Quest for perfect pecs sends men to gym, plastic surgeon

We all know that big chest and bicep muscles are the goal of just about every man who lifts weights. The ironic thing is that, in reality, most men use these muscle groups much less often than those of the back, legs, and triceps. Here's an interesting article that explains why every man wants to look like Brad Pitt in the movie Troy...

Nice rack, pal.

Hoist the barbells, tailor those T-shirts, and drop and give me 20.

For today's man, it's perfect pecs — or bust.

"The man's obtainable calling card is the chest," said Gregory Joujon-Roche, owner of Holistic Fitness in Los Angeles, who trained Brad Pitt for the movie Troy. "We're the roosters. Chest you can get. A six-pack stomach takes work. It's a guy's muscle."

Male cleavage is all the rage. Not a bloated bodybuilder's bosom, necessarily, but a chiseled sheath of armored flesh that raises eyebrows and not laughter during the bare-chested days of summer.

The army of greased-up, golden pecs is perhaps Troy's most notable achievement. The landscape and swordplay in last weekend's top-grossing film merely set the shirtless scene. Hordes of reviewers — apparently unmoved by the epic plot — peppered their assessment as much on the cast-iron cleavage as the action or cinematography:

"Pitt is rippled (even his hair looks muscular), yet also seems right," from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

" The god he worships would seem to be Nautilus the Machine instead of Zeus the All-Powerful," from the Washington Post.

The 40-year-old Pitt achieved the look through hours of weightlifting and sword-training to portray the warrior Achilles.

Speaking of ancient Greece, Narcissus and Adonis have nothing on today's pec-crazy consumers.

Those desperate to escape the confines of their size "S" T-shirts aren't just pounding the bench press. They're doling out thousands for pec implants, which allow the chicken-chested — or obsessively vain and insecure — to nab a few fake inches on their upper torso.

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, more than 1,700 men had silicone sacs voluntarily shoved into their chests last year, a 158 percent increase from 2002.

Apparently, there are no lengths some men won't go in their hunt for a chiseled look. But is it a trend or a peccadillo of the psyche?

"We're becoming a much more image-obsessed culture," said Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Roberto Olivardia, author of the book The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession.

"A lot of the issues we've seen with women over the years we're seeing with men. Men are having to respond to the cultural pressure of having to look a certain way."

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