That is due to blood rushing to the muscles that you're exercise, and is referred to as a 'pump' (or having a pump) in the world of weightlifting. It has no correlation with the amount of muscle you will potentially gain from that workout. Check again in two days.

umm. . . I'm skinny but not "fragile."

so. . . the first two?

Listen to LIK on this - he knows of what he speaks.

In fact, I think I'm going to assume a management type role and select my team for various Wiichat subject matter expertise

OMG!!! im an Ectomorph considering some parts of its description describe my body perfectly

haha! Thats a good idea.

That and professional wrestling are the only things I really feel comfortable talking about off the top of my head, both of which my friends don't know I enjoy as much as I do.

I know this thread is supposed to be good spirited and all, but I am just wondering if you realized those theories relate to the first criminologist lambrusco and his theories on criminality?

He provided arbitrary sciences to back up his argument that all criminals are mesomorphs and that they can actually be identified physically because they had criminal traits. He basically applied stigmatization on his classification of body types.

So all you Mesomorphs are criminals. 8 )

Totally Ectomorph

Ectomorph, ftw.

Good contribution!

Just for technical accuracy:

The criminologist who propagated the idea of biological determinism was Lombroso. He had a single physiognomic model for the "born criminal", which is true, has many of the same attributes as the mesomorph.

Kretschmer later developed the 3 major body types as it related to criminal predisposition, and even later in the 40's it was Sheldon who proposed the idea of physiological attributes being mapped to the 3 Somatypes (as indicated by the OP).

Really interesting reading!

My bad lol. I knew I spelt his name wrong, but I still took the chance regardless.

But whats even more interesting is that Lombroso is right other than the fact that it isn't biological, it is social. Many studies have replicated his theory that Mesomorphs have been associated with criminal activity.

One again, not biological, social, so you mesomorphs don't kill me...you criminals

Hahaha, they are a shady bunch!

I'd hazard a guess that because people are reading Mesomorph as being the most desirable, that many folks are indicating that's their type when it's probably not. I bet many are more Ectomorph[ic] with just some decent muscle mass.

A famous person/actor who's clearly an Ectomorph (and is used as example as such on workout sites) is Edward Norton, *but* if you saw him in American History X, you'd be inclinded to say Meso.

Yeah, that's why I wasn't sure.
The thing that made me thing mesomorph was how quickly I'm able to gain fat :\

Actually, they were used in ancient times to decipher nobility. All three body types have been considered ideal at one point or another in history.

No matter what they are used for, they are still very applicable. There's no denying that certain body types can achieve certain things quicker and more efficiently than other body types.

Just out of curiosity, where in ancient times was it used? I'm not claiming to be a professional on the issue, just merely interested.

I also don't agree that it is still applicable to modern times in terms of classification. To say that we can categorize the human body in three ways is definitely not exhaustive.

For example, DT brought up one person Edward Norton (I might as well use him as an example). Most of his movies you would think he would be an ectomorph, however in American History X, there is no doubt that he could be classified as a mesomorph. What I am trying to emphasize is that there is no classification for him and those types of people.

If anything I believe that these categories should be updated to cover more or not all modern-day body types (then again I am not sure if they have or have not updated them to begin with).

All of the examples you just provided I had already assumed would be asked and so I provided explanations for them in my first post (the first reply to this thread). Although, I suppose I'll repeat myself for the sake of nothing:

1. These classifications are generalizations, and although no one alive today is a pure form of any of the three body types, they can be grouped by which is most dominant.
2. Body types are assigned to people by their NATURAL state. Triple H weighs 250+ pounds of lean muscle mass and is an ECTOMORPH, simply because he was born that way. Just because god thought you should be skinny doesn't mean you can't be huge if you put a little effort into it.
3. There's no need to 'update' anything. These are generalities, and they will always stand. The only thing we could change would be to go into more detail, which would complicate a perfectly good thought process.

I'm not about to give you specific examples of places in history that thought certain body types were ideal, I simply read it somewhere. In early Europe a thin body was desireable, in ancient types thicker persons were known to give an image of power, and in current times most people consider thin and muscular bodies to be most ideal.