An Easy Guide To Training For Your Body Type
I hear and see it all too often. Women come to me for a consult and when I ask what their goal is I see their eyes light up with anticipation and inspiration. They reply to me by showing me their phone and a photo of their favourite ‘Fitspo’ asking ‘can you make me look like that?’.
Firstly let’s make this clear, I am all for having defined, concise goals. But I see one big problem with setting a goal based on someone else’s’ body. Normally the women sitting in front of me has a totally different body type than the ‘Fitspo’ they inspire to be.
This lead me to write a post on Instagram lately explaining why, if you train and/or eat exactly like me or your favourite Instagram Fitspo; even if you are consistent for the rest of your life; you may not ever come close to looking the same. Why?! It all comes down to body types…
So here is my easy guide to understanding your body type and how to train and eat to get the best results.
What Are Body Type’s?
Understanding your body type could be the missing link between a training and diet plan being effective, to spending too much time, energy and money on something which isn’t giving you a return on investment. Your body type dictates how you will respond to a training and nutrition program compared to someone who follows exactly the same thing with a different body type.
There are many different ways to categorise body types, but the one I find the easiest to understand is the Ectomorph, Mesomorph and Endomorph types.
Ectomorph (me!)
We all know those people who are naturally lean and tall with long limbs. They were probably the skinny person at school who could eat anything and not put in a single kilo.
Key Features:
Delicate physique
Naturally lean
Lean muscle mass
Can find it hard to gain weight: although can have a higher body-fat percentage than you may expect…‘skinnyfat’ people can fall into this category
Fast metabolism: process carbs efficiently and burn fat easily
Hard gainers: building muscle is notoriously difficult
Mesomorph
Mesomorphs are naturally athletic people and were probably the kid at school always playing sports. They are naturally very strong and fit and find it easy to build muscle.
Key Features:
Athletic physique
‘Hard’ defined bodies
Naturally strong
Gain muscle easily: have very responsive muscle cells
Gain fat more easily than ectomorphs
Endomorphs
Endomorphs are the opposite end of the spectrum to Ectomorphs. They are usually short and stocky with thick arms and legs with a tendency to build muscle extremely easily but also put fat easily on too. They would have been the kid in school who didn’t want to play sports but were naturally very strong and solid regardless.
Key Features:
Soft, round physique
Large bone structure
Gain muscle and fat easily
Slow metabolism
Find it hard to lose fat
Naturally carries weight around their hips and thighs
Like everything in life these body types are on a spectrum and rarely would you find someone who is a ‘perfect’ ecto, meso or endo. Most people fall somewhere in between with a blend of two, although naturally one type is more dominant than the other. No doubt you would have read the above and felt more in line with one than the others – that would be your dominant ‘type’.
So What Next?
Once you have identified your body type the next step is to manipulate your training and nutrition to compliment it. Below is a simple guide to help you make the most of your training depending on your body type:
Ectomorphs
Training:
Use big, compound exercises such as deadlifts, squats, chin ups and bench to maximize muscle recruitment and session intensity and give yourself long resting periods. You don’t want to turn your weights session into a cardio workout! Work in the rep range of 8 – 12: this is the best range to build muscle (hypertrophy) and try to keep your sessions under an hour.
On that note try not to do excessive amounts of cardio; especially long bouts of steady state! You need to give your body a chance to build muscle, and cardio will only counteract this goal in the long run.
Nutrition:
A diet high in carbs and calories is key – basically eat and then eat some more! Eating every 2 – 4 hours works well (I eat about every 2) and chose foods that are nutrient dense like nuts, nut butters bananas, rice etc.
They key is not to use this an excuse to go out and eat junk food or whatever you want, but to still base the majority of your diet around nutrient dense food.
Ectomorphs often misjudge how much food they are actually eating and make the problem worse by consuming less calories than needed to put on muscle. Aim to add a minimum of 500 calories if you want to gain some lean muscle or think you might be under eating.
And if you are struggling to get the calories in opt for protein shakes with carbs added or ‘muscle gainers’ which are high in calories.
Mesomorphs
Training:
Cardio is essential to keep a lean physique and I would suggest a minimum of twice a week to a maximum if 5 times a week depending on your goal and current body composition. A mixture of HIIT and Steady State will get the best results but aim to get the majority as HIIT.
For weight training, chose an athletic style of training for optimal results (power and speed type movements), but most importantly make sure you train with a goal and intensity! It’s easy when you are somewhat ‘gifted’ with an ideal physique to get lazy in the gym but don’t forget you can still put on fat.
Nutrition:
Higher protein diets seem to work well for mesomorphs and you will do well on a diet evenly split between carbs, protein and fat. If you eat a clean diet full of healthy fats and protein and follow a consistent workout plan you can strip fat easily – but by the same token indulge in too much junk food or let training slip and gaining fat can come pretty easily too.
Endomorphs:
Training:
Although endomorphs find it easy to build muscle, they also find it harder to stay lean and will have to constantly work at ‘staying in shape’.
For this reason a good mix of cardio and weights would be suited for you. Cardio should include both steady state (30 – 60 min walks a day) plus HIIT training 2 – 3 times a week.
The aim of weight training should be to build or more likely maintain muscle mass while losing body fat (if body comp is your goal). Reps should be within the mid - high rep range (15+), have little rest between sets and focus on big compound exercises. Circuit style workouts also work well here.
The key is get used to moving! If you want to keep your body composition in check you need to be constantly on the go.
Nutrition:
Endomorphs tend to be insulin sensitive, which can mean high carb food is quickly converted into sugar and stored as fat as opposed to burned for energy.
With this in mind try and get most carbs from vegetables like potato and pumpkin and steer clear of grains and refined sugars. Starting the day with a high protein breakfast is a must and meals should be mainly made up of vegetables, a good source of protein and healthy fats like avocado.
Stay away from carbs for the majority and stick to high protein and fat meals.
So if you are banging your head against a brick wall, training hard and eating well and still not getting results try manipulating your training and program under the above guidelines and see what a difference it can make.