It’s all the damn same.
Whether clothed or bare, we lift weights to look awesome. This is a fact. Sometimes it’s for vanity. Other times it’s to attract a partner. It doesn’t matter. We’re all irrational.
The process is addictive. First, we start to see our muscles grow. A vein then appears here and there; then abs. Next – out of nowhere – girls are smiling at us when we walk down the street.
It’s awesome.
There’s one problem. Sure, we’ve changed ourselves for the better, but how do we know exactly what we want to look like? How do we measure our progress? When do we know that we look as awesome as humanly possible?
It all comes down to three things (if you are drug free):
- Symmetry and ideal proportions
- Strength
- Maximum Muscular Potential
Since Movember is here, it means that Decembulk is just around the corner. You need to know what I’m about to teach you.
Symmetry
Steve Reeves had the most well proportioned physique…ever.
If you’ve read The Da Vinci Code, you’ve heard of the Fibonacci Sequence. This sequence is scary. While I’m not going to get into the mathematics, let me tell you this. There are certain ratios on the male body that woman find incredibly attractive.
This is probably going to piss off a lot of girls since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it’s true.
For instance, there is a Golden Ratio on men that women consistently crave, and it’s the ratio of your waist (measured around your belly button) to your shoulders. This number should be 1:1.618.
For example, if you take your shoulder circumference and divide it by your waist circumference, you want the number to be as close to 1.618 as possible.
Steve Reeves was famed as the best physique of all time. Legend has it that during one of his photo shoots, a car crashed right beside the shoot location. The driver, a man, safely exited his car and approached Steve. He told him, “Your physique is so astounding that I wasn’t watching where I was going and crashed into that median. I thought I should tell you.”
Reeves believed that for perfect symmetry, your arms, calves, and neck should all be the same size. He also believed that your waist should be 86% and your chest should be 148% of the size of your pelvis (measured around where you wear your pants).
Using formulas from Steve Reeves and John Romaniello’s article How to Look Freakin’ Awesome, you want your body to be proportioned like so:
| Body Part | Ideal Measurement (all measurements are the circumference of the body part) |
| Arm (cold; flexed) | 2.52 x Wrist Size |
| Calf | 2.52 x Wrist Size |
| Neck | 2.52 x Wrist Size |
| Waist (measured while lean; 8-12% bodyfat) | 0.86 x Pelvis Size (pelvis is where you wear your pants) |
| Shoulder | 1.618 x Waist (Golden Ratio) |
| Thigh | 1.75 x Knee Size |
| Chest | 1.48 x Pelvis Size |
Over your life, you want your measurements to be as close to these ratios and formulas as possible. Build muscle for each body part until it is the appropriate size. It is the best way to look visually stunning.
Strength
There are two reasons why strength is important:
- There’s no sense looking like a Spartacus if you’re going to be weak like Quintus Batiatus.
- Strong guys have more muscle.
Case closed.
Spartacus.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering: how strong should I be? Luckily, we have guys like Stuart McRobert to answer that question.
McRobert is an expert when it comes to drug free bodybuilding and lifting weights to look awesome. He believes that if you have the following lifting statistics, then your body has no choice but to build the appropriate muscle and look symmetrically stunning.
| Exercise (with perfect form) | Weight Lifted |
| Bench Press | 300lbs x 1 rep |
| Squat | 400lbs x 1 rep |
| Deadlift | 500lbs x 1 rep |
| Parallel Bar Dip | (Bodyweight + 100lbs) x 6 reps |
| Overhead Press (barbell) | 175lbs x 6 reps |
| Chinup | (Bodyweight + 30lbs) x 6 reps |
| Single Arm Dumbbell Row | 110lbs x 6 reps |
| Barbell Curl (just don’t do it in the squat rack) | 120lbs x 6 reps |
All of these weights may vary since people with different builds will be stronger in certain lifts than others. For example, my squat and deadlift are good, but my bench press is shit. As a bare minimum, a 6ft tall man should be able to match all the strength feats above.
Maximum Muscular Potential
For a drug free trainee, there is a maximum amount of muscle that you can build in your lifetime. While everyone’s potential varies, I love Martin Berkhan’s “No Bullshit Formula”:
(Bodyweight in kilograms at 5-6% bodyfat) = Height in centimeters -100
For example, a guy who is 5’11 (180cm) would use the formula like so:
180-100 = 80kg at 5-6% bodyfat
This translates into 176lbs shredded. To calculate the lean mass, multiply that number by 0.945. This is about 166lbs of lean mass. If you were 10% bodyfat, you would weigh 185lbs (trust me, I did the math right).
Conclusion
In the spirit of Decembulk, I provided you with the exact goals you need in order to look as attractive as humanly possible. Thanks to guys like John Romaniello, Steve Reeves, Stuart McRobert, and Martin Berkhan, we know the ideal proportions, strength goals, and maximum lean mass that we want to achieve.
After all, when you go on a road trip, you need a destination. Else, you’ll just run out of gas.
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