A sexy composition is about diet and sleep, a sexy distribution becomes all about exercise!
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The Last Lever: Exercise
So we’ve come finally to the last lever of health, exercise, which in my opinion accounts for about 10% of your health (with 60% determined by your diet and 30% from your sleep).
When it comes to optimizing your so called “sexy ratio”, exercise plays a small yet pivotal role. Where diet and sleep primarily determine your composition of fat and muscle, exercise allows you to control the distribution of muscle and to a lesser extent fat (no real of spot reduction).
Before we look at how to distribute muscle and fat to obtain our desired sexy ratios, we must first understand the differences between men and women. In general, the ‘hourglass’ figure is the desired distribution for women, and for men it is the ‘V-shape’ or the ‘inverted triangle’ that is considered sexy.
Hourglass Figure (for Women)
The hourglass figure is where the upper body and lower body are roughly the same width, whilst the waist is narrower (hence its name). Understanding this ratio or distribution, we can start to create an exercise plan or regime that:
- Increases the upper body region by targeting the shoulders, upper back, and chest
- Decreases the waist region by slimming and toning the core
- Increases the lower body region by targeting the glutes, hamstrings, and quads
The general idea/strategy is to obtain this hourglass figure is to, build muscles on the upper body and lower body, and to reduce overall fat composition which will lead to a slimmer core. You would ideally want to lower your body fat percentage to around 17-25% to seeing the benefits of having toned muscles (especially around your core).
There are obviously hundreds of different exercises out there that target these areas, however, here are some simple and effective strategies you can use to optimize your sexy ratio.
Upper Body
Ideally you would want to do exercises that target primary muscles such as your rhomboids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, deltoids and to a lesser extent pectorals.
For most women, the idea of packing on muscle is off-putting, however, rest assured women don’t bulk the same way men do due to significantly less testosterone levels. The focus here is to add a bit more definition in the upper body (especially the back region) to really emphasize the narrowness of the waist.
Some effective exercises are (but not limited to)
• Lat pull-downs
• Pull-ups
• Dumbbell pull-overs
• Face pulls
• Lateral arm raises
• Shoulder press
Aim to build some lean muscle by incorporating some weights into your regime.
Waist / Core
The key to attaining the coveted hourglass figure is in the middle, the waist, or with respect to muscles, the core. Contrary to popular belief, narrowing the waist is a matter of reducing body fat percentage, since women tend to lose fat around their midsection first. The idea of doing abdominal work out might seem appealing, however, these exercises (especially those that work out your obliques) are counterproductive to your efforts to reduce waist size, since you will thicken your waist rather than slim it down.
Aim to reduce your overall body fat percentage by focusing on fat burning exercises such as cardio: Swimming, running, cycling.
Calisthenics or isometric exercises can be used to create more muscle tone after you remove the fat. Exercises such planks and side planks are great at toning.
Lower Body
Lastly, to get a truly sexy ratio we cannot neglect the hips. Like the upper body, it becomes a matter of building lean muscle that essentially “widens” this area. Any exercise that targets your glutes, quads, hamstrings, abductors and adductors are particular useful.
Exercises such as squats, lunges, leg presses, dead lifts are very effective in toning and shaping your lower body.
In the end, the strategy for distribution for a sexy ratio for women is:
• Resistance exercises for top and bottom, and
• Cardio/calisthenics for core
Muscular V-shape (for Men)
For men, distribution is a bit simpler since there are essentially only two target areas, the upper body and the waist or mid-section (we will neglect the lower body at this time). The optimal sexy ratio is a waist to shoulder is about 0.75. It is interesting to note that the shoulders were deemed to be more important than other areas of the upper body, namely the chest and back. So emphasis should be placed on the shoulders when working on building a wider upper body.
The general strategy for men is therefore:
- Increase the upper body region by targeting the shoulders, upper back, and chest
- Decrease the waist region by slimming and toning the core by incorporating fat burning exercises
As you can see this is pretty much the same strategy for women, however there is little or no emphasis on the lower body. The main difference comes from the type of exercises involved and its purpose. For men, exercises focus on building bulk, whereas for women exercises focus on toning and slimming.
Upper Body
For men, the sexy ratio begins widening the top of the ‘V-shape’. The strategy is to focus on exercises that build up your shoulders, then back and chest. In addition, focusing on the back, especially your latissimus dorsi can really create that tapering look and emphasise the 'V'.
To really build bulk up on muscles aim for exercises that involve lifting very heavy weights (80-90% of your one rep max). Heavy weights with low repetition stimulate more muscle growth as opposed to lifting light weights with high repetitions.
There a myriad of exercises that target the upper body muscle groups, here are some effective examples:
• Shoulder Exercises: Shoulder press, deltoid raises, lateral raises
• Back Exercises: Lateral pulldowns, bent over row, seat row
• Chest Exercises: Chest press, dumbbell fly
Waist / Core
As with the women’s strategy of reducing waist size, men’s strategy is generally the same with the added leeway of adding lean mass to the midsection, i.e. rectus abdominis and oblique muscles.
Thus the general strategy is to reduce your body fat percentage whilst adding lean muscle mass in the midsection.
There are many ways, however, here are some types of exercises that are great at reducing body fat and toning the core
• Callisthenics: planking, push ups, crunches, leg raises
• HIIT: sprints, circuit training
• Cardio: Swimming, running, cycling
As you can see the exercises are almost identical between men and women as they both involve reducing the waist and increasing the upper body distribution (and lower body for women). In essence, these ratios of distribution are Mother Nature’s way of signalling key characteristics that increase our chances of survival: health, fertility and protection. By understanding that these ratios are there for a reason, we can begin to work towards them not only to be seen as sexy, but as healthy and strong individuals.
That does it for this particular series on weight loss. If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the replies below. Thank you for reading.
Peace and stay sexy~
REFERENCES
Exercises for an hourglass figure:
- https://www.fitnessblender.com/blog/hourglass-exercises-for-a-curvy-body-the-hourglass-figure-workout
- http://livehealthy.chron.com/exercises-hourglass-figures-8449.html
- https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/dont-want-ripped-time-to-shape-hourglass-body.html
Exercises for a V-shape:
- https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/develop_v_taper.htm
- http://wiki-fitness.com/back-exercises-to-get-bigger-stronger-v-shaped-sexy-back/
IMAGE SOURCES
- Pexels.com
- visualhunt.com