Body Shaping – Body Types

The shape of your body is unique, and it is important to remember that this is because the basic skeletal and muscular form that you have inherited is unchangeable. Features such as your height, foot size, shoulder width and the length and shape of your legs, nose, fingers and toes combine to produce a whole. Each person is an individual, with characteristics and features particular to their genetic make-up.

Body Types:
Although we come in a variety of shapes and sizes, the human body is cast from three basic moulds. Often, features from two or three of these body types are jumbled with our individual characteristics, but it is the more dominant features that slot us into one of the following groups, ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs. Ectomorphs are usually small and slender-framed with long limbs and narrow shoulders, hips and joints. They usually have little muscle or body fat. Mesomorphs have medium to large but compact frames with broader shoulders and pelvic girdle, and well developed muscles. Endomorphs are naturally curvaceous, with more body fat than muscle, wider hips, shorter limbs and a lower centre of gravity than the other two body types.

Self Image:
If you are a little overweight, it can be annoying to hear someone who you think is slim moaning about being overweight. Remember though that this stems from self image. Very few of us actually see ourselves as we really are. We tend to misjudge our bodies with sweeping claims to fatness, even when we have only a spot of excess flab around our midriff to show for it. And although it sounds amazing, the way we behave in everyday life and think others see us often tallies with our self-image. It’s a vicious circle, we think we don’t measure up to the standard beauty ideal so our self-esteem dips again, often so low that we feel we will never have a better body. This in turn causes self-confidence to plummet further, we feel even worse, and so the vicious circle continues.

Taking control of your self-image brings enormous bonuses. And the faster you can do this, the greater the rewards, as speedy results boost your confidence more quickly. But before you undertake a scheme to get into better shape, you must work on your positive thinking, realize your potential by deciding on and accepting your body model, then use this as your goal. Forget conventional beauty ideals, you don’t have to have mile-long legs to have a good figure, and what you already have, your basic shape is great. It just needs perfecting, and this is something that everyone can do.