Bonsai Fitness

I have just reached a milestone – 50 posts! – and wanted to make a post about my body type. A lot of this information is sourced from the Bible: The New Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The three main body types are:

The ectomorph, short upper body, longer limbs, tall, lean and low fat storage.

The mesomorph: large chest, solid muscle structure, and great strength

The Endomorph: usually softer bodied, shorter and heavy fat-storage.

Body types

It’s important to note than nobody is just one of the above, but a mix of all three. On a scale of 1 – 7, I’d categorise my own body type around:

Ectomorph (3), Mesopmorph (5), Endomorph (1).

With that in mind, I’m only going to outline notes about the first two body types.

Ectomorph Training
A main factor for the Ectomorph is to gain weight in the form of lean body mass. To make sure all efforts in the gym aren’t vein, be sure to maintain a high level of proper nutrition and in frequently scheduled intervals. Arnie’s Bible recommends:

1. Inlcude plenty of power moves for a program that builds max. mass. Your program should tend toward heavy weight and low reps (6-8 after a proper warm up)
2. Learn to train intensely and make every set count. That way you can keep workouts short and still make substantial gains(perhaps 14 – 16 per major body part rather than 16 – 20)
3. Pay careful attention to nutrition; take in extra calories, especially when doing cardio, be sure to use protein drinks to supplement some meals
4. The main focus here is turning food energy in to mass, so be careful not to burn up excessive energy with other aerobic activities.

Mesomorph Training
This is where I’m glad to be floating around the ‘average’ body type – mesomorphs will find it easier to build muscle mass than the other types, but will have to ensure to include a cariety of exercises in the program so as to develop well proportioned muscles rather than looking like a hulk. For the mesomorph:

1. An emphasis on quality, detail and isolation training, alond with the basic mass and power exercises. You build muscle easily so you can begin working on shape and separation right from the beginning
2. Mesomorphs gain so easily they don’t have to worry much about conserving energy or overtraining. A standard workout fof 16 – 20 sets per body part is fine, and you can train as much or little rest between sets as suits you
3. A balanced diet with plenty of protein which maintains a calorie level that keeps the physique within 10 – 15 pounds of contest weight. No bulking up then having to shred.

-AC.