7 Habits of Highly Sexy People
Perhaps the name is a little over the top but I promise that applying these rules consistently will have transformational power. 4 are for training and 3 are for nutrition but they're drivers for lasting physical change in how you look and feel.
1. Foreplay
Most people think of the warmup as a way to help avoid injury but there is a certain type of preparation that is beneficial for building visible muscle. Your warm-up should help blood flow, stability, & range of motion. This is also a great time to do corrective exercises to improve imbalances without taking away from the meat of your workout.
A fatigued muscle has to work incrementally harder in the strength work that follows. So you might target your triceps, for example, with some banded extensions before hitting the bench press. This gets even more stimulus to layer on more quality muscle.
2. Flirt With Failure
Building muscle or losing body fat demands training your muscles with proper effort. People love to say that the 6-15 rep range is great for building muscle. But that is only if you train near failure within that rep range.
Imagine doing a set of 15 of bicep curls but you could have done 30 reps without stopping. Your set of 15 reps was only about 50% effort. The sad truth is that this won’t build muscle, but this is the way a lot of people are training out there.
I'm not promoting pushing to failure all of the time but proper effort must be a priority in order to get the correct stimulus for your muscle growth. Try to get within 3-5 reps from failure on all of your weight training sets and from time to time take it closer to 1-2 reps from failure. That is all you need to succeed.
3. Get Long and Strong
Training with weights through a full range of motion is how you strengthen and lengthen muscles at the same time. Why is this useful for looking good? Full range of motion training builds muscle more effectively than partial range of motion. Specifically, you need tension on your muscles in lengthened/stretched positions to achieve optimal muscle growth stimulus.
Training through a full range of motion will also keep you in the game longer. "Strength is gained in the range it is trained.” I want you to have full access to your body’s genetic capabilities for as many years ahead of you as possible.
4. Breathe Heavy
Cardio gets a bad rap in the bodybuilding world. Cardio can ruin your gains they say and when cardio is used for cutting diets, it is often a one-dimensional treadmill or bike. Boring!
Cardio certainly doesn’t kill your gains. In fact, if you have a better work capacity from thoughtful conditioning, you can bring more effort to your weight training.
With better cardiovascular fitness you will be able to recover faster between weight training sets. You can push further on your intensity sets and get in more quality weight training to build muscle. This is why I program thought-out and fun conditioning pieces on The PR Training App.
5. Eat Your Meat
It doesn’t have to be meat but protein is the foundational macronutrient required for building muscle. This in turn improves metabolism to help give you the look you want. Calories determine your weight on the scale but protein controls your body composition. Adequate amounts of protein are important for weight loss and muscle growth.
If you are training to remain strong, functional, and look good then eating protein at every meal and prioritizing getting enough throughout the day is critical.
6. Consume Quality
Food quality refers to the number of nutrients a particular food has and also how easy it is for your body to digest and absorb those nutrients. Food quantity is the number of calories and has a more direct impact on your physique but you should think about food quality too when it comes to your aesthetic.
If you primarily eat poor-quality foods, then eventually your body will start to become depleted of key nutrients. In the absence of key nutrients, you will crave more food and calories to make up for those missing nutrients. Your energy and drive will also be diminished. How well your body can produce energy depends on the nutrient profile balance. If you are depleted of nutrients your drive to train and move will decrease.
7. (Serving) Size Matters
Knowing how much food you need to eat in order to achieve the body you want is very important. Errors in one direction or the other may cause you to gain too much body fat or lose too much muscle. Or you could nail the sweet spot of how you want to look.
The right amount of food doesn’t just dictate how much you weigh. When you overeat on calories there are hormonal signals in the body that lead to lethargy and a depressed mood. There is a clear threshold where calories go from being added energy to the cause of your lack of energy and motivation.
On the flip side, when you under-eat most days, you can also end up feeling low energy, cranky, and emotionally unstable. This impacts your desire to move, your stress-coping abilities, and your relationships.