The Architecture of a Dream Physique: How to Sculpt, Not Shrink

Hey loves,

Today I am going to share with you a guide on how to sculpt your dream physique. I will go over how to view your body from an aesthetics lens and carve it via thoughtful bodybuilding and cardiovascular exercise.

So many women have been victimized by the diet industry and have therefore turned their bodies into flat, shapeless and skinny frames (aka: skinny fat bodies).

It is my hope that with this guide, you can understand subbody types like slim thick, aesthetic lean, fitness model, muscular and skinny with much more nuance.

I will share fitness models from every category and show how the fitness girls don’t just “get it”, they’re eye candy to the fitness guys who have not set limits on what their bodies can achieve.

I’m not by any means implying that guys who don’t work out or are not in shape don’t have aesthetics or taste but I will say that the men who are fit have carved out their own physiques and respect this drive much more.

I’ve written on aesthetics here, here and here as well. This subject has been of interest to me since I started lifting weights. I’ve been thrown in all trajectories, have explored being super fit and crossing over certain boundaries and then found my way back into a petite and feminine aesthetic.

I’ve had glutes that are large and have maintained them finding that while I do get objectified much more, a feminine urge of mine is to maintain a curvy body.

This nuance is seen as vain by many who don’t understand fitness and the pursuit towards shaping the body. It is a feminine pursuit, visual domination.

I’d like to contribute to being smart about it and synthesizing ideas to form some type of contribution to the subject matter.

When I first started lifting weights, people around me got scared. They were creating rigid boundaries and polarities around feminine and masculine energy that I myself did not see around me.

The first time that I did a deadlift, the male gaze did fixate on my form but I became active (rather than a passive object) in my own perception.

That moment alone reshaped how I came to view my own body and physical performance. I became active in my own experience, having been controlled by so many men in my life, that experience felt like a rebellion.

This blog post isn’t another post asking you to reconsider strength and about shrink yourself; it’s about owning your strength and sculpting your shape and confidence.

By the end of this blog post, you’ll understand how to build a physique that is strong, aesthetic, and sustainable.

The Mindset Shift: Sculpt, Don’t Shrink

As women, we should not aim to simply shrink via dieting. Instead, we should sculpt and build a balanced and proportional body.

Mindset matters for sustainable results, going into the gym focusing on getting stronger and healthier is optimal and allows us as women to perform better and inevitably look better.

Allowing women the flexibility to be weak deters us from achieving our best physiques. As women, we naturally have musculature, muscle tissues and fascia.

These weren’t randomly sent to us by God or our creator to confuse us, they were sent to keep us younger internally and externally.

Click here to learn more about how muscle is organ of longevity. Muscle helps us look younger on a cellular level, think of a muscular 60 year old woman. She can truly pass for a 40 year old.

Why then do we allow the idea of being perceived as masculine deter us from reaching our full potential? Why when our systems are faced with the idea of ageing do we finally allow our subconscious to accept a muscular body on a woman?

Below are muscular 60 year old women, look at how ungendered our view of muscle becomes and how truly beautiful they look!

The Blueprint: Understanding Your Physique

Let’s first understand the basics of body composition. What are concepts like lean mass, fat mass and muscle balance?

Lean mass

Essentially, the amount of lean mass describes the amount of muscle that we have in our bodies, lean muscle mass and lean tissues. Having optimal levels of lean mass gives us the following appearance:

Rachel is an example of healthy lean mass and healthy fat levels. She has sculpted her physique to have healthy lower levels of fat and higher levels of lean mass.

Watch out for details. Here is a physique with lower levels of lean mass and low levels of fat:

Look at silhouettes between the image of Rachel Dillon and this model in the grey underwear. Look at the lines on the stomach, quadriceps sweep.

These details are part of the sculpting process and fit people are very conscious of these changes.

You’ve now understood how lean mass can affect the body. What about higher amounts of lean mass and fat?

The Slim or Fit Thick aesthetic is largely an aesthetic of shapely lower legs (higher musculature) and average to higher levels of fat.

These images emulate the look:

Check out this guide on how to achieve the Fit thick aesthetic as well, it goes over some cool principles that we as women can benefit from learning.

Let us discuss body fat levels and how they can look like on different women. Having fat on as women is highly beneficial towards fertility processes and getting our periods/becoming pregnant.

Estrogen, the female hormone, largely plays a part in how fertile a woman is and what her fat distribution represents.

Essentially, a woman can gain fat around her hips, butt or thighs or develop mainly abdominal or facial fat.

Female Body Fat

Below are women with different levels of body fat, notice the aesthetic outcome of having less fat, how while it can be feminine through the idea of self control, with muscles create a boyish physique.

Look at how 14-17% body fat can result in changes in our menstrual cycle and low energy levels.

In the next image, look at 18-21% of body fat on a woman. Notice how you can still see lines, a silhouette and a healthy level of curves yet there is a roundness and femininity to her body.

I personally find this very feminine whilst retaining leanness and fitness. Her quadriceps are nice and developed, her arms as sculpted as well.

On the 22-26% end of the spectrum, the woman has a sustainable diet, she doesn’t have to put in a lot of effort. She retains a flexible way of living and her energy levels are balanced.

This is the feminine sweet spot where if society doesn’t intervene and pressure her into skinniness, she can thrive and be her most comfortable ethereal self.

This view is not necessarily held by men. A study by Health, Attractiveness and Body Composition in Men’s and Women’s Bodies found that male observers preferred female body fat mass that was significantly lower than what was judged as healthiest.

This however is not in congruence with the female societal idea of skinniness. Misperceptions of opposite‑sex preferences for thinness and muscularity by Xue Lei & David Perrett (2020). The study found that women overestimated how thin a female body men prefer.

Muscle Balance

Let’s go over muscle balance next. What does it mean to have balanced levels of muscles in the aesthetics field? Simply, proportion and symmetry must be taken into account.

The right levels of muscles on the legs plus the arms. This means that our fit thick models are not perfectly balanced. The slim/fit thick look describes women having more lean muscle mass on the lower half of the body.

The upper body is mainly targeted in bikini competitions or with physique athletes. The nuance is that in real life, men don’t like to go out with women who have more highly developed upper bodies than they themselves have.

This is both my anecdotal experience and views that I have seen and heard from men in my life.

A slimmer upper body could correlate (visually) with lower body fat, which research links to attractiveness in women (fat mass lower than health ideal).

According to a survey by YouGov in the UK, about 40% of men said they are “more attracted to slimmer women” (versus about 10% preferring chubby) when asked about body type preference.

Proportions

Proportions matter, but are not necessarily desired by every person. For instance, some women (myself included) prefer to have much larger glutes relative to their height, their upper bodies or even their frame.

If it comes down to aesthetic perfection and objectively-directed pursuit of it, then precision is key.

Sculpting key areas such as the glutes, shoulders and abs without “shrinking” the natural frame then becomes an art form within itself.

Look it at being done perfectly by fitness model and athlete Paige Hathaway below.

Look at a Brazilian fitness model Aline Barreto on the other hand throwing the concept out of the window and aiming for a subjectivity informed beauty aesthetic.

Her lower body is incredibly well developed and she has a Kardashian lower-body heavy aesthetic (my dream physique personally).

However her lower body does overtake her frame in essence. This is beautiful and very subjectively beautiful, the conversation on proportion thus continue to be quite nuanced.

Individual differences such as genetics, body type, and realistic goals play a part into this conversation.

I love African American genetics. Their body fat distribution is just perfect for building a serious level of lower body curves.

Ethnically, there may be a predisposition to store more fat subcutaneously (under the skin) in peripheral regions (butt, hips, thighs) versus centrally (around organs). This leads to more of that “curve” in the lower body.

Estrogen receptors (ER) in the gluteal depot are differentially expressed in Black vs White women, which could influence how estrogen drives fat storage in the hips / butt.

Since estrogen is strongly involved in fat distribution (especially in women), receptor-level differences could shift where fat accumulates.

Training Architecture

Focus on building your strength first. Getting strong through resistance training will build the best foundation for your body.

Bret Contreras, glutes hypertrophy coach always talks about this. He has helped several athletes including Mahsa, an IBFF pro grow impressive physiques.

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Essentially, progressive overload describes the process of getting stronger over time and thereby growing our physiques.

Getting stronger at exercises like the squat, deadlift or hip thrust allows us to remodel our bodies without necessarily shrinking.

A common misconception is that one must diet or do cardio for their bodies to “look better”. This is simply untrue.

You can build your best body via weight training and simply have the fat melt off at stage 2 or concurrently as you build enough muscle mass.

Sculpting strategies like targeting lagging areas, balancing push/pull exercises and emphasizing curves and symmetry are all secrets in the arsenal of most fitness models and athletes.

Targeting lagging areas includes building calves if the legs and glutes are developed. It can include sculpting shoulders if the back or chest (including breasts or breast implants) are very visually visible.

Push or pull essentially describes exercises like bench press or push ups for push and back row or deadlift for pull. The variety of these exercises can truly benefit our physiques by achieving balance.

Emphasizing curves can be done by lifting breasts through chest day or building glutes (side glutes or upper glutes as well).

One must, in all cases, be training smarter and not just harder. For women, achieving a feminine physique comes down to prioritizing having an hourglass shape (and a good waist to hip ratio).

Furthermore, it comes down to building strong glutes and having a lifted chest (via targeted chest exercises).

Nutrition That Builds, Not Breaks

Protein is a macronutrient that supports muscle growth. Eating adequate to high amounts of protein results in the best physiques. These physiques are toned, curvy and embody the healthy aesthetic.

Calorie management is also crucial and allows us to fuel sculpting without unnecessary restriction. This process is helpful towards having a lower body fat as well.

If your goal is to have a leaner body type, then calorie restriction can be your best asset.

Nutrient timing and quality is more important than fad diets. Consuming protein 30 minutes to 1 hour after a workout is fundamental towards growing and maintaining muscle mass.

Creatine is a great supplement to use to grow muscles. I consume it before my workout and supplement with protein powder after my workout. This has allowed me to build a fit physique.

Recovery & Lifestyle

Sleep, stress management, and mobility are the unsung heroes of sculpting. So much of recovery comes down to getting adequate rest, aiming to get 7-9 hours of sleep every night.

Recovery preserves curves and prevents shrinking, meditation, breath work and even supplementing with magnesium is fundamental towards success.

Utilizing the mind-body connection is fundamental towards enjoying your body during the process.

The Long-Term Vision

Finally, avoid chasing trends or unrealistic ideals. If a certain body part is trending at the moment, I guarantee that there will be some type of counter culture and that it will eventually lose its popularity.

Consistency is therefore fundamental and so is an emphasis on gradual transformation rather than a rapid metamorphosis.

I therefore encourage you, my readers to create your own architecture plan instead of following someone else’s path.

I invite you to start building your dream physique today. Simply browse through my blog for every resource to help you reach your goals!

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post on The Architecture of a Dream Physique: How to Sculpt, Not Shrink, please let me know what you thought about it in the comments section below!