By Dax Moy
What kind of shape are you in? I'm not enquiring about the status of your health or even how fit you are, rather I want to know specifically about the actual shape of the body you wear day in, day out.
If this question seems a little irrelevant, then consider the following questions fully and honestly:
1. Why do you diet and/or exercise?
2. If you were to look in the mirror and see 'the perfect you', would you still stick to your diet and exercise plan?
To question one, most people answer something along the lines of "To get fit, lose weight and maintain my health." All worthy reasons to follow a health and fitness regime, but are they telling the full truth? Well, judging by the usual response to the second question I'd have to say that most people are lying their butts off (if only such a thing were possible!).
You see, while we might claim that we're exercising for health and fitness, and even convince ourselves that this is true, the reality is that most women would give up exercise in a flash if they thought that they could maintain their figures without it. In fact, many women (and men, too) do just that. They reach their weight or clothing size goals and then quit the programme until the next time it all gets too much to bear. This is the 'yo-yo' we all know and hate.
Our physical appearance is an amazingly powerful motivator when it comes to influencing our health and fitness behaviours. As such, it makes sense that we need to be honest about what we're trying to achieve and be as specific as we can about the end-goal of our efforts. In addition, we also need a clear understanding of where we are starting from in our efforts to achieve the body beautiful. Hence, the question 'What kind of shape are you in?'
There are many different terms that are used to describe the shape of the human body, from the apple, pear and tubular shapes commonly referred to in the popular press to the more scientific classifications of ectomorphs, endomorphs and mesomorphs that the health community uses to describe body composition of patients (see table below).
Apple Generally described a being 'round in the middle' with a waist larger than the hips and thighs
Pear Often described as 'bottom heavy', the pear type is heavier in the hips and thighs with less mass in the upper body
Tube With a build that is 'straight from hip to shoulder' the tube shape is often regarded as the closest to 'ideal', although many women with this type of figure often complain that they lack curves
Ectomorph This group is characterised by having low body-fat levels and a thin structure that finds it hard to put on weight of any kind
Endomorph Generally of larger skeletal structure, this group gains weight most easily, with most of it coming in the form of body fat
Mesomorph Naturally muscular, this group is of middle to large frame and relatively lean
These classifications can be useful when it comes to providing general descriptions about people, yet, like all things general, they tend to oversimplify things and often leave us confused about where we fit in. After all, we're all individuals. We are, quite literally, unique! This means that, contrary to popular belief, there are not just six, seven or even eight body shapes, but billions! One for every person on the planet, in fact.
This means that the 'if you are this shape, then do these exercises' approach, while well intentioned, is going to be wrong for many people and often leave those that follow such advice more frustrated than they were before they started.
Many (if not most) exercise plans that claim they can change your shape are based on the highly fallacious concept of spot reduction. 'Got big hips? Then perform 100 of these a day followed by another 100 of these and you'll slim down and tone up faster than you ever believed possible.' Sound familiar? I bet it does! The problem is that these approaches very rarely, if ever, work. Sure, you'll increase the general tone and strength in the area, but don't ever think that you'll get smaller because of this type of exercise.
Why not? For one very simple reason. Unless a body-part is covered in an excessive amount of adipose tissue (fat), then what you are trying to change is the actual structure of your body. In other words, your skeleton. Now, I ask you, do you really believe that your squats, lunges and leg raises are really going to somehow miraculously reduce your pelvis by 2in?
So, now that we've laid that old myth to rest, let's address what we can do to realistically enhance the body shapes that we've been given.
