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 my upcoming Superhero Bulking Course.
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.
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.
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.
In the next post we will take about cracking the code to an athletic physique! We will also cover the art of bodyweight training, a key tool in my arsenal. Finally, the third and final post of the Cracking the Code series will be dedicated to building the Kinobody lifestyle.
