What is a Morphic Shape?

Unfortunately your genetic shape can dictate your ability to build muscle. Professionally we group genetic types in top something morphic groups or shapes

Morphic shapes are an individual’s body type. These shapes are grouped in to three categories, but nobody is ever just one singular body type, instead a little of each morphic type is usual.

Here is a breakdown of the morphic shapes

ECTOMORPH
Ectomorphs are characterised by their tall slender frame, with typically narrow shoulders and thin wirey limbs. They are usually always busy and blessed with poor fat storage potential. This type of person tends to store body fat around the abdomen, rarely around the upper body and hardly ever on the legs. In bodybuilding terms ectomorphs are nearly always hard gainers (they struggle to gain muscle). Don’t worry if you fit in to this category, many a superb physique has been sculpted on such a frame.

MESOMORPH
Mesomorphs tend to be the lucky ones with a tendency to having broad shoulders, slim waists and thick limbs. These guys are usually the ones who seem to have to put in little or no effort to build large muscles and change their shape seemingly overnight. The down side to this type of morphic shape is that the increase in muscle can be accompanied by an increase in body fat and this tends to be stored around the body as a whole, making the elusive six pack a real rarity. If you are this shape it is good news in terms of your training, but you will need to be much stricter in the types of foods you consume to avoid looking bulky as opposed to honed.

ENDOMORPHS
Endomorphs are the third morphic type and are generally quite rounded in shape, the type of person who readily gains body fat and often has little energy, quickly looking big and bulky when training. Really this is perhaps the least desirable body type to be because even though muscle is gained much quicker than the ectomorph, body fat is a constant problem, and serious lifetime dietary changes are needed to maintain a great shape.

Which category do you most fit in to? Successful exercise programmes always take in account the body type of the person concerned. If you would like to see some examples of these programmes that help you build muscle, then simply click here