What is a somatotype and what does it have to do with fitness?
A somatotype more or less means the basic shape of your body. Your somatotype can have a big effect on your suitability for particular sports and activities. Being the right shape for certain activities does not guarantee you will succeed but it does help.
Somatotypes can be broken down into the three main body shapes which are:
- Endomorph - a typical endomorph will have wide hips but relatively narrow shoulders also will have a lot of fat on body, arms and legs
- Ectomorph - An ectomorph will normally have narrow shoulders, hips and chest with not much muscle or fat with long thing limbs
- Mesomorph - A mesomorph will generally have wide shoulders with relatively narrow hips a musclular body with not much body fat
There is variations of these as in some cases people are an ectomorph with mesomorph features and vice versa. The variations in somatotype can come in mixes of these three types some people may have some features from all three !
Being one of these somatotypes does not Stop you from doing certain activities but generally people who have a certain somatotype have "the Edge" in activities which favor there body shape such as
- Endomorph - Wrestling , shot putt
- Ectomorph - Long distance running and high jumping
- Mesomorph - Swimming, gymnastics and BODYBUILDING.
You can also customize your workout routine to suit your body type. See our body types article for more information.
Question answered by: bucko91
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