ARE YOU EXERCISING AND DIETING RIGHT FOR YOUR BODY TYPE?
Posted by: Pankaj Sharma on: November 17, 2008
SECTION ONE: BODY TYPE
1) My bone structure is:
__ (a) Very Large __ (b) Large to Medium __ (c) Small to Frail
2) My body tends towards:
__ (a) Carrying too much fat __ (b) Being lean and muscular __ (c)
Being too skinny
3) My body looks:
Men answer here:
__ (a) Round and soft __ (b) Square and rugged __ (c) Long and
tenuous
Women answer here:
__ (a) Pear-shaped __ (b) Hourglass-shaped __ (c) Mostly straight up
and down
4) As a child I was:
__ (a) Chubby __ (b) Normal __ (c) Too thin
5) My activity level is:
__ (a) Sedentary __ (b) Fairly Active __ (c) Over active, can’t sit
still
6) My approach to life is:
__ (a) Laid back __ (b) Dynamic __ (c) Worrisome
7) My metabolism is:
__ (a) Slow __ (b) Just right __ (c) Too fast
People tell me:
__ (a) I should lose some weight __ (b) Stay the same, that I look
fine
__ (c) I should gain some weight
9) If you encircle your wrist with your other hand’s middle finger and
thumb:
__ (a) Middle finger and thumb do not touch __ (b) Middle finger and
thumb just touch
__ (c) Middle finger and thumb overlap
10) Concerning my weight, I:
__ (a) Gain weight easily, but find it hard to lose __ (b) Gain or
lose weight fairly easily. Usualy stay about the same weight __ (c)
Have trouble gaining weight
11) I am hungry:
__ (a) Almost all the time __ (b) Just at meal times __ (c) Rarely
12) People would describle me as an:
__ (a) Emotional person __ (b) Physical person __ (c) Intellectual
person
RESULTS
Give yourself a 1 for each A answer, a 2 for each B answer and a 3 for
each C answer. Add them up and divide by 12.
Look below at the number you now have. If you come up with a fraction,
for example 1.5, then you are somewhere in-between those two body types.
And recommendations would be a middle approach.
1
You tend towards being an Endomorph, you biggest concern should be the
losing
of fat and adopting a lifestyle that keeps it off.
Strength training should be done to get a better muscle to fat ratio and
therefore improve metabolism. Use moderate weights at a fast training pace (very
little rest between sets and exercises).
You should lower your calorie intake (but not try to starve yourself)
and should eat frequent but small meals. Sugars, sweets and junk food should be
eliminated from your diet.
Engage daily in some activity like brisk walking, biking, etc., and try
to increase the amount of time you spend each week.
2
You tend towards being a Mesomorph and have a naturally fit body but to
maintain it or improve it you should exercise and diet correctly for your
type.
Strength training can be done more often and for longer sessions then
would be good for an Ectomorph, but you must still be careful not to overdo
it. You should train with moderate to heavy weighs and at a moderate pace,
not resting too long between sets. You will find you gain muscle quite easy
(some women and even men might not want to get too bulky, but this won’t
happen suddenly. When you are happy with your muscle size simply train to maintain it).
Stick to a good healthy diet to keep you lean and muscular, and watch
for any slow creeping fat gains.
Engage in and enjoy aerobic activities, sports, etc. but do not overdo.
3
You tend towards being an Ectomorph, you should concentrate on gaining
weight in the form of good lean muscle tissue (some women that are too
thin may also want to put on a little fat to look more feminine).
Weight training should be done but not too often or for too long each
session. Weight should be fairly heavy and workout pace slower (longer rest
periods between sets).
Diet should be high in calories (good quality food not junk) and you
should eat more then you’re used to and often.
Aerobic and other activities (sports, dancing, etc.) should be kept to a
minimum,
at least until you are happy with your weight and looks.
HISTORY
In the 1940s, Dr. William H. Sheldon introduced the theory of Somatypes.
His theory described three basic human body types: the endomorph,
characterized by a preponderance of bodyfat; the mesomorph, marked by a well-developed
musculature; and the ectomorph, distinguished by a lack of either much
fat or muscle tissue. He did also state that most people were a mixture of
these types.
Sheldon’s description of three body types has become an integral part of
most literature on weight loss, fitness and bodybuilding.
The three body types are further described below.
ECTOMORPH
fragile
thin
flat chest
delicate build
young appearance
tall
lightly muscled
stoop-shouldered
large brain
Has trouble gaining weight.
Muscle growth takes longer.
MESOMORPH
athletic
hard, muscular body
overly mature appearance
rectangular shaped (hourglass shaped for women)
thick skin
upright posture
gains or loses weight easily
grows muscle quickly.
ENDOMORPH
soft body
flabby
underdeveloped muscles
round shaped
over-developed digestive system
trouble losing weight
generally gains muscle easily.
CONCLUSIONS
When you know which type you are (or which mixture) and diet and
exercise correctly for that type, you will make much better progress.
While some women may think that Kate Moss is the ideal, from a fitness
view point she really isn’t. And many women who tend to be endomorphic
will save themselves much suffering by not striving to change themselves
into ectomorphs, it’s not going to happen. Conversly a true ectomorph
who wishes to be a Sumo wrestler would also be in for a big disappointment.
Your goal should be to look as close as possible to (or stay looking
like) a mesomorph. With the correct exercise and diet this can be attainable,
and while you may be a bit upset that you have to work hard to look good
while the true mesomorph looks that way naturally, at least you will still be
fit and look good. And even the mesomorph will find, as he/she gets older
that some exercise and diet is needed if they want to continue to look good
and be fit.
About The Author:
Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com
IMPORTANT – Publication/Reprint Terms
Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including the bio information. Your must also include the hyperlinks to http://www.trulyhuge.com when using this article in newsletters or online.
The Physics Of Weight Lifting. Part 5, Power
Posted by: Pankaj Sharma on: November 17, 2008
copyright © 2008 Paul Becker
In our final installment of this series we’ll look at the formula for power and how to use it to make training more productive. The formula for power is: Force X Distance -:- Time. And is measured in foot-pounds/second.
In the last issue we talked about work and how to calculate your workload for each workout, the first part of the formula for power is the same (Force X Distance), now we add the factor of time.
Now, for the purposes of muscle building we don’t mean increasing lifting speed, this just allows momentum to do the work and not the muscles. All exercises should be preformed slowly and deliberately.
As you will see when we talk about power, we are talking about training intensity. Let’s look how we can increase our workout power (intensity):
1) Use a full range of motion, for example let’s say your full range of motion on the bench press is 2 1/2 feet, that means1 rep (up and down) is 5 feet. And let’s say each rep takes 6 seconds (2 up and 4 down), if you use 250 lbs for 8 reps the power would be – 250 lbs X 40 ft -:- 48 sec = 208.3 ft-lbs/sec.
Now let’s say you cut 3 inches off the range of motion by not bringing the bar all the way down to your chest, this takes 1/2 foot off of each rep. So, if all other factors are the same, the above set now looks like this – 250lbs X 36 ft -:- 48 sec = 187.5 ft-lb/sec. With less range of motion power goes down.
2) Increase the weight you lift, for example, on our full motion bench press (250 lbs X 40 ft -:- 48 sec = 208.3 ft-lbs/sec) if next workout 5 lbs is added , it then looks like this – 255 lbs X 40 ft -:- 48 sec = 212.5 ft-lbs/sec. Lifting more weight increases Power.
3) Decrease time between sets, for example, 3 sets of bench using 250 lbs for 8 reps has the workload of – 250 lbs X 40 ft = 10, 000 ft-lbs. If these 3 sets are done in 10 mins (600 sec) the power is – 10,000 ft-lbs -:- 600 sec = 16.7 ft-lbs/sec.
If by decreasing rest time those same 3 sets are done in 6 mins (360 sec) then the power is – 10, 000 ft-lbs -:- 360 sec = 27.8 ft-lbs/sec.
About The Author:
Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com
IMPORTANT – Publication/Reprint Terms
Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including the bio information. Your must also include the hyperlinks to http://www.trulyhuge.com when using this article in newsletters or online.
The Physics Of Weight Lifting. Part 4, Work
Posted by: Pankaj Sharma on: November 17, 2008
In part 4 of this series we’ll look at the formula for work and how we can use it to monitor our training. The formula for work is: Force X Distance.
When we workout we use a certain amount of muscular force to lift a weight across a certain distance, the work done is measured in Foot/Pounds. If we kept track of the work we do each workout it will tell us much about our progress and also how we should proceed with our training. You can measure the work done each workout in the following way:
1. Take an empty bar and do the full range motion for each exercise you are currently doing in your workout, have your training partner measure the distance (e.g., how far is it from the bar being on your chest to it being at full extension for the bench press, how far is it from the bar being on the ground to when you are standing up with it on the deadlift, etc.) and write down all these measurements. When there is an exercise that the movement is in an arc, like curls, you will have to find a way to measure the distance of the arc, you might want to take some chalk and do the motion against a wall and then measure the arc of the line you drew, or some other bright idea on measuring the distance of an exercise that travels in an arc.
2. Now the next time you workout you can figure the amount of work done (called workload), just take the reps done on your first set and times it by the distance (this would be twice the distance of the distance you measured, since one rep is both down and up), for example, if one rep down and up on the squat is 7 feet and you did 10 reps that would be 70 feet. Now take the weight lifted and times it by the distance, for example if you squatted 265 lbs: 265 lbs X 70 ft = 18,550 ft/lbs.
3. Take every set of the workout and used the same formula (F X D) and you will know the workload for each set add the workloads of all the sets and you will have the total workload of that one training session.
Now when you keep track of your workload each workout in this way you can see that as you get stronger your workload increases, you will also see that you can monitor how much workload you can handle each week before overtraining sets in. Just watch yourself for signs of overtraining and see where you workload is at.
You can increase or decrease your workload as you feel is necessary, and you can see that not all sets are created equal – a set of curls is much less work then a set of squats or deadlifts. You can also vary the workload from workout to workout, may alternating heavier with lighter sessions.
Keeping track of your workload will give you a much insight and the ability to predict things in your training, experiment with it and you will learn much more about how useful it is. In the part 5 I’ll expand a bit on this formula.
About The Author:
Paul Becker is a natural (steroid free for life) bodybuilder and fitness consultant. For more information on Bodybuilding and Bodybuilding Supplements visit his website at http://www.trulyhuge.com
IMPORTANT – Publication/Reprint Terms
Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including the bio information. Your must also include the hyperlinks to http://www.trulyhuge.com when using this article in newsletters or online.
Blog Ratings
