Since the start of the popularity of personal trainers in the
1980's sports scientists have seen the value of creating and changing a
personal workout program. Clinical studies have proven that adaptability
when designing a specific program for a specific objective is the best
alternative.
Personal trainers all over the world know that when
they design a program for a client they need to be able to adapt it to
suit the response that they get. It is this adaptability which has not
been fully understood by the weight-loss and muscle gain industry.
If
a personal trainer is designing a program to get their client to lose
fat and gain muscle at the same time, the results that the trainer gets
will be directly proportional to how strictly the client adhered to the
program. But this problem is excluded by personal trainers who know how
to design a program that includes the specific somatotype of the client.
Nobody
is a pure 100% Mesomorph, Ectomorph or Endomorph but rather a mix of
sometimes all three types. However a good program will include the
specific adjustments that are needed when an ectomorph is exercising to
when a mesomorph is doing the same exercise.
Gaining muscle is all
about gaining strength and the stronger a muscle is the bigger it is
however the way that this size is achieved will be different depending
on the somatotype. For example any tall thin ectomorph will not respond
to the same sets and reps of a given exercise as a mesomorph who puts on
muscle very easily will.
This means that the program should be
designed and adapted accordingly. Even if you are training by yourself
and following a specific program you need to make sure that you are
changing it at least every 6 weeks. If you do not do that you will fall
into the dreaded training plateau where you stop improving no matter how
hard you train.
The only way to break through any training
plateau that all bodybuilders reach at some time or another is to change
the way you are training. The body is built to survive and survival is
about adaptability. As soon as your body is able to adapt to a certain
way of training it stops adapting.
If we are training to reach any
specific objective we should use everything at our disposal and using
somatotype to design a specific workout and nutrition program makes
perfect sense. Over the years it has become a prerequisite for creating a
good workout program because we know that it works.
It is usually
the predominantly endomorphic people who live with a higher body-fat
but that can easily be changed with correct nutrition. Any workout
program relies on the nutrition that is given to aid the process.
Changing the lifestyle in order to achieve this new way of eating is
more important than just sticking to a diet.
Any adaptation that
the body is able to achieve from doing regular exercise is only achieved
with nutrition. The food we eat is what enables our body adapt whether
it be to stress of the mind or the body. The truth is that we are what
we eat and we always have been.
The increase in cancer over the
last 100 years and diabetes now the fastest growing disease on the
planet, are all because of the diet that we eat which has changed from
organic to highly processed and that has reduced our immunity. If we
train on a regular basis and eat correctly we will be giving ourselves
the best chance to adapt to the unknown future.
