A
topic I’d like to touch upon today involves the other side of the coin during
an assessment process. Forever and a day you will hear me preach the idea of
assessing movement quality as a means to support sound, individualised program
development. If something is dysfunctional, if there is pain or if there is
obvious asymmetry then to me, it is of huge importance to ensure these issues
are addressed with programming. Beyond that though, we have all of the other
assessments available to us which to me, will shape your ability to set
meaningful goals, track progress and stay on track for longer. It’s one thing
to look in the mirror and wish you saw a tighter set of abs, or a firmer pair
of glutes; but working towards it specifically can and should be a scientific
approach to ensure results. If we measure it, we can change it. It we monitor
it, we can ensure we achieve it. Within this blog I am going to highlight
meaningful measures which will keep you away from the reflection in the mirror,
and persevering towards your goals with certainty.
Anthropometrics:
It is within our power to take circumference measures at specific locations
around the body to ensure we are growing or losing what we want with our
training. I know that sounds very “body building-esque” but it is going to be
more common to be taking onboard a diet and exercise plan to lose body fat or
gain muscle than it is to improve performance and the like. It’s just how it is
and I wish more people really did focus on their body composition and put their
best foot forward to a healthier lifestyle, but that is a conversation for
another day. For now, I just want to shed some light on the measures you can
use to ensure you are on track. Regarding anthropometrics, we have circumference
measures as well as skin fold measurements. By taking both, we can track fat
loss, muscle gain and composition changes. If we are talking about returning
from injury, we can address muscle atrophy and have a measure to ensure our
training is achieving what we need it to. The next time you worry about how
your abs look, remember that you have actual tools available to keep your
measurements in check and you should use these first. I can also put body
weight in this category but to me, what you weigh is not as important as your
body fat levels and I say this knowing muscle weighs more than fat, so don’t
beat yourself up if the scales are not moving. Measure your waist to hip and
thank me later.
Health markers:
Between yourself and your coach, as well as your Dr; there are a plethora of
health measures you really should know. First and foremost, your blood test
results will tell the biggest tale of how healthy you truly are. If you can,
try and have you bloods taken annually. Your test should include your cholesterol,
triglycerides, blood sugar levels and if you can; your testosterone and
cortisol levels. These blood markers will outline the stress your body and
organs are under and can be preventative for further issues as you age, but
also a good representation of how well your training is going if you can
compare them to measures taken before you were exercising. Within this same
category, it is very important that you know your blood pressure and your
resting heart rate. These are easy measures you can do yourself and have
checked regularly with your coach or Dr. Through exercising, you should see
these measures trending downwards and are an easy way to keep tabs on your
cardiovascular fitness. Subjectively, we can also use questionnaires to measure
your sleep quality, energy levels, stress levels and mood. We use Train Heroic
to take these measures daily, but it is just something else worth keeping an
eye on. Think of it as checking in with yourself and aiming to address anything
you feel is just not up to scratch on a day to day basis.
Performance measures:
By assessing your strength levels throughout a variety of lifts, you can better
gauge how effective your programming method currently is. I find a lot of
people like to train to feel a pump or to hit failure with a certain body part,
but at some point you need to chase objective measures to ensure you are making
progress in all areas. Strength gains come from a mixture of neurological and
physiological adaptations and long term will lead to greater levels of
hypertrophy as well as performance. To me it only makes sense to program based
off of true data and to re-assess for improvements where possible. I like the
idea of retesting 1 to 3 repetition max lifts every 3 to 6 months. You don’t
want to do it too often and you don’t want to neglect it either. If you never
check how much stronger you have become, you will still be programming off of
previous metrics which would be too low for your current ability level. This
will leave you short with your workouts and missing possible improvements. I
also like using absolute numbers as it keeps focus on the bigger picture and
allows you to judge progress as well as fatigue along the way. To me, there is
no mucking around when it comes to a program prescribed as 3 working sets of 3
reps prescribed at 87.5-90% of a 1RM loading.
Visual analysis:
By taking video of your lifts and your mobility drills, you can easily see
progress as it happens. You can critique yourself and make changes then and
there, and you can compare back to a few months ago for reference points. Video
analysis is hugely underrated in my opinion and something I’d like to see more
of. By improving your technique during a lift, you have a better long term
output available from that specific lift. You will most likely reduce
imbalances, decrease any pain or discomfort and generally feel better about all
aspects of your training. These videos are also handy to pass on to a coach so
you can be further guided if needed. As not everyone trains with a coach or a
friend during their workouts, this is a key way to continue to provide feedback
and assess progress. I wouldn’t recommend filming everything, otherwise your
sessions will become 3 hours long, however a few top working sets of your key
exercises would be perfect. To further this approach for weight loss phases, I’d
also recommend progress photos taken at the same time of day, same day per
week. I wouldn’t stress about doing this more than once a week, but it can be a
nice reminder of how far you have come. If your goal is to look good, keep a
record and empower yourself through images taken a month or two ago compared to
now.
Piecing it all together:
The point I was trying to make with this blog is that there are so many ways to
empower yourself and to take your training and health seriously. You do not
have to step on a scale every morning in order to know if you are improving day
to day or not. You should be looking at your health and fitness holistically
and working with the right people to set reasonable targets based off of
measurable data. Which ever aspect of your training and lifestyle needs
addressing, hopefully I have provided insight into how to measure and progress
this. Having more than one data set will also allow you to hedge your bets and
ensure you are able to see change somewhere, in order to maintain momentum. I
don’t feel as though motivation is the right word, as motivation is fleeting at
best. Remember that momentum can stick and that comes from solid habits and
good data points to reference from. If
you are stuck in a rut, get to measuring some things and build a more
sustainable plan from there. There are a million ways to skin the cat, so find
what works for you and stick with it.