Bring it on!
Being strong and muscular also necessarily involves muscle mass gain or ‘muscle hypertrophy’. A muscle subjected to overload tears and becomes bigger and stronger after repair (rest assured, 48 hours are all it takes to rebuild a muscle). Then increase your weights to progress continuously. A common programme, as effective for beginners as it is for experienced practitioners, will be to undergo a session including one exercise per muscle group and perform three to four sets of 10 to 12 repetitions per exercise, with a suitable weight to achieve the total exhaustion of the muscle at the end of the session. This type of training requires a very significant protein intake.
Always dreamed of a “V”-shaped body?
To impress, consider developing your shoulders! Some exercises are known to develop the shoulder girdle (chest and shoulders) and the latissimus dorsi: nothing beats regular pull sessions for that. While these sessions may seem prohibitive and very gruelling at the beginning, progress will be visible quickly. And think about swimming in addition to muscle activity.
Shapely buttocks? A simple solution: squats, squats and squats!
The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body, so do not underestimate the effort required to keep it in shape. Start with body weight exercises such as squats, lunges and dead lifts. Once the technique is perfectly executed, bring on the suitable weight. Your partners will quickly thank you for it!
Beautiful arms? Not so easy but oh so sexy…
One of the weight training staples is the ‘curl’. But working the biceps should not come at the expense of their antagonist muscles, the triceps. So regularly alternate concentric exercises (pulling) for the biceps and eccentric (pushing) for the triceps. Follow this tip from the coach: the biceps and triceps are short muscles that require near maximal amplitude of movements, in order to elongate the fibres and avoid shortening their original size even further.
HIIT: know what it stands for
For shapely abs, doing planks and crunches will not suffice. It is important to maintain a low fat mass (ideally less than 10% of body weight). So gradually introduce cardiovascular High Intensity Interval Training. As if by magic, you will quickly reduce your body fat while heavily minimizing the loss of muscle mass. Opt in parallel for a strict nutritional diet with limited carbohydrate intake.
Don’t only go by appearances!
Looking after your appearance in the long term also requires appropriate and constant fundamental training. Training your heart means regular endurance activity. Breathing and muscle stretching should not be overlooked either: consider yoga and all its derivative forms. Finally, sleep and nutrition are essential if you want to become an athletic, healthy and handsome man.
Despite this new vision of the male standards of beauty, it will continue to be incarnated in a body, inseparable from the desire it evokes or provokes. Your best asset to cultivate your energy, health and beauty remains therefore the regular practice of a variety of sports activities.
At Aspria, we believe that the body in its external representation is not the only beauty attribute. Our wellbeing centres perfectly embody this new vision of modern man, to meet new needs, set new benchmarks and help him ‘feel good’ rather than ‘look good’. Who knows, maybe at the end of the day, self-confidence may be your greatest asset?
