The exercises you should be doing depending on your body type

Are you doing the right type of exercise for your body shape?

Believe it or not but it is actually possible to do the wrong type of exercise.

Now this isn't to say that exercise is bad, but it is possible that certain types of exercise are not beneficial to you depending on your ratio of fat to lean muscle.

If you have a high fat to lean muscle ratio the higher your metabolism will be which decreases as the ratio lowers.

Everyone's body type and ratio is different but people generally fall into three different forms of body type and they are as follows:

Endomorphs

Firstly are the Endomorphs who tend to store more body fat than most people, which can lead to a body or pear shape.

For endomorphs the best type of exercise if that which burns calories rather focusing on strength.

Due to the extra weight they carry putting extra stress on the joints and bones is unadvisable.

Therefore activities like cycling, walking, swimming and low-impact aerobics are considered to be the best.

There can also be psychological advantages to participating in team sports.

Exercising by yourself in the gym surrounded by skinny people isn't going to help.

However, non-competitive team sports when you are side-by-side supportive people will give endomorphs more satisfaction.

Ectomorphs

Ectomorphs are traditionally categorised as thin, lean, long limbed and rarely put on any fat.

For them gaining weight can be harder than losing weight, which involves eating more.

Cindy Bailey, director of physical therapy at Orthopaedic Hospital in LA told Forbes.

For an ecto to gain weight is harder psychologically than for an endo to lose.

They have to eat more, but everything in the media tells them not to.

With this in mind ectos are encouraged to work on muscle mass and tone.

This includes eating more and lifting more weights.

Ectos should also concentrate on resistance training (which focuses on building muscle) and swimming, while lessening the amount of cardio that they do.

Mesomorphs

Lastly are the mesomorphs who are athletic, with next to no fat and have high muscle mass.

Judging by that description you would think that the mesos have it easy but think again, especially for women.

Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., a physiologist and chief science officer at the American Council on Exercise is quoted as saying:

Mesos are going to have an easier time putting on muscle mass but many women find that unattractive.

Mesos who want to lose the bulky look should then give yoga or pilates a go as it will provide a more conditioned routine for the body.

Sticking to a strict diet isn't as necessary for mesos as they have a naturally athletic frame.

Livestrong does however recommend that mesos also try moderate weightlifting and cardio training.

HT Forbes, Health and Style, Stack, Livestrong

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