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- The Ideal Physique is Easy for Most Guys When They Learn This – Toji Workout
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- Supercharge Your Mitochondria for Energy, Endurance, And Longevity
- Calisthenics will change you.
- How to Track and Progress Multiple Goals at the Gym… And Win!
The Ideal Physique is Easy for Most Guys When They Learn This – Toji Workout
Even to this day, many guys will cite “Brad Pitt” in Fight Club as having the ideal male physique. Maybe a younger audience might say Toji Fushiguro from Jujutsu Kaisen. Perhaps a female equivalent might be something like Black Widow in Avengers.
Point is, most people don’t want to be muscular hulks. They just want abs, a lower body fat percentage, and some decent athleticism.
Toji’s physique is appealing because it’s athletic. And to get an athletic physique… you just have to be athletic. That means you need to do athletic stuff.
Simple, really!
But they may have been led to believe this is very difficult to achieve. Complicated, even.
And there’s a high chance they have followed countless training programs trying to achieve just that, only to get stuck and find themselves back at square one.
Here’s the thing, though: it’s actually REALLY easy to achieve this kind of physique. And fun. And you can do it in no time at all.
And the best way to do it is probably nothing like what most fitness mags, YouTube channels, or even many health experts would have you believe.
You don’t need to join a gym. You don’t need to optimise your lifting technique. You don’t need to starve yourself.
Just play tennis.
That’s it.
Or, you know, football. Or do rock climbing. Ooh – or dance, better yet.
Seriously: for most people this will be enough to get into shape in no time at all. An hour and a half of sports three times a week? That’s a TON of cardio for most people. That’s going to be enough to reduce body fat percentage, over time. Running, or swinging, or punching, or climbing, will also give you firmer legs (and glutes) and more of a six pack.
And the thing is, it’s actually really fun, too. Because you pick a sport or hobby you really like and do that. So you stick at it, much more easily.
For bonus points: make it an activity that doesn’t involve too much commuting or set-up. Find a club near you.
For even better points, do not one but THREE different hobbies/sports. Something that will burn a lot of calories and train the legs like football, dance, cycling, martial arts, tennis. Even hiking. Something that will build pulling strength, like swimming, or rock climbing. And something that will train your pushing strength, swinging, or throwing strength. Like boxing, tennis, hand balancing.
Yes, I know all of them do all of it. And so it doesn’t matter too much if this isn’t a “perfect split.” Doing martial arts and swimming is plenty good enough for most people. Just try and get some variety.
This not only develops a more rounded physique but also prevents imbalances or overuse injuries that can come from focussing all your efforts on a single endeavour.
Want to compliment that with a little strength training, too? Amazing! Doing some calisthenics or weightlifting on top will help bring out the muscle even more. And, because you know your sport or hobby has taken care of things like endurance, hip stability, and rotational strength, you can just focus on developing one or two lagging muscles.
But this is NOT compulsory. At least not to begin with.
In terms of your diet: increase your protein intake a little if you want to build some muscle. Or cut calories a little if you want to look leaner. How do you do the latter? Well, you know that pudding you usually have after dinner? Don’t eat it. That’s 200 calories gone from your diet. Try that for a few months, in conjunction with all this new activity, and see how that goes.
And yes, it really is that easy for most people to start to get this highly desirable body. While having fun. And this routine will also give you more energy and a bunch of new skills.
So, if it’s so easy, why do so many people struggle?
The problem is all that information. And information that doesn’t always have the viewer or reader’s best interests at heart.
Let’s say you want to get a little fitter and look like one of the inspirations we listed at the start. You might look up on YouTube “how to build muscle” or “how to burn fat” or “how to get in shape.”
“How to get a six pack.”
Then you follow some basic advice and start consuming more content that channel is putting out.
Thing is, you don’t realise that’s a bodybuilding channel. Or a powerlifting channel. And you quickly get carried away and caught up in the culture of it all.
So, you start eating lots of protein, tracking all your calories, and doing a complicated bro split or powerlifting program with challenging new movements like deadlifts. Deadlifts, squats, and bench won’t get you Brad Pitt’s body. And it will take months before you’re adding on weight. This is sports specific training. And the top athletes of the sport don’t look like that. Many of them get out of breath climbing the stairs.
Bodybuilding might get you there faster, but you’ll be cutting and bulking and following confusing splits. You’ll be creating a lot of soreness and dedicating large amounts of time and energy to the pursuit. There’s a high chance you’ll burn out.
This all requires lots of equipment and time. It leaves you exhausted and achey. And you’re frustrated that it will take months to look like those people.
And, of course, it’s in the best interests of the fitness industry to make that so. To show you pictures of guys with huge biceps and tree-trunk legs. Whether or not those people are actually “healthy.”
The dedication to this new hobby will invariably ignore other aspects of your fitness.
A bodybuilder or powerlifter often won’t do much cardio. Certainly the gym bro YouTubers won’t recommend it. And they’ll rarely move in the frontal or transverse planes. They don’t run or jump or cut or crouch.
They only lift weights in a sterile environment, straight up and straight down. Using thin bars and convenient handles.
And as they get more advanced, they need even more specific equipment, tools, and strategies. To “optimise” themselves towards a goal that really won’t serve most people. If you can deadlift 500lbs… do you really need to deadlift more? Why?
I spoke to Daniel From FitnessFAQs about this and he gave the example of the bodybuilder who uses straps to lift more and build more muscle while LOSING grip strength and the ability to use that muscle in the real world.
This perfectly backed up my point: the very things that make you “elite” in just one area are the same things that harm your capacity as an all-round athlete.
These specialists often aren’t prepared for what happens when they slip and fall. And as they get bigger, they might start to lose mobility or get winded climbing the stairs.
Whereas the guy who just plays sports and follows hobbies will be used to sprinting, jogging, jumping, anticipating the opponent… They’ll be used to dealing with momentum, getting barged. They won’t be as likely to run out of breath or twist their ankle.
So, don’t tell me “that won’t build muscle.” It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter as much as you think for performance. And it doesn’t matter as much as you think for the vast majority of those starting out at the gym.
Someone who swims will have a decent level of strength that WON’T gas out after minutes of exertion. The climber will have a powerful grip. The dancer will have amazing coordination. The team sports player will be able to exert themselves while making strategic decisions.
EVEN if they only pursue these things as a hobby.
Again, I’m not claiming you’ll necessarily look EXACTLY like Toji. He has pretty big biceps and a wide lat spread/shoulders… depending on which panel you’re looking at (his phsyique isn’t always that consistent). Point is, though, he is athletic by anime standards.
And you might find that doing sports gets you closer to that kind of lean-but-toned physique, quicker. And more simply. And more enjoyably.
And the people who do that will also get all those other benefits that are missing from a strict strength training program.
Not only did they achieve that lean-but-toned physique in a shorter timeframe. They also became a better all-round athlete than the people who made fitness their whole personality.
The unpredictable and chaotic nature of that sport or hobby made them far more well-rounded and adaptable. Left fewer “gaps” in that performance profile.
And the more elite the gym rat becomes, the more this becomes true.
Which is extremely ironic.
Pursuing fitness as a hobby is amazing. There’s so much to learn. But “fitness” does NOT equate to “gym.”
Not enough people are out there telling beginners that if they just want to look a little more toned, feel more energetic, and prepare themselves for more situations… it’s actually really easy.
Find something you enjoy and do it.
