A man’s guide to an aesthetic, healthy body
Introduction:
This is my practical, and knowledgeable guide on building an attractive,
healthy and capable body as a man.
If achieving excellent health and building an aesthetic body is what you
seek, then you are in the right place. My e-book holds a complete manual
to the realm of health and training for an aesthetic body, enabling you to
grasp the fundamental ideals, methods, and approaches when it comes to
getting healthy and the body of your dreams.
I will be explaining everything in the most basic forms and focusing on the
simplicity of my explanation.
It’s important to note that these tips only work if you are willing to put in
the work consistently for a long period and gains won’t just magically
happen overnight. Also, I am not a certified trainer nor nutritionist, the
information is solely from my understanding of the things I have learned
about training and optimizing health over my lifetime.
If you want a better understanding of the topics listed in my Ebook, then
feel free to visit the socials of „Andrew Huberman, PhD, who is a
neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology and
by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford School of
Medicine. He has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of
brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability
of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviours, skills and
cognitive functioning.” I gained much of my knowledge from his work and
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from studies familiarised to me through his podcasts including the ones I
talk about in this book as well.
Why it is key for a man
Training is arguably one of the most important pillars of self-improvement
and becoming a better man. It is essential for a man as the great Greek
philosopher Socrates said, "It is a shame for a man to grow old without
seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable." Weight-lifting
specifically has also been linked to testosterone boost, while cardiovascular
activities promote longevity, skin health, improved stamina, better heart
health and many more. It is essential for a long happy and healthy life. It
also helps with other fields of life because fitness is not just simply fitness.
Fitness is personal growth, it is transformation, it is accountability, it is
mental health, it is confidence, strength, therapy, peace and so forth. So I
hope you now understand why it is crucial for your growth and lifelong
growth should be a part of who you are as a man without a doubt.
So what exactly is an aesthetic body?
An aesthetic body is the most attractive body that you can build by the
golden ratio, where your shoulders measure 1.6 times your waist. It’s a
symmetrical body that’s evenly proportionated to attract the opposite sex
as a male. It is also the body that is serving and going to carry you through
your life so mobility is also a crucial part of it, and I’ll touch on that later.
The main focus of your workouts should be some form of resistance training
routine with some additional cardio once or twice a week to stay (or get)
lean and get the benefits of improved cardiovascular health. There are many
debates on whether you should be bulking cutting or so-called maingaining. I see it as if you are eating clean, lifting weights regularly and
adding in some cardio every now and then, you can reach your aesthetic
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body fast, regarding your current body type, and shouldn’t focus on these
terms in my opinion when you are just starting. A simple approach is that
you should aim for a body fat percentage of about 10-15%. If you are below
that or you are very skinny then you should be in a caloric surplus so you
consume more calories than you burn which obviously includes your basal
metabolic rate which is essentially just the number of calories required to
keep your body functioning in a resting state.
Optimal recovery
Recovery is a huge part of training because this is the time when your
damaged muscle tissues regenerate to become bigger, and stronger. Let
me explain that one. So when you are training for hypertrophy aka muscle
building then what you are essentially doing is breaking down muscle
tissues so later they can rebuild themselves bigger and stronger. That’s why
regeneration and resting are so important because training is only one side
of the coin, but when you are resting is the time when you are actually
building muscle. On your recovery days, you should try to focus on lowimpact activities to not stress your muscles any further and give them the
chance to recover fully. You can also do some light cardio like walking and
stretching because these types of activities help the blood flow better,
therefore, resulting in faster, easier recoveries. I also like to train my abs
on these days because it is not as long and tiring as a normal workout, but
I still remain active as well. You might also want to give a try to ice bathing,
the sauna or light swimming as these have major health benefits like
improved well-being, increased metabolism, circulation improvements and
also promotes recovery.
Do this pre and post-workouts
There are a few things you should avoid before a training session. First I
would advise you not to eat any large meal 2 hours prior to working out
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because it can upset your stomach, make you feel lethargic, and it may also
spoil your performance in the gym. You also shouldn’t do any high-intensity
cardio right before weight training, because it can be tiring and make you
perform way worse on your weight-lifting program afterwards, so it is best
to do them on separate days. Now let’s talk a bit about supplementation.
Protein shakes are not a necessity if you are meeting your daily protein
needs in your diet. If you have eaten a protein and carb-rich meal a few
hours before training, then a protein shake after your training is also
unnecessary, and it is important to note that it should always just be a
complimentary thing to your well-balanced diet which I’ll touch on deeper
later. Any other supplements you shouldn’t bother with in my opinion, and
they are not mandatory for muscle build and/or maintenance. You may also
not want to work out 1-1.5 hours before going to bed as you might not be
able to fall asleep easily because you won’t be able to produce that much
melatonin also known as the sleep hormone required to make you sleepy,
and also because of the high energy and alertness you’ll have from your
late-night session. Proper warmup should always be your first step to
reduce the risk of injury and to get yourself zoned in fully to your upcoming
session. And of course, all your training should end with stretching to reduce
muscle soreness the upcoming day, increase flexibility, mobility and
promote better blood flow in your body. I know it’s not easy to stretch daily
and I was delaying it as well but it is well worth it in the long run and that’s
what you should be aiming for. One thing that has helped me was an app
called pliability which holds me accountable and has many different types
of stretch routines depending on what your current needs are.
How much should you drink while exercising?
There are many studies out there supporting the fact that you need optimal
amounts of water for your cells and tissues to work to their best capabilities
and lack of hydration can make your performance worst. While you are
exercising it is crucial to get hydration and not just before and after your
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sessions. The basic rule of thumb when it comes to the amount of liquid you
should consume, and it also depends on other factors like temperatures,
intensity, type of exercise etc. but a nice math I learned from Dr Andrew
Huberman is that if you take your body weight in pounds, divide that by 30
you will get the amount of fluid in ounces to ingest during a workout every
15 minutes or so. In the metric system, you can also say it is 2 ml of fluids
per body weight in kg every 15-20 minutes on average during exertion. If
you want to look deeper into this topic, then you can find more information
on The Huberman Lab podcast, run by Dr Andrew Huberman, or search for
the Galphin equation on Google.
What training split should you follow?
There are many different options to choose from and it may feel
overwhelming at first which I can completely relate to. Ideally, you want to
try them all out so you get a sense of which one best suits your goals and
preferences, and not last, which you like most. As you progress through
your fitness journey you will and you should try out many different types of
training styles and find what works best for you including weightlifting,
cross-fit training, HIIT, LISS, or just enjoying particular outdoor sports like
running, cycling, or hiking. You can learn a lot through your training over
the years just by trying out different programs. If you are just starting out
on your lifting carrier you won’t notice any weak points or strong points at
first. You are only going to notice them after your first months or even years
of training, and then you can follow a split which focuses on the lagging
muscle groups. But like I said ideally you should try out most splits. So if
you had a period where you were focusing more on the upper body, then a
lower-body-focused split should follow that. So cycle through the different
splits, try them all out and maybe you’ll notice there were some which you
didn’t particularly enjoy but saw some big gains from another one and in
that case, there is no problem repeating that. Now the next thing is
frequency, and how often should you train. Optically 5 times per week is
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the sweet spot for me, here you are likely not overtraining and giving your
body enough rest and still your muscle groups frequently enough to make
them grow. However, as a new gym-goer, you might not need that much
frequency and still see great results since your body is not used to that kind
of stimulus, and you can build that up from 3 sessions a week up to 5 over
time. A week of training doesn’t have to look like a week. What I’m saying
here is that you don’t have to complete a weekly routine in that exact week,
you can simply just do the upcoming workouts after each other and not fix
them on a given day because that way you are more likely to skip around
some and overindulge in others which leads to imbalances and a physique
that looks weird and unbalanced. What I advise is to follow a routine and
after every 2-3 days take a day to rest and recover for the next session.
Diet
You probably guessed this topic was coming sooner or later, and that’s
because you already know that there is no attractive body without proper
nutrition. An attractive physique is lean but not too lean. You want to avoid
looking too bulky and being very skinny as well. There are many debates
on what is healthy and what’s not. So you should focus on eating the basic
foods that are non-processed and in their basic natural form. An example I
like for this is potato. When you go to a store and grab a potato there is no
ingredient list on that obviously because it is potato. It shouldn’t contain
any of these chemicals and preservatives you can’t even read out. For me,
I think about every food if my ancestors could have been eating it hundreds
or thousands of years ago. And if not then it’s probably a modern-day food
that has been made to be addictive so customers buy more and more but
it has zero to no nutritional or health benefits. So go for natural foods and
the best for me these are eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts, meat, bread, and
maybe some rice and potatoes. Most importantly, you don’t have to eat
only like this at first. For example on the first week just cut out every sugary
drink, then on the second week you cut out all the junk foods and the next
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week you add a healthy meal to your daily routine and stick to it for a while
then add another and another and sooner you realise you are eating
healthier than 95% of people. The magic is in implementing it slowly and
making it your new habit over time and sticking to them disciplined every
single day and not giving in to your sugar cravings. One trick I use is at
night I eat some dark chocolate (because that’s my favourite but it can be
any chocolate of your choice) so that acts as a treat for me and it takes
away my sugar cravings that way I can keep my diet 99% clean at all times.
Conclusion, closing thoughts:
So basically what you need to do is hit the gym 3-5 times a week combine
weight training with some cardio eventually, eat clean and most importantly
be consistent. That’s all it takes to become part of the top 20% club. But
consistency and dedication are key, and I can’t stress this enough.
Remember, the man who goes to the gym every single day regardless of
how he feels will always beats the man who goes to the gym when he feels
like going to the gym. And now it is time to take action. You don’t need to
have all the knowledge when starting you just have to start and take action,
because that’s what delivers results. And now the only thing you need is
the humility to put in the work, cause let me tell you something, no one is
going to do it for you.
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