French president Emmanuel Macron came out swinging today. In new photos released by his personal photographer, the politician is giving a punching bag the ol’ one-two.
The images have raised many questions — namely whether the punching bag is in fact a euphemism for Vladimir Putin, given his recent call upon Europe to ramp up its response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
But people are also curious as to why the French leader is posting such an overt thirst trap publicly. It’s not like he hasn’t been guilty of it before, though, as fans of chest hair will recall his unbuttoned shirt pictures circa 2022.
The discourse it provoked was so virile it led many to question whether “the carpet” was coming back into fashion. And now, two years on, Macron is bolstering another trend: biceps.
Though Macron cannot be credited for a renewed interest in this specific element of anatomy. The most notable beefcake bringing biceps back to the forefront of our minds is, of course, Jeremy Allen White. He was routinely seen bulging out of his Merz b. Schwanen white T-shirts in FX’s The Bear. Then there’s his co-stars from The Iron Claw, who made headlocks sexy again, as well as Bond-bound Aaron Taylor-Johnson, whose arms look like someone yassified a Greek statue.
But how can a layman acquire presidential-grade muscles of this calibre, and can they do it in time for the sun's out, guns out season? “It’s kind of like when girls ask me how to get a juicy bum really quickly, you need to have some training experience and get overall strength before you start targeting specific muscles,” says Will McLaren, Head Coach KXU London and founder of Manbility. “That will help you build more muscle in general because you’re stronger and able to lift more weight, therefore inducing more muscle building.”
McLaren also advises a carefully curated exercise routine, “I would be choosing exercise that’s specific to the targets. So if that’s biceps, doing big heavy compound movements and then following that up with isolation movements.” This could include a program of chin-ups, supinated dumbbell curls and high plank shoulder taps.
Noticeably absent from McLaren’s suggestions is Macron’s favoured exercise: boxing. “Boxing is actually absolutely terrible for growing muscle,” McLaren says, “it’s a cardiovascular exercise, so it’s more to do with heart rate and technique. Obviously when you get leaner, muscle definition increases because there's less fat around the muscles to show. So, your biceps may look bigger when boxing because you’ve got a lower fat percentage, but you won’t necessarily put on any muscle at all.”
Don’t expect to get Macron-level biceps from just jabs and crosses, then. It seems the French president’s probably appear bigger in this shot because he’s mid-box. “The reason he looks good is because he’s dropped a lot of body fat, therefore his biceps look bigger,” McLaren explains. “To actually build bigger biceps, you have to do some form of resistance training,” he adds.
Good news for Macron, then. Nobody does resistance quite like the French.
