How to Exercise With a Mesomorph Body Type?
While ectomorphs find gaining weight and muscle mass difficult, endomorphs suffer the opposite problem; mesomorphs land in the middle.
These guys are muscular. Mesomorphs respond well to exercise, and tend to have no trouble gaining or losing weight, whether it be muscle or fat tissue.
Mesomorphs are the envy of their workout partners because they can increase muscle size quickly and with little effort. They have thick bones and muscles, which is what gives them their well-developed shapes. The classic mesomorph has a well-defined chest, a taut abdomen, and shoulders that are larger and broader than the waist. The hips are generally the same width as the shoulders, and the buttocks, thighs, and calves tend to be toned and defined.
Sound like a perfect body? It almost is, by the usual standards of how men are supposed to look. Yet mesomorphs tend to be less flexible than other guys, which can lead to all sorts of joint and muscle injuries. Unlike endomorphs, they tend to store fat evenly all over their bodies. Overweight can be a real concern if the mesomorph loses his typical energy and gets more sedentary than usual, or takes in too many calories.
Cardiovascular disease is a threat to the overweight meso. Men in this category need to always maintain a healthful diet and exercise compulsively.
They also need to pay more attention to cardio routines.
Guys with this body type struggle with endurance activities, but excel at muscle building. They saunter into the gym and stay for a relatively short time. Even if they don’t have a clue what they’re doing, they make tremendous gains. They can basically get away with doing less and achieving more. Yet there are a few things they need to be aware of.
Endurance is a must. Cardiovascular disease can kill the overweight meso. Men with this kind of body have to stay serious about eating nutritiously and exercising regularly. Although aerobic activities are a struggle for these guys, and they tend to dislike it, that’s what they should focus on for at least 30 minutes, 4 days a week.
Don’t get stuck in a rut. A lot of mesomorphs do the same routine over and over because they’re so satisfied with the results. They could do a lot better. Men with this body type should change their rou¬tines often. They should also include pyramid training because it gives the greatest gains in size and strength. At the same time, they’ll probably need to increase their calorie load to get appreciable gains in size.
Beware of damage. Mesomorphs are more prone to overtraining than men with other body types—again, because they get such good results that they start to feel nothing can hurt them. As a rule, they should do fewer sets, and fewer exercises per body part.
Other workout tips for mesomorphs:
- Start with compound exercises, followed by single-joint isolation exercises.
- Strength-train three to six days a week. Mesomorphs looking to gain significant muscle can train up to five or six days a week, but high-volume weight-training should be scheduled appropriately to allow for recovery and maximum muscle growth.
- Choose weights that force workouts into the 10-rep range.
- The more varied the program, the better the quality, proportion, and symmetry of the physique.
- Cycle periods of heavy lifting with periods of lighter weights and lower reps.
- Perform 20 to 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three or four days a week.
- Cycle your training schedule. Mesomorphs can cycle their training by bulking up and gaining muscle mass during the fall and winter months, and then train for fat loss during the spring and summer months, in order to have a lean fit looking physique for the summer. Increase aerobic exercise during times of fat loss. This can be done by increasing the duration for up to 60-minute sessions or by increasing the number of days performed.
- Use a combination of heavy power exercises with shaping exercises when resistance training.
- Plan on 3 to 4 sets of each exercise, with 2 to 4 exercises per body part.
