All of our physical features―from the shape of our waist and stomach, to the size of our wrists, to the roundness of our arms―are based upon our personal genetics, our fitness, and our health history. So one person's body is different from another's. And that means that the exercise routine that works for one individual may not work for another. The key to fitness success is a customized workout, tailored just for you! That's where Ben Greenfield's book comes in. Focusing on specific exercises designed to target individual body types, Get-Fit Guy's Guide to Achieving Your Ideal Body provides all the tools, tips, and nutritional tricks to achieve your dream body. No more boring marathon sessions at the gym, only to see minimal results (or worse, gaining weight in the wrong areas!) Get-Fit Guy's Guide will show you how to quickly and effectively carve out your ideal body with a workout that targets your individual shape. Voted the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Trainer of the Year in 2008, Ben Greenfield is recognized as one of the top fitness, triathlon and nutrition experts in the nation, with multiple books and DVDs to his credit. He is the host of the popular Get-Fit Guy podcast at QuickAndDirtyTips.com with an average 170,000 downloads per month. Ben coaches and trains individuals for weight loss, lean muscle gain, holistic wellness, and sports performance all over the world via his company, Pacific Elite Fitness. He also runs the Rock Star Triathlete, the Internet's top school for learning the sport of triathlon and the business of triathlon coaching. Ben's popular fitness, nutrition and wellness website (BenGreenfieldFitness.com) features blogs, podcasts, and product reviews. His credentials include: Bachelor's and Master's degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology, personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the NSCA, a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), and over 10 years experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports. Ben is a top-ranked triathlete for Triathlon Northwest and has finished multiple Ironmans. Get-Fit Guy's Guide to Achieving Your Ideal Body A Workout Plan for Your Unique Shape By Ben Greenfield St. Martin's Griffin Copyright © 2012 Ben Greenfield All right reserved. ISBN: 9781250000880 CHAPTER 1   Introduction Take a look at your ankles. Are they bony? Thick? Muscular? Now move up to your calves. Are they square? Round? Embarrassingly nonexistent? What about your hips? Are they narrow or curvaceous? As you continue to move up your body, you’ll see and feel unique anatomical characteristics that specifically define you, including the shape of your waist and stomach, the breadth of your shoulders, the thickness of your chest, the length of your neck, the size of your wrists, and the roundness of your arms. Based upon your personal genetics, your fitness, and your health history, your body is unique. Sure, you may have certain characteristics that you’ve probably noticed on other people too (like broad shoulders or skinny ankles), but life would be pretty boring if we were all identical carbon copies of one another. And that’s not all. Not only is your current body unique, but your ideal body is also unique. To understand what I mean, let’s try this exercise: Close your eyes and imagine the perfect you. What does that perfect you—your dream body—actually look like? Are your dream body’s shoulders broader than your current shoulders? Are your dream body’s waist and calves thinner than your current versions? Do your dream body’s buttocks fit better into your favorite pair of pants? Personally, I would prefer less annoyingly bony shoulders, a thicker and more muscular waist, and a more developed backside that might fill out my favorite jeans. But that’s just me. So whose ideal body is perfect—yours or mine? The answer is neither. Based on the biological individuality of human beings, each of us will have a different shape for our perfect body. Those of us who get fit or lose weight won’t finish with identical bodies, and the same is true for those who lose fitness or gain weight. As a matter of fact, in traditional medical and exercise body typing, also called somatotyping, people are never just skinny or fat. Instead, each of us is placed into one of eight basic body types: female ectomorph, mesomorph, meso-endomorph, and endomorph; and male endomorph, ecto-mesomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. Each of these body types has a different basic shape and a different possible ideal body. That’s why the perfect shape for one body type simply may not be aesthetically pleasing (or possible) for another body type. So where did these oddly named categories come from? We’ll have to rewind a few years to go back to the first instance of body typing. Back in the fifth century BC, the philosoph