What is the best diet & exercise for your body type? (Part One)

Struggling to lose excess weight or wondering just why you can't gain any muscle? To take your physique to the next level it may be helpful to know your body type (somatotype) and how knowing what type it is could influence a successful outcome.  By eating the right foods and exercising in the way that is best for your particular body type success may be closer than you think.  Below you can see the three distinct body types consisting of Ectomorphs, Mesomorphs and Endomorphs.  

In this blog (Part 1) we will help you identify which body type you are. Most people may find they have a mix of types, however, there is usually characteristics of one type that resonates most with each person and this would be classed as your dominant body type. 

Source:Rodale Wellness

ECTOMORPH

• Long, lean and willowy with a small frame
• Small shoulders, chest and buttocks
• Low body fat percentage
• Hard to gain muscle mass
• Low muscular strength levels - finds resistance training a challenge, prefers low slow cardio
• Hard to gain weight 

MESOMORPH

• Gains muscle easily
• Naturally muscular and strong
• Naturally lean
• Broad Shoulders
• Gains fat easier than Ectomorphs

ENDOMORPH

• Harder to lose body fat and to keep it off
• High body fat percentage (may be overweight)
• Body shape more rounder, softer or curvier, or pear shaped
• Gains fat very easily
• Larger shoulders
• Sensitive to processed and refined carbohydrates 

Part 2 of our follow on blog will detail the appropriate training and nutrition that will help you get the most success for each body type.  Be sure not to miss the next blog by subscribing FREE. (On the right hand side of this page)

The building blocks to a better body.........

There is definitely something to take away from the 'Three Little Pigs' children's fairy tale and its not just for children. Children's stories are often written in a way to teach them valuable lessons with characters making mistakes thus helping children to translate them into real life situations.

In the story, the first little piggy was a little bit lazy and grabbed at the first thing he could to build his house. Unfortunately straw isn’t great raw materials for building a house and so the wolf ate him. This is like the person who grabs at the first sugary treat before stopping to think or eats processed foods at every single meal. Yes it gets the job done and you fill you stomach but in the long run the lack of nutrients will keep you constantly craving food and the body will just keep sending you hunger signals.  This little piggy did not put the time and effort into building his house much like those that don't take the time for exercise.  Even those of us who are extremely busy can learn to incorporate exercise into our daily lives so there really is no excuse.

The second little piggy built his house out of wood and yes it was stronger than the straw house, but the wolf still managed to blow the house down and eat the pig, it just took a little more effort on the wolfs part. The second little pig is like the person who still eats processed junk food BUT is “exercising” so its ok?? To some this might sound ok as the exercise will 'burn off' the junk that they are eating. If only it was as simple as that.  

The body constantly needs nutrients to build and repair and get stronger and the fuel that you supply it with and the exercise that you give it will ultimately make up 'You'. If you keep putting the junk and poor quality foods into your body and deny it of all the nutrients it needs and deny it of exercise, it simply WONT be able rebuild you a better body.  Simply put, you cannot out exercise a bad diet, or expect to do well on a good diet with no daily exercise, the two truly go hand in hand.

So that leaves us with the third little piggy who was the one who took his time, put the effort in and sourced the best materials and built himself a house of bricks and eventually outsmarted the big bad wolf. He kept it simple and built a house that would last for years.

To truly build yourself the best, strongest and most robust body (to keep that wolf at bay) does it not make sense to give it the best raw materials (nutrition) possible and the movement (exercise) that it needs and craves?

How to make your dream body a reality

Many people use this time of year to make New Years resolutions and dream about changing their bodies for the better.  Is this one of your resolutions this new year?

Picturing in your mind what you would like to acheive is fantastic but here are a few ways that can help you actually get there.

How committed are you to change? 

Your dream body will not be made overnight so understanding that you will need to commit to make exercise a part of your daily life and improving your diet so you consistently eat well are key to success. This is ultimately what we must strive for.

What do you need to focus on to get there?

Choosing an exercise programme designed for your individual body and personal goals in conjunction with a healthy diet will definitely improve your fitness, body shape and confidence not to mention enhance your mood and stamina. This is where a personal trainer can be invaluable and help you take away the guess work of what to do and when and motivate you to achieve your best.   

If you’re truly serious about your fitness goals make a commitment to yourself to do what it takes to make that happen. Keeping a diary of your exercise, increasing your daily vegetable intake and water consumption can have a big impact.

Remind yourself why you want to make the change

Do you want to be able to keep up with your small children in the park without getting out of breath, wear that size 10 bikini, be confident to stand up and present your work to a room full of people, sleep better? 

These are all achievable with the help of regular exercise and a healthy diet. Get excited about your goals and the final results, but make no mistake, if you don’t consistently exercise and support your training with a healthy diet, those results will never exist outside of your imagination and you’ll never find out how amazing it feels to have achieved them.

Always remind yourself of your goals and just go for it!

2016 Highlights

As we approach the mid point in 2016, we thought we would give you a run down of our top 5 most popular blogs this year in case you have missed them. 

1) Simple at home Fitness Tests, part 1

Our series of four blogs just after the new year, gave you 4 simple fitness tests that covered  aerobic, core, resistance and flexibility that you could try yourself at home.

These were some of our most popular and discussed blogs as you fed back what score you had achieved and how you were going to try and beat it next time. 

If you haven't done these tests then I would recommend giving them ago and if you have see if you have improved.

2) 10 Minute High Intensity (HIIT) workout Video

This video showed you how to have quick but highly effective workout in just 10 minutes. We promise that we will be doing more videos in the second half of 2016.

3) Forget crunches for a flat stomach and try these for fab abs

I raised the point in this blog that endless crunches will most probably not give you a flat stomach!

This blog gave you an example of the importance of rotational exercises that focus on the deep core muscles (namely the Transverse Abdominus and the Obliques) are the secret here ladies.

If you missed this blog first time around I would recommend giving it a try.

If you need any advice on technique or which weights you should be using let us know and we can help you. 

4) Eat the rainbow!

This blog discussed the importance of eating foods which are a 'rainbow of colours' every day. 

Research shows that the vast array of healthy phytochemicals found in fruit and vegetables of various colours offer many astounding health benefits.

A 'rainbow of colours' is trying to pick at least one daily serving of fruit and vegetables from each of the four colour groups – red, orange/ yellow, green, and purple/blue.

Thank you for the feedback on the photo, certainly one of my better ones!

5) Take it outside

This blog written in April talked about my experiences of running Red Hot Personal Training and finding the time to work out myself. 

Based on the comments I received back many of you were inspired by this and headed out to your local park to stretch those legs and some of you also tried out the exercises which was great news.