When you decide to make a step towards a more aesthetic body, you need to know what you’re doing. It’s not just about lifting heavy weights, mastering the exercise machines or eating the right food – it’s all of those and more.
If you want to have an aesthetically pleasing shape, you will need to work on your conditioning, symmetry, balance, proportion and of course, size of different parts of your body.
Just look at people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane or Sergio Oliva – they were considered to have the ultimate aesthetics and over the years their legacy remained.
Their secret was clear – they looked powerful, had great strength, and you could take a picture of them from any angle and it would hold the same characteristics. They had a narrow waist, a great V-taper, and enough muscle in their quads to make it all look proportional.
It’s been a long time since the 70s, but these guys taught us lessons on building an aesthetic body like nobody else. Nowadays, people put too much pressure on themselves to build huge muscles – we focus way too much on performance and way too little on aesthetics. Looking like a statue from ancient Greece has never been more underappreciated. It’s time to change that.
The first thing you need to know about an aesthetic body is that it won’t simply appear out of nowhere. You have to eat the right things at the right time to get it, and you’ll need to train hard and smart.
Although genetics play a large role, trainees can amplify certain attributes to get a more aesthetic look. By training, you’re creating little micro-tears in your muscle tissue that will have to be repaired with protein you consume as part of your diet. For best results, you will need at least 1 gram of protein for every pound that you weigh, daily.
Related: How Much Protein Do You Need to Build Muscle?
Key #1 – Train With the Right Weights
If you keep using the same weight, your body will see no reason to improve. To stop this from happening, you will need to use a pyramid approach – start heavier and decrease the weight while increasing the reps each set.
First, do two to three warm-up sets to make sure you don’t get hurt. After that, do 6–8 reps at 70–80% of your maximum. As you go through the sets, take weight off and increase the number of reps.
What happens here is your muscles will be stressed hard during the first heavier sets, but as you hit the lighter sets you’ll build density and detail with those more numerous reps. The sets should look like this:
- Two to three warm-up sets of 6–8 reps each
- A working set at 70–80% of your max, for 6–8 reps
- Two sets of 8–10 reps with slightly reduced weight
- One set of 10–12 reps with further reduced weight
Even though you will be lifting less weight at the end, it will not be easy. The final two reps of the last set should be just as difficult as going heavy. The pump should be enormous. This approach pumps more blood into the worked muscle, stretching the fascia around it and literally creating space for the muscle to grow.
Key #2 – Train for Symmetry and Proportion
If you want your body to have harmonious proportions, your legs should have a size corresponding to the rest of your body – they shouldn’t look like sticks compared to your chest and shoulders. Your muscle groups should be as symmetrical as possible: your left bicep matching your right, your quads matching each other in size and condition.
If you do not have proportional and symmetrical muscles, your body will always be one step behind your goal. A good method to achieve this is integrating unilateral exercises into your workout – lifting with one arm or leg at a time, bringing your weaker side up to match the stronger. When they match, train them together again.
Here are the exercises that build symmetrical arm and upper body development – remember, the reps rise and the weight goes down each set:
- Smith Machine Close-grip Bench Presses – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- EZ-bar skullcrusher – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Standing low-pulley one-arm triceps extensions – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Tricep dumbbell kickbacks – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- EZ-bar curls – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Alternate hammer curls – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Alternate incline dumbbell curls – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Spider curls – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
Key #3 – Get Your Body Fat Down
A good-looking aesthetic body doesn’t carry a lot of fat. Your body fat percentage needs to be low enough for muscle definition to show. Even the most symmetrical, well-proportioned physique looks mediocre when it’s covered in a layer of fat. This is non-negotiable.
One thing that helps burn more calories – besides a clean diet – is training with short rest periods. When training major muscle groups like legs, rest periods shouldn’t exceed 50 seconds. When training minor groups like biceps and triceps, keep rest to 30–40 seconds maximum.
Your rest periods have a direct impact on cardiovascular fitness and calorie burn. When your heart is working harder throughout the session, you burn more body fat – it’s that simple. If you haven’t been training consistently, add a minimum of four cardio sessions of 20–40 minutes per week to keep body fat down while you build the muscle.
Related: HIIT Training for Fat Loss | The 9 Rules of Getting Super Lean
Key #4 – Develop Your V-Taper
Balance, conditioning and symmetry are all important, but your V-taper is what will attract people’s stares. All of the major aesthetic bodybuilders have wide shoulders and thin waists – this is the foundation of any aesthetically developed physique.
You don’t need to melt your waist. You need to broaden your shoulders and build your back. Wide shoulders and a thick, wide back create the visual illusion of a thinner waist even if you haven’t lost an inch off it. Here are the exercises that build a great V-taper – again, drop the weight and raise the reps each set:
- Standing military presses – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Side lateral raises – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Front plate raises – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Seated bent-over rear deltoid raises – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Smith machine shrugs – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Dumbbell shrugs – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Pull-ups – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Wide-grip lat pulldowns – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Seated cable rows – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Bent-over barbell rows – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
Related: How to Get Broad Shoulders: The Complete Guide
Key #5 – Get Your Abs in Check
If you want your body to look anywhere near aesthetically pleasing, you need defined abs. They demonstrate perfect coordination of size, symmetry, conditioning and shape – and they’re the most visible indicator of your overall body fat level.
Train your abs three times per week, at the end of your workout. Keep it quick and purposeful:
- Decline oblique crunches – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Knee or hip raises on parallel bars – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Standing cable wood chops – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
- Ab crunches on the machine – 4 sets of 6, 8, 10 and 12 reps
Four exercises, done right, at the end of every session. That’s all you need. Related: Weighted Ab Exercises for a Stronger, More Defined Core
To Summarize
Use these five keys together – the right weight scheme, symmetry and proportion work, low body fat, a strong V-taper, and developed abs – and with enough dedication you can build an aesthetically pleasing physique that’s impressive from every angle.
Training is important. But your diet will be just as important. You cannot out-train a poor diet when the goal is aesthetic development – definition comes from the kitchen as much as the gym.
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Great article