles tendon acting like a rubber band, transferring energy during the lowering and lifting phases of calf exercises, allowing your muscles to do less effort.
Begin with the standing calf lift, as seen on the right.
At the very least, I recommend pausing for 5 seconds at the bottom of each rep and 3 seconds at the top. This reduces the help provided by your Achilles, allowing you to overload your calves for quick growth.
Want to take it to the next level? We’ve got your back. Check out this post for an in-depth look at an 8-week calf training regimen.
By concentrating on these muscles and developing a physique more in line with what our forefathers thought desirable (and, let’s be honest, we still do), you will be on the path to an ideal male figure.
Push Less and Pull More to Build a Perfect Male Body
In keeping with the above notions, the purpose of sexy training should also involve balance and symmetry. This is not only to ensure that you train correctly, but also to ensure that you avoid training incorrectly.
We males are very visual beings. As trainees, this translates into a strong emphasis on’mirror muscles,’ or those that are easily visible in any mirror.
Guys in general tend to focus their efforts on muscles such as the chest rather than the back. I can’t even begin to express the disadvantages of this mindset. Instead, I’ll concentrate on the primary points of this text.
In terms of appearance, imbalanced training that emphasizes anterior (front) muscles over posterior (rear) muscles results in some very unattractive imbalances. In addition to being a terrific way to damage oneself, it can result in a round, forward-shouldered appearance, which is not the goal of any training program I’ve ever heard of.
Keeping the goal of constructing a sexy body in mind, it’s worth mentioning that such an appearance is also quite unappealing.
Instead, we should concentrate on the muscles of the upper back, such as the latissimus dorsi, teres major, trapezius, and others. When these muscles are properly developed, they will help pull your shoulders back, creating the broad-shouldered look that men find powerful and women find appealing.
To avoid imbalances and aid in the creation of such an appearance, aim to maintain a 3:2 ratio of pulling to pushing workouts.
3 sets of rows, 2 sets of bench presses, for example.
Following this routine will make you significantly less likely to acquire unappealing imbalances, as well as less likely to sustain injury. And you’re more likely to become naked. By the way, if you want to cover all of these at once, I built a comprehensive program on back specialization.
Because the ideal male body is forged with heavy weight, lift HEAVY at least once a week.
Heavy training has numerous recognized benefits, but I’ll only focus on the relevance to constructing the ultimate male figure.
First, let’s define what I mean by “heavy.” In this scenario, we’re talking about high-intensity training, or training with loads that represent a considerable percentage of your maximum potential. We’re talking about working inside 75%-85% of your 1RM in terms of numbers. Sets of 3-5 reps are normally recommended for ease of use.
Now for the advantages. For starters, training with bigger weights makes you much stronger, and there is just no negative to being powerful. This not only allows for more muscle gain, but it also makes fat loss easier because you’ll be utilizing bigger weights even during fat-burning workouts, which burns more calories.
Aside from that, rigorous training not only makes you stronger; it also causes fundamental physiological changes that help you appear as strong as you are.
Heavy-load training increases neurogenic and myogenic muscle tone, both of which are necessary for developing the ideal male figure.
To begin, it is important to understand that the term “tone” refers to the level of tension in a muscle for the sake of this article. Now that we’ve established that, let’s go over each type.
The level of tension in a muscle during a working or flexed condition is referred to as neurogenic tone. That is, how “hard” a muscle is while it is in use—whether at the gym or simply flexing.
In contrast, myogenic tone is the remaining tension in a resting muscle. This refers to how hard, full, and dense your muscles are when you’re merely relaxing. An increase in myogenic tone, as opposed to an artificial pump, is a permanent increase in the appearance of your muscles.
Increasing neurogenic and myogenic tone also improves muscle visibility at somewhat greater levels of body fat.
And there’s a lot to be said for having your triceps protrude somewhat further at 10%—imagine how they’ll look at 8%!
The advantages of rigorous training are numerous. So, if you want to construct an appealing physique that has all of the dimensions of an ideal male body, you must lift near-maximal loads at least once each week.
Takeaway: lift heavy and work hard. What’s that?
To Develop and Maintain an Impressive Physique, Vary Your Training
To build a body that is suitable for a variety of physical activities…
You should vary your workout tasks (yup, that was a sexual innuendo) from time to time.
For starters, variation in exercise keeps you engaged and leads to better results. The frequency with which you must modify things depends on your goal.
If you’re currently working out to gain muscle, you should make some changes to your routine every 8-16 weeks.
Change things up more frequently for fat loss—roughly every 4-8 weeks.
(This is why my fat reduction plans, such as Fat Loss Forever, alternate between workout types every four weeks.)
In any scenario, the modifications keep you ahead of the body’s adaption curve, preventing stagnation and avoiding a plateau.
All of this is to say that there is a tight line between changing things up to keep ahead of the curve and apparent inconsistency—which is just as terrible.
To avoid this, ensure the following:
Choose a program that will help you achieve your goal. Use a fat loss regimen if you want to get skinny. Use a muscle-building regimen if you want to gain muscle. This seems obvious, yet it’s remarkable how many individuals try to change one or the other to meet their objectives. Building the ideal male body necessitates employing the proper instrument for the job, so don’t grab for a hammer when a screwdriver is required.
You should not “program hop.” If you choose a program, stick with it until the end, even if you’re bored or want to switch gears. Switching horses in the middle of a race isn’t going to help you achieve your goals any faster—in fact, programming hopping is the single most common reason men never achieve their ideal body and instead go two-steps-forward-one-step-back forever.
Use applications that include built-in periodization. Some may argue that “training ADD” will limit muscular development; however, this is only true if you change things randomly without regard for programming. True outstanding programs consider the adaption curve and are designed in stages. The program’s goal remains same, but how you approach it varies with each new phase. Periodization is the process by which each phase builds on the previous one, allowing for steady progress toward your ideal body. The Super Hero Workout’s built-in periodization is exactly what makes it so successful.
Once again, variety is crucial, but not at the expense of results. Building the ideal male body is all about learning how to efficiently gain muscle or shed fat, so you’ll switch things up depending on your aim.
You should change your clothes more frequently if you want to lose weight. In reality, exposing yourself to constantly changing stimuli is a terrific approach to enhance metabolism and the processes that allow fat loss to occur. This is why my bestselling fat loss program, Final Phase Fat Loss, alternates between different workout techniques throughout the week.
However, it does not have to be that detailed; changing workouts for the same movement is an easy method to incorporate diversity into training for the perfect male body. Contrary to popular belief, switching from bench presses to push-ups can help you gain muscle mass while still losing fat.
Even a minor alteration like switching from barbells to dumbbells for a single workout can make a big difference and keep you trim all year long, assisting your search for a lovely figure.
Consider timed workouts for a more structured change: instead of counting reps, each set will be for a predetermined length of time—the goal, of course, is to get as many reps in that time frame as possible.
Increased training diversity not only expedites your quest for the ideal male figure, but it also makes training interesting and exciting.
If you want a perfect body, you must control your hormones.
This is covered in detail in a separate essay on hormone optimization for persistent fat loss, but let’s touch on it briefly here. In general, males tend to accumulate fat around the abdomen and love handles. Once again, we may thank/blame our forefathers for this one. After 10,000 years of evolution, we’ve adapted to store fat in places where it won’t interfere with hunting, killing, skinning, and digesting dinosaurs, wildebeests, umber hulks, and squirrels.
Women, on the other hand, tend to retain fat in their hips and thighs. (As an aside, ladies require an entirely different set of steps to achieve the ideal body.)
Regardless of evolutionary bias, these disparities are largely due to hormonal conditions that differ between men and women.
To put it simply, men have higher cortisol levels, which favors the development of midsection fat, whereas excessive estrogen leads to decreased body fat storage.
On course, no discussion of man hormones would be complete without including testosterone.
Men, take note: testosterone is your friend, and the more you have of it, the faster you’ll grow muscle, reduce fat, and meet women. As a result, high test levels are beneficial. Low testosterone levels, on the other hand, are terrible, affecting everything from sleep to sex desire and significantly slowing down physique improvement.
Unfortunately, when you’re on a fat loss program, whether you’re dieting for beach season or a bodybuilder prepping for a photoshoot, testosterone’s effect on insulin regulation becomes a little messed up. And insulin (or, more accurately, insulin resistance) is a huge issue for most guys trying to shed fat.
In fact, as most of the male clients I’ve worked with approach closer to their target body fat level, it becomes much more difficult to shed fat in those more “masculine” areas like the abs, obliques, and lower back.
As you continue to lean out towards your ideal beautiful physique, you will most likely realize that you are suffering from Chronic Love Handular Fatittude—don’t worry, Roman is here to help.
Of course, the training protocols for both of these are extensively discussed in Final Phase Fat Loss, and they are both so comprehensive that they are a bit beyond the scope of what I can cover in this piece.
However, there are a few techniques to optimize insulin regulation through supplementation and food to help with eliminating the love handles and producing a physique worth seeing naked.
When consumed in high dosages, fish oil has been demonstrated to dramatically enhance insulin regulation, in addition to a plethora of other benefits.
You can also make some dietary changes: cinnamon, when added to carbohydrate-containing meals, has been found to reduce the effects of insulin spikes and fat storage.
Along the same lines, there is some evidence that consuming a moderate quantity of apple cider vinegar before to carbohydrate-containing meals has similar effects.
The supplement recommendations above, when combined with an educated diet and workout program, can have a profoundly beneficial influence on your endocrine system, allowing it to work with you, rather than against you, to build a sexy body.