Exercises for Body Types

Please speak to your doctor before undertaking exercise if you have any health problems. It is always best to exercise under the supervision of a qualified person.

Apple

Apple shapes tend to have a rounder upper body with thinner legs. Although apple body shapes are probably the most likely to gain weight from a poor diet, there are plenty of things that apple body shapes can do to tone up.

The key here is to reduce abdominal body fat storage. There are a number of things you can focus on, especially increasing low level general activity - walking or swimming are low impact forms of training, which can really help.

Full body resistance training can also help - performing squats, lunges, push presses (pressing a weight above the head combined with a squat) with reps (repeats of each move) between 12 and 20. These bigger exercises also have the effect of elevating the heart rate giving the body's energy systems a more demanding workout, raising the metabolism so your body burns off fat more effectively.

Pear

Removing lower body fat is the principle objective for a pear body shape, as well as adding shape to the shoulders, as this will give an hourglass appearance to the body (hourglass is considered the 'ideal' body shape for a lot of people).

Exercises, such as the shoulder presses, press-ups, rear delt-flyes (working the back of the shoulders) and lateral raises (working the outer part of the shoulders) help develop the shoulder area. Aim to perform three to 10 sets of these exercises twice a week.

High-intensity interval training can help remove body fat. Run fast for 20 seconds as hard as you can and walk or jog for 40 seconds. Try this for 10 minutes initially, and increase the total exercise time each week while keeping the same work-to-rest interval.

Hourglass

Sculpting the abdominal area is the key for an hourglass body shape. The exercises that you choose are important: exercises such as the plank, side plank and ab roller roll-outs are a great way of toning this area.

All of these exercises encourage the body to stay strong and toned around the core area. Using these exercises also helps develop good posture rather than a rounded back position, which more traditional crunches and curl-ups or sit-ups can exaggerate.

Inverted Triangle

Developing the leg and the hip region is vital for inverted triangles as this will give more shape to the lower body and take the attention away from wider shoulders.

Generally upper body work should be fairly low in intensity and volume so a mixture of pushing and pulling exercises will suffice. Lower body work is the order of the day, and challenging the body with squat variations, lunges and step-ups, with three sets of 12 repetitions on each of the exercises, will push progress along.

Slender

Slender individuals tend to be quite lean. Cardiovascular exercise may add to this leanness so should not necessarily be the main thing on your programme as it may result in losing too much body fat (and any curves).

Full body resistance training can help develop tone throughout the whole of the body. Due to lower body fat levels, muscle tone will show through effectively so aim to regularly train two to three times a week, and work on the whole body to develop a more toned shape.

Athletic

Ideally, athletic body shapes should avoiding any training that causes too much muscle growth – as any excessive muscle growth may have the effect of making the body look too bulky.

Training in the lower rep ranges, while working on your strength levels is most useful with this body shape as it will only serve to improve your athletic potential.

Big exercises, such as dead lift (an exercise that works the glutes, hamstrings and core), squat and pull-ups can be performed with rep ranges under five; with no more than four to five sets of exercises per session.

Tall

Enhancing posture is vital for tall individuals who can develop a curved upper back and stooped posture. Before any work-out, make sure the back is mobile enough using a foam roller. For an example workout, see the mobility routine on my YouTube channel.

From a training perspective, make sure that you concentrate on developing postural balance around the shoulders. Perform seated rows and other pull-based movements to develop the mid-back area, as well as stretching through the chest and the shoulder region. A good chest stretch can be performed by using a door frame, taking one hand against the frame and turning so you feel a stretch in the front of your shoulder.

Petite

Petite individuals have to be careful of overdevelopment as they have quite small frames. At the same time, petite body shapes can look even smaller if they lose too much weight. The answer is to find an exercise that stops you bulking up but keeps you lean and your posture good.

A balanced programme is key; using a mix of full body resistance training, cardiovascular exercise, such as aerobics, jogging or swimming, as well as Pilates, to help develop the abdominal area without putting on excessive muscle mass.