Strength Training Part #4 (Body type 4)

Body type 4 has always been the most challenging to train for me. They are easily categorized by their extreme range of motion. They typically have greater than normal range of motion in their joints. Another good example of this body type is a swimmer. The image that always comes to mind is Michael Phelps getting ready for the start of a race, leaning over on the starting block and swinging his arms back and forth. Thats some extreme range of motion. I was unable to find a good picture of it on Google but this one will do as our token Phelps photo. 

One of the main reasons he is so dominant in the pool is his double jointed elbows and knees. If you watched the olympics you heard that about fifty times. Swimmers spend so much of their time in the pool that they do create great range of motion in their joints, especially the shoulders. However, the issue is the lack of stimulus in the form of impact into the joint from activities such as running

The reason these body types can prove hard to train is that their muscular system has a harder time with the stabilizing of the joints. This can make it difficult if you are training them to be a runner or basketball player or other activities that require significant pressure in the joints. I remember when I ran a Marathon in 2000. I was a body type #2 and the person I ran with was a body type #4. The next day after the race I had some muscle soreness in my calves and legs. She had serious pain in her joints. I made the mistake of running with her for the first 12 miles or so and since it was slower than my normal pace, my muscular system tightened up real bad. I had to stop several times during the remaining 12-14 miles to try and lengthen everything back out. Ultimately she finished before I did but the next day she paid the price. 

Pain symptoms that are common to Body type #4′s are joint pain like we just mentioned, also muscle spasms. Due to their extreme flexibility and range of motion in their joints it is common that if they do repetitive movements such as trimming a hedge, they can develop spasms in their neck or back.

Training a Body type #4 requires you to be very attentive to balance. Not balance exercises but keeping the stimulus to their muscular system balanced. Also you want to be careful about not doing too much integration work until they have become stronger. These more complicated and demanding moves require that they have established some level of stability around the joints in order to reduce the risk of injuring them. When training them to run it is important to not allow them to establish poor gait patterns. They may not be able to run very far for quite some time without stopping to reestablish the proper sequencing of muscles responsible for a proper gait pattern.