The Perfect Male Body is X-Shaped

The Perfect Male Body is X-Shaped

When it comes to being physically attractive to the opposite sex, it’s important to understand that certain body dimensions are visually important, from an evolutionary perspective.

Our progenitors credited desirable traits like strength, productivity, and virility to corresponding physical attributes. While societal ‘needs’ may have changed in a way that no longer makes it ‘necessary’ to have the characteristics to succeed, to a certain extent we carry our ancestors tastes.

This means that physical traits which imply the presence of “mating qualifiers” are important for increasing your stock with the ladies.

To that end, an X-shaped physique means: broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and strong, well-developed calves.

For broad shoulders, focus on core movements that allow for maximal recruitment, such as the push press, as well as some isolation exercises to focus on the medial delts and increases width, such as lateral raises. On the other hand, you can make it easy on yourself, and just do this 15-minute shoulder workout I posted, or this slightly longer one.

A narrow waist is primarily the result of a low level of body fat, obviously. However, it is important to understand that the muscles around your waist respond to weight training in much the same way that all other muscles do: by growing! So while I don’t ever advise avoiding certain exercises completely, I offer the caveat that one should avoid training rotational exercises with either heavy weight or high volume.

Strong, well-developed calves are not easy to come by. Calves are a notoriously stubborn body part to grow, so I recommend training them multiple times per week. Work your calves first in your training session, not last.

Impressive calves: necessary for the ideal male body.

You should also consider why calves are so stubborn, and how this (should) factor into your training. Calves don’t grow, simply, because they’re hard to overload.

This is because your Achilles tendon acts like a rubber band, transferring energy during the lowering and lifting phases of calf exercises, so your muscles do less work.

Try this, beginning with the standing calf raise, pictured right.

I suggest you pause for 5 seconds at the bottom of each rep and 3 seconds at the top, at the minimum; this limits assistance from your Achilles, so you can overload your calves for rapid growth. 

Want to kick it up a notch? We’ve got you covered. Check out this article, which completely outlines an 8-week calf training program.

By focusing on these muscles and building a physique more in line with what our ancestors considered desirable (and let’s be honest, we still do), you are on the road to an ideal male body.