Go to the beach, pool or wherever people like to take off their clothes and you will see some great physiques most of the time. You will see men and women with body fat from 10%-15% look great. The definition and low body fat gives the illusion of more muscle, but the big problem is that all of that muscle is hidden when you wear a lot of clothes.
Truth be told, some people don’t even look like they work out when they wear certain clothes, it hides all a lot of the muscle they have been working so hard for. I’m here to tell you that there are ways to show off all of your hard work in the gym even when you are wearing clothes, you just need to make some tweaks to your wardrobe. This article will show you from head to toe exactly how you need to dress to show off your hard work because let’s face it, we want to look good with and without clothes.
Generally speaking, there are usually 2 extremes in most cases when it comes to the clothing choices of lifters:
1. People who wear clothes that are too big because they think that they are bigger than they really are.
2. People who wear clothes that are way too tight because they think that they are smaller than they are.
I fell in the first trap. At 205lb @ 14% I thought that I was able to wear 2xl shirts and size 40 jeans. I was caught in the trap that to look big you have to dress big and boy was I wrong. Understand that unless you are a monster, wearing clothes that is too big for you in most cases will actually make you look smaller than you actually are. It will look like the clothes is wearing you when it is you who is supposed to be wearing the clothes! It was only in early 2015 that I really learned how to make smarter clothing choices and now people don’t ask me the classic question, “Do you even lift bro?”.
You can’t fake your way big by wearing the right clothes. If you want to have a nice and strong physique then you have to have a good diet, solid training, low stress levels, a lot of rest, discipline, motivation and a good understanding of the lifestyle. Learning how to dress to look better and show off what you have is just like the finishing touch, 99% of the time we are wearing clothes so we might as well look good while we are. Now that we have that out of the way here we go, let’s start from the neck down.
NECK
If there’s one thing that REALLY takes away from your muscularity it definitely has to be wearing loose neck t-shirts. Not only does it make you look like you just got robbed by a high school bully, but it makes you look like you have small traps and a small neck because they can’t even stretch out your t-shirt. Whereas if you were to buy a shirt that was a bit tighter around the neck then it makes you look less goofy and definitely more muscular. If your neck is too small to fit in a tight neck t-shirt, then start training your neck goddammit! I’ve written many articles related to neck training in the past so check them out if you are curious.
SHOULDERS
Shoulders are important for giving you that width across the body. In my experience, I found that wide shoulders have the biggest impact on making you look dramatically bigger and they attract a lot of attention. If the shirt you are looking for is shaped like a V and it is your size, then chances are that it will help you look wider. When buying clothes, you want to wear a shirt that will put some emphasis on your shoulders. Some shirts make you look narrower than others so you will have to see what you could find.
Crew necks are a good place to start for wider shoulders. They are very comfortable and don’t look like you are trying too hard.
ARMPITS/LATS
My shoulders and lats are my best body parts in my opinion and it has always been hard for me to find jackets that are XL that aren’t too tight around the armpit area. Make sure that you have some room in the armpit area when you are wearing a t-shirt, sweater, hoodie or a jacket. Not only will a good fit around the area show off your las better, but you will actually be comfortable and it won’t be a struggle to put your arms up in the air. Around the armpits are one of the places where you can get a little leeway and get a bit of a looser fit because the lats are the biggest muscle in the upper body and they need to breathe too.
ARMS
Arms are one of my weakest points and I rarely ever find a shirt that I could fill in short sleeves. When I wear shirts that are tight around my sleeves it makes my armpit area uncomfortable because it is a more developed part of my body but when I wear a size that could let me armpits get some air, the sleeves of my arms are loose. This is why I am very picky when I shop and you should be a bit too. Nobody is made exactly the same so one shirt that fits or looks good on you may not look good on the next person. The good news is that different clothing companies have different fits. A 2XL Nike t-shirt won’t fit the same way as a 2XL Gap t-shirt.
The solution is to get a t-shirt that is a bit higher up on the upper arm. T-shirts that are too close to the elbows tend to emphasize bony arms while the sleeves that are closer to the upper arm/shoulder area tend to give a more pleasing look.
If you look at the photo above, there is a big difference in the arm development from the left picture to the right one.
Polo shirts usually fit well around the sleeves so that could be a good option when trying to show off your arms a bit more.
WAIST
Out of every tip in this article, the waist is hands down the most important factor because it is basically the center piece of your body. When you wear a t-shirt that is too big it will make your waist look a lot bigger which will take away from the V-taper that we all strive for. This is why they say that if you want to a better looking v-taper then you have to start losing belly fat. Losing one inch off your waist will have a bigger impact on your v-taper than you think. If you have a t-shirt that is 2xl and very loose on the bottom, then chances are that your waist looks 40 inches and it might actually make you look fatter and less muscular while giving you the illusion of smaller shoulders which is exactly the opposite of what we want. What’s the solution? Try to find a jacket or shirt of some kind that fits well around the waist. You want it to be fitted, not tight. Too tight will make you look like you are crying for attention and too big will make you look like a fat-ass, go in between and closer to the tight side. I’ve actually seen a girl downtown who probably didn’t weigh more than 130lb but she was wearing a Levi jean jacket which was padded around the shoulders and pretty tight around the waist and it looked amazing. The crazy thing is that she probably didn’t even lift weights and she probably didn’t have broad shoulders either but just the fact that her jacket was somewhat tight around the waist gave her that V look which looks great on both men and women.
GLUTES
I used to wear t-shirts that basically covered my glutes which looks very bad because what’s the point of doing heavy squats, deadlifts and hip thrusts just to have it all covered by a t-shirt? Your t-shirt could cover a bit of your glutes, but it shouldn’t go any lower than halfway. As a bonus, if your t-shirt goes under your glutes this will make your legs look shorter which will actually give the illusion of you being shorter than you really are which is a big no-no.
As far as the pants or shorts go, anything too big will make it look like you are trying to hide your glutes while anything too small will make you look like you are crying for attention.
If you look at the pictures above you can see that the t-shirt in the left photo is covering the person’s glutes which is a no-no while in the other photo you can see Tom Hardy wearing jeans that aren’t super tight but aren’t super loose either, they are somewhere in between. You are still able to see Tom Hardy’s thighs and the shape of his legs but he is still wearing pants that are somewhat loose so he is still comfortable.
QUADS, HAMSTRINGS AND CALVES
Lastly, your pants can go a bit bigger than you may think compared to the clothes for the upper body, but still somewhat fitted. If your pants are too big it will hide the shape of your muscular thighs and probably make you look like you are fat and shat your pants. Pants that are too small and tight are a huge no-no because not only do they look goofy, but you want your private parts to be able to breathe too. I don’t know about you but suffocating your balls does not scream fitness and health to me.
If you look above, neither of the jeans look good for showing off muscle. The skinny jeans look like they are suffocating the person while the baggy jeans are hiding all of the muscle.
BE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR CLOTHES
This is very important because you may look good wearing certain clothes, but are you comfortable in it? This is the reason why I rather wear my clothes a little looser because I know that I am still growing and I still want to be comfortable.
CONCLUSION:
At the end of the day you can dress how you want and there are probably other ways to show your muscularity even with clothing, this is just one of them. Remember to always be comfortable in what you wear and don’t only wear it because it looks good either. Be on the lookout for a part 2 where I will be discussing this topic in more detail.
Remember that in most cases baggy clothes will hide your muscle and clothes that is too tight looks like you shop in the children’s section. At the end of the day you don’t want to look like a douche-bag walking across the street trying to show of his/her muscles so just wear fitted clothes that looks good and is comfortable, it also won’t look like you are trying too hard. Also learn to distinguish the difference between fitted and tight. Tight clothes look like you are walking around in under-armor and may make you look slimmer while fitted clothes can still show off your muscularity and may even make you look a bit more muscular as well.