Archive for January, 2009

Body Type: Mesomorph Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

This is a continuation of last semester’s series on body types.

The third and final body type is the mesomorph; this body type is the “ideal” one, or what most people look upon as the most genetically favored. They always seem to be at the perfect weight, the athletic look, and have less fat and more muscle than the normal person. If you are a mesomorph, you should be very thankful that you have the easiest to maintain body type; that is not a reason to be lazy or neglect fitness, however. Here are some tips that will help maximize your genetically gifted body.

Nutrition is a key factor in everyone’s life- that includes mesomorphs. It may seem like mesomorphs can eat whatever they want, whenever they want and not show any adverse effects. This is only partially true; while it is true that many times the outward signs of such eating habits do not show, it is the inside of the body that suffers most. Fat does not simply disappear and will stick to anything that it can inside your body, particularly organs. This can become a huge disaster that obviously can go unnoticed, but one that can wreak havoc on your body. So just because someone is skinny certainly does not mean they are healthy. Mesomorphs should pay just as close attention to eating clean as everyone else. It is often necessary though for mesomorphs to eat a good deal of food. While exercising, the body will burn a tremendous amount of calories, and this body type is primed for building muscle and burning fat during this time period. Protein and carbohydrates should be consumed in high quantities as well as calories; sugars should be avoided as should a lot of fat.

Working out as a mesomorph can be very effective and it is fairly simple to change fitness plans based on what features of the body are desired. For example, you might want a lean, toned looking body in which case you should be doing higher repetitions per set. Other mesomorphs might want to gain a lot of muscle and have a bodybuilder type body; this would require eating a lot more calories and lifting heavier weights with fewer repetitions. Results should come easier for a mesomorph than for one of the other body types, but again, if you are lazy, your body cannot respond to idleness and you are wasting a genetically gifted body. The same training principles I gave for the endomorph and ectomorph will also work for the mesomorph; the endomorph techniques will help you stay toned and fit while keeping the fat off, and the ectomorph techniques can aid in building muscle mass. The extremes should be avoided meaning, a mesomorph should be doing cardio and still is able to while gaining mass. A large amount of food should be eaten, but not as much as an ectomorph will need.

Mesomorphs may have the best genes when it comes to body type, but they have no excuse to not work hard to be healthy.