7 FITNESS HACKS TO LOOK SEXY
Apply these 7 Fitness Hacks to Look Sexy NOW to achieve the aesthetic you’re looking for. They are the drivers of lasting physical change in both how you look and how you feel. Today I’m going to emphasize how each one works to change your physique visually by building and maintaining lean muscle.
1) Pre-Game Before the Main Event
Most people think of warmup and prep as a way to help avoid injury.
But there is a certain type of preparation that we do in Functional Bodybuilding, called Pre-Fatigue, that is very beneficial for building visible muscle, and looking sexy.
A fatigued muscle has to work incrementally harder in the strength work that follows. So we’ll target triceps, for example, with some Banded Push-downs before hitting a Bench Press. This gets even more stimulus to layer on more quality muscle.
2) Flirt With Failure
Building sexy muscle or losing body fat demands training your muscle with proper effort. People love to say that the 6-15 rep range is great for building muscle. But that is only if you train near failure within that rep range.
Imagine doing a set of 15 reps of bicep curls. Only you could have done 30 reps without stopping. Your set of 15 reps was only at about 50% effort.
The sad truth is that this won’t build muscle, but it is the way a lot of people are training out there.
We don’t promote pushing to failure all the time. But proper effort must be a priority in order get the correct stimulus for your muscles to grow. Think about trying to get within 3-5 reps from failure on all of your weight training sets. From time to time take it closer to 1-2 reps from failure. That is all you need to succeed.
3) Get Long and Strong
Training with weights through a full range of motion is how we strengthen and lengthen muscles at the same time. Why is this useful for looking sexy? Full range of motion training builds muscle more effectively than partial range of motion.
Specifically, we need tension on our muscles in lengthened/stretched positions to achieve optimal muscle growth stimulus.
When we train full range of motion we also do more work. 10 partial reps vs 10 full range reps yields different amounts of work. If you commit to full range of motion work, which we prioritize, you will not only build more muscle. You will also get higher energy outputs from your training sessions.
4) Breathe Heavy
Cardio gets a bad rap in the bodybuilding world. Cardio can ruin your gains they say. And when cardio is used for cutting diets, it is often a one-dimensional treadmill or bike. Boring!
But cardio certainly doesn’t kill your gains. In fact, if you have better work capacity from thoughtful conditioning, you can bring more effort to your weight training.
With better cardiovascular fitness you will be able to recover more quickly between weight training sets. You can push further on your intensity sets and get in more quality weight training to build muscle.
5) Eat Your Meat
It doesn’t have to be meat. But protein is the ultimate macronutrient to improve your look for 3 compelling reasons:
Protein is the foundational macronutrient required for building muscle. This in turn improves metabolism to help give you the look you want.
Protein consumption curbs appetite and cravings. Including protein at every meal reduces your hunger later and limits how much your body wants to reach for crave worthy foods.
Digesting protein requires more calories than other macros. That’s right. You will burn extra calories when you digest your protein as compared to digesting carbs.
6) Consume Quality
Food quality refers to the number of nutrients a particular food has. And also how easy it is for our bodies to digest and absorb those nutrients.
Food quantity (amounts of calories) has a more direct impact on your physique and look. But there are two compelling reasons to think about food quality when it comes to your aesthetic too.
If you primarily eat poor quality foods, then eventually your body will start to become depleted of key nutrients. In the absence of key nutrients you will:
Seek more food to make up for those missing nutrients. Your body will crave more foods and calories.
Your energy and drive will be diminished. How well your body can use and produce energy as well as how sharp and focused your mind is depends our nutrient profile balance. If we are depleted of nutrients our drive to train and move will decrease.
7) (Serving) Size Matters
Calories from food do matter. And not all calories are created equal. You could eat great Food Quality but still overeat by 1000 calories a day and put on body fat. You can also eat terrible Food Quality but be in a 500-calorie deficit and you will lose body fat over time.
Knowing how much food you need to eat in order to achieve the body you want is very important. Errors in one direction or the other may cause you to gain too much body fat or lose too much muscle. Or you could nail the sweet spot of how you want to look.
Try the free macro calculator to get an idea of how much is right for you.
To look & feel sexy, Remember…
These ideas not only help you look sexy. They will also add years to your training life and keep you feeling amazing. Remember that fire of loving being in the gym? Have you ever even tasted it? Has it been a long time since you’ve felt like your body is thriving?
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