Step 2: Build Muscle in the Right Places
Before we begin, take a look at this comparisson between a classic ancient statue and a modern Hollywood actor. Note the similarities in the musuclar development, levels of body fat (both are lean) and proportions.
To the left: the Doryphrous - the Spear-Bearer. The Greek sculptor Polykleitos designed this statue as an example of the "golden rule", showing the perfectly harmonious and balanced proportions of the human body in the sculpted form.
To the right: the best James Bond since Sean Connery: Daniel Craig. Unfortunately news of a 3rd movie with Craig are not encouraging as of now.
What Are the Perfect Body Proportions?
So here I will explain the concept of the "golden ratio" and how it relates to having a killer beach body. This is gonna be just a bit technical, but it will be over soon, I promise - so bear with me...
The golden proportion is a ratio. So if you have a line you can divide it in two so that its parts are in a golden proportion.
The way to do it is to have the ratio between the whole line (a+b) and the the larger part of the line (a) equal the ratio between the larger part of the line (a) and the smaller part of the line (b):
So if we were to put this golden ratio in a diagram, here's how it looks.
Not surprisingly it resembles the V-shape of a muscular torso with a small waist and muscular chest, upper back, shoulders and arms.
Here is how this golden ratio looks when superimposed on two greek statues, one of them is the Spear-Bearer that we saw above:
Both statues show a near-perfect golden ratio in their muscular development. So the way to a body that looks great is to get a small waist (a) by getting lean and build up the muscles of the upper body (a+b).
Now, let's superimpose the golden ratio on two Hollywood actors famous for their muscular physique - Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds:
Note how Ryan Reynolds looks a bit "off" and underdeveloped. His shoulders seem a bit narrow compared to Hugh Jackman. He still can build up his upper body to have the golden waist to shoulder ratio. To do this he needs more upper body strength.
In fact in an interview he said he was impressed by the upper body strength of Jackman when they worked out together. Jackman's more developed upper body and bigger upper body strength are correleated. But more on that later...
So, In the next step I will reveal how to build up your upper body muscles. You will learn how to avoid the number #1 problem people face in the gym – lack of progress after a few weeks or months. I will also show you how to get dense and hard, yet big enough muscles.