What muscles to look fit

[Rearden]

Warik: NICE... gotta respect the frat curls. You did forget about doing them in a squat cage for safety reasons though :-(

To OP: Why not get fit for real? I mean as opposed to working "beach muscles" why not work to develop athletic ability through more functional workout plans? 3-4 days in the gym per week would do a lot for your body in general as well as total strength as opposed to working just a few muscles to look like many other semi frequent lifters. It is of course your call but I dont see much value to being the guy that looks big who your friends would never ask for help moving in..."Leg muscles and a strong posterior chain.. what? that cant help with teh ladies yo"

But, the general advice seems reasonable and solid for your purposes. That is you dont care about anything but looking decent in a t-shirt focus on shoulders and lats for the V taper and toss in some traps, forearms, and biceps so your arms and neck/shoulder region look good.... Why not do some time on one of those 1337 ab rollers for the ladies and or buy the 6 pack abs workout vid?

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Basically the idea is to use your lower body and momentum to cheat on the exercise and get a less effective workout

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You can do more pullups faster so you have a higher power output, this helps with conditioning as well as using more of your muscles so its a better full body exercise.

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Pullups are not supposed to be a full body exercise.

Barbell curls, on th other hand, definitely are. I find that I can do more barbell curls faster and with greater weight when I bend my knees and lean forward, then straighten my legs quickly and lift the bar using the momentum of swinging my upper body backwards at the same time. It makes me look a lot cooler lifting more weight more times than the really big guys who are lifting lighter weight properly. Besides, since I'm using my legs and my lower back to lift the weight, I'm using more muscles and getting an awesome full body workout.

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Only if you do them in the squat rack.

[Joe Camel]

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There really isn't any reason not to work your whole body if you are already in the gym three or four days a week.

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This is the proper answer, of course. But if I had to choose, I think your back muscles (lats and traps) would have the biggest impact.

[Blarg]

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Basically the idea is to use your lower body and momentum to cheat on the exercise and get a less effective workout

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You can do more pullups faster so you have a higher power output, this helps with conditioning as well as using more of your muscles so its a better full body exercise.

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Pullups are not supposed to be a full body exercise.

Barbell curls, on th other hand, definitely are. I find that I can do more barbell curls faster and with greater weight when I bend my knees and lean forward, then straighten my legs quickly and lift the bar using the momentum of swinging my upper body backwards at the same time. It makes me look a lot cooler lifting more weight more times than the really big guys who are lifting lighter weight properly. Besides, since I'm using my legs and my lower back to lift the weight, I'm using more muscles and getting an awesome full body workout.

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lol

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I laughed pretty hard here.

[Blarg]

Your chest muscles can show pretty clearly in a t-shirt, both their bulk and their size, especially if it's a light fabric. So can your shoulders and back. Then again, so can your biceps and even triceps.

And you can build all those up just by releasing growth with squats and deadlifts.

So basically, don't worry about trying to look good by doing isolation exercises for this or that disconnected body part. Build full body strength and power with full-body exercises, and you will start to fill out your shirt just fine. Plan to eat like crazy, too, and get plenty of rest. Putting on good muscle weight is a lot harder to do when you're a party animal skating by on minimal sleep and haphazard eating of junk food.

[Blarg]

Good forearms are great, but they don't do jack to fill out a t-shirt, and rarely make the first visual impression.

[Colonel Kataffy]

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Good forearms are great, but they don't do jack to fill out a t-shirt, and rarely make the first visual impression.

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O RLY

[Reef]

shoulders, chest, arms, and legs

[TheBlueMonster]

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years of rock climbing have made my forearms look quite similar to Popeyes. I'm so awesome at opening jars

[BradleyT]

This summer I saw an older dude (late 30's) doing something in the street for the cable company and I thought to myself, "Damn that dude has big forearms" but I doubt he was trying to get dudes to think, "Damn that dude has big forearms" as his goal.

But anyway they were very noticeable. To get noticed by chicks I'd say the V shaped back would do it.