Exercising For Your Body Type and Shape

Everyone’s body can be categorized into three body types or variations of them – endomorph (soft, rounded, bulky, easily puts on weight), mesomorph (athletic-looking, muscular, maintains weight easily), and ectomorph (long, lean, lanky, does not put on weight easily).

These three body types can come in four body shapes based on skeletal structure -- spoon (narrow shoulders, wide hips), cone (wide shoulders, narrow hips), ruler (same measurement for shoulders and hips, thick waist), hourglass (only for women, proportioned shoulders and hips, narrow waist).

Endomorphs
Since male and female endomorphs put on fat easily, they need to add more cardiovascular or aerobics workouts to their exercise routine to keep the fat at bay. Male endomorphs usually have no problem achieving muscle mass, so once they do, their weights programs should have more repetitions (15 to 20) and lighter poundage if they want to achieve a more chiseled and defined look. Female endomorphs may or may not be naturally prone to big muscles. If they are, the lighter weights/more reps program will work for them too. However, many female endomorphs have a double whammy against them – not much muscle with a tendency to get fat quickly. In this case, moderate to heavy poundage with less repetitions (8 to 12) will help the battle of the bulge because more muscle mass means more calories burned even while the body is at rest.

Ectomorphs
Ectomorphs can also get away with the minimum for aerobics (twenty to thirty minutes three times a week) just to maintain a healthy heart and cardiovascular stamina but they need to focus on building muscle mass and strength because that is their weak spot. This means that ectomorphs have to lift moderate to heavy weights at lower reps (8 to 12). Of course, this has to be done gradually and safely.

In summary, endomorphs have to concentrate more on cardiovascular workouts, ectomorphs more on weights, and mesomorphs can equally divide their exercise program between aerobics and weights. “Concentrate more on” does not mean to neglect the other aspects of fitness. For example, just because endomorphs have to focus more on aerobic exercise does not mean they should not lift weights or do stretching exercises

Changing your shape
If you want to change your shape, there are specific ways that you can work out to accentuate the positive and minimize the negative. Keep in mind though that I am only talking about the aesthetic side of exercise not the athletic or health side of things. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your own or the person looking at you. What is beautiful to you may not be so attractive to someone else. My suggestion is do what you think makes you look good. To heck with everyone else. If you think your shape is attractive, more power to you.

Your shape is determined by your skeletal structure, your specific fat distribution pattern and your muscular mass pattern. Obviously, you cannot reshape your bones but you can do something about the fat and muscles. However, any change you achieve will not be permanent. You can only maintain your results for so long as you exercise and eat properly because the reversibility principle of fitness states that you will revert back to your original fitness level and shape when you stop exercising regularly.

Ideally, you want to add muscle mass to narrower areas of your body and lose fat from the wider areas so you can change your shape. Unfortunately, you cannot always manipulate the body exactly the way you want to. It has been observed that it is easier to “spot build” than it is to “spot reduce”. In other words, it is easier to make muscles bigger at specific spots than it is to reduce fat at specific spots.

Cone
Overweight cones store fat mostly in the upper body (this is when they are also called “apples”). The good news is that when they lose weight, they tend to become more proportioned because they lose fat mostly from the upper body and abdomen. Normal weight cones that want a more symmetrical look need to make their leg muscles bigger to balance out their wider shoulders. This is achieved with a weight training program designed for muscle mass (translation: heavy weights).

Spoon
Overweight spoons (or “pears”) have bad news because when they lose weight, their shape doesn’t change. They just go from being big spoons to small spoons. They lose fat all over instead of only in the lower body. However, a spoon can change her shape (this is mostly a woman’s problem) by building muscle mass in her upper body (chest, shoulders, arms, upper back). Successful spoons can achieve an hourglass shape.

Ruler
Overweight rulers store fat mostly around the abdomen. Lucky for them the fat stored there have more beta or fat-releasing receptors that respond well to diet and exercise. Male rulers who want to look more cone-like or female rulers who want to look more like hourglasses have to focus on making the muscles of their “wings” or sides of the upper back (latissimus dorsi) more prominent so the waist looks smaller.

Hourglass
An overweight hourglass is simply a bigger hourglass. The proportions tend to stay the same, just bigger. An endomorphic hourglass needs to concentrate on keeping weight at a normal level and muscles toned and tight. Ectomorphic hourglasses may want to make muscles bigger so they don’t look so thin.

Continue reading here: Yoga Becoming a Competitive Sport

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