If you want the “Godlike” type of male physique, then you want to master these three simple exercises and use these three affordable, science-backed supplements …
These days, thanks to the glut of poor workout advice and hulking, freakish bodybuilders, it almost seems like the art of building a killer physique has been long forgotten.
Many people think building this godlike body requires fancy, magical workout routines, grueling soreness and pain, 5,000 calories spread across nine daily meals, and a laundry list of snake oil supplements.
The reality is they’ve missed the forest for the trees and are lost in the minutiae of protein timing, supplementation and fancy workout routines and tactics, failing to realize that none of it will solve the riddle of why they’re not making the progress they should be.
The truth is that the most powerful driver of total body muscle growth is total body strength. And the reason you haven’t built the physique you want, is probably because, well, you’re weak.
Don’t hate me yet — I’m a loving tyrant — but one look around a commercial gym tells me that these days, most of us don’t even know what strong is anymore.
Well, I’m here to set the record straight and outline what real total-body strength looks like, the exercises that build it and why they’re the key to building an awesome male physique.
What is Strong, Anyway?
It’s hard to define what solid strength is when most people in the gym are following routines designed to make them weak.
Moreover, those who are strong tend to have absolute strength, which doesn’t take into account their body weight. That is, they can lift plenty of weight, but when when you factor in their body mass, their gains are far from impressive.
Real strength is how much you can lift, proportionate to your bodyweight. This is known as relative strength.
By focusing on building relative strength, you’re forced to become efficient in your workouts and in building your physique. You have to strip off any excess body fat and build serious, dense and powerful muscle without turning into an amorphous blob.
A great example of individuals with high amounts of relative strength are professional gymnasts. And look at their physiques — absolutely unbelievable!
Gymnasts have to develop incredible relative strength to maneuver their bodies the way they do, and we can see how effective it is for building impressive amounts of muscle and definition.
Fortunately, though, you don’t need elite genetics, and you don’t have to spend a decade on the rings and pommel horse to follow in their physical footsteps.
Instead, you can utilize the effectiveness of weightlifting to focus on building relative strength and get very, very strong while also maintaining low levels of body fat. You’ll build the type of body that sends tongues wagging.
The Fastest, Most Effective Way to Build Muscle Is to Build Strength
Every day I hear from dozens of guys complaining that they simply can’t build muscle no matter what they do in the gym or how many calories they eat. And the most common problem areas are the chest, shoulders and arms.
My answer is almost always the same: If you want to get bigger, you need to get stronger.
I’ve never seen a guy repping out 120-pound dumbbells on the incline bench and then complaining that his chest doesn’t grow. Nor have I seen a guy doing weighted pull-ups with a couple of plates dangling off the belt that didn’t have a world class back.
Your shoulders won’t grow? Work up to your bodyweight on the standing overhead press for 6-8 reps, and I guarantee you’ll have a serious case of capped delts.
The message here is simple: Your muscles need a good reason to be well developed, dense and powerful. So give them one!
Doing 200 reps every workout is not a good enough reason. Work your way up to “godlike” strength and get under 10 percent body fat and, lo and behold, you’ll also be rocking a godlike physique. I guarantee it.
I’m talking about the type of strength that makes the juiced-up bodybuilders want to know how the hell you got so strong. The type of strength that makes you physically capable to handle just about any situation you might find yourself in.
So that’s the goal. Let’s learn how to get there.
The Key Exercises for Building a Godlike Male Physique
When we boil it down, a truly great physique requires three things: a V-shaped back, round powerful shoulders and a well-developed chest that emphasizes upper-chest development.
What about the legs, you ask?
Well, building muscle and adding muscle to the lower body is much, much easier than the upper body. Your legs are the largest muscle group in your body, and they respond very quickly to exercises like heavy squatting and deadlifting.
In fact, many guys are at risk of adding too much size to their lower body to the point where it detracts from their physiques.
There’s a point where the legs just get too big — jeans of any cut no longer fit, your thighs are constantly rubbing together and your quads are starting to look like tree trunks. Too much mass in your legs and butt just draws people’s attention downward and skews your upper-body ratios.
You often see this in guys following weightlifting programs that emphasize the lower body with several sessions of lower body work per week.
Now, I’m not saying you should neglect your leg training, but you’re going to build sleek, proportionate and powerful legs doing a simple legs workout built around heavy squatting far quicker than you’re going to achieve the awe-inspiring upper body that you want.
This is why, when building an awesome physique is your number one goal, you can get away with focusing on the legs a little less than your upper body training. So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the three upper body exercises that really get the job done.
Weighted Pull-up and Chin-up
It’s no secret that, in men, the shoulder-to-waist ratio is a fundamental, almost primal agent of attraction.
Well, the key to developing a great shoulder-to-waist ratio is developing your lats, and I know of no better way to do this than weighted pull-ups and chin-ups.
These simple movements are almost mystical in their ability to build strong, muscular backs and biceps. At this point, I’ve actually had to drop my back work down to one set per week because any more back development and I’ll have to get all my clothes custom made.
Whenever someone complains to me that they can’t grow their back, I ask them how many chin-ups they can do with 100 pounds hanging from their waist. They usually just stare at me like I’d asked how many people they’ve killed.
Weighted pull-ups and chin-ups do more than just build a back — they also build downright freakish pulling strength. This is why chin-ups and pull-ups are a favorite among wrestlers, martial artists and military professionals.
Notice I keep saying weighted chin-ups. That’s key. You’ll have to learn to embrace the heavy. When you get to the point where you can do triple digit weighted chin-ups (100+ pounds), you’ll be able to throw people around like rag dolls.
In fact, when I was training heavily in Brazilian Jujitsu, I often had to fight guys far more skilled and technically savvy than me. Because I had so much pulling strength, they simply couldn’t tap me out. I had enough technique and intuition to avoid the inescapable locks and I could simply overpower them. This is why many mixed martial arts fighters focus so heavily on building raw strength. It makes that much of a difference.
The bottom line: If I were to choose just one exercise to get really strong at, weighted chin-ups would be it.
Incline Barbell Press
The incline press develops a masculine, square-like chest. If you want the type of pecs that look like armor plates, then you want to get strong on your incline press: end of story.
This great little exercise also does a beautiful job filling in the muscle at the top of your chest (the “upper chest”), which prevents the “bottom-heavy” pec and creates the line down the center of your chest that just looks fantastic.
Yet another benefit of the incline press is it tends to be easier on the rotator cuff, which can become the bane of guys that only focus on getting strong on the flat bench.
This is probably because whether you’re pushing someone away, pushing a car or throwing a punch, your arms usually project slightly upward. Real-world pressing usually occurs at a slightly upward angle.
Overhead Press
My go-to shoulder press movement is the barbell standing press because it requires you to have both powerful shoulders and triceps and a rock solid core and incredible stability.
This exercise was a favorite among the old-school weightlifters who were notorious for extremely strong, balanced and proportionate physiques. The overhead press is still considered one of the best tests of a man’s overall strength.
The overhead press can be tricky at first. You need to get used to keeping your elbows locked in (resisting the urge to flare them outward), and you need to learn to create a stable base to press off of by keeping your heels close together and bracing your butt and abs hard — but once you get the technique, you can use it to get very, very strong.
Moreover, standing presses build a type of real-world strength that you just don’t want to mess with. The ability to maintain solid balance and stability while generating large amounts of upward force is a big part of “superhuman” athleticism and functionality.
Make no mistake, though — the standing press is the deadlift of upper body exercises. It delivers fantastic results in the way of shoulder growth, but it’s brutally hard.
The Type of Strength That Builds an Awesome Physique
If you want to build a godlike male physique, you will need to get strong with the three movements outlined above.
If you learn these lifts and supplemented with enough leg work to maintain your proportions, you’ll wind up with the perfect amount of muscle for your stature. Combine that with 6-10 percent body fat (16-20 percent for women) and congratulations: You now look like a Greek god.
Staying lean isn’t just for looking good. Because relative strength means that the more you weigh, the more you have to be able to lift. As fat doesn’t have a direct impact on strength, too much of it just holds you back.
The bottom line: High amounts of relative strength also implies a great body composition and a great physique with lots of muscle and not much fat.
If you don’t know how to reach single-digit body fat percentages, don’t worry – it’s no more complicated than the training principles I’ve outlining here. And you can even do it while building strength.
So, let’s get to the strength goals to shoot for. If you build up to the godlike level on all three movements and get lean, you’re going to look incredible and have more strength and power than you’ll know what to do with.
Weighted Chin-up
Good – 45 percent of body weight attached for 5 reps
Great – 60 percent of body weight attached for 5 reps
Godlike – 75 percent of body weight attached for 5 reps
Incline Barbell Bench Press
Good – 115 percent of body weight for 5 reps
Great – 130 percent of body weight for 5 reps
Godlike – 145 percent of body weight for 5 reps
Standing Barbell Press
Good – 80 percent of body weight for 6 reps
Great – 90 percent of body weight for 6 reps
Godlike – 100 percent of body weight for 6 reps
If you’re a little flabbergasted, I understand. Those are some serious milestones.
But take heart — with enough work and time, anybody can achieve these benchmarks naturally (some creatine doesn’t hurt, either).
As a matter of fact, I’ve surpassed each of those myself and have helped countless people do the same. Whether it was my personal coaching clients or people following my Greek God Program, it can be done.
Two Simple Workouts That Build the Ultimate Male Physique
What would an article like this be without a workout routine to follow?
Well, I want to share the exact routine I’ve used to build freakish strength and what many people say is an incredible physique. It’s low volume and heavy in nature, but combine it with a proper diet plan and don’t be surprised if you set personal records week after week.
Not only that, but as you start adding 20, 30, 40+ pounds onto your key movements, your physique will fill out beautifully. You’ll hardly believe the results that such a simple and minimalist routine can provide.
I don’t have enough words to explain the entire reasoning behind every aspect of this workout, but there is a method to the madness.
What you’ll notice is that each workout is being performed every 4-5 days, which gives your muscles and the local neurons that fire those muscles enough time to recover.
While some people can get away with a higher training frequency than others, many will find that training everything 2-3 times per week simply leads to overtraining and, ultimately, regression.
By hitting key movements every 4-5 days, you can maximize strength and muscle gains.
Another unique aspect of the workouts is the reverse pyramid setup, which has you perform your heaviest set first, followed by progressively lighter sets. This will allow you to lift considerably heavier weights than a traditional pyramid structure.
Lifting your heavy weights first can also enable your body to recruit more muscle fibers on the subsequent sets, meaning you’ll be able to lift more weight for the higher rep ranges, which is key for maximizing their potential for hypertrophy.
One other “fancy” aspect to this otherwise KISS style of training is a “rest pause set,” which is one where I want you to do 12-15 reps followed by four mini sets of 3-5 reps with the same weight, with 10-15 seconds rest between sets.
Alright then … to the workouts!
Workout A
Incline Barbell Bench Press: Three sets of Reverse Pyramid Training (RPT) (4-6, 6-8, 8-10)
Standing Barbell Press: Three sets of RPT (4-6, 6-8, 8-10)
Skull Crushers: Three sets of RPT (6-8, 8-10, 10-12)
Lateral Raises: Rest Pause Style
Workout B
Weighted Pull-ups or Chin-ups: Three sets of RPT (4, 5, 6)
Incline Dumbbell Curls: Three sets of RPT (4-6, 6-8, 8-10)
Sumo Deadlifts or Power Cleans: Two sets of RPT (3, 4)
Bulgarian Split Squats: Two sets of RPT (6-8, 8-10)
Workout Notes
Train three days per week, on non-consecutive days, alternating between Workout A and Workout B, like this:
Monday: Workout A
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Workout B
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Workout A
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Then, the next week, do workout B twice and A once.
Rest a full three minutes in between sets.
When you hit the top end of the rep range for all three sets, increase the weight on all three sets the following workout, which will bring you to the bottom of the range.
Micro-load your weighted pull-ups or chin-ups by adding 2.5 pounds to the belt each workout. When doing this causes you to start losing reps, stay with your weight, switch the grip from pull-ups to chin-ups or vice versa, and work up to the top of your rep ranges.
Some Final Advice For Your Physique-Building Adventure
Record your weight, body fat percentage, and numbers on each lift each and every week, and if your weight and strength are going up, you’re building muscle. Depending on what you’re doing with your diet, you can expect to gain some body fat along the way, but I recommend you keep it to a minimum.
Remember that there’s no reason to eat like a horse and get sloppy fat on a muscle-building program. You can gain strength and muscle at, or slightly above, your total daily energy expenditure. Structuring your regimen this way keeps you lean.
You also need to know that adding 15-20 pounds or more of muscle is a slow process, even when you’re doing everything right. The most a rookie weightlifter can hope for is a couple of pounds of muscle per month. The more experienced the weightlifter, the smaller this number gets.
So don’t get too obsessive about your weight on the scale or reflection in the mirror. It takes a few years to go from “normal” to “godlike,” but don’t despair because once you’re there, it’s easy to maintain for the rest of your life.
Just focus on building that relative strength and on slowly increasing your body weight while keeping your body fat levels low. You’ll not only kick major ass, you’ll also save tons of time and effort that would have otherwise been wasted on ineffective workouts and diets
Top Three Affordable and Research-Backed Supplements To Build Your “Godlike” Physique
Along with the training exercises outlined above (that I utilize in all of the Kinobody programs), I highly recommend a few high-quality supplement ingredients for those of you who really intend on taking your training to the next level.
These are not for everyone. They will be specifically helpful to those of you who want to speed up your results in the gym naturally while gaining muscle in the right areas through improving your PRs week-after-week on the proper lifts.
These supplement ingredients will not solve all of your problems without the right lifting routine, but when combined with the right regimen, like the Warrior Shredding Program or Greek God Program, using these supplements can massively improve your results in just a fraction of the time.
1.) Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine monohydrate is one of the most studied natural supplements on Earth — with over 88 peer-reviewed research studies citing its benefits for muscle building, testosterone production, ATP production, increased lean body mass, improvements in power output and more. In peer-reviewed one meta-analysis, researchers have shown a minimum of a 60 percent increase in strength with simple creatine supplementation over the control group.
2.) L-Carnitine and L-Tartrate
Carnitine is a compound that our bodies naturally synthesize from the amino acids lysine and methionine. Carnitine works by shuttling fatty acids into the mitochondria of the cells to be used as energy. During this process, it also helps to give energy to androgen receptors in those same cells.
In a study where healthy men were given 2g/day of L-Carnitine and L-Tartrate for 3-weeks, the researchers noted that their muscle androgen receptor content (measure from actual biopsies) had increased significantly. Later on the same researchers found that when the same dosage is used with men who do resistance training, the increase in androgen receptor density is even higher than of the subjects who consume it without working out.
3.) Choline Bitartrate
Did you know that choline methylates (gets rid of) estrogen? By design your estrogen molecules are all missing one methyl group, and this means that your liver can’t chelate them out of the body. In other words, they’re stuck inside of you. By supplementing with choline, you are allowing your body to flush out estrogen you do not need.
Ninety-two percent of the Western population is deficient in choline. Side effects of low levels of choline include difficulty focusing, low levels of energy and brain fog.
Deficiency in choline is no joke, and it can lead to increased threat of a condition known as fatty liver, which results from slowed metabolizing of fat and increased accumulation of lipids in the liver.
I used to take all of these things separately, however it became tiresome to always order them at different times (when one or the other would run out), and it tasted nasty to take all of these supplements in their pure powdered forms (they’re either super bitter or super sour tasting).
So when I started working with my team to develop our own supplement formulas, Kino Gains was one of the first supplements we decided to formulate.
Kino Gains contains all three of these ingredients in their proper clinical dosages, along with zinc — a proven testosterone boosting mineral — and an incredibly tasty Kino Colada flavor, which makes it very easy to drink.
If you want to speed up your results in the gym by using these ingredients in a tasty, affordable solution, then I recommend learning more about Kino Gains. We also offer a money-back guarantee for 60 days; so there’s no risk if you don’t end up liking it.