Quick recommendations for building an aesthetic male body

One of the most common advice on /trp is „go lift“, and rightfully so: Weightlifting is great for your health, weightlifting helps develop a red pill frame of mind, weightlifting improves the way you look.

In this quick post, I want to focus on the last point: improving your looks through weightlifting and what I’d recommend to maximize your results in this regard.

What is an aesthetic male body? When it comes to an aesthetic male body, the most important aspect is the ratio of your shoulders to your waist. The ideal ratio is 1.618 : 1, meaning that your shoulder circumference should be 1.618 times the circumference of your waist. Therefore, having well developed shoulders (as well as a lean waist) is key.

The second most important aspect is to have a v-shaped upper body, meaning that your upper body gradually and proportionally gets broader from the waist up.

The last aspect is to have a well developed upper chest and well developed arms.

Excellent example of an aesthetic male body: Greg Plitt

Conclusion In order to maximize your looks through weightlifting, you should follow a training program which ensures that you achieve a good shoulder to waist ratio, a v-shaped upper body and a well developed upper chest and arms.

How to get there To achieve an ideal should to waist ratio, you need to build up your shoulder muscles. The shoulder musculature consists of three heads (anterior, lateral and posterior head), which all need to be trained, while the focus should lie on the lateral head.

To achieve a v-taper, you primarily need to build up your latissimus dorsi. For a full upper chest, you must build up the clavicular head of your chest. For well developed arms, you should do a separate arm day.

For looks, don’t do 5 x 5 Most of the time somebody on /trp tells someone to go lift, they recommend the 5 x 5 program. I disagree with this. Don’t get me wrong, the 5 x 5 program is a solid routine to improve on the first two points (health and frame of mind), but not so much for the third point: looks. If you don't care about the aspect of looks, go ahead with the 5 x 5. If you do, however, care about looks, I would not recommend the program.

The reason for this is, that the 5 x 5 program does not place enough emphasis on the muscle groups, which need to be trained to achieve the goals set forth under point 1. At the same time, it focusses on core and leg exercises, which will develop your lower body. However, with the 5 x 5 program, the development of your upper body won’t be able to keep up with the lower body (as your core and leg musculature will grow faster) and you’ll end up with an imbalanced, droopy physique, which is unattractive to women and men alike.

My recommendation Personally, I’d recommend you follow Mike Mattews „bigger leaner stronger“ program. It includes the vital big lifts (dead lift, squats, bench press, overhead press) but will also make sure that you develop the muscles needed for an aesthetic upper body.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that I don’t have any affiliation with Mike Matthews whatsoever. I recommend the program because it works for me and I like his scientific approach.

That's it, go hit the gym and get swole like u/gaylubeoil! Oh, and any comments or input is appreciated.