Discover What Your Body Type REALLY Is…

and why it matters when it comes to your workouts!

Your body type is incredibly important, especially when it comes to looking great and feeling confident when you step out for a night out with the girls or a romantic night with your significant other. An outfit that looks great on a lean model will definitely look different on someone with a pear-shaped body.
But before you can learn how to dress for your body shape, you first need to know what your body type actually is.

Read on for more information about body types, a body shape calculator, a body type test and what types of workout the team at BoxFit believe are best for your body type.

So, What Is My Body Type?

While most people can tell what their body type is just by looking in the mirror, you can get a more accurate reading by actually measuring your body.

Here are the simple steps to take:

1. Using a measuring tape, take the measurement of your bust. Wear a proper-fitting bra and make sure you measure around the fullest part of your chest.
   
   
2. The next step is a little more challenging to do on your own so we suggest you ask a friend to help you with this one. Get the measurement of your shoulders. The tape should wrap around you at the highest point without it slipping off.
   
   
3. Then, get the measurement of your waist. This is the area right above your belly button and is usually the narrowest part of your torso (although not always).
   
   
4. Finally, get your hips measurement. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Find the widest point of your hip area, which should be low enough that the tape passes around the top of your butt as well.

Body Shape Calculator & Measurements Chart

We’ll discuss the different female body shapes in detail below, but you can use this chart as a quick reference for your body type.

The Different Female Body Types

Hourglass

Women with an hourglass body have their bust and hips at roughly the same measurement, while also having a narrower, defined waist. This is one of the curvy female body shapes.

Celebrities with a classic hourglass shape include Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, and Sonam Kapoor.

Triangle/Pear/Spoon

The triangle or pear-shaped body type is bottom-heavy, which means that your bust and shoulders are narrower than your hips and butt. 

Pear-shaped celebrities include Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, and Beyonce.

Inverted Triangle/Lollipop

The inverted triangle body type is the opposite of the pear shape – wider shoulders and bigger busts, but with narrow hips. 

Celebrities with inverted triangle shapes include Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Zareen Khan and Ayesha Takia.

Straight/Rectangle/Banana

For straight or banana body types, your shoulders, waist, hip, and busts likely have around the same measurements. This gives off a more even, lean, rectangular-looking silhouette.

Celebrities with straight body types include Bella Hadid, Shruti Hasan, and Priyanka Chopra

Apple/Round

The apple body shape is a variation of the inverted triangle where you also have a thicker, less defined waist. Women with round or apple body shapes tend to gain weight in their stomach more than any other body part.

Celebrities with apple or round shapes include Sonakshi Sinha, Mindy Kaling and Queen Latifah.

Physique Classifications

Compared to body shapes, physique classifications talk less about your silhouette and more about how you gain weight and muscle. 

There are 3 classifications:

Ectomorph

Ectomorphs are usually skinny, lean, or thin. They have a fast metabolism, which makes it hard for them to gain weight and build muscle.

Mesomorph

Mesomorphs have your classic athletic body. With a larger bone structure and average metabolism, they can build definition and gain muscle pretty easily. 

Endomorph

Endomorphs are usually softer, rounder, and stockier than other physiques. They have a slow metabolism, so they often find it difficult to lose weight or get defined muscles.

What Body Type Am I? 

To find out your body type, take this Body Type test!

Your shoulders are:

1. Wider than your hips
2. Narrower than your hips
3. Same as your hips
   
   

A pair of well-fitting jeans with the right waist size fits:

1. Loose around your glutes
2. Tight around your glutes
3. Perfect around your glutes
   
   

Your forearms are:

1. Big
2. Small
3. Average
   
   

You tend to:

1. Carry some extra fat
2. Stay skinny
3. Stay fit and muscular
   
   

Your body is mostly:

1. Pear
2. Mostly rectangle
3. Hourglass
   
   

If you use your middle finger and thumb to encircle your other hand’s wrist:

1. The fingers don’t touch
2. The fingers overlap
3. The fingers just touch
   
   

When it comes to weight, you:

1. Gain weight easily but have a hard time losing it
2. Find it difficult to gain and maintain weight
3. Have an easy time gaining or losing weight

If you answered:

Mostly A’s: Endomorph

Mostly B’s: Ectomorph

Mostly C’s: Mesomorph

What if you want to change your shape?

Taking regular exercise classes can help build lean muscle mass and give your body definition. This may help you emphasize certain features or alter your overall shape. For example, you might be able to give your arms more muscle definition by taking part in our Fire and Fury sessions. However, it’s important to remember that a lot of what determines your shape is set in stone by your bone structure, genetics, and overall build. Much like you can’t exercise your way into being taller, you can’t tell your body where to store fat. 

Best workouts for your body shape

Hourglass shape exercises

This body type is often the most desired because your body is generally in proportion throughout, your buttocks and bust are well-balanced, and your waist is also defined. 

Best exercises for hourglass shapes

Your workouts need to be evenly balanced amongst all body areas to avoid losing those curves. We suggest you start with one of our cardio-based classes and then move on to one of our full body circuit routines. This is the best way for you to burn fat evenly. 

Triangle (a.k.a. Pear) shape exercises

Triangle is one of the most common body types. You are classed as being pear-shaped if your shoulders and bust are narrower than your hips and you tend to have slim arms.

Best exercises for pear shapes

When starting out, we recommend you focus on workouts that will encourage the burning of fat around those stubborn areas. And this can be achieved through our popular HIIT-style workouts which keep you in the fat burning zone the longest. Our goal with these workouts is to keep each session varied and focused on exercising the whole body evenly.
And the bonus with these workouts is that they’ll help you get those gorgeously slim arms toned up quickly so that they look good in those sleeveless dresses.

Inverted Triangle (a.k.a. Lollipop) shape exercises

If your shoulders and bust are larger than your relatively narrow hips, you have what’s known as an inverted triangle and are often seen as ‘top heavy’.

Best exercises for lollipop shapes

Our Upper Body Sculpt Sessions are perfect for you if you are an Lollipop Shape. The reason for this is that these sessions will help provide strength in your upper body which will help to elevate your posture. And this is important as posture is key in enhancing this body type.

Rectangle (a.k.a. Banana) shape exercises

If you have a straight up and down body type then you are classed as having a rectangle (or banana) body type. Women with this body type often strive to create curves that don’t naturally occur.

Best exercises for banana shapes

To help you enhance and create curves, we recommend dedicating particular days of exercise to the specific body parts you wish to enhance. For example, to build that gorgeous booty you need to focus on building muscle through classic glute exercises such as squats.

INSERT WORKOUT SUGGESTION HERE WITH LINK

Apple shape exercises

As a classic apple shape you tend to have broader hips than shoulders, a narrow bust, and a fuller waistline and as such you may carry a little more weight in your upper legs.

Best exercises for diamond shapes

We recommend that we look to start by defining your legs – running and uphill walking will help create that definition and mixing these cardio-based exercises with HIIT-style workouts as this type of training works well to maximize fat-burn to enable you to show off your best features.

Conclusion

Understanding your body type is the first step to understanding what clothes work best for you. It also helps to know that even celebrities come in all shapes and sizes, and that having a different body type from the women you see on TV doesn’t make you any less beautiful.

If you want to enjoy high energy fitness classes featuring some great music brought straight to your home live and on demand, then come check out our growing library of workouts at Boxfit.