What's Your Body Type?

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

24 Oct 2006 10:30 AM

Do you know what your body type is? We use a lot of different descriptions for body types and they are all usually food related - not entirely sure why that is, but here are the more typical descriptions that we use:

• Pear
• Apple
• Carrot
• Stick

None of these descriptions are particularly attractive and few of us grow up dreaming of the romantic, pear shaped prince or the stick figure princess. The body is can be described many ways whether we are referring to the geometry of them as pyramids, cylinders, cones or rulers or they can be referred to as different parts of the fruit basket. The point is, we use these descriptions to try and describe where most of our weight is stored on our bodies.

The weight may be comprised of fat or muscle or a combination of both. The cone, for example, refers to weight being carried more in the upper body while the pyramid refers to the weight being in the lower body. The hourglass indicates broad shoulders and hips with a narrow waist. The ruler is the lean figure that lacks great curves in the upper or lower body.

So why does it matter if we know what our shape is? After all, we can just look in the mirror and see for ourselves. It's important for us to know because knowing our body type can help us choose a good workout program and in November, we're going to talk about different workouts for different body types.

The following can help you identify your body type based on the shape and we'll reference this again come November, but for now - here is what you need to know:

• If your shape can be described as a ruler, your body type is ectomorph
• If your shape can be described as a cone, your body type is ecto-meso
• If your shape can be described as a hourglass, your body type is mesomorph
• If your shape can be described as a pyramid, your body type is meso-endo
• If your shape can be described as a spoon, your body type is an endomorph

What is your body type?

*Check back here in November for our body type workout suggestions!

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What is my type?

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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