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How to determine the type of body structure in men. Types of the constitution of the body in men. Learn more about our weight loss programs

Exist three basic somatotic types   - ectomorphic, mesomorphic and endomorphic, which predetermine the physique of a particular person. Somatotype is inherent in us genetically and it is impossible to change it, however, with the help of the right diet and training it is possible to adjust the amount of muscles and the amount of adipose tissue in the body, thereby changing the outlines of your own figure.

That is why, especially in the academic environment, it is often said that the one who was born a lizard will never be a crocodile, figuring out the fact that some people are training, but have reached a plateau in strengthening muscle mass at a certain point. Hormonal, neuronal, nutritional and environmental factors also affect the performance of each person. It is important to know that your body is unique and will always have different responses to training compared to others. The difference in the distribution and number of muscle fibers is only one of several differences in the body of each of them.

In this article, somatic types are analyzed, their differences and features are presented, and recommendations for training for athletes of different body types are given.

Define your body type

Physiologists and sports physicians clearly distinguish three basic types of physique, however in real life most people are difficult to attribute to one of them. In practice somatotypes are often mixed, which determines the presence of a particular athlete of different characteristics.

Exercise physiology: energy, nutrition and human activities. Physiological basis of exercise and sports. Are you thin at the gym with no result? Or stay in the middle, grow or fatten, when you want? All people are equal both before the law and in the spiritual sense. But we are very different between us in relation to the biotype. We are thin, and we can eat an elephant and not get fat. Or gets fat, just looking at food. We can train like animals and do not notice big changes in the mirror.

Or we gain muscle so easily that we have to become less heavy, so we do not get giants. Despite all the unique features, all people are divided into three basic physical types: ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs. We do not always fit into one of them 100%, but for us it is usual to prevail in any of the three and current characteristics of the other two.

Let's consider the basic features of "pure" somatotypes:

  1. Ectomorph- a thin body with thin but long bones, a minimal amount of fatty tissue and an expressionless muscular corset.
  2. Endomorph- more pronounced musculature, together with which in the body there is a significant amount of adipose tissue.
  3. Mesomorph- a massive constitution, strong and well outlined by nature musculature, thick bones. It is easy to gain muscle mass, but with the slightest distortions in the diet appears excess weight in the form of fat.

One of the main characteristics that indicate the type of physique is the thickness of the bone. It is through her that you can determine your own somat, measure the circumference of the hand if it exceeds 20 cm - you are endomorph, less than 17 cm - ectomoph, 17-20 cm - mesomorph.

This physical type determines the type of training and diet required to obtain results: fattening, losing weight, gaining weight or muscular strength. So let's take a closer look at each of the three categories and offer recommendations for training and diet that are appropriate for each of them. Therefore, check which category you are in.

  • He has a low body weight and muscle mass.
  • Narrow bones.
  • He has long arms and legs, shoulders and narrow hips, wrists and small fangs.
  • Slow evolution in the gym: it is difficult to gain weight.
Ectomorph is usually classified as "skinny" and often a source of envy, for being able to eat anything, but does not gain weight due to rapid metabolism. "It looks fantastic, but there are other things to consider," says Mike Matthews. Many ectomorphs do not eat properly.

Find out more:

Ectomorphic somatotype

The constitution of ectomorphs is predetermined by the rapid exchange of substances, due to which they can consume a large amount of food, including products directly leading to a set of fat, and not to get fat. This is both an advantage and a major disadvantage of the ectomorphs, since it is extremely difficult for them to set the muscle mass during training in the gym. However, competently constructed workouts and a well-adjusted diet allow ectomorphs to progress and subsequently receive an athletic figure with a thin waist and broad shoulders.

By making one or two gigantic meals and snacking the rest of the time, they eat a huge amount of calories in main courses and fewer calories than they should in the middle of the snack, - the coach explains. Ideal diet for ectomorphs. If you fall into this category, you probably fight back with the weights, hoping to gain weight. Its genetic programming is that it makes this battle harder to turn nutrients into fat and muscle.

Proper nutrition and learning is the rule of obtaining results, as for everyone. "The fact is that you will have to eat more than you are used to, because the ability of your body to build muscle depends on the amount of food that you eat," says Matthews.

The basic rules of training ectomorphs:


About 75% of success in training ectomorphs depends on nutrition. They need to use a large number of sources of slow carbohydrates, the amount of which should be at least 50% of the total caloric intake. The recommended amount of protein is 3 grams per kilogram of body weight, a calorie surplus of at least 700-800 kcal per day.

Taking protein supplements is important, but not enough. You need to increase your calorie intake so that your body will accumulate more energy than it burns. In a caloric "deficit", the body is more difficult to synthesize protein for building muscle tissue, since calories from supplements are used to "compensate" for the lack of energy for burning. At best, you keep your weight.

Therefore, it is necessary to extrapolate what people are used to thinking about what they need, and begin to get "surplus" food. If you eat any food without fear of fat, start to evaluate better what you swallow. But, since excess calories see localized body fat, you need counterbalances to strengthened nutrition with severe and serious training.

Mesomorphic somatotype

Mesomorph is a common type of normal build, such people are characterized by a relatively wide bone structure and pronounced musculature, even without training for muscle hypertrophy. The only drawback of mesomorphs is the propensity to recruit fat, which occurs with an unbalanced diet.

Ideal training for ectomorphs. Because of your genetics, you need to train more than other guys. Emphasize exercises with heavy loads, a few repetitions and short breaks to rest. "In my experience, thin guys get a small result in training with easier weight training and a lot of repetition," says the American coach.

It is useless to train 5 or 6 times a week: the intensity of training is more important than the frequency for you. Whether your goal is hypertrophy, cross-fit, functionality or training in a chain or boxing may not be right for you. Moderate cardio training to a minimum to provide cardiorespiratory fitness, without sacrificing fat and muscle. Contact the gym instructor or personal trainer.

Mesomorphs can be called winners of the genetic lottery, since they initially have a high potential in power sports. Almost all famous bodybuilders from the golden era of bodybuilding were mesomorphs, the brightest representative of which was Arnold Schverzenegger.

The advantage of mesomorphs is that to achieve results in the gym they need to apply much less effort than athletes with other somatotypes. They will progress with any adequate training program, be it split or fullbudy.

Rapid evolution in the gym: it acquires muscle mass and easily burns fat.

  • He has more pronounced and rounded muscles.
  • Scant weight is normal or slightly above normal.
  • He has broad shoulders, a narrow waist.
  • She does not lose muscle mass as easily and quickly as an ectomorph.
Mike Matthews says that the predominantly mesomorphic type is privileged in nature. "This category includes a high percentage of athletes and bodybuilders," he said. "Because of their great aerobic ability, they get rapid growth and muscle strength and are not predisposed to weight gain."

Principles of training mesomorphs:



It is simpler for mesomorphs in terms of nutrition. They can eat any high-calorie foods, you just need to ensure that the proportion of fat in the diet does not exceed 20% of calories, and do not get carried away by fast carbohydrates (flour and sweet).

How to determine the type of a man's physique?

But nothing in this life comes easily. Nature gives birth from the beginning, but you need to run to cross the finish line. Ideal diet for mesomorphs. They have the advantage of using more flexible and less rigid diets than other physical types. "A mesomorph should not eat as much as an ectomorph, and it gets better results in adding weight and weight with less food," explains Matthews.

Generally, slightly increase your calorie intake if your goal is to gain muscle or cut calories to lose weight. The result is usually quick and visible. Prefer foods with high protein, carbohydrates and "good" fats.

Endomorphic somatotype

The constitution of a typical endomorph is massive, it has both pronounced musculature and a high predisposition to a set of excess weight. Before most endomorphs, when entering a hall, the most common question is getting rid of fat deposits, which can be achieved by prolonged cardio training and changing the diet.

Ideal training for mesomorphs. As we said above, mesomorphs are often the most lively guys in the academy, because the results in the mirror are usually fast and consistent. Regularly exercise and stress high loads and complex exercises.

Make sure that you keep the volume and intensity of training in the ideal range, neither too high nor too low for your scene. Give time to restore muscle between workouts. Overdoing it does not help hypertrophy. Cardio training should be constantly tuned, more or less, depending on the conditioning stage and your goal.

Endomorphs wishing to maintain a "dry" figure, it is necessary to strictly control food, limiting the use of fats and fast carbohydrates. In their diet should be present a large amount of protein, dairy products, cereals and cereals. Optimal proportions are proteins (50%) carbohydrates (40%), fats (10%) of total calories.

Principles of training:

Ectomorphic type of build

Basic physical characteristics.

  • Has a higher body mass or muscle mass.
  • Shoulders, thorax and waist are wide Legs and short arms.
  • It easily tolerates the muscles, strength and fat of the body.
  • He will not lose muscle mass with ease.
  • Usually it is difficult to lose weight.
Endomorphs are naturally large and strong and, as a rule, have the best potential for increasing strength and muscle mass.

This ease of creating muscles has its negative side in fighting weights, because they quickly come to life. Endomorphs are often great athletes. They just need to work, not against their genetics, "Mike Matthews summarizes. Ideal diet for endomorphs.

  • frequent workouts   - Ideally suited system 2 + 1 (two days of training - one day of rest), while the body must be split into splits and work out different muscle groups on separate days;
  • dispersal of metabolism through aerobic exercise   - Run for 15-20 minutes on the warm-up track and 30-40 minutes after the workout, this will spur metabolism and activate the processes of lipolysis (fat burning);
  • use of methods to increase the intensity   - the muscles of the endomorphs are initially hardy and ready for heavy loads, to reduce their adaptation to the training program, constantly increase working weight, practice supersets, negative repetitions, direct and reverse pyramids.

As in other cases, endomorphs need to build a training program on heavy basic exercises - squat, deadlift and bench press. At first, after the beginning of the class, you can not use isolation exercises at all, replacing them with cardio training. Train in this way is rational until the percentage of fat in the body does not decrease to the desired level, after which you can proceed to the target workout of the muscles with insulation.

As with ectomorphs and mesomorphs, the key to an ideal diet for endomorphs is to find a balance point between "input" and "output" energy. That is: the increase in mass or weight requires a greater contribution of calories, whereas for weight loss, a reduction in caloric intake is required.

The main difference from the other two physical types is carbohydrates. The needs of proteins and fats are more or less the same, but priority should be given to complex carbohydrates, which are slowly metabolized and give prolonged energy to the body. And you should also avoid sweets, sweet drinks and fruits with a high glycemic index - which give a quick energy that lasts a little.

There are several varieties of the constitution (physique) of man. Among them - asthenic (or hyposthenic, ectomorphic) type. People with this body structure usually "do not know" what is excess weight. The other side of the coin is the lack of muscle mass. Why is it so difficult for so-called asthenics to develop a muscular frame? How do they get their bodies in order? About everything in turn.

Ideal training for endomorphs. Thanks to my parents for their genetics. Endomorphs tend to gain strength and muscle mass faster than average, and in general they can achieve results with not too heavy workouts that would not be effective for ectomorphs and mesomorphs, "says Mike Matthews.

That is, big guys and big guys tend to get bigger and bigger. In any case, training with exercises with a high load, several repetitions and joints, as a rule, are most indicative. Even because the physical constitution of the endomorphs helps him hard in the gym.

Who are asthenics: the distinctive features of people-ectomorphs.

A typical sign of asthenia is leanness. Even a rich diet with the inclusion of a significant share of sweets and baking does not always contribute to weight gain. Ectomorphs are usually high, but occasionally there are people of medium, even very low stature. They have a weakly developed muscular skeleton, a fatty layer is almost not observed. Torso, face and limbs elongated, elongated, and shoulders and pelvis - narrow.

Cardio training should also be adjusted according to your level of cardiovascular fitness. Because of its light weight, additional gas may be required in an aerobic situation, when the balance is too much. They often have many similarities, such as clearly defined muscles, a face that is not ugly to look at, hands that make very manly and a couple of butts that fill many pants!

Busy every day

It is often asked which of these criteria is most popular among women in general. Several studies have been done to answer this existential question. Well, it seems that more men seem to be in a worse mood than those who are more likely to smile.

Male asthenics always suffer from weight deficiency. Their bones are thin, the thoracic cage is sunken, the ribs protrude. Female representatives who have an asthenic structure of the body, look more like teenagers. Such persons grow old early - because of too rapid metabolism, muscles and skin do not timely atrophy.


Define your body type

It seems that women prefer to look at the body, rather than on the face of a man! Criteria for beauty for many of them would be little childish features, square jaw and wide cheekbones. Wide and strong shoulders, a little smaller, is an ideal combination for many women, but most of them do not like men who are too muscular. find and find the perfect balance, right?

For men with asthenic structure of the body

Because we like it, feel very small and gentle in the arms of our friend! And besides, we understand that this is not a bad man and a man, right? Obviously, every woman has her ideal male body, for example, some prefer a man with a little bacon with a certain abs, simply because they find him more hopeful. Some prefer this with a beard, others will pulsate any hair of his body.

Surprisingly, the type of physique has an impact on the psychological characteristics of man.

Asthenics are characterized by such distinctive features of character:

  • punctuality, scrupulousness and accuracy;
  • conscientiousness and decency towards others;
  • emotionality;
  • shyness (even bashfulness), the tendency to instantly "fall into the paint" in awkward or tense situations;
  • delicacy;
  • sensitivity, vulnerability;
  • suspiciousness and thoughtfulness;
  • insecurity, increased susceptibility to stress.

Interesting! Among asthenics, introverts and artistic natures are more common.

The hyposthenic type of constitution creates a predisposition to the ailments of the respiratory and digestive organs. For example, asthenics often diagnosed with gastrointestinal ulcers, gastritis with reduced acidity. There is a high risk of arterial hypotension, vegetative-vascular dystonia.

What factors prevent the ectomorph from accumulating muscle mass?

Asthenics, as is known, are more difficult for other people to build muscle mass, to develop its strength. There are reasons for this:

  • First, there is initially a noticeable shortage of muscle and adipose tissue - their starting volume is much lower than normal.
  • Secondly, all asthenics are characterized by accelerated metabolism (metabolism), because of what consumed carbohydrates are instantly burned, not having time to transform into a fat resource. This happens even in a state of complete rest.
  • Thirdly, the muscles of the ectomorph are not particularly prone to overgrowth due to anatomical and physiological characteristics.

A person with a hyposthenic physique is forced to make considerable efforts and spend a lot of time to make his muscular frame become embossed outlines. In addition, the achieved result goes "to nothing" much faster than that of people of other types of constitution.


To increase the volume of muscle tissue, we need an integrated approach. It implies a correction of nutrition and a competent selection of sports exercises.

The right food for the ectomorph

Asthenic desire to reduce the number of foods in the diet that are high in fat. We are talking about pork meat, mayonnaise, fast food, chips, excessively sweet and fatty desserts, sausages, whole milk, etc.

The menu is formed, focusing on proteins and other healthy nutrients. Their optimal ratio is:
  1) complex carbohydrates - from 50 to 55%;
  2) proteins (proteins) - from 30 to 35%;
  3) useful fats - about 15%.

Satisfy the need of asthenic in carbohydrates can be at the expense of nuts, various vegetables, rice. The source of quality protein in this case are poultry (turkey, chicken), eggs, kefir. High-quality fats are rich in olive and linseed oil, shrimp, mussels and sea fish.

Observing the balance of basic nutrients, a person helps his body synthesize in more or less sufficient volume its own protein, necessary for the formation of the muscular framework.

What exercises should I pay attention to?

Training for asthenics should be combined with long periods of rest. This is due to the fact that the recovery of forces in ectomorphic people takes much longer. Excessively intense and frequent stress can lead to the exhaustion of the body, rather than making the figure fit.

Important! "Lazy breaks" during sports activities for asthenics are simply necessary - they help to strengthen the effectiveness of exercises.

In the complex of mandatory exercises include adequate strength training. Thanks to them, you can significantly increase muscle mass. Varieties and features of such exercises:

  • monotonous work of muscles with free weights;
  • gradual increase in intensity of loads;
  • improving the technique of implementation.

Endurance and strength must be trained regularly, as the muscular mass of the ectomorphs is lost faster than increases.

Cardio-operations will also be useful, especially to eliminate the stress that asthenics suffer from. In doing so, you must follow simple rules:

  1. Perform aerobic exercise for 15 (maximum 30) minutes not more than three to four times a week.
  2. Training is conducted in the "corridor" of values ​​from 60 to 80% of the personal maximum of the heart rate (or heart rate) in order to prevent burnout, loss of valuable calories.

It is good to practice yoga, pilates, martial arts, tai chi. They contribute to toning and stretching of muscles, optimization of local blood flow and muscle trophism.

So…

Because of the increased metabolism, asthenics differ in harmony, which is often excessive. To the body looked harmonious, one full (mainly carbohydrate-protein) nutrition will not be enough. It is necessary to go in for sports, but here also there are nuances. Before asthenics, in most cases, there is no need to lose weight, but aerobic exercise is necessary as well as strength training.

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