Body type & workout type

vanessawaw
vanessawaw Posts: 18 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Guys, im having random thoughts.. i just wonder, if workout type will / have effect on changing / reform our body, i see that people who do pilates, gym, swimming and running have a different type of body / muscle form.
For example runner vs gym, usually runner have lean body type, while people who gym, have puffy muscle, people who swim have wider chest, people who do pilates have that slender body type. So if i do only specific type of workout will i have a chance to reform my body / muscle form or it’ll be just genetic? 🤔

I tried google, but result is only ecto, endo and meso 🥺
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Replies

  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Both.
  • littlegreenparrot1
    littlegreenparrot1 Posts: 702 Member
    It depends on what you do, how long you do it for, and genetics.

    I have been a runner for about 15 years, starting in my early 30s. 3/4 times a week, interested in distance rather than speed. I am not lean. The big strong shoulders I developed during childhood/teens whilst I was a regular swimmer are not going to go anywhere. My genetic background is a long tradition of British farm workers, they were sturdy stock.

    I can change my weight, but however much I lost I would never look like a ballerina. Which is fine by me.
    So you can change your shape and size, but I think its important to be realistic.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    Are you talking about professionals? Because yeah, they are good because their genetics work for their specific type of sport.
  • Xellercin
    Xellercin Posts: 924 Member
    Well it's a combo. People with certain body types tend to be better at certain activities and those certain activities build the muscles needed to do them properly.

    So for example, the kind of person who is naturally good at gymnastics will likely have a very different body type from the kind of person who is naturally good at football. Then if they do A LOT of that sport, they will build their body in a way to suit that sport.

    At the more amateur level though, you don't see these differences as much. Someone who takes a casual Pilates class could have any body type, and unless they do a lot of Pilates, won't develop Pilates specific musculature. Also, I'm not sure how many Pilates classes you've been to, but I've seen many overweight Pilates enthusiasts in my time.

    On the flip side, I got my husband to start doing Pilates and his body changed significantly as a result. That said he's very lean, so muscle changes are obvious.

    It's harder to see these differences in musculature if people have a lot of fat covering their muscles. So while my husband is very lean and you can easily just look at him and see which muscles he builds, his BFF is borderline obese and nobody looks at him and sees an athlete, but he's a competitive martial artist. You can instantly see the product of his exercise in his strength, speed, and the precise way he moves, but in street clothes, he just looks like a normal, overweight, middle age man.

    It's the same with lifting weights. Some people genetically put on muscle easily and some don't. The type of people who do put on put on muscle easily tend to get more enthusiastic about weight lifting. I put on muscle *incredibly* easily, especially for a woman, so that's why I got into bulking up when I was younger. My husband does not put on muscle easily even though he lifts weights like crazy and is a billion times stronger than I am. He'll never be big, no matter what he does, he'll get stronger, but he'll never be a huge body-buolder type unless he takes steroids. Likewise I'll never be willowy thin, my body just won't do that, no matter how much Pilates I do.

    So yes, doing activities that focus on certain muscles will build those muscles, which will alter the way you look over time. But if you are looking at the extreme versions of sports, you are far more likely to see genetic body type selection for those sports than just the effect of those sports themselves. Coaches and scouts specifically look for young people with the right body type for specific sports *then* they condition them to optimal form.

    In those cases it's a combo of their natural body type combined with an ASTRONOMICAL amount of working out those specific muscles and eating very specific diets to generate those body types.

    So it's not like a normal person doing a certain activity as a hobby will radically change their body type unless their genes are programmed to in the first place.

    I'll never be built like a ballerina no matter how much ballet I do, and my husband will never be built like a linebacker no matter how much football he plays. But we can both alter how our bodies look and function within a certain adaptive capacity.

  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,743 Member
    It really is both. Genetically, I was gifted with large muscular legs, even before I was very active. I developed my calves initially by biking a lot. When I was a long distance backpacker, they became hiker legs, which has a certain look. Later I became a runner, and the look changed. But they are still large, even though my weight is on the lower end of normal. I lose weight first in my upper body and last in the lower body, so even when I was underweight, I still had the legs of a powerlifter.
  • ciaoder
    ciaoder Posts: 119 Member
    @vanessawaw My question is, what type of workout do you like most? Whatever direction you pick might influence your physique some, but if you choose what you love to do it informs your whole life.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    vanessawaw wrote: »
    Guys, im having random thoughts.. i just wonder, if workout type will / have effect on changing / reform our body, i see that people who do pilates, gym, swimming and running have a different type of body / muscle form.
    For example runner vs gym, usually runner have lean body type, while people who gym, have puffy muscle, people who swim have wider chest, people who do pilates have that slender body type. So if i do only specific type of workout will i have a chance to reform my body / muscle form or it’ll be just genetic? 🤔

    I tried google, but result is only ecto, endo and meso 🥺

    The type of exercise you do and/or training programs you run, along with overall diet and genetics will determine overall physique. Dont' worry about ecto, endo, and mesomorphs...that's all a bunch of BS. Different training protocols just do different things to your body.

    For example, an endurance athlete who doesn't really do anything in the weight room is likely to be thin and lacking musculature and fat (provided they aren't eating everything) because they aren't really doing anything to support muscle growth or maintenance. In contrast a sprinter/jumper/cycling sprinter, etc is going to have more muscular development due to the explosive, quick burst nature of their training.

    Protocols like yoga or pilates are good for developing some body weight strength and provide enough resistance for muscle retention and can also be good for maintaining good bone density. They are also good for developing and maintaining good balance, mobility, and flexibility and some forms of yoga are also very relaxing and calming and good for mental health and meditative practices. There is a finite limit to the amount of muscular overload stress that you can do with these, so they do not result in putting on a great deal of muscle or developing tremendous strength.

    People who "gym" can have physiques that vary quite a bit depending on their training protocols. Not all lifting protocols result in the same kind of physique. The "puffy" muscle folks are running various hypertrophy/bodybuilding training protocols that are designed specifically to put on slabs of muscle. The hypertrophy range is typically 3-4 sets of 8-12...but it's not only the rep and set scheme, it's also volume. Someone lifting specifically for hypertrophy is going to run a high volume program that may consist of 3 or more exercise per muscle group to elicit optimal growth and they are usually in the gym anywhere from 4-6 days per week. Conversely, someone could run a full body program 2-3 days per week and work in the hypertrophy range, but they aren't going to put on the kind of size one would running a true hypertrophy program because it's simply not enough volume to elicit substantial growth...these programs typically consist of 5-6 movements per workout, most of which are compound with very little isolation or supplemental work, making them very efficient for your average Joe/Jane trying to up their fitness game. It is good for maintaining a nice "poolside physique" that is neither "big" and bulky nor small and skinny. Kind of the, "hey...you workout" look without the, "hey...you must spend hours in the gym" thing.

    A powerlifter is going to run training protocols that have them working typically in a low rep range (1-5 typically) at a high % of their max for a particular lift. Their focus is primarily on big compound movements like the deadlift, squat, and bench with some supplemental work, but not nearly the amount of isolation work a bodybuilder would engage in. They tend to develop overall stout and balanced physiques...they get built like a wall and are typically less concerned about aesthetic definition and more focused on optimal strength.

    Then there are people like my buddy who only does kettle bell work along with some body weight stuff. I've been getting more into this lately as well as it is very functional and quite frankly I've gotten a little bored with traditional barbell routines over the last decade. He has been doing this stuff now for years and has developed a very well balanced, athletic physique. The work is not particularly conducive to putting on mass or developing large feats of strength, but it supports outstanding everyday functionality as well as overall athleticism, balance, mobility, and coordination along with functional strength, particularly core strength. His workouts consist primarily of complex ballistic kettle bell movements with a couple of more static (traditional) lifting movements thrown in. He has the physique of a seasoned track and field sprinter or soccer player or some athlete along those lines.

    Also keep in mind that a lot of it comes down to diet. You can do all of the exercise you want, but if your wanting to be lean, you have to eat to be lean...no exercise is going to default to that per the exercise alone. And yes, your genetics play a roll. My wife for example, will never look like a small "skinny" woman unless she gets sick. She genetically carries greater than average muscle mass that she has also worked over her lifetime as an athlete and collegiate soccer and rugby player. Even when she gets very lean, she doesn't look small and skinny due to existing muscle mass and her overall genetic frame which is a powerful one. Her bestie on the other hand looks like she could blow away in the wind and genetically is just tiny framed and has little fat or muscle.

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