The Best Aesthetic Workout Routine [Bodybuilding Program]

Check out this full aesthetic workout plan to build real muscle definition.

When you’re a beginner set out on a building more lean muscle mass, you might make the decision to go for awesome strength and size. But maybe that’s not your thing. Maybe you just want to look good… really good.

And you may already know that to sculpt the perfect natural body, you have to tailor your resistance training appropriately. Luckily, there’s a predictable way to stress your muscles and see balanced proportion that draws visual attention your way.

So make sure you read this article all the way to the end because you’re about learn a couple workout routines, similar to those used by professional fitness models and dedicated bodybuilders to build an aesthetic physique that makes strangers do double takes.

What Makes an Aesthetic Physique?

An aesthetic body is a physique in which muscular proportions and body measurements are symmetrical and balanced in a way that’s visually pleasing to the eye. It’s somewhat subjective, but common traits of bodybuilding aesthetics include:

• Wide upper back in the latissimus dorsi and trapezius muscles (lending to an aesthetic V-taper back)
• Round, capped deltoids (boulder shoulders)
• Thick arms (biceps and triceps)
• A body fat percentage that’s less than 10% to reveal abdominal definition
• Small waist with V-cut abs
• Moderately-sized quadriceps
• Building an aesthetic v-taper

Achieving these kinds of aesthetic body characteristics takes a combination of targeted resistance training and proper diet adjustments, but for the purpose of this article, we’re going to focus just on the training aspect.

What Makes an Aesthetic Workout?

• An aesthetic training workout is designed using training methodologies to improve muscular symmetry. These training methods use varying rep ranges and exercises to produce different types of muscle hypertrophy: myofibrillar hypertrophy (increased strength) and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
• Bodybuilders using aesthetic training also focus on body fat loss by consuming a caloric deficit, increasing their fluid intake, and throwing in some cardio. These actions over the longer term increase muscular vascularity and definition.
• Aesthetic workouts tend to include more exercises to cover not only the major, but minor muscle groups as well. This helps to keep limbs and muscle bellies balanced and build a more proportional body.

Here’s what you’ll find in most aesthetic bodybuilding routines:

• Exercises and workouts organized according to muscle groups (splits, like push, pull, legs; there’s no full body workout here!)
• 50/50 ratio between compound movements and isolation lifts
• 8-20 reps per set
• 3+ sets per exercise
• Exercises that build a signature v-taper & generally V-shaped body (wide upper body and small waist)

Pair this with an aesthetic bodybuilding diet and supplements, and you’ll be unstoppable!

How to Train for Aesthetics

Aesthetic training is a little bit different than training for functional strength or even for general health reasons.

When training for general health, you don’t necessarily need a structured training program or goal. As long as continually show up to the gym and lift a few weights, your body should adapt to the minor stress and stay in “toning” mode.

Alternatively, if you’re strength training, you’ll most likely follow a specific resistance routine that focuses on compound lifts and has you performing fewer reps per set (1-6 reps) with plenty of rest in between sets (~5 minutes).

In a routine to get shredded like a warrior, it’s best to use a mixture of reps per set in the medium (6-10) and high (10-15) rep ranges to induce both size and strength gains, whether that’s through free weights, calisthenics, or some other method using progressive overload.

Finally, don’t expect super fast results. Like any other fitness goal, results take time!

How long it takes to build an aesthetic physique will vary from person to person, so focus more on enjoying the process rather than craving the results.

Aesthetic Workout Schedule

The schedule of this workout is an upper lower split because it allows you to train every muscle group and body part every 3rd day or 5th day, depending on which split variation you choose.

When you’re a beginner, you should only be working out three to four times a week at most when you want muscle growth, targeting each muscle group no more than twice per week.

Unlike Jeff Seid’s workout routine, which may be a little too advanced.

Whether you’re a man, woman, ectomorph, circle, or square, you want to give your body a chance to rest and recover. In fact, muscle protein synthesis increases significantly after your workout, and proper rest between workouts ensures maximum muscle repair and growth.

So, here are the two versions of the upper lower split you can choose from for optimal fitness results.

Upper Body Lower Body Split: 4 Day Version

• Monday: Upper Body Workout A
• Tuesday: Lower Body Workout A
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Upper Body Workout B
• Friday: Lower Body Workout B
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

With this structured workout program, each muscle group gets trained every third or fourth day. And, I should make it clear that the exact days you choose to work out doesn’t really matter as long as you stick with the two days on/one day off/two days on/two days off format.

Upper Lower Split: 3 Day Version

Week 1

• Monday: Upper Body Workout A
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Lower Body Workout A
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Upper Body Workout B
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

Week 2

• Monday: Lower Body Workout B
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Upper Body Workout A
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Lower Body Workout A
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

If you go with the three-day version of the aesthetic workout, you’ll train each muscle group every fourth or fifth day, which is still optimal for building muscle mass. And, like the four-day version, the exact day you choose to do your workouts doesn’t matter.

What’s important is keeping the format: one day on/one day off/one day on/one day off/one day on/two days off.

You don’t want to switch back and forth. So, pick which version you like and stick with it for both the benefits of aesthetics and athletics.

Aesthetic Physique Training Program Exercises

For the upper body workouts, you will be training your chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps to some degree. For the lower body, you’ll target the quads, hamstrings, calves, and abs to help widen your lower body and sculpt more of an X-frame physique.

Upper Body Workout A

• Bench Press: 3 sets of 5-8 reps (2-3 min rest between sets)
• Barbell Rows 3 sets of 5-8 reps (2-3 min rest between sets)
• Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Pull-Ups: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Side Lateral Raises: 2 sets of 10-15 reps (60 sec rest between sets)
• Triceps Push-Downs: 3 sets of 10-15 reps (60 sec rest between sets)
• Seated Dumbbell Curls 2 sets of 10-15 reps (60 sec rest between sets)

Upper Body Workout B

• Chin-Ups: 3 sets of 5-8 reps (2-3 min rest between sets)
• Overhead Barbell Press: 3 sets of 5-8 reps (2-3 min rest between sets)
• Seated Cable Row: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Chest Dumbbell Flyes: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• EZ-Bar Curls: 3 sets of 10-12 reps (60 sec rest between sets)
• Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: 2 sets of 10-15 reps (60 sec rest between sets)

Lower Body Workout A

• Deadlifts: 3 sets of 5-8 reps (2-3 min rest between sets)
• Leg Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Leg Curls: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Standing Calf Raises: 3 sets of 5-8 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Cable Crunches: 3 sets of 10-15 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)

Lower Body Workout B

• Barbell Squats: 3 sets of 5-8 reps (2-3 min rest between sets)
• Bulgarian Split Squats: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Lying Leg Curls: 3 sets of 10-12 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Seated Calf Raises: 3 sets of 10-12 reps (60-120 sec rest between sets)
• Reverse Crunches: 3 sets of 8-12 reps (60 sec rest between sets)

This training program combine the most effective compound exercises and the right amount of isolation exercises for your body to build muscle fast. And, each workout starts with the most demanding exercise and works you through to the least demanding.

Aesthetic Workout Details

The reps listed for each exercise do not include warm up sets. Always warm up before your workout.

For each exercise in these workouts, you should use the same amount of weight each set. Once you can push a given weight for the amount of sets and reps as prescribed, then it’s time to increase your weight by a small amount at the next workout. This is where you get your progression and incorporate that progressive overload principle.

• Don’t change the order of exercises. You want to go from most difficult to least difficult, so don’t change it.
• Everything in these workouts – the split, frequency, exercise, amount of sets and reps, rest intervals – is all there for a reason. Follow it. No tweaks! If you don’t have access to a gym, you can try our aesthetic home workout featuring calisthenics.
• If you are unable to reach the set and rep range as prescribed with a given weight, then lower the weight. Your goal is to always hit that prescribed number of sets and reps.
• Track your sets, reps, and weight used for each session using a workout app on your smartphone or good ol’ fashioned pencil and paper.
• As you go through the program, monitor your body weight and take measurements of various body parts, such as your flexed arms, waist, chest, and calves. Seeing improvements here will motivate you to continue with this plan!

FAQ

What Exercises Make You Look Aesthetic?

Essentially any exercise that stresses a body part in one of the main “aesthetic muscle groups” is a valid bodybuilding movement. Effective compound exercises include:

• Bench press
• Row
• Push-ups
• Shoulder press
• Pull-ups or chin-ups
• Deadlift
• Barbell squats
• Leg press

You also need to include isolation exercises in your routine to build the size and density of smaller muscles that get less attention during compound movements. This is where dumbbell exercises may come in handy. Examples of isolation exercises include:

• EZ bar curls
• Triceps extension
• Face pull
• Delt raise
• Chest fly
• Leg extensions
• Leg curls
• Seated calf raise

Is 5×5 Good for Aesthetics?

5×5 workout routines that recommend 5 sets of 5 reps per compound exercise are OK if you’re an absolute beginner because you need to build a solid strength base. But after this initial building phase, you’re body needs more reps and exercise variety to go any further. So if you want to actually look like you lift, you should ditch the 5×5 routine and use a targeted bodybuilding plan instead.

Are Big Legs Aesthetic?

This is subjective, but in most cases big legs are not considered to be aesthetic. Your legs shouldn’t look skinny, but shouldn’t overpower your signature, goal V-shape by creating a “tree trunk” look either. (Hey, even Arnold’s legs were considered “small” by some standards.) A couple ways to avoid building bulky legs is to either decrease the frequency in which you train your legs or to delay applying additional resistance to leg exercises, even when your lower body has adapted.

Are Deadlifts Good for Aesthetics?

Yes, deadlifts are good for aesthetics. Even though deadlifts work your glutes and lower back which are not considered “aesthetic muscles”, they still work your abdominals, trapezius, forearms, and biceps… which ARE aesthetic muscles.

However, deadlifts are only one exercise in a full workout plan. When you’re planning to begin aesthetics training, be sure to include all the other necessary compound and isolation lifts to build a balanced physique.

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