The majority of people would like to improve their body shape in one way or another. Achieving a fit and sexier looking body is often the original reason for many people to join a gym in the first place.
Of course, a “fit” or “sexy” body is going to be somewhat rooted in individual opinion and can be very subjective. For this article, I am going to focus on a generalized definition of those words.
In most cases, getting a fitter and sexier body means an individual is aiming to do two things: lose some fat and build a bit of muscle. As I already mentioned, this is quite a subjective topic so the amounts of body fat and muscle mass requires to make somebody look fitter and sexier is going to vary.
However, the bottom line is that most people who want a better-looking body will be aiming for fat loss and muscle building.
With that in mind, you now have your goals for achieving your sexier physique. The problem arises when you begin to look into how to reach those 2 goals of building muscle and losing body fat; there seem to be endless different methods to achieve them.
This is actually true; there are many different methods, strategies and techniques out there for you to use in pursuit of your dream body that can work. In fact, there are way too many to cover inside of a single article.
Therefore, I want to give you the 3 key areas you should focus on. These are the 3 elements that I believe will yield the biggest results and should be where you put most of your energy.
The 3 Keys To A Sexier Body
Focus on the 3 factors below consistently and you won’t go far wrong when it comes to improving your physique.
1. Nail Your Nutrition
I feel that this is probably the best place to start since it has the biggest impact on your overall results. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to lose fat or gain muscle, your nutrition can make or break both goals.
Getting into nutrition can open up a whole can of worms by itself since, like fitness in general, there are hundreds of different concepts and tactics out there. What I want to do is give you some basic principles and guidelines that you can align with your goals and put into action right away.
Firstly, you must outline your current goal: are you trying to lose body fat or build some muscle? If you are a complete beginner in the gym, there is potential for you to achieve both at once but for most people, you are better off picking one.
Once you know your current goal, you will have something to judge your actions against. Now on to the nutrition itself.
I want to keep it as simple as possible, to begin with. Therefore, I want you to focus on simply eating high quality, nutritious foods first and foremost.
What this means is that the majority of your diet should come from unprocessed, whole foods. If it hasn’t been killed or grown then you should probably limit your intake of it.
You can then focus on getting in some protein and vegetables with each of your main meals throughout the day. If you start with those rules, you will be building the foundations of a great nutrition protocol.
The main thing to be concerned with when thinking about fat loss and muscle gain is the quantity of food; the number of calories you are eating each day. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn each day. The opposite is true for gaining muscle.
Now, you can use online calculators and apps to track your calorie intake very closely, which is great but not necessary in the beginning. To begin with, you can judge your intake on your results.
If your goal is to build muscle but you aren’t gaining any weight, you need to eat more calories. If you are gaining more than 1lbs per week, you are probably eating too many and gaining excess fat so you should cut your calories.
On the other hand, for weight loss, if you aren’t losing weight then you need to drop your calorie intake. If you are losing more than around 2lbs consistently each week, you may want to bump your intake up slightly to avoid a crash in your energy levels.
It is important to be patient when adjusting your intake, track your progress for at least 2 weeks at a time before you decide to make any changes.
If this method stops working before you reach your goal, it may be time to look more closely at your intake and use those calorie calculators and tracking apps I mentioned earlier.
2. Get Stronger
Obviously, I am going to be talking about your training here. When you are in the gym, you should always be looking to get stronger.
This doesn’t mean that you need to start on a powerlifting or strength training routine. What it means is that you should be using resistance training with a view to getting stronger over time in one way or another.
I say “in one way or another” because there are various ways to get strong. You can lift heavier weights over time, do more reps, more sets or even just rest for less time between your sets. Each of those things is essentially building strength.
Getting strong and pushing your body over time is key to building muscle and improving your physique. You see, your body is very good at adapting to the demands that you place upon it.
Muscle gain itself is an adaptation to your body consistently being challenged by increased workloads in the gym. In order to make itself more efficient at performing a particular exercise, your body builds extra muscle in the areas associated with that exercise.
However, the moment you stop presenting your body with new challenges and reasons to build more muscle, you hit a plateau. Therefore, you must always be looking to make progress and gain strength in your training over time.
This principle is called progressive overload and is vital to building muscle mass. The best way to ensure you are progressing properly is to follow a program that has some kind of progression scheme already in place.
There are plenty of great programs available online. You just need to make sure it matches your current training level, that it aligns with your goals and features a set of rules for how to progress over time.
3. Create Habits
This last element is just as crucial as the previous two. Without this one, everything falls apart. Once you have got your nutrition and training strategies in place, all that is left is to execute upon them. This might seem easy and it probably will be in the beginning.
Unfortunately, it won’t always be so easy to keep to your plans. Your motivation will fluctuate and other events will arise in your life, which is where creating habits comes into play.
If you actively take steps to turn your actions into habits, you give yourself a huge advantage and better chance of being consistent over the long term. Honestly, being consistent is what it all boils down to.
It is no good having the perfect plan and sticking to it for only a few weeks at a time. Building a fitter body is a lifestyle changing process.
By having a plan that consists of a number of goal-driven tasks, you can turn those actions into habits that become a part of your lifestyle; they become things that you “just do”.
Once you create these habits, you no longer have to worry so much about motivation fading or things coming up in your life that could derail your progress. Once a habit it built, you will find that you keep with it and stay on track almost on autopilot.
In order to build the habits, a bit of willpower is required in the beginning. You will need to go through a period of time where you religiously perform a required action in order for that habit to become ingrained.
For example, going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Friday might be a bit of a change that takes some effort to accomplish initially but it will become habitual eventually. Once you reach that point, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will just become gym days for you and it would feel more unusual and harder not to go.
This concept of creating habits applies to everything. You just need that little bit of willpower and persistence in the beginning.
Final thoughts on building a sexier body
To be honest there isn’t much more to be said here. If you put your energy into the 3 areas listed above, the results will come.
All it takes is a bit of planning in the beginning and for you to take some action. Once you have taken the initial action, keep up with it and be patient.
The road to your ideal physique is a long one so try not to focus too much on the end goal, strive for progress rather than perfection and you will get there.