Each of us has a different body shape. Some people are born thin, while others are born strong. Just like our belly length and metabolic rate, our bone thickness and bone structure are also different. When you want to improve your physique, the more you know about your genetic characteristics, the more likely you are to shape the physique you want.
In the 1940s, psychologist W·H· Sheldon established a set of theories to divide people into three basic body types. Although not everyone can be uniformly classified into a single type, if you understand the characteristics of these body types, you can make the most ideal training plan according to your own body characteristics. The following is a description of these three main body types, and the method of customizing the training plan for each body type.
One or three body types
1. scrawny ectoderm.
Some people seem to be able to eat whatever they want, and a catty of meat is not long. They may be ectodermal. This kind of person is usually born thin, which is a good advantage. But there is also a downside, especially when they try to improve their physique, it is difficult for them to increase their muscle mass.
(ectodermal body type)
Some people think that people with ectoderm are tall and thin. Although many tall people happen to be ectoderms, height itself is not the decisive factor. In fact, body shape depends more on factors such as bone proportion, bone density and metabolism. For example, ectodermal people have relatively narrow shoulders and hips, light bones and faster metabolism, and their wrists, knees and ankles are usually smaller than the average person.
2. Square endosperm.
People with endoderm usually have a big skeleton, a square trunk, a wide waist and fat buttocks. Their joints are usually bulky and their metabolism is slow.
(Endodermal body type)
Unlike ectoderm, for endoderm people, weight gain is often not a problem. Their problem is to get rid of this spell. People of this size must control their diet very hard and do a lot of aerobic exercise if they want to lose weight.
3. Perfect intermediate form.
People with mesoderm figure are lucky. Many of the greatest bodybuilders in history, including Sergio Oliwa, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates and ronnie coleman, are perfect representatives of this figure. They usually have a wide collarbone and a narrow hip, and it is easy to form a mouth-watering "inverted triangle" figure. Their joints are large enough to support the muscles of the whole body, but small enough to create a pleasant visual proportion between the muscles and joints.
(mesodermal type)
If you put Coleman's huge quadriceps on a person with big hips and knees, they won't look so impressive. However, because Coleman's hips are narrow and his knees are small, his quadriceps looks so inhuman. In addition, the metabolism of mesoderm is ideal, which makes people of this size tend to gain muscle rather than gain weight.
Second, training for three body types.
You may not be 100% ectoderm, endoderm or mesoderm, but some type between these three body types. Your body shape may be biased towards ectoderm, but you can become an ectoderm with some mesoderm characteristics by gaining muscle. Or, your body shape may be typical mesoderm, but if you accidentally grow too much fat, it will put you between mesoderm and endoderm.
Having said that, you will always be closer to one of these three bodies. Once you know what kind of body shape you belong to, you can start to make the most suitable training plan according to it.
1. ectodermal body shape training
Ectodermal people have a high metabolic rate, and their bodies burn calories like a melting pot. If you belong to this body type, be careful not to overtraining and make sure that you have enough time to rest and recover. If you try to train two hours a day and six days a week, you are likely to overtrain, and you need to set aside more rest days. In fact, ectoderm should not carry out weight-bearing training for more than two days. Many people think Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are the most ideal arrangements.
Your training time should be short and your training focus should be clear, not like running a marathon. Control the training time within one hour at a time. Focusing on the basic compound movements, each group of movements is repeated 8- 10 times. Forget higher repetitions, dropsets and super groups, and other high-intensity training skills, which will only make it harder for you to recover before the next training. Limit any extra physical activity and rest as much as possible. (Dropsets: refers to a training method. After the weight is exhausted, the weight loss will continue immediately without rest. )
Finally, if you belong to ectodermal body type and want to improve your physique, you should avoid frequent long-term aerobic exercise, which will break down your muscle tissue. If you think it is necessary to do aerobic exercise, limit yourself to warm up for a few minutes during leg activities. Focus your attention on conserving energy, so that you can gain muscles instead of losing them.
2. Endodermal somatotype training
Because people with endoderm body type have slower metabolism, they can usually benefit from more total training, higher training frequency and more aerobic exercise compared with the other two body types.
When endoderm people concentrate on ironing, they tend to store more fat. If you don't care about this, train like a weightlifter, with fewer times and longer breaks between groups. But if you want to lose weight, you should shorten the training time and rest time between groups. If you can skillfully use skills such as dropsets and Super Group, this more compact training rhythm will burn more calories. Of course, there is no need to insist on a higher number of repetitions, but you can try each group of upper body movements 10- 12 times and lower body movements 12-20 times.
Endodermal people can and should choose a considerable proportion of isolated movements while choosing compound movements. Squats and hard rabbis' leg flexion and extension or flying birds can promote metabolism and burn calories. If you are at the end of the endoderm family lineage, you will get the best training effect in terms of body composition by canceling the rest day. On non-strength training days, you should go to the gym or outdoors and try to do aerobic exercise.
3. Mesodermal somatotype training
If you win the genetic lottery-you are very close to the pure mesoderm in any way, then any effort and persistent training you make may produce amazing results. Compared with the other two types of people, you can train longer and stimulate muscle groups more frequently, and get more benefits. But if you don't train hard, you may get nothing.
If you are mesoderm or close to mesoderm, then your training time can be longer, controlled at 60-90 minutes. You can choose compound movements with some isolated movements, and the number of times in each group can be as low as 4-6 times or as high as 15-20 times. Anyway, you are a piece of gold.
Generally speaking, people with mesoderm figure can well simulate the daily training of professional bodybuilders and make great progress because you are basically like them. But you must pay attention to one thing: if you don't use drugs, your training volume and frequency will be less than those of athletes who use drugs, because those drugs are used to increase muscle mass and promote recovery. As far as aerobic exercise is concerned, ectoderm people try to avoid it, endoderm people try to do it, and mesoderm people do it in moderation.