I recently read an article about training for your specific body type and I thought, "Huh?" But after reading it was a little interesting because when you look around you see so many different shapes, sizes and builds. So it makes sense that there is a list out there of "body types".
It was actually created by Dr. William Sheldon in the 1940's. Confusingly enough, he says that "most" of the population is a "mixture" of these three somatotypes. Well, that doesn't help. Much.
But if you fit into one of these categories and hopefully just two, then I bet you could better design individualized training. We all know you should eat clean and move often. But how, what, when, where are different for body types. (Apparently. I'm new to this).
There is an ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph. I am a mesomorph (or mutt-mix of mesomorph & endomorph). A hybrid, if you will.
Basically:
Ectomorphs
- Fragile
- Thin
- Flat chest
- Delicate build
- Young appearance
- Tall
- Lightly muscled
- Stoop-shouldered
- Large brain (wait, maybe I'm a mix of all three...hmm)
- Has trouble gaining weight
- Muscle growth takes longer
Mesomorphs
- Athletic
- Hard, muscular body
- Overly mature appearance (shut up)
- Rectangular shaped (hourglass shaped for women)
- Thick skin
- Upright posture
- Gains or loses weight easily
- Grows muscle quickly
Endomorphs
- Soft body
- Flabby
- Underdeveloped muscles
- Round shaped
- Over-developed digestive system
- Trouble losing weight
- Generally gains muscle easily
What I can take away from this:
(1) I am not Kate Moss
(2) I never could be
(3) I should stop eating chocolate
(4) I add muscle easily but it can be harder to shed fat. Examine #3 again.
(5) Do moderate cardio in the mornings, heavy cardio in the afternoon or evenings.
(6) Stop eating chocolate
I know there is more to this "body type" thing and in fact there are like 1800 variations of these three somatotypes. I definitely have the hour glass thing going on, but being so short I tend to have more 'sand' on the bottom, if you know what I mean.
Which body type are you?
If you actually care, check this out Body Type
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