Understanding Your Body Type and Training Accordingly

Your friend swears by high-rep, low-weight training. Another buddy transformed his physique with heavy powerlifting three times a week. You tried both approaches and got mediocre results from each.

What gives?

The answer might lie in something you’ve probably heard about but dismissed as pseudoscience: body types, or somatotypes. While the original theory from the 1940s had some serious flaws, modern exercise science has refined these concepts into genuinely useful training frameworks.

What Somatotypes Actually Mean (And Don’t Mean)

Psychologist William Sheldon created the somatotype system in 1940, linking body shapes to personality traits. That personality stuff - garbage. But the physical classifications he identified-ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph-still offer practical value when stripped of their pseudoscientific baggage.

Think of these categories as tendencies rather than destiny. Nobody fits perfectly into one box. You’re likely a blend, maybe 60% ectomorph and 40% mesomorph, or predominantly endomorph with mesomorphic shoulders.

Here’s the quick breakdown:

Ectomorphs have narrow shoulders and hips, long limbs relative to torso length, and typically struggle to gain weight of any kind. Fast metabolism is the hallmark.

Mesomorphs build muscle seemingly by looking at a barbell. Naturally athletic build, medium bone structure, and they respond well to almost any training stimulus.

Endomorphs have wider hips and midsection, gain weight easily (both muscle and fat), and often possess excellent strength but struggle with leanness.

How to Identify Your Dominant Type

Forget online quizzes with arbitrary point systems. Instead, answer these questions honestly:

Question 1: What happened during puberty?

Did you stay skinny no matter how much you ate? Ectomorph tendency. Did you naturally develop muscle definition without trying? Mesomorph. Did you gain weight easily and struggle to lose it? Endomorph.

Question 2: What’s your wrist circumference?

Measure around your wrist just below the bone. For men: under 6 - 5 inches suggests ectomorph, 6. 5-7. 5 inches suggests mesomorph, over 7. 5 inches suggests endomorph. For women: subtract about an inch from each range.

Question 3: Where does fat accumulate first?

Ectomorphs don’t really accumulate much anywhere. Mesomorphs tend toward even distribution. Endomorphs typically see it in the midsection and hips first.

Question 4: How do you respond to training breaks?

Take two weeks off - ectomorphs lose noticeable muscle. Mesomorphs maintain most of what they built. Endomorphs might actually look slightly better initially (less water retention) but regain fat quickly.

Training Strategies for Ectomorphs

If you identified as predominantly ectomorph, your biggest challenge is building and keeping muscle mass. Your nervous system typically recovers faster than your muscles grow, which creates a specific problem: you feel ready to train again before your body has actually adapted.

Step 1: Reduce training frequency

Three full-body sessions per week maximum. Some ectomorphs do better with just two. I know this feels counterintuitive-shouldn’t you train more to build more? No. Your recovery capacity is the bottleneck, not your training volume.

Step 2: Focus on compound movements

Squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, and overhead press should form 80% of your program. Isolation exercises burn calories you can’t afford to waste. Save the bicep curls for later.

Step 3: Keep sets moderate, but heavy

Aim for 4-6 reps on main lifts. Higher rep ranges (12-15) can work against you by burning excessive calories and not providing enough mechanical tension for growth. You need to lift heavy things, period.

Step 4: Limit cardio aggressively

Two 20-minute sessions weekly, maximum - walking doesn’t count-that’s fine. But dedicated cardio sessions compete directly with your muscle-building goals.

Nutrition note: You probably need 500+ calories above maintenance daily. Track it. What feels like “eating a lot” often isn’t.

Training Strategies for Mesomorphs

You lucky bastard. But but-mesomorphs often underperform their potential because everything works okay for them. They never learn to improve.

Step 1: Periodize aggressively

Your body adapts to stimuli faster than other types. What worked last month won’t work next month. Rotate between strength phases (4-6 reps), hypertrophy phases (8-12 reps), and power phases (explosive movements) every 4-6 weeks.

Step 2: Include variety in movements

Swap exercises frequently. Barbell bench one month, dumbbell bench the next, incline variations after that. Your neuromuscular system craves novelty.

Step 3: Push the volume

You can handle more total sets than other body types. Where an ectomorph might do 10 total sets per muscle group weekly, you can often handle 15-20 before overtraining becomes an issue.

Step 4: Don’t neglect conditioning

Your natural athleticism means you can maintain muscle while including significant cardiovascular work. Three to four sessions of 30-minute moderate cardio won’t hurt your gains-and it’ll improve your work capacity for lifting.

The trap to avoid: Don’t get complacent. Many mesomorphs coast on genetics in their twenties, then wonder why they’ve gone soft at 35. Progressive overload still matters.

Training Strategies for Endomorphs

You can build impressive muscle and strength. The challenge is revealing it. Your training needs to accomplish two things simultaneously: build muscle and create enough metabolic stress to manage body composition.

Step 1: Embrace higher training frequency

Four to five sessions weekly works well. Your recovery capacity is actually quite good-endomorphs often have strong hormonal profiles for building. More frequent training also means more calories burned.

Step 2: Use moderate weights for moderate reps

The 8-12 rep range is your sweet spot. Heavy singles and doubles don’t create enough metabolic demand. Very high reps (15-20) can work too, but moderate weights allow you to maintain intensity across more total sets.

Step 3: Minimize rest periods

Keep rest between sets to 60-90 seconds. This maintains elevated heart rate and burns more calories without compromising muscle-building stimulus. Supersets and circuits work well for accessory work.

Step 4: Front-load your cardio

Do 10-15 minutes of moderate cardio before lifting. This depletes some glycogen, pushing your body to mobilize more fat during the session. Four to five dedicated cardio sessions weekly beyond your lifting is reasonable.

Step 5: Consider fasted morning training

Some endomorphs respond well to training in a fasted state. Not mandatory, but worth experimenting with. Keep a small protein shake nearby if energy crashes.

Nutrition note: Carb timing matters more for you than other types. Concentrate starchy carbs around your workouts. Keep other meals focused on protein, vegetables, and healthy fats.

What About Mixed Types?

Most people fall between categories. Here’s how to blend the approaches:

Ecto-mesomorph (skinny but athletic): Train like an ectomorph but include one high-volume day weekly. You can handle more than a pure ectomorph but still need to prioritize recovery.

Endo-mesomorph (naturally strong but thick): Train like an endomorph but with heavier primary lifts. You can build impressive strength-just be honest about body composition goals.

Ecto-endomorph (skinny-fat): This is the trickiest combination. Start with endomorph-style training but eat at a slight deficit. Yes, this means slower muscle gain. But attempting to bulk with this body type typically results in gaining more fat than muscle.

Adjusting Over Time

Your dominant somatotype doesn’t change, but your expression of it does. A skinny 22-year-old ectomorph can become a muscular 35-year-old who looks almost mesomorphic. An endomorph who gets lean and muscular doesn’t become a different body type-they’re an endomorph who trained and ate appropriately.

Reassess every 6-12 months. As you build muscle, your caloric needs change. As you improve conditioning, your recovery capacity improves. Training that worked a year ago might need adjustment.

The goal isn’t to fight your genetics. That’s a losing battle. The goal is to understand what your body responds to and give it exactly that. Some people need heavy weights and lots of food. Others need volume and conditioning. Figure out which category you’re closer to, then train accordingly.

Your results will finally match your effort.