Women Strength. Is it genetic?

[2girls_gymmomma]

I have one daughter who is clearly an Ectomorph-very flexible and does well in bars & beam, as well as floor dance. Wondering what some of you have learned about dietary suggestions to help increase power and strength for the different body types. I searched the past posts but could not find that. Thanks!!!

 

[twocurlygirlz]

Dunno wrote about it in the Men's Gym forum-- I can't find either- maybe he can help? @dunno

 

[Muddlethru]

Cut and pasted this from info obtained in the internet. Nothing is clear cut. There are many crossovers. I think my daughter has both ecto and meso.

Ectomorph

An ectomorph is an individual who is small framed and has extreme difficulty in gaining weight. In this case the metabolism is very fast. The ectomorph recovers from training quite fast (given proper nutrition), allowing for slightly more frequent training bouts. Total fat deposits are usually low. More calories must be ingested by the ectomorph than those in either of the other two metabolic categories. Ectomorph can only capitalize on their ability to recover more quickly from exercise by ingesting more total calories. If too few calories are present, the muscles will eat away at themselves for recovery energy and the ectomorph will remain just that...an ectomorph.

Mesomorph

A Mesomorph is individual who has little problem with fluctuating body weight, the metabolism is considered normal, and his/her frame size is average. The Mesomorph usually appear larger, stronger, and healthier than the ectomorph with slightly greater bodyfat levels. The Mesomorph requires fewer calories per pound of lean weight to maintain muscle tissue than does the ectomorph and therefore suffers less muscle tissue breakdown. The Mesomorph, having a somewhat slower metabolism, does not recover quite as quickly from exercise as does the ectomorph. For this reason, the Mesomorph requires slightly longer between workout and recovery periods.

Endomorph

The endomorph is usually heavy set, has a relatively slow metabolism, and is considered large framed. The breakdown of lean muscle tissue does not occur as readily as in the other two categories. The endomorph also requires fewer total calories to maintain lean weight than the other two metabolic types. Recovery periods between heavy training bouts should be longer since the endomorph has a slower metabolism. Endomorphs are not to be confused with those who are overweight due to over consumption. The true endomorph usually consumes fewer calories.

 

[2girls_gymmomma]

Thank you!!! This is very helpful!! My girlie needs to eat so frequently throughout the day, but the public school environment makes that so difficult since they allow just one snack per day and often no peanut butter. At home she eats all day long when she isn't at gym training. Keep the ideas and expertise coming!!

 

[Gymbee06]

Thank you so much for this info my dd eats constantly throughout the day and yet is ting for her age hardly gains any weight is definitely flexible and seems to a decent bar worker but her power and jumps are so low she barley gets of the ground I would guess st her being an endomorph but not entirely sure lol

 

[GYM0M]

My little one is an endo, 9 yrs, 3'10, 58 pounds, no fat at all, awesome on floor and beam, vault is coming, she probably needs another inch or so, bars is the main struggle. She's also very long torso'd, though, I mean comparatively....her legs look like stubs with flintstone feet! So tiny hands and not enough 'counter' weight makes for a bar battle! She's getting there though!!

 

[JoyAvenueMom]

The coach's suggestion about press handstands make me wonder if it's really a strength problem, but rather technique and timing. Kipper's gym teaches a straddle cast HS. They do a lot of drills on the floor pressing up to HS on a floor bar. Kipper struggles on bars as well, she is also 11yo and training for L7. She competed L6 last year and had a cast to handstand by mid-season. For her, it was less about strength (she can do rope climbs and other upper body conditioning fine) and more about technique (still can't do a press from sitting) and most importantly, FEAR. She was the last on her team to get the CHS, and she will be the last to do giants on the real bars. (She is doing them on pit, but her form still isn't "acceptable".) Also, her coach indicated that the natural arch in her spine and the relative "bulk" of her legs makes it more difficult for her to do them without arching over, but he is confident she will learn to do them correctly. She did a million more "baby giants" than her team mates just learning to be comfortable with the motion. It's easy to understand why so many gyms use L6 now for those without the CHS and giants. They are just really difficult!

 

[profmom]

Strength does matter though. Both of mine are textbook ectomorphs. DD has a heel injury, so she's been limited to bars and strength work for much of the summer. She's worked very hard to improve her core strength, and, after a pretty frustrating late winter and spring following a growth spurt, is looking better on her casting and giants than she ever has. For her, it was not so much upper body strength as core strength. That seemed to be the missing piece.

DS is doing Future Stars (11 year old). Watching him do the pbars strength routine is painful, though he has come a long way with it. Thank goodness he has the flexibility routine to help him out a little.

 

[2girls_gymmomma]

@profmom-any special nutrition tricks you have found? I kind of wonder if my girl burns muscle faster than she builds it. She is rarely sore from conditioning and eats all the time! Healthy stuff and we have been increasing protein. Always looking for other ideas to help her. My YDD seems to be just fine in terms of building muscle and has always been in the 25th %ile for weight. They eat similarly!
Thank you!

 

[profmom]

The biggest trick I picked up right here is chocolate milk. It's the best recovery drink! We also encourage DS to eat anything with some calorie density that he'll eat. Avocados and ice cream are great for him. DD has gotten a lot better about eating and does a good job of listening to her body not just for hunger cues but for what kind of hunger she's experiencing. Lately, she's been eating a lot of protein, probably in relation to the muscle building. She is usually off the percentile charts for both height and weight but is gradually moving up now since most of her peers are slowing down with growth and she's just getting started. He is maybe 25-30th percentile for height and if he's lucky around 20th for weight.

 

[Turk]

I'm the rare "both" - I say I'm "all power" but I also had oversplits without ever stretching (I wasn't at the best dance school so we never stretched, I could just do them anyway) right up until a growth spurt at 10, when all my muscles went OMG MUST TIGHTEN NOW to protect my very hypermobile joints. A series of unfortunate events and injuries (and a second growth spurt age 23, which made me seize up all over again - how is that fair?) meant my strength completely overtook and I never really caught up on stretching, but I'm getting back there now. My hips & hip flexors are already way into oversplit territory, I'm just waiting on my hamstrings catching up. Actually, my strength has suffered a bit because I've been passing up conditioning to stretch, but my natural "raw power" is always there if you ever need a scarily high leap

Essentially, I was a very small-framed, hypermobile person who also inherited whichever of her father's genes it was that provided muscle and power. He played rugby for a while 40 years ago and he's still huge from it! It's been far more trouble that it was worth and I'd have much preferred to have just been one thing and worked hard on the other!