Is It Wise to Choose Your Workout Based on the Instructor's Body Type?
Find out if the best programs really have the fittest teachers. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Workout instructors are the poster children for exercise classes everywhere—so is picking your exercise class based on which instructor’s body you like a decent fitness strategy? Perhaps—but you still shouldn’t bank on scoring that instructor’s physique.
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That’s because a good chunk of the body-type differences you see between instructors comes down to genetics. “From muscle shape to arm length to the position and angle at which muscle attaches to bone, people are built differently,” says exercise physiologist Mike T. Nelson, Ph.D., C.S.C.S.
“You change the size of the muscle, but you can’t really change the shape of the muscle to any significant degree,” he says. “So without watching someone over many months to years, it would be hard to tell what portion of their physique is due to genetics versus what portion is due to their workout.”
Sure, by working the legs like crazy, indoor-cycling classes are obviously going to grow instructors’ quads, hamstrings, and glutes, he says. But they might have gravitated toward cycling to begin with because they had strong legs. And barre instructors might prefer ballet-inspired workouts because their bodies were born for endurance rather than explosive power. After all, people stick with the exercises at which they excel.
Related: What to Do When a Class Instructor Is Pushing You Too Hard
Meanwhile, even if treadmill classes are behind your favorite instructor’s body, chances are it has taken her two, three, even four classes a day several days a week over the course of multiple years to sculpt the body that you see at the front of your class today. It doesn’t hurt to try out her favorite exercises, but don’t expect to suddenly switch body types by hitting up a couple classes a week, says Nelson.
Related: 14 Things Girls Who Take Workout Classes Do But Will Never Admit To
So instead of trying to attain someone else’s body, a better approach would be focusing on your body, what feels good to you, and what gets you fired up. Because even if a piloxing class helped your instructor get an amazing body, if you don’t like Pilates or boxing, what’s the point?
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