_ What you need to work on for a body to rival athletes Messrs Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Cristiano Ronaldo._

In American architect Mr Louis Sullivan’s famous design dictum, form follows function. It’s equally true of professional sportsmen’s structures, in accordance with the physiological principle of Said: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. In other words, your body adapts to whatever you repeatedly ask it to do. So it stands to reason that if you do the same things as said sportsmen, then you might be able to look similar.

There are of course limits to how much any individual (the operative word) can replicate another’s anatomy – such as genetics. And it’s true that some sportsmen are born with physical attributes that equip them for success in disciplines that they gravitate towards for that very reason. But too often, the genetics card is played by those who would rather curse their rotten luck and eat another Cronut than put in the effort required. If the chief demand that you make of your body is to mould to the shape of your sofa while binging The Great British Bake Off, then don’t be surprised if your abs lag behind Mr Usain Bolt’s.

With a suitably positive mental attitude, MR PORTER has tapped three top coaches for the game plans that will help you develop specific parts of your body in the manner of these six sporting heroes’ pieces. Whether your results rival theirs, however, is all on you.

Part man, part fish, part magpie, former swimmer Mr Phelps is in possession of 28 medals and a torso like a stingray, with wide shoulders tapering diagonally to a narrow waist. “In the industry, we’d call this V-shaped body,” says Mr Sylvester Savyell (@sylvester_savyell), a personal trainer at the London outpost of transatlantic gym group Equinox. Some of that is Mr Phelps’ natural frame, but a lot of it is hitting his delts and lats with more volume than an Olympic swimming pool. “The repetitive nature of the sport put a lot of strain on his shoulders,” confirms Mr Savyell, who prescribes a triumvirate of moves in order to achieve Phelpsian proportions on land: the tall kneeling shoulder press (“also great for bringing in the core”), the Arnold press, in which you hold the weights under your chin, palms in, and rotate as you lift, and lateral raises. Bringing up your rear delts with face pulls, inverted rows and reverse flyes meanwhile will counteract desk-lubber hunch.

The reigning Olympic lord of the gymnastic rings didn’t acquire guns like the gods of his native Greece by getting a pump on in front of the weights room mirror of a Friday evening. “The best way is to learn the skill of a pull-up, muscle-up or handstand,” says Mr Kemo Marriott (@kemomarriott), London-based founder of health consultancy Holistic Motions and founder of the Brotherhood Training Club. If a pull-up or muscle-up – where you lift then press your upper body above the bar – is beyond you, affix a resistance band to the bar and place your feet in it. Then gradually use weaker bands until you forge the strength to hoist yourself unassisted. “These guys didn’t do bicep curls before performing the skills,” continues Mr Marriott. “Their biceps adapted so that they could perform the skills.” It’s not just about flexing either: the kind of straight-arm holds mastered by Mr Petrounias produce “a ridiculous amount of tension”. Try just holding yourself in the top position on the rings, elbows locked, palms turned outwards. See?

Even a well-documented predilection for McDonald’s chicken nuggets – supposedly 100 a day during the 2008 Beijing Olympics – couldn’t sabotage Mr Bolt’s half-dozen-pack. Thankfully for the retired sprinter and record breaker, who was regularly forced to don unforgivingly skin-tight bodysuits in the interests of aerodynamics, running flat out is a time-efficient double-whammy that simultaneously taxes the stomach muscles harder than any crunch and streamlines the fat that conceals them. “Explosive power draws upon type-II muscle fibres that have a larger propensity for growth and metabolic potential, which is one reason why sprinters are shredded,” says Mr Marriott. Mr Bolt, who suffered with back problems throughout his career, diligently performed core exercises like leg raises, reverse crunches and side-lying clams. But it was the explosiveness of his training – and sprinting – that really contributed to his abs’ dynamite appearance, says Mr Marriott: “Box jumps and bounds in multiple directions will also do the trick.” On your marks.

If it’s hitherto escaped your attention that the Austrian tennis ace has a posterior that should be preserved for posterity, then allow us to serve as bum-pire (sorry). But like all the physical features in this ranking, the world number seven’s double-duty booty is both use and ornament. “Strong glutes not only help players like Dominic get around the court at pace, but also help make their shots as forceful as possible,” says Mr Savyell. Indeed, your glutes – the biggest muscles in your body, and no, that’s not a fat joke – are your seat of power. The benefits therefore of working your butt with multi-directional lunges (which, along with shuttle sprints, tennis matches are effectively a succession of) deadlifts and hip thrusts go beyond distracting opportunely placed line judges. “Training your glutes will help you maintain optimal knee, hip and spine health, plus improve your posture, running technique and overall athletic performance,” avers Mr Savyell. “They’re one of your body’s best assets.” In the toned case of Mr Thiem, at least, that’s incontrovertibly true.

Boxer Mr Joshua’s heavyweight pecs aren’t entirely responsible for his devastating punching power, which is transferred from his tree-like legs through his trunk, but they certainly don’t hurt (unlike his blows). “Push-ups are the classic way to build your chest,” says Mr Noah Neiman (@noahdneiman), co-founder of Rumble, the New York fight club with locations in Flatiron and Noho. For a more contemporary training montage, he also advocates single-arm incline dumbbell bench press, plus both standing and kneeling versions of the landmine press, where you jam one end of a barbell into a corner (or purpose-built holder) and hold the other loaded end. And he particularly loves “power flyes”, a hybrid of a bench press and traditional dumbbell flye, but with a bigger elbow bend – and dumbbell: “It takes the shoulders out of the equation more than a bench and allows you to focus on your chest, while developing the flexibility needed to throw a strong punch.” Float like a butter-flye, sting like an IBF, IBO and WBA champ.

Such a physical specimen is the bronzed soccer superstar, the current holder of the Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best player, that any of his carefully sculpted body parts could have graced this line-up (except his hair, maybe). But we’re pinpointing CR7’s pins, about which Mr Neiman jokes, “I think he even has a museum dedicated to them.” “Gastrocs” are a notorious problem area for bodybuilders, but even the slightest footballers boast enviably fatted calves. That’s because, as Mr Neiman explains, these stubborn muscles respond best to extended time under tension; three sets of 10 calf raises simply can’t compete with 90 minutes of continual running, jumping and changing direction. (Hence why bodybuilders who avoid cardio like the gains-eating plague often struggle.) “Any exercise where you’re bouncing on your toes is going to crush the calves,” adds Mr Neiman, who also recommends the boxing staple of skipping for that reason. Incorporate three-minute rounds of jump rope into your pre-shorts season training.

The men featured in this story are not associated with and do not endorse MR PORTER or the products shown

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