In a world where the concept of ‘nutrigenomics,’ or DNA-based diets, is steadily gaining popularity, it’d seem only natural that you should be adopting a training regimen that works best for your genes and, therefore, body type… right? If you look like this, your body type is this, and this is, thus, how you should eat and train. Unfortunately, no. Similar to how research has failed to show any statistically significant difference in weight loss between overweight people who ‘eat right for their genotype’ and those who do not, body type training appears just about as useful as a sunroof on a submarine.
Here’s the thing. There’s no denying that somatotyping (the system of classification of body types) works great for describing an individual’s physical appearance. Thin and tall? You’re an ectomorph. Short and fat? Endomorph. And if you’re athletic and muscular? Well, you’re a mesomorph. But go beyond this, and the system falls apart — especially when it comes to predicting how well an individual responds to a certain way of training and eating. To find out why let’s explore what body type training is and how the idea was conceived in the first place. And perhaps more importantly, I’m also going to…
