Welcome to January the month of disappointment! Most of us are feeling slightly deflated now the buzz of Christmas is past. We have maybe overspent, and possibly over-indulged. I admit to the latter, but I’m aiming to sort that out in the next few….
‘Do I mean weeks? Or do I mean months?’ You might ask, and do you know what, it doesn’t matter. Now, there’ll be a fair few of you, my partner included who will condemn me for that; these folks like to have a plan, he has already entered a half marathon, next weekend! Good on him! But for us mere mortals, let us look at a realistic way to discover a ‘New Year, new you’.
Be realistic with your aims
Every year after Christmas I hit the gym, and can literally feel the negativity in the room. Just looking at people’s faces, they’re ‘sooo serious’. I’ve seen ladies who are close to tears, and I’ve encountered more than a few aggressive men at January gym sessions; and why is this? Because they are feeling disappointed with themselves, for over-indulging at Christmas. But beating yourself up (or others up), ‘ain’t gonna help!’ These people fail! They give up by the end of January.
Be gentle with yourselves. I’ve just been to a ‘Body Pump’ class and dropped down to a lighter weight as I’ve had two weeks off. There were a few newbies there who ‘hit it hard’. They failed! And had to reduce the weight.
Remember you are doing this for ‘you’, and it’s only ‘you’ that’s putting the pressure on ‘yourself’.
Be realistic for your body type
I’m one of the annoying Mesomorphs! We are the lucky so-and-so’s who bodies kinda look good fairly easily.
MESOMORPH
We tend to have wide shoulders, a narrow waist, relatively thin joints, and round muscle bellies. We have a natural tendency to be fit and relatively muscular. However, this doesn’t mean we don’t have to eat healthy and work-out too. However we can gain muscle and burn fat with comparative ease. Often, over the years, ladies have said to me, “you’re so lucky being thin.” I usually say, “I’m not ‘lucky’ being thin, but, I am lucky in that I like exercise.” If you don’t like exercise, I appreciate it is a lot harder to get the motivation.
ECTOMORPH
Ectomorphs tend to have a lean build, long limbs, and small muscle bellies. An ectomorph tends to be thin, and struggles to gain weight as either body fat or muscle. They can eat piles of food and stay looking the same. They can be strong, but gaining muscle mass, particularly in the calves and forearms is really difficult for them.
ENDOMORPH
The endomorph tends to gain weight and keep it on. Their build is a little wider than an ectomorph or mesomorph, with a thick rib-cage, wide hips, and shorter limbs. They may have more muscle than either of the other body types, but they often struggle to gain it without significant amounts of accompanying body fat. They can work to have some strength advantages due to their additional muscle mass, but becoming lean, will take hard work!
As with everything, there are inbetweeners, so you might be Meso / Ecto, but the point is, bear this in mind when you set yourself an objective, of losing weight or trying to tone up. My friend Helene is an Endomorph, so she really, really, has to watch her weight. If she even looks at chocolate, she gains weight. We went to the gym together loads last January, and my goodness, when she dieted and exercised she got the body of a Goddess, all curvaceous like Marilyn Monroe. I was still there, looking exactly the same as usual with my boyish figure. My conclusion is, find something you enjoy doing as exercise, put a smile on your face, and don’t hammer it, or you’ll be booking up with me sooner than you think! (I’m here if you need me though:))
Here’s a quirky way to gauge which group you fit into, it’s not totally exact but it’ll give you a good clue.
Grip your opposite wrist using the thumb and middle finger. If you’re right-handed, use your right hand to grab your left wrist.
Ectomorph — Thumb and middle finger overlapping with ease.
Mesomorph — Thumb and middle finger touching each other.
Endomorph — Thumb and middle finger doesn’t come into contact.
Please feel that you can sign-up to the blog newsletter, at the top of the page, as I’ll just send you the hyperlink to the latest blog posts as I add them…. Usually fortnightly.