Ayurveda Series 1 – Kapha/Endomorph Body Type

Listen in this order

• Ayurveda Series 1 – What Is Your Body Type?
• Ayurveda Series 1 – Vata/Ectomorph Body Type
• Ayurveda Series 1 – Pitta/Mesomorph Body Type
• This episode

Episode Resources

• Laura Plumb
• Dosha Quiz
• Dr Stephen Cabral
• Listen to the Little Lover Remix by TEEMID

Kapha controls weight, growth, lubrication for the joints and lungs, sleep, repair, regeneration and formation of all the seven tissues — nutritive fluids, blood, fat, muscles, bones, marrow and reproductive tissues… pretty important stuff hey!

Kapha Appearance

• Thick joints (thick wrists and elbows)
• Rounder torso
• More robust chest
• More developed and thicker thighs
• Stronger, thicker legs
• Rounder face and eyes

Kapha Nervous System

• While Vata is more catabolic (breaking down), Kapha is more anabolic (building up)
• Stronger immune system (I have dosha FOMO!)
• Healthy nails, skin, hair
• Great muscle development
• Amazing for overall longevity
• Fall asleep quickly at night and love to sleep

Kapha Weight

• Imagine it’s like this body type ‘holds’ onto stuff.. so this can translate to putting on a lot of weight easily
• Weight in the ectomorph and mesomorph tends to accumulate on one or two areas, but for the endomorph they put on weight all over their body

Kapha Diet

• Burns way less calories than Vata or Pitta
• Go easy on healthy carbs, starches and grains
• Lots of green non-starchy vegetables… lots … like 3 cups per meal (fill up on veggies!)
• Fibre in veggies is also great for this body type
• This is the body type that can fast a bit longer between meals.
• Endomorph can do well with Intermittent Fasting
• No snacking
• Heating spices can be great, like chilli, cayenne, black pepper, ginger

Kapha Exercise

• A bit slower to get going in the morning, so they can work out in the morning to get everything moving
• Can happily do longer workouts because they are more robust and their nervous system does not burn out so quickly
• Regular exercise is very important for the Endomorph
• Already has natural muscle mass so you don’t need to do a lot of weights. Couple of times per week is great
• Mesomorph loves cardio and interval training
• Cardio focused CrossFit style training can be great to boost the metabolism and burn fat

Kapha Imbalance

• They can get the higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure
• They tend to get lower thyroid function which slows metabolism
• Heaviness in the mind, sluggish mentally, lazy
• Heavy sticky stools
• Easiest imbalance to identify is excess weight

Welcome back to The Nick Broadhurst Show, I’m your host, Nick Broadhurst. You can catch all of my work at www.iamnickbroadhurst.com where I post all these episodes, my music, music videos, blog posts, everything that I do. And you can catch my music on all platforms including Spotify, where you can head to iamnickbroadhurst.com/Spotify to hear my music.

And today we’ve been listening to a remix of my song Little Lover, it’s a remix by a French artist called TEEMID, and it’s actually the song that I finish my current Australian tour with, the Open Wide tour, I finish with that remix and a huge, belting sax solo which is so fun. I leave the saxophone on stage as a tease for the whole show, and then I bring it out in the last song, and it’s such a crowd pleaser; everyone loves it, it’s so much fun.

But anyway, today we’re going to dive into the last episode of my Ayurveda Series 1. And I’ve had hundreds of messages on social media about this series, so it’s clearly struck a chord, which is amazing. And I really hoped deep down that this would resonate, because I just know how much this information can impact your life if you embrace it. And please do listen to this series in order. So the first one was episode number 21, iamnickbroadhurst.com/21 which was called, “What is your body type?” and then /22 for the Vata/Ectomorph body type, and /23 for the Pitta/Mesomorph body type.

You know it’s funny because I feel like whenever I speak to people about their body type, the most common self-diagnosis that I get is that everyone thinks they’re Vata, and I believe this is because in the western world we live a pretty stressed life and it can leave to Vata imbalance, and when we do these self-diagnosis like a dosha test, we can often think that we’re Vata because we are doing that test from a point of imbalance.

So it’s funny; I had a friend of mine who is, to me, a clear Pitta/Kapha, or Mesomorph/Endomorph, and she thought she was totally Vata, which I just thought was really interesting. So I do believe it’s really, really important that you do go and see an Ayurvedic practitioner if you can.

And if you can’t find one in your local area, check out LauraPlumb.com. Laura is one of my mentors, a beautiful lady, and just supreme with Ayurveda, and I highly, highly recommend working with her direct, or at least taking her dosha quiz that’s on her website, and I will link to this in all the show notes which is iamnickbroadhurst.com/24.

So today we’re going to take a deep dive into the Kapha or the Endomorph. Actually, before I go into that, there’s one more person you can check out, and I’ve mentioned him before which is Stephen Cabral, and if you want to take a real deep dive into your health, try and work with Stephen one on one, but you don’t have to, just listen to his podcast; The Cabral Concept, and just do as I did a full binge listening session on his podcast, it’s fantastic, and he goes into a lot of information about these body types, so he’s an incredible resource.

But anyway, back to today’s episode on the Kapha/Endomorph body type. And a quick summary of Kapha would be that Kapha controls weight, growth, lubrication of the joints and lungs, sleep, repair and regeneration, and formation of all seven tissues, and this is so important. Those seven tissues are the nutritive fluids, the blood, fat, muscles, bones, marrow and reproductive tissues, so, so, so, important.

And it’s really funny, when I speak to people about Doshas, anyone who’s got Kapha in them seems to disown their Kapha, which I just think is crazy. It’s like being told that you have Kapha in you is like an insult, because does that mean that you must have a bit more body weight or be fat? I mean seriously it’s crazy because Kapha has so many incredible positives; I can’t even tell you.

Well, I will tell you; it is such an amazing constitution to be dominant in, for so many, so many reasons which I will dive into. And remember, the whole point of my Ayurveda Series 1 is to totally have you own and be proud of your body type. So if you have Kapha in you, if you are an Endomorph, you are super blessed; be proud. I’ll tell you why soon and a hint for that is, in one word; robust.

The Kapha Endomorph is robust; it’s such a genetic gift. And we’ll take a look at this today from the same as the other series; we’ll look at appearance, nervous system, weight, diet, exercise, and also imbalance as well.

So let’s start with the Kapha/Endomorph appearance. And if you have listened to my Vata episode, this is kind of the opposite of Vata. So Vata have thin joints, whereas Kapha have thick joints, like thick wrists and elbows. Kapha has around the torso, a more robust almost barrel-like chest, can have much more developed thighs, which means stronger legs, stronger and thicker legs, which I wish I had a bit more of because I have the tendency to have chicken legs if I don’t take care of them and do my squats.

And just generally a rounder face and rounder eyes; that’s a really simple way of looking at the appearance, and I want to focus more on the other benefits of the Endomorph/Kapha body type, because there are so many.

So let’s look at the nervous system; so again, Vata was catabolic, while Kapha is anabolic; it’s the opposite, so catabolic meaning breakdown, anabolic meaning build up. Now what is this great for? And this is where I have total dosha body type envy; this means that the Kapha/Endomorph has a much stronger immune system naturally. You have healthier nails, skin, hair, you have great muscle development, but this is really important for your overall longevity, right? How cool is that?

The Kapha has amazing longevity if you stay in balance. And also, a part of longevity is having good sleep and the Kapha types sleep really well, they can fall asleep really well and they can stay asleep, as opposed to Vata which can also find it hard to fall asleep because of their busy minds, and generally more anxious disposition.

And now let’s look at weight, and this is the one which people tend to disown when it comes to Kapha, and you really shouldn’t; this is such a blessing. So as I said before, anabolic meaning to build up, so imagine this body type, the best way to picture it is; this body type sort of holds on to stuff. So this can translate into easily putting on more weight.

So that’s where you’ve got to be very careful and stay balanced. The weight in the Ectomorph and the Mesomorph, the Vata and the Pita, tends to accumulate in one or two areas, whereas for the Endomorph, they tend to put it on their entire body; their face, their hips, their stomach, their legs, everywhere. So if you are a Kapha body type, you’ll no doubt resonate with this.

In terms of diet, so the Endomorph is going to burn way less calories, even if the body weight is bigger, you’re going to burn a lot less calories naturally than the Vata or the Pitta, so this dictates your diet quite a lot. So you can be sitting around, you can be eating your salad, and maybe some lean protein, and there’s your friend smashing big bowls of sweet potato and greens and quinoa and all this sort of stuff, lots of fat. And you’re thinking, ‘why do my friends stay thin?’

And here you are, doing your best, and struggling to keep your weight under control. That my friends is the story of Kapha, of the Endomorph; holding onto weight. But as I said before, it comes with so many, so many blessings, but it’s important to understand because it’s going to help you balance it so much easier. The Vata has a very high metabolism, but there’s a price to pay for that; the Vata is more anxious, they find it hard to fall asleep. You’ve got none of that if you’re an Endomorph.

There’s always pros and cons, right? But this does mean you have to go easy on your healthy carbs, like your starches and grains and fruits, just be mindful that you’ve got to go easy on that because you’re just not going to burn up the calories like the vata does. But the substitute for that to stay satiated is eating lots of non-starchy vegetables. This is so, so important for the Kapha/Endomorph.

I’m going to say it again, just to reiterate it, lots of green non-starchy vegetables; like three cups at every meal. I want you to fill up on beautiful nutrient dense vegetables, it’s really, really important. It’s such a big tip and you can obviously have some fats on that as well to stay satiated, but use vegetables as your main way of filling up.

And with that comes fibre. Fibre for the Endomorph is really, really important so eating your vegetables is just going to play a huge role in that. And this is the body type that can fast a bit longer between meals, so Vata, definitely not, stick to your three main meals, get consistent calories, stay balanced; maybe to do a 12 hour overnight fast max, whereas the Endomorph actually does really well with intermittent fasting. I do great on my regular meals, I’ll wake up and I’ll go an hour max before I have my beautiful big bowl of oats, wild blueberries, ghee and maple syrup, just like heaven.

Whereas Melissa can easily skip breakfast, no worries; she has a Pitta/Kapha constitution, she’s super robust, and she just doesn’t need the calories like I do. And important to remember with the Endomorph; don’t snack. If you’re Vata, absolutely snacking can be great, but not so good for the Kapha Endomorph.

And again, the opposite of Vata, Vata wants to avoid hot spices, Kapha can be great; it can stimulate the metabolism, stimulate digestion, stimulate blood flow, which can sometimes be sluggish in the Kapha, so heating spices like chili, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, amazing for Kapha.

And now let’s switch to exercise, and the Kapha is a bit slower to get going in the morning. So unlike Vata, Vata wants to ease into the day, maybe some yoga or some very gentle body weight stuff, the Kapha/Endomorph can get into it. You can go and workout in the morning which is pretty cool, I would love to work out in the morning, I would love to get my exercise done but it’s just not good for my constitution.

The Endomorph can happily do longer workouts, because they’re more robust their nervous system can take it; you don’t burn out so quickly from a nervous system perspective. And regular exercise for the Endomorph is super important. You want to do that to maintain your metabolism and your weight, and you already have natural muscle mass, you’ve already got it because you’re anabolic, naturally anabolic, so you don’t need to be doing a lot of weights. If you do, you’ll put on muscle very quickly; just keep that in mind.

So a couple of times a week to do some sort of resistance training, sure, that’s great, but the Endomorph loves cardio, loves it. And even the sort of cardio-focused style of training where you’re going to really give that metabolism a kick, and go into fat burning mode and stay in fat burning mode is really amazing for the Endomorph. So just be mindful of that.

If you want to be massive, absolutely do weights, you’ll be huge very quickly, but if you want to stay lean and strong, you’ve got to focus on more steady-state exercise, and some of those more fat burning, metabolism boosting exercises like cardio focused crossfit, that sort of stuff, or interval training.

When the Kapha/Endomorph is imbalanced, these are the things to look out for; one of the worst things I’d have to say, the most dangerous things, is diabetes. If you’re more anabolic, which means you hold onto things, you’re going to hold onto that blood sugar. So remember, Kapha and diabetes tend to go hand in hand, it’s a Kapha imbalance, so you want to really keep an eye on that, and that means keep an eye on your diet. Look up a Kapha balancing diet and use it, use it, it’s really, really important.

And imbalance in Kapha tends to lead to higher cholesterol and higher blood pressure, so keep an eye on that. And Kapha can tend to get lower thyroid, which means you’re going to have a slower metabolism, if you are Kapha, I know this is going to be ringing true to you right now.

And imbalance in Kapha can also mean you feel heavy in the mind, you can feel a bit sluggish, a bit lazy mentally, you can get congested, so mucus, you can have water retention, you can have heavy, sticky stools, and the easiest way to identify a Kapha imbalance would be an increase in weight. So just keep an eye on that stuff; that’s the imbalances.

So for all you Endomorphs out there; be proud. Seriously, you are so blessed. You can focus on vanity and you can say, “How come my friend is so lean, it’s so frustrating.” But would you not prefer to just understand your body type, know how to keep it balanced? I mean, that curviness that you get with Kapha is beautiful, right? Only recently have we become obsessed with six packs, and if you go back 100 years, we celebrated the Endomorph, we celebrated the Kapha body type, we celebrated the curves.

So enjoy your happy, healthy, long life. Stay balanced and you’ve got the benefits of that robust immune system, that strong nervous system. That equals longevity; what a beautiful thing you have! Own it; be proud of it. Don’t hide from being a Kapha. Put your hand up and say, “I’m fricking Kapha!” and own it, it’s an amazing thing.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this Ayurveda Series 1, I will be doing more series on Ayurveda, going into different parts of how Ayurveda, or understanding Ayurveda can help understand life. It’s very, very powerful.

And coming up I’m going to be doing a series on longevity, it’s going to be a two week long series, which is super exciting, and we’re going to dive into all the things which help you live a long, long, healthy and happy life without any of the disease that you see in the western world.

So I know that’s another big episode, you can get all the show notes at iamnickbroadhurst.com/24 and you can also get a full transcript of the show. And please do me a big favor and leave me a 5-star review in iTunes or your favourite podcast app. And please leave me a comment in that review as well. You can hit the five stars if you want, but please do leave a comment as well because that will tell me what you like, what you don’t like; I’m totally open to feedback, I’m at your service, and please do share this with someone.

If you know someone who’s Kapha, share this episode, it’s so empowering this information. The more you share this, the more it will grow and the more lives can be transformed by this information. This is not my information; this is over 5000 years old, I’m just a voice for something which has impacted my life profoundly. And remember to tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst, and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow.

So as always guys, what a beautiful day it is today, look up, see the beauty around you, be love, love yourself, love those around you, be kind to yourself, be gentle with yourself, and as always, have a beautiful day, and I love you heaps. Ciao.

I would love to hear from you, so please tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst on social media, and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow, or leave me a comment below (I read every single one!). And if you could take a minute to leave me a 5 star review on iTunes I would be very grateful.

P.S. Always listen to your intuition (and your doctor or practitioner) before trying any new health practice