How to Achieve the Perfect Physique

A Blueprint for Your Ideal Body in 2026

If you've ever watched superhero movies, professional martial arts matches, or simply admired those muscular, confident men strolling on the beach and thought, "I want a body like that," then this guide is for you.

You might not believe it, but the gap between you—whether you're skinny or overweight—and those men with perfect physiques isn't as big as you might think. It's not entirely about genes, steroids, or luck. In fact, it's primarily about a combination of three things: effort, consistency, and some techniques.

Don't believe it? Then follow our advice for six months and see what happens. You'll lose body fat, gain muscle, and the next time you take off your shirt, you'll be the center of attention.

To help you get started on your fitness journey, we invited celebrity fitness coach Sergio Pedemonte to share his secrets to achieving the perfect physique. Pedmont is the founder of Your House Fitness and has coached numerous stars, including Gina Rodriguez (of *The Virgin* fame) and O.T. Fagbenle (of *The Handmaid's Tale* and *Black Widow* fame). His job is to help people achieve their best, so you can rest assured he's an expert.

Forget the "genes determine everything" excuse and dare to dream!

Yes, we're not kidding: genes do influence your physique and metabolism. However, some people inevitably exaggerate the importance of genes and thus create self-limiting perceptions about their abilities.

According to Pedmont, your genes primarily determine how quickly you gain muscle and/or lose fat. Most people fall into two categories: those who easily gain weight (whether fat or muscle) and those with extremely fast metabolisms who find it difficult to gain muscle or fat. This isn't as bad as you might think, because you can also leverage your genetic advantages. If you're prone to muscle gain, you'll still see progress even with a moderate calorie surplus or just maintaining your calorie intake; if you struggle to gain weight, now's your only reason to eat more (more on that below).

In short, your genes are something you can leverage, not an insurmountable barrier to your future physique.

Adjust your diet strategically.

It's no coincidence that we put diet before training and cardio. Diet is crucial. Diet determines your physique. So you'd better make sure you're eating right.

We specifically consulted Pedmont on how to create the right diet plan for optimal results, because building a muscular physique is far more complex than simply cutting out fast food lunches:

Monitor calorie intake: You need to know how many calories you're consuming each day and whether you're in a calorie deficit or surplus—with an margin of error of around 100 calories. Pedmont tells us that people often underestimate this number, so accurate calculation is essential. You can download a diet or nutrition app to help you track this data.

Tracking macronutrients: You need to consume enough protein, as it helps repair damaged muscle. Protein is also the most thermogenic of all macronutrients, so a high-protein diet offers significant benefits in terms of calorie intake.

Stop consuming calories from beverages: Drinking high-calorie beverages, such as soda or sugary specialty coffee, is a sure way to fail at weight loss. Drink tea or black coffee, replace soda with naturally flavored sparkling water, and try to drink more water throughout the day. This also helps increase satiety.

Develop a balanced diet that includes vegetables and lean protein: Once you start tracking your calorie intake, you'll realize you simply don't have room for certain foods. Your hamburger with sauce might be delicious, but it takes up a large portion of your daily calorie intake. The solution? Eat more vegetables and lean protein, such as chicken, turkey, and fish. This allows you to eat more while consuming fewer calories.

Do strength training and track your progress.

Weightlifting, resistance training, and bodyweight strength training are crucial, without a doubt. These are the best ways to build muscle, and muscle, in turn, helps burn fat because the more muscle you have, the more calories you need to maintain your body. However, the type of strength training you do is also important.

Pedemonte suggests you focus on compound movements like the bench press, squat, deadlift, and push-up, together with some basic core work. If you're new to weightlifting and don't know where to begin, you can find any number of free programs on the internet, or you can follow Pedemonte's basic template:

• Pick a compound exercise
  
• Perform 5 sets of 10-15 repetitions
  
• Rest from 30 seconds to one minute between sets

This amount of volume will help promote muscle growth while also helping you focus on perfecting your form.

Incorporate a Mix of High- and Low-Intensity Cardio

For the goal of getting ripped, Pedemonte recommends doing two very different types of cardio exercise: high-intensity and low-intensity or steady-state cardio.

High-Intensity Cardio: Sprinting, cycling, rowing, and many fast-action sports like hockey, football, basketball, and soccer all qualify. This type of cardio pushes your heart rate up and creates a nice "afterburn" effect, which will boost your metabolism long after you've stopped training.

If you don't particularly like sports and just want a rubric to get through a gym workout, Pedemonte suggests high-intensity interval training, using a bike, treadmill, or rowing machine for three minutes of high-energy cardio work followed by one-minute recovery, and then repeating the whole session three times, for a total of nine minutes of exercise and three minutes of rest.

Steady-State Cardio: Think hiking, long walks, hill walks, or even a casual bike ride. There are two advantages of steady-state cardio: you'll usually burn more total calories, since you'll be training for longer than with the high-intensity variety, and because you're not pushing your lungs or your muscles to the limit, the recovery time is minimal.

Pedemonte recommends adding in regular walks of 10 to 30 minutes, once or twice a day, to help bolster your calorie burn without punishing your body or impeding muscle recovery between more strenuous workouts.