Hunger, starvation, salads, low carb diets, zero fat diets, fasted cardio, daily ab training, etc. Those are all things people think of when they hear the term male model physique. And yes, there probably are certain male models in certain fashion niches that are required to be extremely skinny to the edge of what would be perceived as anorexic.
To make things clear, this is not what I’m referring to when I’m talking about a male model. I’m talking about what is commonly known as a “swimmer’s physique”. An athletic, lean physique with just the right amount of muscle mass in all the right places that makes a physique look absolutely amazing. Examples of men that rock the male model physique, which most people will perceive as the perfect body, are Daniel ‘Magic Fox’ Mason and Weston Boucher.
Why is this physique considered to be so attractive? The male model physique or swimmer’s physique is so attractive and pleasing to the eye because its perfect proportions. The art is to add muscle mass to the key areas which will cause us to achieve these proportions, combined with a low body fat percentage.
A big body builder physique is not everyone’s cup of tea. Most people simply want to have an athletic physique, but are not willing to spend their whole life in the gym and don’t want to live on salad leaves for the rest of their lives. If this sounds like you, I have good news: You don’t have to!
In this article you will discover what to focus on when it comes to your gym workout routine and an easy, enjoyable and sustainable approach when it comes to eating. Combined these two factors will be responsible for your physique transformation and you yourself will be able to proudly say that you too, could be featured on those underwear boxes… 😉
THE KEY FEATURES OF THE MALE MODEL PHYSIQUE
The male model physique as featured in the picture above is characterized by a couple of factors.
The key factors are:
● A pair of well-built shoulders
● A strong, wide chest and thick upper back
● Arms that are proportionate in muscle mass to the core
● A set of visible abs, which is the result of a low body fat percentage
● A pair of strong, sleek athletic legs
To sculpt an overall athletic physique, we will focus on a couple of key exercises that will give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to building the most amount of muscle in the most practical and time efficient way. These exercises will be the foundation of your workout.
THE WORKOUT
In order to create those perfect proportions of the male model physique, we will supplement the main lifts with a couple of accessory exercises that will give certain muscle groups a bit more volume, since they wouldn’t get the necessary amount of volume for optimal growth if you were to do the key exercises alone. Doing so will reassure that your physique is completely balanced.
In order to pack on muscle mass in general, the you will focus on 3 key movements for the upper body and 2 key movements for the lower body.
The key movements for the upper body musculature are:
● Chin ups and pull ups
● Bench press
● Overhead press
The key movements for the lower body musculature are:
● Squats
● Romanian deadlifts
The accessory exercises you will perform are going to target the upper back, shoulders, arms and calves. As a result, you will have a physique that has the perfect proportions that we as a species perceive to be the most attractive.
The workout is a 3 day per week fully body routine that should be performed on non-consecutive days. What you do in the gym is the stimulus for muscle growth, but your muscles actually grow when you’re resting. Therefore it’s absolutely crucial to allow sufficient recovery between workouts. You also want to focus on optimal performance with each set you do, which will result in maximum hypertrophy. Training in a chronically fatigued state, will compromise both your performance and your results.
WORKOUT A
Bench press 3×6-10
Pull up 3×6-10
Squat 3×6-10
Chest supported upper back row superset Seated calf raises 3×8-15
Lateral raises superset Leg curl 3×8-15
Overhead tricep extension superset Bicep curl 3×8-15
WORKOUT B
Chin up 3×6-10
Overhead press 3×6-10
Romanian deadlift 3×6-10
Incline dumbbell press 3×8-12 superset Standing calf raises 3×8-15
Rear delt fly superset Leg extension 3×8-15
Tricep cable rope extension superset Bicep hammer curl 3×8-15
The workout always begins with the most important key movements that will have the most impact on your physique. The key movements are your main performance lifts and progressing on them is the foundation of building the body of your dreams. Once you’ve done your key lifts, you can finish off the workout with your accessory exercises, which will put the cherry on the cake.
The key lifts should be performed individually, while accessory work can be performed in supersets, in which you perform accessory exercises back to back with only about 10 seconds of rest between exercises. The reason for this is because your key compound exercises take a lot out of your body due to all the muscle groups working together. This leads to a greater effort compared to performing isolation exercises where less muscle groups are involved.
Performance on accessory exercises will not be affected by supersetting them in order to save time. The supersets in this workout routine are combined in a way that one exercise doesn’t interfere with performance or fatigue of the other muscles that are being trained in this superset. For example, doing leg extensions won’t interfere and doesn’t have any negative effect on rear delt flyes.
The goal is to train with the right intensity in the given rep range, meaning that each set should be ended with only 1 rep left in the tank. This will make sure that you’ve maximized the hypertrophy stimulus for each individual set, while avoiding excessive fatigue that would occur if you’d go to failure on every set.
To assure that each lift is executed with optimal performance, you will rest 3 minutes between sets for your key lifts. This will ensure that you recover adequately after each set so that the following set will be executed with optimal performance as well. Accessory moves can be performed back to back in a superset fashion to save time. After each superset, you will rest 2 minutes. E.g perform triceps extensions, rest 10 seconds, perform bicep curls, rest 2 minutes, repeat for the prescribed number of sets.
To make sure that you are actually making progress, you should always track your workouts. Do it in a notebook, do it on your phone, it doesn’t matter how you keep track of your lifts, but believe me, doing so will put you ahead of the curve. So many people make the mistake of not tracking their lifts and stay stuck forever using the same weights. The goal of your program is to get stronger in the given rep range. This is called progressive overload, which is the result of the amount of training volume you do at the right intensity at the right frequency. Progressive overload is the key to gaining muscle and maximizing muscular size. If you’re not getting stronger, you’re not making progress.
THE MALE MODEL DIET
Training is what’s responsible for making our muscles bigger and to maintain our muscle mass while dieting to low body fat levels. What we eat is going to be responsible for how much body fat we carry.
When it comes to the nutritional side of things to achieve the male model physique, there are two main factors that come into play. Those factors are:
● Calorie intake
● Protein intake
From a nutrition standpoint, these two factors will have the most profound effect on your physique in terms of building muscle and losing fat while retaining muscle.
Weight management all comes down to calories in vs calories out. If you want to lose body fat the only thing that works is to create a calorie deficit, meaning that you eat fewer calories than you burn. There is no magical diet, nor are there any magical foods that will melt fat off your body. The opposite is true as well. There are no magical foods that will instantly make you fat or gain weight.
If you eat less calories, you will lose weight. If you eat just enough calories to sustain your current weight, you’ll maintain your weight and if you eat more calories than you need, you will gain weight. Yes, it’s that simple.
LOSING BODY FAT
The male model physique will require you to carry a body fat percentage in the 8 – 12 % zone. This will be the level of leanness where your muscle definition will be at its best, meaning that your muscles will be clearly visible, while not looking too lean. The 8 – 12% zone is a level of leanness where you will still feel good and energetic, have healthy testosterone levels and a healthy libido, without suffering from the negative effects of being too lean.
In order to lose body fat at a steady rate that is enjoyable, I recommend that you start your fat loss journey by creating a 20% calorie deficit. For most people, this will end up in a calorie deficit between 400 – 600.
If you currently don’t know what your maintenance calories are, use the simple formula of your bodyweight in lb x 15. This a rough estimate of your maintenance calories and is a good starting point if you have absolutely no idea about how many calories you need on a daily basis.
Let’s take a 200lb man that wants to lose body fat as an example:
● (200lb x 15) = 3000 kcal
● (3000 x 0.8) = 2400 kcal
Now in terms of maximizing our body composition, meaning that we want to carry a good amount of muscle while being at a low level of body fat, it’s crucial to eat enough protein. This will make sure that your body has the necessary building blocks to build muscle mass and that it has the right materials to maintain muscle mass when dieting down to a low body fat percentage.
Eating 0.8g of protein per lb of bodyweight is sufficient. Eating more than this will not have more benefits. In fact, it will have negative drawbacks. Since our calories are fixed, eating more protein would mean that there is less room left for carbs and fats.
No macronutrient group in particular is responsible for gaining fat. That’s why you shouldn’t cut out entire macronutrient groups. Carbs and fats actually play a crucial role in achieving optimal health and in allowing you to feel and perform your best. Once protein intake is covered, fill the rest of your calories as a good mix of carbs and fats. This will make sure that your muscles are fueled for your training and that your testosterone levels stay high.
For example, a 200lb man would need 160g of protein. The remainder of his calories should come from a good mix of carbs and fats.
As you lose weight, you will reach a fat loss plateau at one point. This is due to your body adjusting its energy expenditure to the amount of calories its given on a consistent basis. If this is the case and you haven’t reached your desired body fat percentage yet, slowly reduce your calories again with a smaller deficit of about 10%.
The heavier you are, the easier it is to lose fat. Once you dip under the 14% range, things get trickier and you have to be more strategic about your fat loss. This means that you will reduce your calories in smaller deficits until you reach your desired level of leanness.
BUILDING MUSCLE
I always recommend that people get fairly lean (under 15%) before they start a lean bulking phase. When you’re new to lifting, you can actually gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. This is called a body recomposition and if done successfully, you’ll end up with more muscle mass and a lower body fat percentage. A successful recomp is the effect of your body adapting to the training stimulus and you eating sufficient protein and an adequate amount of calories.
Once you get past the beginner gains that you’ll experience in the first 6 months of lifting consistently, you’ll have to eat in a calorie surplus in order to build muscle as effective as possible. The tricky part is that you can only gain so much muscle in a certain timeframe, meaning that eating too many calories will only end up in gaining fat. The art is to eat just enough calories to support the muscle building process and to avoid gaining excessive amount of fat.
The ideal daily calorie surplus for gaining muscle while minimizing fat gain is about 200-300 kcal.
If for example you’ve dieted down and did a successful fat loss phase using the information in the fat loss section of this article, it’s in your best interest to switch to a muscle building phase in order to make your muscles bigger and stronger. This will improve your body composition even more, since carrying a good amount of muscle is crucial to achieve the top level of a male model physique. And no, you don’t have to worry about gaining too much muscle. As long as you don’t make use of anabolic steroids, you won’t have what is considered to be ‘too much muscle mass’. Only steroid users carry unnatural, excessive amounts of muscle mass due to the increased hormone levels injected into their bodies.
Eating in a calorie surplus will allow your body to use the additional calories for muscle growth. This will result in you becoming stronger in the gym and becoming a better athlete.
Protein intake shouldn’t be any different from your fat loss phase in order to gain muscle. just eat 0.8 of protein per pound of body weight and you’ll gain muscle optimally.
Just as with fat loss, weight gain plateaus will occur. When you’ve been in a 200-300 calorie surplus for a couple of weeks, you’ll probably stop gaining weight due to again, metabolic adaption. If the scale doesn’t budge for about a month, bump up the calories with another 100-200 calories, while keeping protein at 0.8g per lb of body weight. Repeat this process as many times as possible until you reach your desired level of muscle mass.
Remember, don’t rush it. Give your body the time to build mass. Most people will only gain a maximum of 2lb of pure muscle mass per month! So this means that slow and steady wins the race. It’s better to stay fairly lean on your muscle building phase because that means that you will have an easier time cutting down again when it’s time for your fat loss phase, plus you’ll look good throughout the whole process.
If you’ve gained a good amount of muscle mass and are satisfied with your muscle size, you switch over to a fat loss phase again to lower your body fat percentage into the desired 8 – 12% range. I always recommend that people don’t start their bulk over with a starting point of 15% body fat or higher. You’ll still look pretty good at 15% body fat if you carry a good amount of muscle mass, but going beyond that level will only lead to you looking flabbier and will hide your hard earned muscle mass under a layer of cushion.
While you’ll look significantly better after a proper fat loss phase, it will require you to go through a couple of muscle gaining phases and fat loss phases to maximize your natural muscle size and get really lean. Enjoy the journey and the results will be visible in the mirror sooner than you think! But believe me, getting lean will have a massive impact on how you look. Make it a priority to lose excessive body fat first. After you’ve gotten lean, repeat the cycle of muscle gaining phases followed by fat loss phases until you’ve reached the ideal physique you had in mind. The one thing I can promise you is that even if you haven’t reached your full potential yet and have only gone through one training cycle of gaining muscle and trimming off the excessive fat afterwards, you’ll look amazing. The following muscle gaining cycles will just make you look even better than you already do.
Time to put this knowledge into action and stay consistent. You won’t be disappointed when you look in the mirror.
Kevin Mahjoubi