Instagram can easily deflate any ego, especially when scrolling through photos, and everyone looks way more ripped.
Now, we’re all smart enough to understand there are ways and apps to manipulate photos to make even the most unattractive person look like a movie star, but do those same tricks work to turn the average guy into a Men’s Fitness cover model?
Honestly, yes, but the person needs to be in decent shape and on a proper eating plan, but then all it takes to look like a cover model is a little lighting, a quick pump, muscle contraction, and manipulating surroundings.
In this video, YouTuber MattDoesFitness demonstrates these tricks using himself as the model and showing how just a few simple tweaks can make anyone looked shredded.
Matt’s first tip is to shut off all the natural light in the room.
Natural light will “wash out” all the definition in the physique. He also increases the downlight in the room to create more shadow effects.
Next, he gets the room a little warmer and does a quick pump of pushups since most front photos concentrate on the chest, biceps, shoulders, and delts.
He then does some quick bicep curls and lateral raises. Matt stresses not to go too heavy and fatigue yourself, that will make it hard to flex for the photo.
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Matt then gets a quick spritz from a water bottle. He learned this move from a professional photoshoot. Being wet gives the body more definition.
And finally, ab contraction is the key.
“Now straight away, I’m contracting my abs, you can see the vascularity and the pump in my chest, my biceps, my delts. That difference is ridiculous,” he explains.
At the end of the video, Matt stresses the biggest takeaway from this lesson – stop comparing yourself to other people and their photos.
“Trying to look exactly like someone else is a complete waste of time because in most cases, it’s not physically possible.”
“I know it sounds cheesy,” he explains, “but the best advice I can give is just to try and be the best version of yourself.”
[via MattDoesFitness]
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