After posting the above video on Youtube, I received one of the most awesome comments, ever! Pretty much summarizes kinobody up to the tee. Here it is:
“There is a popular question being asked lately of fitness competitors and bodybuilders that goes: You’ve got a great looking body, but what can you do with it??? The sad thing is, most could only honestly say, ‘I can pick things up and put them down.’
I think this is where your kind of training regimen breaks away from the stereotypical to produce, not only a beautiful physique from head to toe, but a much more FUNCTIONAL body! I think, Greg, your answer to that popular question would be… “I can do most anything you can do, plus a whole lot more!”
And Greg, while I’m in the process of kissing your ass (and that’s OK, because you are totally deserving of it!), I would also say…when looking at the hugely muscular guys in BB competitions and the incredibly shredded ripped up bodies of fitness competitors, your body, Greg, stands off somewhere outside of those extremes, somewhere in the midst of all that, but more of a middle ground area.
To me, that is the best place to be…it’s undoubtedly healthier and more aesthetically correct, and Yes – more visually pleasing!”
Building a Good Looking Physique
Kinobody is about cracking the code to an incredibly good looking and athletic physique. There comes a point when you are ‘lean enough’ and your muscles are ‘big enough’. After that point, trying to gain more mass or achieve greater definition brings little to no return on your investment.
In fact, it is precisely at this point when trying to build more muscle or get to a lower body fat becomes increasingly more difficult as the law of diminishing returns sets in. Building a downright good looking physique is not about going to the extreme.
In fact, achieving such a ridiculous level of physique development is counter productive for the purposes of looking good and building an awesome lifestyle that doesn’t revolve around diet and training.
Interestingly enough, once you stop trying to achieve perfection and allow yourself to be human, getting to your goals will become easier than ever before. It’s paradoxical, but when I was no longer consumed with being 6% body fat or as jacked as possible, I began to make forward progress with much less struggle.
Hollywood Actors as Fitness Role Models
I like to use hollywood actors as fitness role models because they ‘get it’. They lean down just enough to have the perfect amount of definition.
They don’t try to become ripped to shreds and they don’t try to achieve the vascular look where veins are scattered across their body. This looks unnatural and freakish.
Hollywood actors also focus on building just enough mass without looking overdone and cheesy. They pack some high quality muscle onto their frames and focus on proportion over mass to maximize aesthetics and sex appeal.
This also affords Hollywood actors the ability to look effortlessly stylish in nice clothes and outfits. The ‘Hollywood’ level of physique development is really where you maximize physical attraction.
Look at Daniel Craig in Skyfall and Ryan Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love. Both these actors were in awesome shape.
Sure these actors could have been more ripped and they also could have been more muscular for their roles. But for what purpose? Most women would have already rated these guys a 10 out of 10 in the physique department. Getting any bigger or more ripped would given them nothing else at that point. The next step would be to focus on the lifestyle and social component of fitness.
Learning how to enjoy yourself and lead a rewarding and balanced life that supports your health and fitness is just as important, if not more important than seeking more muscle and a lower body fat percentage. This is something that I will be covering more in a future article and a topic that is fleshed out extensively in the Superhero Bulking Program.
*Your results may vary. Testimonials and examples used are exceptional results and are not intended to guarantee, promise, represent and/or assure that anyone will achieve the same or similar results.
This Is A Matter of Proportion
When the goal is to build the ‘kinobody’ physique, it’s crucial not to let any muscle get out of proportion. Keeping everything balanced is the key to great aesthetics and an overall good looking physique that women love. A few mistakes I see people make:
1.) Performing way too much volume on legs
The legs have a huge capacity to gain mass. If you’re not careful you can very easily overpower your upperbody with tree trunks. Having bulky legs is not a sexy look.
I recommend keeping volume on legs relatively low to promote strength and power while minimizing excess mass.
2.) Training traps directly
The traps do not need to be trained directly. Just by hitting your back and shoulders, you will develop nice and proportionate traps. As soon as you start hitting the traps directly, they will start to over power your physique.
You’ll start to get that cheesy wrestler look. Not to mention, building up the traps will make your shoulders appear less broad. The appearance of wide shoulders is one of the key signs of a great physique.
3.) Emphasizing too much flat and decline presses
To build an awesome chest, it’s important to avoid overdeveloping the lower pecs.
You want to strive for equal thickness from the top to bottom of your chest. This creates a masculine, plate armour look. This requires a greater focus on incline presses over flat bench and the absence of any decline work.
4.) Overdoing the lats
Building great lats is vitally important for developing the coveted ‘v shape’. That said, it’s very possible that overtime you can overdevelop your lats and start to create a ‘bodybuilder’ look.
Focus on building up enough back width with heavy chin ups and pull ups, then focus on maintaining this key size.You don’t want flared out lats, it looks ridiculous and it makes it impossible to find good fitting jackets.
Once you do start adding weight, make sure you’re using a high-quality weight belt that can support the weight without causing distraction and discomfort.
5.) Skimping on shoulders
Shoulders are the muscle group I encourage you to give the greatest priority to. Unfortunately, this is rare to see.
Most lifters are obsessed with the big three – benches, squats and deadlifts. Consequently, shoulder training becomes nothing more than an after thought.
There’s nothing that looks better on a physique than well developed rounded deltoids. It exudes masculinity, power and testosterone.
Guys need to focus more on overhead presses and high rep lateral raises and less time pumping up their chest. If you aren’t getting compliments on your shoulders, it’s time you step up your shoulder game.
Achieving Fitness Mastery
From the video above, you’ll notice that I have trained my body to become highly fit, powerful and athletic.
To achieve this level of fitness, I don’t train everyday. Instead, I perform just 3 hard hitting workouts each week. This is the art of minimalism and once you embrace it and hone your training down to the essential, you will be blown away at how fast your improve.
Most of this ‘functionality’ and ‘athleticism’ comes down to building a high level of relative strength, which is your strength to bodyweight ratio. To maximize relative strength it’s essential that you keep body fat to a minimum.
I utilize nutrition and fasting to promote a lean physique while focusing on proper training to maximize strength gains and support muscle mass. This double combo is ridiculously effective at increasing relative strength and building a great looking body.
With great relative strength comes unbelievable athleticism. This is because relative strength is the foundation of everything. Power, speed, endurance…. You name it! If you have a strong strength to weight ratio you can jump high, sprint fast, lift heavy and endure sustained effort.
Relative Strength the Foundation of Functionality
It might sound crazy that improving your relative strength can also boost power and endurance but stay with me, okay?! We’ll use a concrete example to let this sink in.
Let’s say I build you up to 100 lbs weighted chin ups for 5 reps at a lean bodyweight of around 180 lbs (Note: You MUST use the right belt to lift this much weight).
That’s a very high level of relative strength. How easy do you think bodyweight chin ups are going to be now? 20 reps will turn into a walk in the park.
So just by building a solid strength to weight ratio, you can’t help but develop solid endurance.
Moreover, your pulling power is going to be nothing short of scary. With all that chinning strength, muscle ups will become elementary. When you take off the 100 lbs of plates, you’ll be able to launch yourself over the pull up bar as if gravity is some abstraction.
By focusing predominately on relative strength you develop well rounded fitness capabilities. The reason people stall in their athletic development is because they focus on way too much. They want to improve max strength, strength endurance and explosive strength so they try to fit in the time to train each skill independently.
Little do they realize, the fastest route to improving at all three is to focus on getting stronger while staying lean, that is it. This approach will provide the biggest bang for your buck. With every improvement in relative strength, comes an increase in power, endurance and of course, aesthetics.
Another Option: The Lost Art of Bodyweight Training
If you’ve been watching my fitness videos for some time, you’ll notice that I perform a variety of very challenging bodyweight movements ranging from front levers, pistol squat jumps, one arm push ups, full range handstand push ups and stand to stand bridges.
Bodyweight movements are an incredible way to develop a highly fit, athletic and balanced physique. They challenge you in ways that pure weight training exercises do not. They also give you the ability to get a workout in wherever you are. This is an important component of maintaining a great physique for life.
Not to mention, bodyweight movements are a direct test of your relative strength capabilities. This is due to the fact that you’re working with your own bodyweight, not an external weight.
If you ever looked at the bodies of gymnasts and wondered why they look so damn good! Well it’s because gymnasts have some of the best strength to weight ratio’s of any athlete. And it’s no wonder why they make such well rounded athletes.
Bodyweight training is an exceptional tool! That said, most people do not know how to utilize bodyweight training for the purposes of building a great physique and incredible strength. Most ‘fitness experts’ focus on way too many different bodyweight exercises and perform way too many reps and sets.
Bodyweight Training Kinobody Style
The best way to go about bodyweight training is to focus on getting stronger at a handful of super effective movements. The goal is to work up to the most advanced movements in a realistic and sensible fashion.
I haven’t developed a bodyweight training course because it’s impossible to teach people how to progress with bodyweight exercises in a written manual. Thankfully, I decided to do a video course on bodyweight training.
This allows me the ability to showcase exactly how to perform the various exercise progressions to lead you up to the most advanced bodyweight movements. These progressions maintain the integrity of my training philosophy, which is to train for strength and get ridiculously strong on key movements that support a well developed physique.
Concluding Thoughts
I’ve used my ‘selfie’ picture allotment up so thought I would post a babe, but I digress.
Now that you know what goes into building a good looking physique, you can begin aligning your training, nutrition and outlook to support a great body and lifestyle!
Your Kino Question For The Day: How has the article helped you with developing a good looking, athletic physique? Let me know in the comments below.
