HOW TO MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS

HOW TO MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS

There are many metrics you may be able to utilise to measure your progress in the gym and to me metrics that do not cost any money at all tend to be the best ones in my opinion!!

Yes you can use your standard scales to measure your body weight, you can do body-fat

callipers or scans to assess your current muscle mass and body fat percentage... yes. I don't disregard these and was actually assessed on my ability to take such measurements for assessment of athletes and classmates at uni. However... too much importance is placed upon metrics that may not mean too much to the general population.

Let's look at myself for example... I have been fluctuating between 80-90kg or within 3kg from 85kg in a positive or negative direction for the past 2 years. However my body composition has c

hanged a lot in that timeframe also. So if I used scales as my only metric for assessment I would be pretty bummed out and feel like I underachieved in those 2 years...

What Assessments Should You Start Taking Today?

This is a pretty broad question and answering this can be pretty difficult I will do my best haha

For me it comes down to your WHY, WHY do you train is it to improve your health? Is it to look better naked? Is it to lose those last kg's that you put on in your last bulk or holiday period? or maybe its to improve performance in your sport? reduce your risk of injury? or improve your movement patterns for daily life??

With all those different WHY answers you can see why metrics to use can come under scrutiny...

My straight up answer has to be assess your WHY for doing what you do. Once you fully understand your WHY is the point you should start thinking about what tool or assessment may be most beneficial for you to track your progress everyday, week or month.

I like to push people towards performance based training, training towards an improved performance of human movement patterns. I use metrics of load, rest, reps, TUT and form/technique changes through videography to assess my progress in my training. Doing this allows me to fully understand how I am going in my training sessions so I can either pull back, add in or change my entire program based on whether what I am doing is putting me in line with my goals!

However most people today are looking at fitness from a vanity perspective. I am not going to sit here and lie to you even though I currently see it as a byproduct rather than a central goal I still like to assess my body composition through assessment too!

I do this through taking photos of myself shirtless, pantless or even fully bare hahah

Yes yes, you don't have to take nudes to ensure you are progressing through body composition training but if your goal is to look better naked.. why not!!??

Theres this cool thing with phones today.. they have locked folders for a reason xx

Start taking photos naked today