How Body Types Affect Fitness Training

Have you been following your fitness plan without seeing any results?

Do you feel your trainer is not good enough just because you haven’t met any goals yet?

Losing a few pounds, getting rid of the extra weight or gaining mass is not a battle easily won. It takes a lot of determination, will power and exertion to reach your goal. But sometimes, even when you’re doing everything that is seemingly right, you don’t see yourself progressing. Why is that?

Just like one size can’t fit all, a homogenous workout routine doesn’t work for all body types. Your body type has a huge role to play in the headway you make in your fitness journey. It determines how well you respond to certain diet plans and workout regimens.

Let’s take a look at the 3 different kinds of body types.

Body types fall under the categories of:

· Ectomorph

· Endomorph

· Mesomorph

It’s important to identify which group you fall under to know which fitness training would help you best.

Ectomorph Body Type

Key Features

  • Lean bodies similar to those of marathon runners
  • Delicate/petite frames
  • Struggle with gaining mass or fat
  • Super-efficient metabolism

Training

If you fall under this category and want to gain muscle mass, be aware of the challenge you’re undertaking because putting on weight is not easy. In order to achieve your fitness goals, you need to engage in compound movements so that you use more groups of muscles collectively.

For instance, if you’re practicing a bicep curl, it’s less likely to help you build muscle because you’re only focusing on the biceps. A bench press is a better exercise for your body type because it engages chest muscles, shoulder muscles, triceps, and elbows. This makes bench press a compound movement.

It’s best to depend heavily on compound movements and add isolated exercises in the middle for more focused improvement in certain areas.

Diet

As far as carbs are concerned, you and your likes can enjoy a free pass to eat anything you like without putting on weight. However, not everything is healthy for you. It’s advised to take fuller meals which contain whole-grain bread and brown rice so that you get protein for muscles. Protein shakes can also give you a much-needed boost.

Endomorph Body Type

Key Features

  • Bulky build
  • Wider frame
  • Heavier and muscled lower half
  • Though there are more muscles, there’s also more fat
  • Greater body strength but finds it hard to become lean
  • Slow metabolism

Training

If you want to get rid of the extra weight and fat, intense aerobic exercises are your jam. This is best suitable for endomorphs because it shocks the body into shedding weight. HIIT (high-intensity interval training) or LISS (low-intensity steady state cardio) are best for reaching your fitness goals.

You need to engage in fuller workouts that focus on more than one areas and fire up your metabolism. Combining hypertrophy—muscle-building with fewer reps and heavier weights—with conditioning will give you the desired results.

Diet

You need to focus more on cutting down carbs to get rid of the fat and include protein meals to support muscle growth. You need to be stricter with the carbs that you do eat and make sure that they’re more complex.

Mesomorph Body Type

Key Features

  • Balance between endomorphs and ectomorphs
  • Can be both muscular or lean
  • Athletic body with sufficient muscle mass

Training

Such body types don’t have to struggle as much with their diet and training because it’s easier for them to lose weight and gain muscle. You don’t have to go overboard with weights and lift heavy. Medium weights will suffice your need to build muscles. To lose as much fat as necessary, it’s important to include some aerobic exercises to ensure there’s enough cardio for warm up.

Diet

Your diet should neither be protein-intensive nor heavy on fat; it should be a balance between both. It’s important to include moderate quantities of carbs to keep your body energized and healthy. Starving yourself from either nutrient is not the best option. Adopt a more balanced approach instead.

Are you looking for more workout tips?

FitEngine is right here to serve all your fitness needs. Be it yoga classes or stretching mobility classes, we’re up to date with all that’s happening in midtown Manhattan!

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