Lesson video

Hi there.

Welcome to your lesson today.

Today's lesson is on Somatotypes.

My name's Ms. Hackey and I'm really looking forward to being your teacher today.

So by the end of today's lesson, I'm hoping that we can identify and describe the characteristics of an ectomorph, a mesomorph and an endomorph body type.

Our keywords today include somatotype, which is a method of classifying body type.

An endomorph, which is a somatotype characterized by a pear shaped body, fatness and wide hips, narrow shoulders.

A mesomorph is a somatotype characterized by muscle, a muscular appearance with wide shoulders and narrow hips.

And an ectomorph is a somatotype characterized by being tall and thin with narrow shoulders and narrow hips.

Body composition is a percentage of body weight, which is fat and non-fat, muscle and bone.

Today's lesson is split into three parts.

In the first part we're going to describe characteristics of an ectomorph.

In the second part, we're going to describe characteristics of a mesomorph, and in the third part, we're going to describe characteristics of an endomorph.

Let's get started.

So somatotypes is a way of grouping people into different body types.

There are three main categories based on similar physical traits.

They are ectomorph, say it with me, ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph.

An ectomorph is often characterized by someone with lean, thin body, narrow shoulders and hips and little amount of fat or muscle.

So we notice that they're ectomorphs because they're so thin and usually quite tall.

They often have long legs and long arms. The way to remember ectomorph I find, and I think Alex is helping us here too, is that it has a T in it, ectomorph.

And the T in ectomorph reminds me of the T for thin body shape.

So the T in ectomorph is reminding us that it's T for thin.

Okay, let's have a go at a check, which is not a typical ectomorph characteristic? Is it A, narrow hips, B, large muscle mass, C, Long arms or D, a lean body.

That's right, it's a large muscle mass.

Ectomorphs have very little muscle on their body.

They're very thin and lean.

Well done if you got that correct.

So often, certain activities are suited to certain body types and activities suited to an ectomorph body shape include long distance running or a triathlon.

Now Alex has asked, "What do these activities have in common?" So ectomorphs are usually more suited to endurance events because having longer limbs means a greater stride or arm length, meaning less effort to cover more ground quickly, eg, with rowing, for example, with rowing or with running.

So running, there's a bigger stride length because they have long limbs, long legs, and again with rowing they have a bigger arm length in order to move the boat quicker with less effort.

Also being lean means that they have less weight to carry so they can run faster in endurance events.

If you think someone with a really large body mass or a lot of body fat in their body composition, is gonna be harder for them to keep going at a constant pace round say a marathon because it's very heavy.

They've got their whole body to carry and that can be very heavy and it could cause problems with their joints.

So actually endurance runners or endurance event athletes tend to be ectomorphs where they're thinner and leaner because they're not carrying as much body weight, also being more streamlined by having a narrow waist and shoulders can develop speed for endurance events too.

So not being sort of too wide and being really narrow means that they can keep up that speed when going over endurance events.

Okay, let's have a go at a check, which activity would be most suited to an ectomorphic body shape? A, B, or C? Yeah, that's right, C, the marathon runners would be more suited for the ectomorph body shape because A and B would probably need more muscle, more muscle mass to be a hurdler and a boxer, you would need more muscle in order to be successful in that sport.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, now it's your turn to have a go at to task.

Can you list two traits of an ectomorphic body shape? And for the second part of the task, I'd like you to explain how suitable different types of running events may be suited to ectomorph.

When you're answering a longer exam style question, you need to remember to BUC the question, box the command word, underline the knowledge and circle the context.

So for this part two of the task, could you have a go at BUCing the question? I'm hoping that you've boxed the word explain, you've underlined the ectomorph and you've running events.

And when answering this question, you might have started to think about different types of running events.

For example, an endurance runner such as a marathon runner or a sprinter such as 100 meter sprinter.

And as Alex has reminded us, you may wish to think about why these runners commonly have the body shapes that they have.

You may wish to pause a video now to give yourself time to complete the task.

Okay, so you were asked to list two traits of an ectomorphic body shape.

You might have said a lean, thin body, little amounts of fat or muscle, narrow shoulders and narrow hips and long legs and arms. Well done if you put two of those traits down.

For the second part of the task, you are asked to discuss how suitable different types of running events may be suited to an ectomorph.

Now I'm hoping the first thing you did with that question is highlight types of running events because it hasn't been specific, the question hasn't been specific in asking you which type of event.

So by highlighting the types of running events, you're able to acknowledge that there are different versions of running events and therefore the ectomorph might be suited to one type of running event but not the other.

And that's probably what you're going to discuss.

So by identifying different types of runners, different types of running events, that might help structure your answer a little bit.

So here I've identified an endurance runner, for example, a marathon runner and also a sprinter, 100 meter sprinter.

And Alex has mentioned that we need to think about why these runners commonly have the body shapes they have.

Why do they not have the same body shape? Have a little think about that and maybe add to your answer.

So you might have said something along these lines.

A marathon runner would benefit from an ectomorph body shape by having a lean, lightweight build with little body fat enables a marathon runner to move more efficiently over a long distance.

However, an ectomorph body shape would not be suitable for 100 meter sprinter as they have a lack of muscle, meaning a lack of speed and power to gain a fast time over a short distance.

So this answer has really discussed the different types of running, marathon runner, sprinter and the different types of body shape and which body shape is more suited for an ectomorph.

So well done if you discussed those points.

Okay, we're now moving on to the second part of today's lesson.

We're going to describe characteristics of a mesomorph.

A mesomorph is often characterized as someone with high amounts of muscle, a thin waist and broad shoulders.

And Izzy's reminded us that we can remember the m for mesomorphs that have big m for muscles.

So I always remember that mesomorphs have muscles because the M and M link together.

Okay, true or false, a mesomorph is often thin and lean.

Yeah, that's false, can you tell me why? Yeah, mesomorphic body shapes have a high amount of muscle rather than being really thin.

So well done if you put something along those lines.

Activities suited to a mesomorphic body shape include boxing, swimming, but we need to make sure we're being specific with our swimming event.

A sprint swimmer would definitely have a mesomorphic body shape, whereas maybe a long distance swimmer might have more of an ectomorphic body shape.

Someone that does a lot of weight lifting would have a mesomorph body shape.

A gymnast would have a mesomorph body shape and obviously a sprinter like we discussed in task A, they would need strong muscles in order to push off and get a faster time over a shorter distance.

Some activities will have traits of different body shapes.

So for example, a long jump athlete benefits from a lean ectomorph body to glide through the air, but combined with the mesomorph traits like powerful muscular legs for an explosive takeoff.

So having the mesomorph legs were able to make her jump higher, but because she's an ectomorph and she's lighter, she might fly further through the air.

So there are combinations of different types of bodies.

Can you think of any other examples where it might be useful to have two different body types? Okay, let's have a go at a check.

Which activity is most suited to a mesomorph? A, B, or C? Yeah, that's right.

A, obviously a weightlifter lifting that amount of weights will need a lot of muscles and we know that a mesomorph has a big muscular body, so it would definitely be A, as opposed to the cyclist, the long distance cyclist and the long distance runner as well, 'cause they would be ectomorph body shapes.

Okay, now it's your turn to have a go at to task.

For the first part of the task, I'd like you to draw a labeled picture of an ectomorph and a mesomorph.

And for the second part of the task, I'd like you to explain why mesomorph body shape would be suitable for 100 meter sprinter.

As Andeep's reminded us, when we explain, it means that you set out the purpose or reasons for doing something.

So make sure you take that into account when doing the second part of this task.

You may wish to pause the video now To give yourself time to complete the task.

Okay, so you are asked to draw a labeled picture of an ectomorph and a mesomorph.

So for an ectomorph, you would've hopefully drawn a lean, thin body with narrow shoulders and hips, little amounts of fat or muscle and long legs and arms. Whereas for a mesomorph, I hope you've drawn a diagram that has a higher amount of muscle that has broad shoulders, big shoulders, and a thin waist.

So well done if you got that correct.

So for the second part of the task, you are asked to explain why a mesomorphic body shape would be suited to 100 meter sprinter.

You may have said something along these lines.

A mesomorphic's body shape is suited to 100 meter sprinter because it is categorized by having a high amount of muscle.

Sprinters need strong, powerful muscles to enable a explosive start and maintain rapid acceleration to win the race.

The more muscles they have, the more power they can generate, therefore the faster they're going to run.

So well done if you thought about those things.

Okay, we are now moving on to the final part of today's lesson.

We're going to describe characteristics of an endomorph.

So an endomorph is often characterized as someone with a high amount of body fat, can have a pear shaped body, which means if you look at them from the head down to the waist, they normally have a larger tummy.

So it looks like a pear shaped and they often have more fat around their stomach, their thighs and their arms as well.

Okay, let's have a go to check, which image represents an endomorph? Is it A, B or C? Yeah, that's right, it's B.

Obviously, B has the large amounts of body fat, particularly around the stomach compared to C, which is very lean and thin.

So that must be an ectomorph and A, where there's lots of muscles.

So that must be a mesomorph.

Well done if you've got that correct.

Can you think of any practical examples of where an endomorph body shape would be useful? Can you think of any sports perhaps? So a Sumo wrestler has an endo of body shape and this is useful for the sumo wrestler so that they can stay in the ring and their opposition aren't able to push them out of the ring, which means they would lose the match.

Again, if they have a lot of body fat, they might be stronger and able to push their opponent out of the ring, especially if they weighed less.

Again, a rugby union player, particularly a prop, would benefit from having an endomorph body shape.

Again, if the prop has a ball, they are less likely to be tackled if they are heavier because someone trying to tackle them would struggle to get them down.

But equally, they're able to get the opposition tackled to the floor easier because they're heavier, so they're able to get the other person tackled.

But this is a good question.

Would all positions in rugby benefit from an endomorph body shape? Perhaps not, people like the wingers who are out on the wing at the sides, they need to be fast 'cause they often score lots of tries and if they had a large amount of body fat, they might not be able to run as fast on the pitch and therefore might not be able to score all the tries.

Okay, let's have a go at a check, which games play a position would be most suited to an endomorph? Would it be A, a center in netball? Would it be B, a winger in rugby? Would it be C, a goal shooter in netball or would it be D, a prop in rugby? Yep, like we said before, a prop in rugby needs to have that weight in order to keep possession of the ball and not get tackled to the floor.

Also what I didn't mention earlier as well was about the scrum and actually the heavier the scrum is, the less chance the opposition have in pushing them towards their try line.

So being a heavy prop with lots of body fat is an advantage to some extent.

Okay, now it's your turn to have a go at a task.

For the first part of the task, I'd like you to complete the table, filling in the missing gaps.

For the second part of the task, I'd like you to discuss how suitable rugby union would be as a sport for an endomorph body shape.

But before you answer those questions, let's have a go at BUCing this second question because it is a long answered question.

Remember you'll need to box the command word, underline the knowledge and circle the context.

Have a go at BUCing this question.

I'm hoping that you box the word discuss as a command word.

You underline the knowledge of the endomorph body shape and you've circled the context, which is rugby union.

And Aisha's reminded us that for a discuss question, she would make sure that she has two subheadings in her answer, for example, strengths and weaknesses.

And Andeep said he likes this idea and he's going to make sure he uses strengths and weaknesses that are linked to rugby union.

When we think about rugby union, we may to think about different positions in rugby union such as a prop and winger.

And like Alex has mentioned, we might want to think about why different positions in rugby commonly have the body shapes that they have.

You may wish to pause the video now to give yourself time to complete the task.

Okay, so for the first part of the task, you are asked to complete the table.

So in the first line, I'm hoping that you had the somatotype endomorph.

The characteristics were higher proportion of body fat, more fat around the stomach, thighs and arms and pear shaped body.

And a practical example was given to you as a sumo wrestler.

The second somatotype was given to you is a mesomorph.

And the characteristics could have included a high amount of muscle, broad shoulders and thin waist and practical examples suited to this body shape could be the sprinter, a weightlifter, gymnast or any athletes that requires a high amount of muscle mass.

And the final somatotype was an ectomorph and these characteristics were given to us, but we know that they're thin, lean, long arms, narrow waist and shoulders and little body fat or muscle.

And examples that we could have used would've been marathon runner or triathlete.

Something that is more of an endurance athlete would be more suited to an ectomorph body shape.

For the second part of the task, you are asked to discuss how suitable rugby union would be as a sport for an endomorph body shape.

And I hope that you've listened to Aisha and you've put the two subheadings.

So you may have said, for example, strengths, a prop in rugby union might benefit from an endomorph body shape.

Having a high amount of body fat will enable them more chance to tackle the opponent to the ground and be heavier to push out of the scrum.

A weakness, however, an endomorph body shape would not be a suitable for a rugby winger as having a large amount of body fat will slow them down and give them less chance of scoring by outrunning the opponent.

So again here this person has talked about the differences in the requirements of positions in rugby and how something like a rugby forward like a prop may need more body fat to be able to give them more chance to tackle their opponent down and to prevent them from being tackled.

However, a winger that needs to be really quick and really fast to score lots of tries would not benefit as much from an endomorph body shape.

So well done if you put something along those lines.

Okay, that gives us just enough time left to summarize today's lesson, somatotypes is a way of grouping different body types.

There are three main categories based on similar physical traits, an ectomorph, which is lean and thin.

And an example of this is an endurance runner, a mesomorph which has a high amount of muscle.

And an example in sport of when a mesomorph body shape would be useful would be for a weightlifter, and an endomorph body shape.

This has a higher proportion of body fat and the example we often use for an endomorph body shape in sport would be a sumo wrestler.

Well done today, we've learned about all the three different types of somatotypes, I hope you've enjoyed your lesson and I'll look forward to seeing you again soon.