Strength Training Philosophy Part #4 (Body Type #2)

So the last of the four body types is #2. This is a pretty common body type for a high school athletes who is doing quite a bit of ross training. Many adults who do different  types of workouts (yoga, strength, cardiovascular, etc). If you had to rank the Body types by which one is the best to be, this is it. For the most part someone who is a body type #2 looks to be very functional. They can move around with great efficiency, they appear to have great range of motion, and are coordinated in their movements. 

What this body type typically has however is a “Hole in their Function”. I learned it this way while at Adapt Training. As it turns out I was a body type #2. I was still pretty athletic and since I had been working in the fitness world for nearly a decade before I went to work their I had been able to train in many different modalities. I did not realize how important this was until my mentality on training was changed. I was flexible, strong, had good balance and agility, and was able to do pretty much anything I wanted without any negative impact on my body. 

What I found out however was that I did have one specific weakness in my body. I had a twisted vertebrae in my lower back. It was my L-3. I had injured it back in High school but did not think much of it at the time. In typical High school fashion I just kept going about my business for a few weeks until the pain went away. What happened however, is that my body simple learned how to compensate for the injured vertebrae and it formed some tightness in the muscles of my lower back to protect it. 

Through proper muscular efficiency training I was able to pinpoint that this was the “Hole” in my function. This is the process of how to train a body type #2. You must start to put their body through its full range of motion. Think of obstacle type training. The goal is to literally cause them to fail. By this I mean that they are compensating to cover up for their gap in efficiency. Like my muscles being tight to compensate for my back issue. Once you fatigue the muscles that are creating the compensation, you will usually be able to find the weakness they have. 

I am going to use this picture as an example. here is a very talented athlete. He excels as a runner in Cross County and Track, is a great basketball player, and trains hard nearly eery day. His limitation is his power. He lacks explosiveness in his hips which limits his aility to jump high or far and it is challenging for him to reach high level sprint speeds. 

In the picture I want you to look at his lower back. Notice how from about the middle of his back down to his hips are rounded? The reason for this is he lacks the strength and power in his hip flexors and up near the origins of his Quadriceps to pull his pelvis into a fully flexed position. So there is some visual proof of his lack of power. If he could his entire back would look flat or even some slight extension.  Most coaches would just assume he is not a powerful athlete but they would be greatly mistaken. He actually has a lot of power and the more he increases his muscular efficiency, the more it is going to come out.

So unlike Body types 1, 3, and 4, a body type #2 is a blast to train since you can really get after it right away.

Next up we will go over some examples of what each body type can do. If you think you are a certain body type, give them a shot. 

Soon we will have some programs available that are specific to each body type as well. If you have questions about your body type, let us know and we will help you to understand it.

Also be aware that people can have multiple versions of the body types. You may have signs of body type #4 and #1 in different areas of your body. If this is the case, you are a hybrid and we will discuss how to handle this as well.