Surely you, as a sports practitioner, came across such questions:
"What's your biotype? Endo? Meso? Ecto?"
This thesis on biotypes is pure BS, without any good scientific basis, but there are (still) blogs and some "professionals" who are still trying to spread. With even less decent scientific evidence, they still try to even make recommendations for each biotype, such as specific exercise to do, diets, supplements ...
Let´s see how this thesis started:
William Herbert Sheldon
During 1940, William Herbert Sheldon, a psychologist (not a physiologist, doctor, anything like that) wanted to create body categories based on 3 fundamental elements (created by himself) called "somatotypes": Endoderm (digestive tract), ectoderm (skin and nervous system) and mesoderm (musculature, heart and blood system).
How did he create these biotypes?
He made visual classifications, of photos, trying to classify among these 3 biotypes. This methodology is highly criticized for being subjective (1,2,3).
Not only that, Sheldon used hundreds of naked Ivy League girls, without their consent, from an old body posture assessment program. This was considered at the time as scandalous and perverted (1,4)
His thesis was also considered fraudulent because:
Not consider body shifting during aging (1).
Consider the shape of the body were also considered signs of temperament and moral character (2).
Various signs of discriminatory stereotypes and points of view (1,5).
Hence this thesis is considered only an assumption, not becoming a real theory.
Modern scientists consider Sheldon's claims as fraudulent, pseudo-science (2,3,4,6,7,8).
As you can see, nothing about biotypes is really a fact, despite the insistence of many websites in still posting about this nonsense.
Also it is possible to find classifications with dozens of mixtures between somatotypes, things like "ectomorphic endomorph" and variations of the same kind. Without any research, of course.
Nevertheless, there are some researchers who want to relay and link such "somatotypes" with diseases, sports, etc. It is possible to find such research and the results are of the most varied, don´t forget that the concept itself is wrong.
Do not waste your time trying to know your biotype.
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