[Fingers of a Martyr]

blatantly stolen from SC but what the hell?

So which one are you?

A; Ectomoroh - So called hard gainers - small and light but a bit weak when it comes to arm strength
B; Mesomorph - Lean, muscular, triangular shouldered types
C; Endomorph - Larger build who find it easy to bulk up muscle and fat

I'd say i'm very top end b. i'm not fat by any stretch of the imagination but i think i've got that mental health problem when u always see yourself as fat. anorexia or summit :? lol

[Bubba]

What's Stevie Haston got to do with it? Those are just the standard body types innit?

I'm unfortunately a C which doesn't make me ideal climber material.

[Stubbs]

i think i've got that mental health problem when u always see yourself as fat. anorexia or summit :? lol

i think it's called being self conscious, and i think most of the population suffer  

These are end member body types though right? or are you meant to be able to stick yourself in one?

[Fingers of a Martyr]

sorry, in the latest ote he wrote a quite funny article about how he'd started of as an a and has ended up as c. i think he was saying that everyone says u need to be A to ge a great climber but that he's just as good as a C and as he was when he was A.

[account_inactive]

We are all generally a mixture of 2 different types.  Along with muscle mass and fat you have to take into account limb length.  Although Stevie might have bulked up to an ox and then back down to a skinny thing (actually more like the other way round) he did not change his basic body type.  This way of classifying our bodies is called somatotyping.

Somatotyping is a method of description and assessment of the body on three shape and composition scales: endomorphy (relative fatness), mesomorphy (relative musculoskeletal robustness), and ectomorphy (relative linearity)

Here endeth the lecture..............

oh go eat some food fatty :wink:

[vivahate]

i'd say im high B or C. not fat in the everyday sense of the word, but still too fat to pull hard

[moose]

I'm a lolloping, gangley fool, so I guess that's an (a)? - 6'3", around 11.5 stone, and oh so very weak (waiting for the midweek sunderland wall sessions to have an effect - though all I've gained so far is gurning ability).

[Fiend]

Fat and weak

Okay, just weak then.

Actually, type B. The body works fine. It's just the skin and brain that malfunction constantly.

[webbo]

What's Stevie Haston got to do with it? Those are just the standard body types innit?

i guess this would'nt be the first dubious claim he's made. :wink:

[SA Chris]

I'm probably a tall b, verging on a.

[Falling Down]

C.... good for lifting stuff and staying warm in the sea when it's cold

[luckyjez]

eeeerrmm.....i reckon a) for me - as in 'lucky Jez, lucky his legs don't break'.  :roll:

[SamT]

Would like to think B but if I carry on drinking and snacking as I do, I;ll be a C before long.

[RT]

what about girls then, I think none of the above apply?

and what's the point of the classification thing anyway?

[account_inactive]

As I said before :

people are generally a combination of 2 e.g. meso-ecto etc.

The point of somatotyping is to classify correct body types for certain activities by collecting data from a particular population (in this case climbing).  The problem starts when people are attracted to a activity because their body type mimics that somatotype.  This is a problem as statistics often lie or are manipulated.  Just because a large number of people are meso-ecto does not mean that this is the best body for rock climbing it just means that there are more people with this classification. Phew!

Anthropometry is far more telling when it comes to sport.  Somatotyping was constructed in the early 1900's (I think).  Anthropometry looks at limb length, height, weight and body fat and gives us a better picture of the perfect body or at least what attributes are required for performance.  Then again these are always general rules and there are always exceptions.  Look at Johnny Dawes or John Dunne.  Neither has the best body type but have acheived amazing things but because of their shapes they would be limited to certain aspects of our sport.

All in all its not worth worrying too much about it.  Just have fun and enoy what you do.  To take this science to its conclusion we would be scouting 7 year olds to become world champions by 15 :roll:

[Bubba]

what about girls then, I think none of the above apply?

I don't think that these classifications are gender-specific so it applies to both sexes. Are there not skinny tall women and muscly fat women (relatively)...just the same as blokes?

[RT]

Yeah I guess you're right, just didn't see myself as one of those types and unless you're a skinny girl i think most girls have a greater tendancy to carry weight (or use it as an excuse to eat more!)

can you know which type kids will grow into?  So you can tell whether they'll have the better chance of becoming good at certain sports?  Do they do this already in other sports?

[Bubba]

I'm sure somebody posted something on here about some place where they visited schools and select kids for certain sports based upon their physique, etc.

There was an example of a young girl being selected as a rower (i think) and then a few years later won an olympic medal.

I imagine that they'd base it on more than just somatyping though.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

aye, i think dylan or t.h mentioned the rower. i think it was she'd never rowed before in her life, but chosen for genetic talent and 3 years of training later she won a bronze at the olympics. :shock:

[account_inactive]

I'm sure somebody posted something on here about some place where they visited schools and select kids for certain sports based upon their physique, etc.

There was an example of a young girl being selected as a rower (i think) and then a few years later won an olympic medal

Twas I.  

The system looks at anthropometry as part of a bigger picture.  They also test reactions,strength, endurance etc etc in the guise that they are helping find kiddies sports to play whilst finding world class robots to take overthe olympic medal table