Celeb Body Type Program
Many of us are guilty of looking at celebrities and coveting their body shape. Whether you desire to be built very muscular like Arnold Schwarzenegger, want more of a 'swimmers' body like Ryan Reynolds, or if you're female, would kill for J-Lo's backside, chances are, you've wondered what it would take to get yourself looking like this.
While it's great to look at these celebs for motivation on what you hope to achieve from your workouts, it's important that you be realistic at the same time. Recognizing your own body shape and being able to see it in other people is essential so you know if you could actually physically ever come close to some of your 'ideals'.
For instance, if you're built more like Jessica Biel, you're never going to have a body like that of Eva Longoria. Jessica has a naturally muscular, sport body, while Eva is thin and petite.
While you could potentially turn an Eva-like body into a more muscular type through many years of hard work in the gym, going the other way simply won't work. If you've got a larger bone structure, it's time to accept that you will never be extremely thin, and work with what you've got.
Luckily, with a smart approach to your training, you can make 'what you've got' look incredibly great.
Three Main Body Types
Here are the three main body types and what type of exercise each should focus on.
Mesomorph:
Mesomorph body types are characterized by a natural muscular build. These types don't have to do a lot of work to gain muscle, and tend to be highly energetic and often are more involved in sports or physical activities.
Hollywood mesomorphs include Jessica Simpson (when she's not dieting really hard), Jessica Alba, Alyssa Milano, Madonna, the Rock, Matthew McConaughey, and Will Smith.
These types of people should utilize a workout program that uses moderately high reps, around the 8-12 rep range, as this is what will promote hypertrophy and keep their present muscles shaped well.
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Keep in mind that whether or not these individuals grow even more muscular is going to come down to their diet, so you can control how much muscle you build by keeping total calories in check.
Typically these types will do well with more sprint-type of cardio activities, unless you actually want to decrease size, which you would then want to include some endurance type of activity as well.
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Finally, people in this category should also be adding a good amount of flexibility training to their program, as they typically are quite tight due to their high degree of muscular mass.
Ectomorph:
The next type of body type is the ectomorph, which is characterized by being tall and lanky. These types typically do not build muscle well and if anything they have trouble gaining weight - despite all the calories they might be consuming.
Typical examples of these individuals include Selma Blair, Eva Longoria, Calista Flockhart, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Claire Danes.
The fitness plan for these types should involve weight training - and cardio only meant to maintain already normal heart health (unless you are involved in a competitive sport that requires more cardio, of course).
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Author: Jennifer Nicole Lee 
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When too much cardio is done, this will eat away at precious calories that could have been better used to build more muscle tissue, hence distracting from your goal of adding more shape to your body.
These types are lucky in that they typically don't need to worry about gaining a lot of fat, since that's a hard thing for them to accomplish from the start.
They should focus on keeping their rep range between 5-8 for each set, as this will enable them to develop the most strength and hopefully add more muscle size.
Women should not be scared of adding too much muscle though, because females do not have the hormones needed to do so - so lift heavy!
Another thing to keep in mind is that many males who are ectomorphic in nature are often doing too much weightlifting total, which is just further hindering them. If you are a male and are having a great deal of trouble putting on size, consider scaling back on your volume. You'll likely be amazed at how much better you build muscle after doing so.
Endomorphs:
Finally, the last type of body type to discuss is endomorphs. Endomorphs are the type of people who naturally tend to gain weight and have a very hard time losing weight, despite dieting quite intensely.
These types typically gravitate to doing lots of cardio in hopes this will help them slim down their body, which unfortunately, isn't going to be the best method.
Classic celeb types that have this shape include Drew Barrymore, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lopez, and Britney Spears.
Luckily, with proper training, endomorphs can reshape their body to take on a more muscular curvy appearance that is very attractive to the eye.
What they should be doing is focusing on doing sprint-like cardio as well, as this will help to ramp up their metabolism higher and then hit the weights and lifting as heavy as they can.
Both of these types of activities will get the fat burning process going, along with helping to build more muscle mass.
This is going to be what they want as muscle tissue in itself is a good fat burner since it is more metabolically active, and then also because once the fat has been removed, they will have nice tone and definition.
With the weight training, focus again in the 5-8 rep range, and aim to work each body part twice per week in an upper/lower body part type of split.
Cardio should be performed on off days, paying attention in particular to making sure enough rest time is given between sprints and leg workouts to ensure you are getting sufficient recovery.
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Conclusion
So, next time you see your favorite celeb on TV and wish you could have a body like theirs, make sure you consider body types. There's no point in going after something that isn't really physically achievable, so by recognizing what is and what isn't, you take a step in the right direction.