August 25, 2007
Mindlessly Gaining Muscle is Not the Path to an Attractive Body
Gaining Muscle Strategically is the Way to Look Your Best
Typically all the guys (and some women) I see in the free-weight room are trying to gain as much muscle as possible. Worse than that, they will take the muscle gain on any part of their body. The problem with gaining muscle just for the sake of gaining muscle quickly creates an unbalanced body.
Male Model Bartholomeo Fasano…Great Muscle Balance (and not bad looking…"you're welcome" ladies…I'm trying my best to include photo's of good looking guys along with hot women).
Avoid Developing These Muscle Groups for An Attractive Body
Traps: These are the muscles at the base of your neck that extend out to your shoulders. If your traps get overdeveloped, it takes away from the look of wide shoulders. Worse than that, you may look like you don't have a neck anymore! The main lift that develops these muscles are shrugs. I would recommend dropping all shrug movements from your routine.
Obliques: These are the muscles that are on the side of your waist. No need to gain muscle here! If you do then you will have a wide looking waist like professional wrestlers have. The exercise that works these directly is side bends to one side with a dumbbell in the opposite hand. Don't do this lift at all!
Lower Pecs: To have a nice looking chest, you want even muscle mass from the collar bone all the way down to the lower part of your pecs. The problem is that you lower pecs almost always have more mass than the upper chest. I would recommend concentrating hard on exercises that work the upper chest and dropping exercises that work the lower chest. Declines and flat bench work the lower chest hard…I would recommend focusing on incline presses for the most part with the occasional flat bench thrown in. No need to EVER do decline presses.
Butt: I wouldn't recommend working your butt directly with any sort of weight lifting. I know this isn't a popular opinion, but tough cardio will make your butt look much nicer than resistance exercise. Run stairs, run hard on the Elliptical Trainer, etc…but don't try to add muscle to your butt! What is this world coming to?
Legs: I'm not a big fan of adding excess muscle to the legs either. Again, you want nice looking toned legs…then hit cardio hard! Another benefit of cardio is that you will not only get toned legs…you will get toned all over. I haven't done a leg lift in years and my legs are ripped from cardio.
So Gain Muscle in the Right Places if You Want an Attractive Body!
Tags: Muscle Building, attract the opposite sex, attractive body, big legs, bulky muscle, cardio, firm butt, gain muscle mass, intense aerobic exercise, muscle mass, obliques, square pecs, traps, upper chest
Comments
August 25, 2007
Angie said:
So true….great tips!
October 2, 2007
Ash said:
Very good comments there buddy, I keep to light weights and mainly nail the cardio, it's done me no harm, my legs are toned ok for me.
Good site by the way keep up the good work.
October 3, 2007
admin said:
Ash,
Yep…and people that lift too often with too many sets almost always have painful joints as they get older. Want to look great your entire life as well as feel great? Then keep doing what you are doing!
Rusty
October 10, 2007
Grant said:
I think it is all about balance. If you have a 42"chest, 15 1/2" arms and 20" legs, then you will look unporportionate.
October 25, 2007
Dan said:
Hi Rusty,
Great site btw! Just surfing thru and found this article. I am aiming to get a body just like Bartolomeo. I have the height, just need the muscle and loose some unwanted fat. Bart's body is lean as well as slightly muscular and that is what I'm after. ( biceps long and lean as opposed to massive and bulky) I hate the bulky look. Any tips on how I would achieve this exact type of body? Maybe a workout routine?
admin said:
Dan,
Read this post and the comments below…Muscle Tone vs Muscle Mass Routine. In the comments I give an outline of a workout I would recommend.
Thanks for the compliment. Yeah…don't gain too much muscle…it ruins your look.
Rusty
January 20, 2008
KK said:
Well that definitely makes sense. Though I didn't think it was possible to gain muscle in just certain areas while ignoring others. I've always read that you had to gain muscle all over your body and that squats were the most important exercise for gaining mass(though you aren't obviously aren't a big advocate on squats). So are you saying that is possible to "spot increase"?
admin said:
KK,
Yeah, you can certainly gain muscle in certain parts of your body without gaining in others. You actually have decent control over this.
Rusty
January 26, 2008
Ron said:
Hiya Rusty,
Any hints on making my shoulders look more…um… Separate from my biceps/triceps while at rest? I'm not sure if I'm phrasing this correctly. Right now my shoulders/bis/tris look kind of like one big piece. Is this something that will eventually come with the cardio & weight loss?
This Ryan Reynolds pic shows a good example of what I'm talking about:
http://i26.photobucket.com/ryan_reynolds_mh.jpg
Ron
January 27, 2008
admin said:
Ron,
A lot of that will improve dramatically with cardio and fat loss, for sure. You will want to work your side delts a bit to insure maximum definition where the shoulder meets the arm. Do different variations of lateral raises (dumbell, machine, cable, etc.).
Get stronger at all overhead presses, since this will work your triceps as well as your shoulders. I also find that machine curls where there is still resistance at the top of the movement works the part of the bicep close to where it meets the shoulder.
Overall the main thing is to just get really lean, but these exercises will help to a certain extent.
Hope that helps!
Rusty
Ron said:
Sounds good. Thanks again!
Ron said:
Sounds like I'm heading in the right direction then. Little, if any, change required!
October 22, 2008
gr said:
you are so right…
Traps make you look lika a monkey, and it's my girlfriend who says that. Unfortunately mine grow everytime i lift a heavy waater pack… any idea how to avoid that?
My upper abs protrude, they're extended more than my chest because heavy abs lifting on machines… Any idea how to flatten my abs?
FBB is the best body website on the web. You really think of what women like on a mans body, without the bodybuilders idea of what is "cool".
Thanks FBB for that!
February 14, 2009
honk said:
im not sure about your advice on legs. what about people with skinny legs, how do they put on leg muscle??