Have you ever wondered how you can tell when something is out of proportion?
>>See what a true golden ratio looks like<< I’m sure you’ve seen a person who seems like their arms are just too short…or their legs are really short, or they have a long torso. Or their calves are too big for the rest of their body, or they’ve got too much shoulder and not enough chest, or too much chest and not enough back. You’ve seen it, you can spot it almost immediately, but how on earth do you know what is proportional or not? It seems that we’ve all got a built in proportion radar that is tuned to some sort of ideal proportion or physique. You know it when you see it, the perfect physique, and perfect proportions, and you certainly know it when you see someone out of this proportion. The big question is: how is this possible? It must be literally built into your DNA to recognize perfect proportions. Well I’ve recently interviewed John Barban the author of the Adonis Index System. And this is what he had to say when he was researching this phenomenon. “This concept was bugging me and for years. I was trying to figure out what this ideal proportion was and how on earth we were genetically built to recognize it. It led me into researching art, art history, sculpture, anthropometrics and anatomy, plastic surgery and even dentistry! What I found out was the human body seems to be built around a specific proportion that we recognize as ideal. This proportion is called the “Golden Ratio” and it’s mathematical expression is 1:1.618. It recurs throughout nature in all forms of life and it seems to be consistent with what we find attractive to the eye, in nature, in art, in both plant and human life. In short this could easily be called the ratio of symmetry and beauty. This proportion applies to the length of your arms and legs compared to your body and total height, it even applies to the length of your hands and fingers, and even to the shape of the individual units of your DNA! Plastic surgeons use this ratio to reconstruct a face after people have suffered trauma from an accident, and dentists use this ratio to set people’s teeth into perfect symmetry. In short the human body, your limbs, your hands, your fingers, your face and even your teeth are all proportioned to the golden ratio. And it is this ratio that we are expecting to see. So when you see someone who’s arms seems a bit ‘too short’, now you know it’s the golden ratio that is the barometer for knowing how far off they are. I took this concept a step further and applied the golden ratio to the classic V-taper of your body, namely your waist to your shoulders, and as it turns out the most ideal and perfectly proportioned body has a golden ratio from the waist to the shoulders. The most proportioned and muscular sculptures and athletes have a golden waist to shoulder ratio. >>See what a true golden ratio looks like<< This specific ratio is what we’ve all been looking for. It’s what classic bodybuilders like Frank Zane and Steeve Reeves had, it’s the proportions and symmetry that the current mass monster generation of bodybuilders has lost, and it’s what I think most of us want to get back to. Once I realized this ratio was the key to the ideal proportioned physique I created a workout system to achieve this shape as quickly as possible. Getting to, and maintaining this ‘golden proportion’ is now my sole focus with my training and I’m guessing it’s likely something you might want to look into for your body as well.” John has explained to me that this ratio applies to all men at all heights and all shapes and sizes. It’s true that we all converge to a similar shape and size when we are lean, muscular and in our best condition. Even pro bodybuilders all eventually converge to a similar shape and size on stage. Sure some are naturally bigger than others, but the general shape and size isn’t THAT far off. The same thing goes for the rest of us who aren’t necessarily interested in competing in bodybuilding but just want to build our best looking physique. The golden ratio is our best guide to an ideal proportioned physique. In these pictures you can what John looks like at his true golden ratio (and a somewhat embarrassing pic of what he looked like when he was trying to ‘bulk up’) >>See what a true golden ratio looks like<<
Forget the scale and find out what your golden ratio is – John has the right idea.