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In Part I of this article I talked briefly about the very real fact that muscle mass gains slow down dramatically after you’ve been training for a few years and that you’ll eventually need to change your focus from gaining size to creating a more appealing shape if you’re to continue to move forward.

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I mentioned that you’ll need to take a series of photos for an objective assessment of where your strengths and weaknesses lie.  Today, I want to talk about the next steps in physique assessment that will lead to the development in of a program to create your ultimately aesthetically appealing physique.  So let’s get to it.

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Evaluate Your Photos
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Now that you’ve got your photos, the next step in physique is to actually evalate them.  This step is sometimes the hardest as you’ll have to look at your own pictures with an objective eye.  To do this I’d suggest you create the following list on a piece of paper.
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- Upper traps:
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- Front delts:
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- Lateral delts:
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- Rear delts:
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- Biceps:
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- Tricep long head: (Most visible on the underside of the arm in the bicep poses)
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- Tricep lateral head: (Most visible during side tricep poses)
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- Forearms
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- Lower chest:
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- Upper chest
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- Upper back width:
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- Upper back thickness:
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- Lower/Mid back erectors:
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- Abdominals: (Not looking for development here, but amount of leanness.  I don’t believe that exercise will increase abdominal thickness to the point where it matters or makes them look better.)
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- Obliques: (Mostly looking to see if these are overdeveloped and taking away from the waistline.  If there are ”love handles” here you need to adjust your diet not your exercise plan.)
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- Quads:
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- Glutes:
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- Hamstrings:
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- Calves:
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Now go through each photo one at a time and proceed through the list above muscle by muscle for each one.  In some photos you won’t be able to see certain muscles so you don’t need to make a note of this.

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However, in the photos where you can see the muscle, note whether it is lagging, proportional to the rest of your physique, or overdeveloped.
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In the end, you should have a clear picture of what needs to be addressed, what needs to be maintained, and where you can hold back.
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Summarize Your Results
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At this point, I like to create the following two columns to pull everything together so I can make sense of all the comments and notes I made above.

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Physique Strong Points – In this section list all of the muscles that are well developed and need little additional work.  These will be the spots you deprioritize in your training.
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Physique Weak Points – In this section you’ll identify the weakest points from your list above which should tell you where you’ll dedicate most of your efforts.  My goal is usually to identify the top 1-2 in most need of need attention.  These will be the spots you prioritize in your training.

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Special note:  I don’t do physique assessments with novices until the end of their first 3 months (even up to 6 months) of training.  During this time we work out movement limitations and establish the basics of lifting before proceeding to this point.

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During this time it is assumed that everything needs work and that understanding the basic lifts is more important than prioritizing certain muscle groups.  Besides, if you’re a rank novice you should but putting on mass very easily.  If you are not, you’re doing something wrong and you need to READ THIS.

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Calculate Your Ideal Waist Measurement
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I recently picked up a tip from John Barban’s product The Adonis Effect that the ideal waist measurement for males is approximately 45% of your height in inches.

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In other words, a guy who is 5’10 (70 inches) would calculate his ideal waist measurement like this:

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70 X 0.45 = 31.5 inches

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Frankly, I’m not sure if I totally agree that this is an exact number, but I think it serves as a great guide.  Record your height and calculate your ideal waist measurement.  Now measure your waist and write down the actual measurement as well.

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Establish a Priority

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At this point you have all the information you need to start making a decision about your next steps in your physique planning.

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If your waist measurement is more than two inches above the calculated ideal waist measurement you are going on a fat loss plan.  For the most aesthetically appealing physique there is some research to suggest that women find men most attractive when our shoulder circumference is 60% greater than our waist.  And since we know it is easier (or at least faster) for advanced trainees to drop fat than gain muscle, this is your target.

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While this is really worthy of another post I’ll write soon, I did swipe the waist to shoulder ratio idea from The Adonis Effect as well.  If you want to learn more you can scoop up your own copy HERE.

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If your waist is within two inches of the ideal target you can proceed towards tackling the problems above with few changes in your diet, but make sure you keep monitoring your waist at least every two weeks.  If it breaks from the two inch window of ideal, you need to reel it in.

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Now that you’ve done that…you’re ready to create your training program.

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I’ll be back Friday with Part III including some suggestions for how to bring up the lagging groups you’ve identified and how to program differently based on whether you’re in a fat loss or muscle accumulation (I prefer this term to “bulking”) phase.

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PS:  Don’t forget to share this if you’ve found it useful.  Thanks!

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Note – Part 3 can now be found HERE.

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If you’re reading this site you probably already know that your body weight can be divided into lean (mostly muscle) mass and fat mass.  This is known as your body composition.

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You’re also probably well aware that the body’s ability to store fat is virtually without limits as evidenced by the number of people who are able to achieve body weights as high as 800, 900, or even 1000 pounds.  However, what you’re probably not aware of (or at least willing to admit to yourself) is that the amount of muscle mass than can be added to your frame is defined within a tight set of limits set by your genetics.

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The good news is that during the first couple years of training you can easily expect to make great strides towards this number.  Some people can gain 20 or even 30 pounds of lean mass over this time.  But as the years go by you’ll find yourself gaining less and less muscle mass as you gradually approach your genetic ceiling.

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Granted, there are great exercise programs, nutrition plans, and maybe some supplements that can help stave off the inevitable, but eventually you’ll be gaining muscle at a snail’s pace and hitting the gym can be increasingly frustrating.

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Now Don’t Get Me Wrong
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It is possible to get bigger.  You could always eat more.  But it will probably be fat and you’ll look like shit.  Or you could use copious amounts of drugs so you can reach your ultimate level of hugeness.  After all, who doesn’t want to turn into one of the monsters that grace the covers of most newsstand bodybuilding magazines?  You know – the ones all of the women you know are fawning over.  (Note the obvious sarcasm)

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A New Perspective
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In the end, you need to face the reality that muscle mass is limited and that continued pursuit of this goal is going to leave you disappointed.  On the other hand, you can take solace in the fact that being at this point in your lifting career means you have done something right.  You’ve gained most of the muscle mass you’re probably ever going to get.  Nice work!
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Now you’re left with an incredible opportunity to maximize your potential by focusing more on your body shape than your size.  In fact, you’ll be happy to note that you don’t need to add more size because most women really aren’t attracted to muscle bound freaks in the first place.  What they are attracted to is a well-muscled, aesthetically pleasing physique.
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Hell…half of the time you don’t even have to be big at all.  Next time you’re watching TV take a look at the guys your girlfriend, wife, of BFF is drooling over.  It all comes down to having the right proportions and creating a physique that is pleasing to the eye.  It is as simple as that.

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Assess Your Physique
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Creating an aesthetically pleasing physique is just as methodical as any training program you’ve ever created.  Just like you’d get a baseline for your big 3 when creating a strength program or evaluate your tight or stiff muscles before creating a corrective exercise program, you need to assess your physique to determine your course of action for your body reshaping program.  Over the next few posts I’ll cover and outline of how to do just that using the exact method I use with my own clients.

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Get Some Photos

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The first step in a physique assessment is obtaining photos from which you can make an objective decision about what needs work and what doesn’t.  These will also serve as markers of progress so you can determine if your plan of action is working.  I suggest taking full length photos wearing only a pair of shorts so you can do a complete evaluation of your physique.  Ask your girlfriend, wife, or random homeless guy to take a total of 9 photos of you in the following poses.

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Front Double Bicep
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Start with feet hip width apart with the knees slightly bent, and pretend that you are pulling the floor apart with your feet to engage your quads.  Raise your arms to shoulder height and flex the elbow to contract the bicep. Make sure your chest is tall and shoulder blades are flared out. When flexing the arm, make sure you rotate the palm inward as though you’re trying to touch your baby finger to your ear. Also, tuck the thumb inside your palms when showing us your guns!
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Back Double Bicep
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Take a small step back with your dominant leg and making sure to be on the toe of the back leg so that you can see your calf development.  With a slight bend in both knees, thrust your hips forward and contract the glutes and hamstrings.

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For the upper body, perform almost the same movement for the upper body as the front double bicep pose.   The only difference is that you’ll pull the elbows back to get a stronger contraction in all of your back muscles.  However, it is important that you do not simply pinch your shoulder blades together.  Instead, you want to flare them away from each other and then drive the elbows back.
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Front Lat Spread
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This one is tricky and takes practice..LOTS of practice.
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Start with feet hip width apart with the knees slightly bent, and pretend that you are pulling the floor apart with your feet to engage your quads.  For the upper body, begin with your fists punched into your sides between your ribcage and pelvis. As you begin to add pressure into your sides, push your shoulder blades away from each other.
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At this point your shoulder blades are flared but your shoulders are rolled forward. Simply, puff your chest up as if I really hot woman was about to walk by (yeah…we know you do this). When doing so make sure the lats are flared out still and the shoulders are not shrugged up towards your ears.  Now, flex your arms while holding this pose to really maximize your shoulder/lat/arm ratio.
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See…I told you.  Tricky. 
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Rear Lat Spread
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Take a small step back with your dominant leg and making sure to be on the toe of the back leg so that you can see your calf development.  With a slight bend in both knees, thrust your hips forward and contract the glutes and hamstrings. 
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For the upper body, perform the same movement for the rear lat spread as you would for the front lat spread with some minor changes.  Instead of drawing your fists into your sides, use your thumbs. Holding a fist with both hands, take your thumbs and stick them into the back of the love handles.  As you begin to flare the shoulders out, slide your thumbs forward and into your sides.
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Once you are in full lat spread, instead of puffing the chest up just remain tight and flared and lean back slightly. This will activate your erectors and show your back thickness. 
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Side Chest
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Place the ball of the left foot (the foot closest to the camera) in the middle of the right (rear) foot.  Keeping both knees slightly bent, flex your left calf and make sure the hamstring is being pushed out by the right leg.
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Now place your right hand on the wrist of the left hand.  Begin by pulling your left shoulder blade back as though you are performing a row. While you are pulling the shoulder back, rotate your upper body slightly so your shoulders are almost square with the camera. Make sure to add pressure to the left wrist so you are flexing your bicep.  To show chest development on the right side, squeeze your chest over and keep your right arm tight to your body.
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Repeat on the other side.
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Side Tricep

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Place the ball of the left foot (the foot closest to the camera) in the middle of the right (rear) foot.  Keeping both knees slightly bent, flex your left calf and make sure the hamstring is being push out by the right leg.
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Place your fingertips together behind your back.  Make sure the hand/fingers of the left hand (closest to the camera) are facing up and the other hand’s fingers are facing down.  Lock the left elbow out to flex the tricep. To really show your tricep and shoulder musculature, try pulling your fingers together.
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Repeat on the other side.
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Abdominals & Thigh
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Start by having your feet hip width apart. Place your dominant leg slightly out in front with your toes pushed into the ground.  Slightly turn your foot out in this pose to show more of your inner calf development. To really make this pose “click”, slightly bend both knees and spread the floor with both legs. It is a bit difficult to do with the foot out front but if you can stick it, you will show off the full quadricep.
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Close both hands into fists and place them behind your head.  Take a breath in and as you release your breath squeeze your abs as hard as you can.  At the same time, flex your biceps and push your hands into your head.  When breathing out, made sure not to sink your chest and end up like the hunchback of Notre Dame.
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A Final Note on Photos and Posing

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In bodybuilding these compulsory poses (or mandatory poses as they are sometimes called) might primarily be used to showcase our strongest body parts.  However, you are also taking them to capture your weaknesses.  As such, make sure you take all of the photos not only those that make you look your best.
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Of course, since we’re not trying to hide imperfections or delude ourselves into thinking progress is greater than it really is, I’d urge you not to use the common “before and after” tactics like leaving your chest hairy or forgetting to shave in the “before” photos or tanning for the “after” photos.  The key here is to assess your physique as it is and to measure real improvements so that you can adjust your plan accordingly.
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And that’s it for today.  I’ll be back on Wednesday to discuss how to use those photos for an objective physique assessment and later this week I’ll talk about how to program your training once you’ve done this.

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PS: I’d like to say a HUGE thanks to my good friend Eric Daye for posing for these photos and contributing the excellent posing descriptions.  You can check out his site at www.TruBodyFitness.com.

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PPS:  This is a lengthy series and it took a lot of work.  If you find it useful, please share it with others.

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Note – Part 2 can now be found HERE and Part 3 can be found HERE.

Let’s face facts for a second here.  The vast majority of people that lift weights do so for primarily aesthetic reasons.  Sure, many of us want to be stronger, faster, and healthier.  And there are certainly those who train exclusively to improve their sports performance, but in the end I’d be willing to bet that training to simply look better is the single biggest motivation for the average trainee.

So why do many strength coaches crap all over bodybuilding?  I could speculate that it has something to do with the rampant steroid use among high level competitors or the fact that some of them have more oil in their muscles than I do in my car.  Or it could be the mental image of a bunch of oiled up, tanned, men and women posing on a stage in their bathing suits.  I can’t really say for sure.

But what about people who aren’t interested in competing?  What about those who are purely interested in gaining the leanest, most muscular physique possible within their own biomechanical and physiologial framework while keeping an eye on structural balance and joint health?  Is bodybuilding training really so bad for the body that we need to crap all over their methods?

I guess the question I’m really asking is whether it is possible to create a lean and exceptionally muscular physique without sacrificing structural balance and joint health.

And in line with that question, is there room for exercises that are deemed my many coaches as unfriendly for the joints (such as the guillotine bench press) or useless (direct arm training)?

As with everything, I think it comes down to assessment.  If you’ve read my blog you’re probably aware that I am a big fan of movement based testing with such as Assess and Correct, but beyond that I feel that it is really important to use the appropriate assessments to inform your decisions for each individual goal.

For dealing with obesity I use the Edmonton Obesity Staging System, for performance I look at the demands of the sport, and when training for aesthetics I like to do a true visual assessment to direct training.  I should note here that I don’t care much for body fat testing in leaner individuals as this is less important than the physical appearance changes.  I could care less what the number says if a client’s appearance doesn’t reflect it.

Here is a sample of a simple client assessment I use for evaluating a physique in which I can comment on muscle size or relative proportion:

- Upper traps:
- Front delts:
- Lateral delts:
- Rear delts:
- Biceps:
- Tricep long head:
- Tricep lateral head:
- Forearms
- Lower chest:
- Upper chest
- Upper back width:
- Upper back thickness:
- Lower/Mid back erectors:
- Abdominals:
- Obliques:
- Quads:
- Glutes:
- Hamstrings:
- Calves:
 
Highlights:
 
Needs Work:

General Impression & Plan:

Combining this with the movement based screen I should now know what muscles need to be worked (yes, I sometimes work muscles not movements…I know…blasphemy) and which movements should be contraindicated for that person.  If arm training is warranted, I’ll do arm training because I’m not in the business of sticking to a “training arms is for wussies” paradigm because it is popular.  I’m in the business of getting results.

Would I use the guillotine bench press, sissy squats, or upright rows?  Probably not.  But this is primarily because these are not the most effective movements in the first place and I can find exercises to hit the same muscle groups with less risk.

Are joint health and building a muscular physique mutually exclusive?  I would have to say no.  Do you agree?  Feel free to share your thoughts below!

And thanks to my blog reader Rob for putting the idea for this post in my head.  I hope I answered your question.