WEEK FORTY-THREE :: What’s The Best Way To Keep Track Of Your Progress?

[webmaster]

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TOPIC: What’s The Best Way To Keep Track Of Your Progress?

For the week of: Sep 21st - Sep 28th
(Wednesday @ Midnight Is The Final Cut).

Sorry for the delay...
Will

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People are constantly trying to lose weight, gain muscle, just get results. People may “feel” that the weight is on or off, or people may “assume” they made progress because of the time they spent in the gym, but how do they really know?

What are some of the best methods to keep track of your progress?

How often should you check your progress?

BONUS QUESTION: What’s the best way to keep your workouts and diet in check? Do you use any methods of tracking progress, keeping workouts and diets in check, or do you just listen to your body and play it by ear?

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Don't discuss any other topic in this section. ONLY discuss the question above.

The best response will get $75 in credit to use in our online store! The other good responses will be used in an article on the main Bodybuilding.com site, with the poster's forum name listed by it. Become famous!

Thanks,
Will
Webmaster
Bodybuilding.com

[patfactorx]

Pose in front of the mirror. Tells you everything you need to know.

Weight can often fluctuate with changes in water intake and strength is often dependent on how you feel that day. Many of the bodybuilders I have competed with say that the only way to really know if your improving is to hit mandatory poses in front of a mirror or take pictures of your poses and track your progress over time.

Polaroid is a great way to know if your getting better =op.

[KR_Muscle]

Tracking your progress is extremely important while pursuing any fitness goal. So how do you track your progress you ask? While there are many different methods to tracking your progress only some are accurate and accurate when used properly. Whether your goal is to gain muscle, lose fat, or both here are some of the various ways to keep you moving in the right direction.

Bioelectric Impedance Analysis

Bioelectric Impedance Analysis is the process of measuring the impedance or opposition of an electric current through the bodily fluids contained in lean tissue and fat tissue. Impedance is low in lean tissue where intracellular fluid and electrolytes are primarily contained, but high in fat tissue. Body fat percentage is then calculated as the difference between bodyweight and lean mass tissue. This method has been applied to many new scales usually called BIA scales that you can buy in almost all-large department and fitness stores. This method can be fairly accurate; mostly it is dependent upon the calibration of the analyzer that is used in each machine. So in the case of buying a BIA scale for home use something that is a little more high quality won't hurt.

Body Fat Skinfold Calipers

A skinfold caliper is a device that measures the thickness of a fold of skin with its underlying layer of fat. By doing this at key locations, it is shown by research to be representative of the total amount of fat on the body. Making it possible to estimate the total bodyfat percentage of an individual. This method can be quite accurate. The biggest factor involved in using calipers is the person using them and the exact location of them being used. Skinfold calipers are among the cheaper routes to monitoring body fat levels and can be purchased right here at bodybuilding.com. Furthermore here are some tips for increasing the accuracy of your calipers.

-Take all measurements on the right side of your body
-Carefully identify and recall your measuring site for accuracy
-Take the measurement when skin is dry and lotion-free
-Do not measure immediately after exercise due to shifts in body fluid

Hydrostatic Weighing

Hydrostatic weighing is established in medical literature as the most accurate instrument for measuring and monitoring changes in body composition. The procedure starts out by determining an individual’s residual lung volume and land weight calculations. Then the individual is seated on a submerged chair that is suspended in shoulder deep water from a weighing scale above. The participant exhales completely and then is immersed under the water briefly, while an underwater weight is measured. Several trials are performed and recorded and finally a body composition is completed. This method is extremely accurate but also very costly.

The Mirror

Obviously everyone that is trying to achieve a certain body composition wants to look a certain way for various individual reasons. Well one of the best ways you can tell if you are getting closer to what you want to look like is by looking at yourself...in the mirror. This is a good staple of how well you are progressing and if you need to change anything further. If you feel you are looking better and are making progress in various areas of your body by looking at them in the mirror you probably are.

The Polaroid

Another good method that can be more beneficial then the mirror for monitoring progress is a picture of yourself. Take a picture of yourself and then asses the areas of improvement. After some time into your diet take another picture of yourself and see if you have made progress in those areas previously assessed.

Bodyweight Scale

The infamous but unforgotten scale. The scale is a good way in combination with others to see if you are staying on the right track. However, the scale used alone can be vey discouraging if you do not familiarize with why weight fluctuations can occur-even on a daily basis. Furthermore, there are ways of improving the accuracy of the bodyweight scale. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations ARE normal. Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink the more of it your body retains. Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meats, beans, whole grains, etc. Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrates. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. It is very normal for someone to have a fluctuation in within 3-4 pound range. Moreover, if you are going to use a scale as your primary check for progress weigh yourself in the morning. In the morning is when glycogen levels are going to be at there lowest for most and water retention is not as much of an issue.

How often should you check your progress?

In my personal opinion and experience I recommend tracking your progress once every one to two weeks and hopefully closer to the two-week mark. No matter what your goal is you should see some progress in that time frame and this will also help you from being discouraged to soon.

Nutrition and Training

One of the best methods of all to ensure that you continue to see progress using any of the methods above is to keep track of your nutrition and training regimen. One of best ways to do this is by keeping a training log. By using a training log you can keep track of your daily nutrition and workouts. This is a great way of keeping yourself on track and not cheating in your diet or failing to miss an exercise or set in your workout. Whether you are trying to build muscle, lose fat, or both by applying some of the methods discussed in this article you should be able to continue your way in the right direction.

KR_Muscle

[bodybuildin58jc]

How can a body builder track progress? In basketball, baseball, football and all other major sports there are statistics. Granted, you can track the amount of weight you can lift, yet that will still not tell you how good you look when you strike a double bicep pose.

First issue to tackle is how to measure progress. First off, the most common response to this question is the mirror, but looking in the mirror is not always the best solution. You can not always tell if you are making leaps and bounds or baby steps only becuase you see yourself everyday. You cannot tell the difference in the size of a flower day to day. Yet, after a long period of observation you know tell its growing. In sum, ripping your shirt off and posing in the mirror before bed isn't going to let you know how much bigger you've gotten the past few months.

Another indicator of your progress is people who see you without your shirt off often, such as at the pool. Yet, to the civilian, all body builders look massive, all of the time. Therefore, they don't have a good idea of how much progress you have made. Once again this plan is also a flop, you need a better way of knowing if your making progress.

Therefore, keeping a log is a perfect solution. You can record body weight, body fat, and the measurements of many different muscle groups.

You may also want to include in your log what supplements you're taking, how much protein is included in your diet, what amount of lifting you're doing, how much cardio you're doing, and how much rest you are getting at the current point in time. This will help you determine what gives you the greatest gains and what just isn't worth your time.

Another crucial part of this log is a picture. Pick a few poses that include all of the muscle groups and take a picture of yourself doing those poses then tape it on a page in your log everytime you record all your "stats". After a few entries in your log you can flip back through and see when you made the largest gains and when your image didn't change one bit.

One last question.. How often does progress need to be recorded??? that is up to you. You don't want to any less than once every other month. You could do it as often as every week, but chances are you won't see as large of a change. Its entirely your call.

In conclusion, Keeping a log, that includes pictures, will help you determine how much progress you have made long term, and from month to month. So go down to CVS, buy a composition notebook for a 69 cents (the black one you used in your high school science class) and start logging your progress. Take it easy and enjoy the wonderful, God-given sport of bodybuilding and remember-- go for it 100% or don't go at all.

P.S. You can visit the website below to find out a rough idea of what your measurements should be, but nobody is perfect so don't be discouraged if you don't measure up:
http://javascript.internet.com/calculators/male-body.html



In Christ,
Broox

[bulldog7]

The Best way to track your progress is by logging everything. Often times one will forget exactly how much weight they did the week before, or how many sets they did, or how many reps they got with what exercise etc. Therefore, one must log every set, rep, and weight they lift. By doing this, one can look back at their log and see the strength progress they made.

However, some people are not just interested in strength, they want it all. People want more muscle, more definition, more mass, all with less fat. Therefore, one should also log what they eat everyday. I personally log everything I eat...I put down the exact time I eat, what I ate, the amount of protein, carbs, and fats, and total calories I consume. Everyone has a certain amount of calories they must eat in order to maintain their current weight. This differs for every person. It depends on your height, weight, metabolism etc. So, after a couple weeks, if you are not gaining any weight then you know you have to increase your calories. Also, if you are gaining weight but you feel alot of it is fat, then you know you have to decrease your caloric intake.

Fat is something one always has to watch out for. You can always check for body fat percentage with fat calipers. In this way, you can track how much muscle you are truly gaining. You check your bodyfat every so often (say every couple weeks) and see how it changes. By doing this, you can make sure that the weight you are gaining is quality muscle.

Another way to track your progress other than keeping logs is by taking pictures of yourself. You can track how your body changes by taking pictures of yourself every couple of weeks or every month and you can see for yourself the gains you made. I would not go by looking in the mirror. If you look in the mirror every so often it's often hard to remember what you looked like a month ago. By taking pictures, you can compare what you look like now and what you looked like a 1 month ago. Taking pictures is alot more accurate in tracking your progress from week to week or month to month.

So, by logging your workouts, caloric intake, and bodyfat percentage, and taking pictures...you can keep track of your progress and make adjustments accordingly along the way that will reflect your overall goal.

[shannonb]

Progress is one of the most motivating parts of everybody's goals. Yet very few people take measuring ones progress seriously or even bother with it at all. If you are losing motivation looking back on a solid progress report can get you back in the gym pumping out them extra reps and giving you more gains than the next guy mindlessly following his routine without any real idea of how he is doing. The following methods, if used, will give you a huge overview of your overall progress and something to look back on and be proud of at the end of the day.

What are some of the best methods to keep track of your progress?
The most widely used method people use to track progress has been the scale. The scale is designed to measure your body mass and that is it. If you think about it, your body is made up of bones, organs, water, blood, fat and muscle. With either your goal to be gaining muscle or losing fat all these variables blur the final number on the scale.

While the scale may accurately record your total body mass, it says nothing about your body composition. Water fluctuations are a big factor too. Water is retained in the body for many reasons. Whenever the body stores a gram of glycogen it stores three grams of water. Also, a gram of fat that has been metabolised by the body will retain another gram of water as a by-product of this process. Considering that, it’s obvious that using the scale alone doesn’t help in accurately telling you if you are progressing or not. Don’t throw your scales away though as they are best used every now and then and in conjunction with other tools. You can’t get an accurate picture on weighing yourself on a day-to-day basis. So weigh yourself no more than once a week, but when you do, write down your weight for future reference.

The second piece of equipment you may use is the tape measure. Measuring parts of your body can tell you if they are getting bigger, smaller, or staying the same. A good idea is to measure the following areas every couple of weeks:

Neck _____
Bicep _____
Forearm _____
Chest _____
Waist _____
Hips _____
Thigh _____
Calf _____

The mirror. The mirror has a number of different uses for bodybuilders. But its main purpose is to tell you how you look visually, not statistically. As long as you are honest with yourself the mirror can be a hugely useful tool to pinpoint where you have made gains and areas that are in need of more work.

Body fat callipers are another tool that is great to use in conjunction with the scale. Body fat callipers are designed to tell you how much percentage of your total body mass is fat by measuring the thickness of a fold of skin. There is a wide range of callipers on the market from manual to digital with most of them being friendly to your wallet and easy enough so anyone could do it. They can be fairly inaccurate if not used properly, if you can’t get it right or you just want a super accurate measuring you can get it professionally done by the bod pod or hydrostatic weighing.

We all have a way of failing to notice small gradual changes, but photos can quickly remind us just how great our progress has been. Have some photos taken of yourself from the front, rear and sides and if you want throw in a few poses as well. Write down your weight, tape measurements, and the date the photos were taken. After a couple of weeks, or a month, repeat the process and compare the ‘before’ photos with the ‘after’. Studying the two sets of photos will give you a very obvious understanding of how you are doing.

The last tool you can use is your relatives. This is the most fun part of tracking your progress in my opinion. Relatives may have not seen you in a while and their mental image of you before your progress may be a totally different picture of what they see when they look at you now. The compliments and wide eyes are one of the most accurate progress reports I’ve ever seen.

How often should you check your progress?
The best method for this is to check it every couple of weeks. Same time, same place, same circumstances. Weigh yourself, write down your measurements, measure your body fat, take some photos and put it all in a file. The next fortnight repeat this process and do a comparison of last fortnight, or last month. After you have done this a few times you’ve got both the statistical and visual truth of your progress.

BONUS QUESTION: What’s the best way to keep your workouts and diet in check? Do you use any methods of tracking progress, keeping workouts and diets in check, or do you just listen to your body and play it by ear?
For my diet I use the online nutrition log FitDay.com. FitDay gives you every bit of information you need about what you are eating and what the macronutrients add up to at the end of the day. Also if my diet is solid and one that I have the same each and every day I write out on a piece of paper every meal I eat for the day and the time I eat it at so I don’t have to constantly recalculate what I’m eating for the day and what it adds up to.

To track workouts I take a workout diary into the gym with me that I use to write down my sets, reps and weight used for each exercise. After a while of continually doing this I get an understanding of my strengths and weaknesses inside the gym coupled with my progress reports outside the gym I know exactly how far I’ve came.

[ravadongon]

My response.

[mivi320]

What's the best way to keep track of your progress?

Intro

As athletes, we make an effort to go to the gym and get our workouts in. We dedicate time in our days to go to the gym, eat our meals, and get enough sleep. It's simply the life of an athlete. But, how do we know if we're making progress in this game? What's the best way to keep track of your progress? Are those countless hours spent in the gym and time set aside to pursue your fitness goals equating to the type of progress you're looking for?

Setting Goals

Before even starting a fitness program, establish a goal that you wish to accomplish. Obviously, everyone's goal (or goals) will vary. Person A may want to build muscle, while Person B may want to improve his cardiovascular health and lose that spare tire. Whatever the case may be, if you fail to notice any progress in reaching your goal, it's clear that your efforts in accomplishing the goal will diminish. That's where tracking your progress comes into play.

Tracking your progress through different methods

First off, in order to track your progress through a specific method, you must analyze and redefine your goal. For example, if your goal is to gain lean body mass (LBM), simply stepping onto the scale is no accurate method of indicating whether you accomplished your goal. The reason being, when you step onto the scale, the total mass of your body is calculated. Calculating bodyfat percentage, tape measurements, plus the total mass of your body will indicate whether or not you accomplished your goal. Let's take a look at the methods that will enable you to track your progress sufficiently!

Measuring Up

After establishing your goal, the second step is to take measurements that are applicable to what exactly you wish to improve. Measurements don't always have to be numerical values. Simply taking a picture of yourself to use as a "before" picture is ideal. Again, if your goal is to increase your one rep max on the flat barbell bench press, taking a "before" picture won't do you any good. Taking measurements on what exactly you wish to improve upon allows you to have a reference to analyze further down the road as you approach your goal. This information is also a great way to motivate yourself even more to accomplish your goal! Below is a list of methods you can use to track your progress:

Body Fat Calipers

The skinfold caliper (also known as body fat calipers) are ideal when your goal involves either gaining muscle and keeping fat mass to a minimum or simply trying to lose weight. A skinfold caliper measures subcutaneous fat and aids in providing details that are significant in tracking your progress effectively! It's best to take body fat calculations using a caliper every 2 weeks or so; therefore, you don't become frustrated or unmotivated to quickly. Remember, transforming your body is a marathon, not a sprint. So don't get discouraged!

Pictures

Pictures are great for tracking your progress. When you happen to compare two pictures (a "before" picture and an "after" picture), it's amazing to see the changes in body composition. Taking progress pictures on a regular basis allows for comparisons, and will enable you to notice your weakpoints and adjust accordingly!

The Scale

Many folks are told that the scale isn't a good indicator of progression. This is true to a certain degree, but frankly, the scale shouldn't be completely avoided. The reason being is when you decide to start eating a calorie restricted diet and exercising on a frequent basis, you're bound to lose weight. After that first week of completing the program, you jump on the scale, and it reads 180 pounds. You're down 7 pounds in the first week! What you don't know is that the 7 pounds that was lost in the initial week wasn't pure fat. Nope, that's right. It was a combination of stored water, lean muscle tissue, wastes, and some adipose tissue. You get back on the scale next week, it reads 179.5 pounds. You still lost some weight, but you were expecting a much more larger loss. By now, you're discouraged and frustrated. Hence, less motivation to keep going.

However, the scale can be a wonderful tool in tracking your progress. If you're goal is to gain muscle mass, keeping tabs on your skinfolds and body fat percentages, then stepping onto the scale can tell you if you are accumulating muscle mass. Same applies if your goal is fat loss. Keeping track of your body fat calculations and skinfolds, then stepping onto the scale will tell you how much fat tissue you lost. In short, the scale is a double-edged sword, so use it wisely!

Measuring Tape

Measuring tape is by far one of the best tracking methods to use if you're goal is to gain muscle mass or lose fat. For example, if your body fat percentage has remained constant, but your arm size has increased considerably according to the tape, then you have obviously gained pure muscle in that region. Good deal, eh?

The same applies to fat loss. Many folks make the mistake of just measuring their waists prior to starting a new fat loss program. The fact is that everybody loses fat in different regions. Therefore, be sure to take measurements of other bodyparts (arms, thighs, etc) to gauge your progress more effectively.

Journaling

A journal is my favorite way of tracking progress. A workout journal in which the number of sets, reps, and exercises are recorded is ideal to know if you're progressing in the weight room. A workout journal should also include any cardiovascular activity you perform. That way, you know if you're improving your heart and overall fitness! A food diary can be used to track the foods you eat, total number of calories, and the macronutrient totals is also ideal. By doing so, you know just how much or how little your eating and adjustments can be made.

How often should you check your progress?

You should monitor your progress using the above methods every 2 weeks or so. Monitoring progress everyday or even weekly is setting you up for discouragement and your motivation will diminish. Be sure to keep the time of day in which you continually track your progress consistent. In other words, if you happen to take your first measurements in the morning before breakfast, regularly monitor your progress at the time of day for the remainder of the program. If you feel you're not progressing at a proper rate, don't become frustrated or discouraged. Simply adjust accordingly to your measurements and how you feel, and go from there! Again, improving your general health and fitness is a marathon, not a sprint.

What’s the best way to keep your workouts and diet in check? Do you use any methods of tracking progress, keeping workouts and diets in check, or do you just listen to your body and play it by ear?


When it comes to keeping workouts in check, journaling is a must. Recording what you did in the weight room in a workout journal helps you to understand your limits and progression. A workout journal is also a great source of motivation. For example, let's say that in week 1 you bench press 225lbs. for 8 reps. The following week before your workout, you go through your journal, and decide to record your goals for that particular workout. You come across your numbers on the bench press for last week. You see "225x8" written down, and decide to go for 230x6! After successfully getting 230x6, you feel motivated and psyced to keep going and progressing!

To effectively keep your diet in check, a food diary is your best bet. Fitday.com or a simple log book, in which you record what you ate and your total number of calories able you to gauge your progress sufficiently. When you "play it by ear" and eat whatever comes to mind, you often end up eating more than you think you are. So be sure to keep a food journal!


Conclusion

In conclusion, Tracking your progress will help you greatly in reaching your specified goal. If you don't see yourself reaching goal, the likelihood of you moving forward is slim. That is exactly why monitoring and tracking your progress is vital in accomplishing your goal!

Good luck with all of your health and fitness goals!

Mike

[Blap Blaow]

Tracking progress is essential to the success of any athlete, not just the bodybuilder. Often numbers are banded around without context and used irresponsibly to track an athlete’s progress. In actual fact much of the success of any athlete is constant improvement due to constant re-evaluation, with the improved numbers following on from this steady improvement.

By tracking your progress carefully and thoughtfully you can help attain your goals faster and with less frustration as weak spots become easily identifiable and problems become easier to spot and resolve.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark19.htm


WHY TRACK PROGRESS?

Tracking one’s progress is often essential in realising your goals, whatever they may be. By carefully and regularly tracking your progress you can quickly and easily benefit you in a number of important ways;

i) You can tell if what you are doing is helping you move towards your goals. If not, tracking your progress helps you easily identify problems that may be hindering you by looking at your diet/routine/recovery and may help prevent you coming to frustrating plateaus. Too many people waste their time doing the same thing week in week out and get nowhere.

ii) By tracking your progress you can constantly reassess your goals. For example, if you’re losing body fat faster than you expected you can alter your long term goals to take this into account. Or put on an extra 5lbs of lean mass before Christmas if you’re already ahead of your game plan. This way you can constantly be on the ball regarding where you are in relation to your long term vision.

iii) Seeing where you are in relation to your goals can be extremely motivating. If you are lagging behind your target you can motivate yourself to identify weaknesses and adjust accordingly, or even give you the determination to work even harder to get where you want to be. If, on the other hand, you are on target or even ahead of where you want to be you will be pumped full of motivation and ready to move your progress forward.

[Blap Blaow]

METHODS OF TRACKING PROGRESS

In order to track progress effectively your ultimate goal must be identified. For example, the weights a bodybuilder lifts may be secondary to their aesthetic appeal. On the other hand low body fat, which may be a peripheral goal to a runner, may be what a bodybuilder strives for along with building lean mass.

Therefore in order for any method of tracking your progress to be useful it must be performed within the context of an ultimate goal.



1) AESTHETICS

For a lot of people the ultimate purpose of careful dieting and training may be to simply look better than they did when they started. Functional strength and endurance are secondary to a good physique and the method of assessment should reflect this.

-Pictures

While many suggest that the mirror is the best way of tracking aesthetic change, I would argue that pictures are far superior;

a) Pictures offer the chance for comparison- you can place several pictures side by side for a direct comparison of your progress over a period of time. These can also provide motivation by allowing you to see exactly what you need to work on in order to achieve your goals.

b) you can use pictures to examine parts of your body you may not be able to see in the mirror. For example, set the ‘timer’ function on your camera an hit a lat spread for the unique chance to see your own back in full!

c) Showing your pictures to others allows for constructive criticism without the need for getting semi naked in someone elses presence. The ‘post your pictures’ section of the Bodybuilding.com forums provides a unique opportunity for you to gain constructive criticism from fellow bodybuilders around the world.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29


d) Unlike a mirror, pictures allow you to be more objective about your physique. Your own body in the mirror may be a sight you see everyday but a photograph offers a greater degree of detachment and the opportunity for you to see yourself in a new light.


-Measurements

How big are your arms? That, along with ‘how much do you bench’ seems to be the staple question amongst bodybuilders. Although everything is relative it may sometimes be useful to measure certain body parts in order gauge growth and development. Like with most things put into your own individual context. Comparing your own measurements allows you to track progress and identify weak points.

The ‘standard’ places for taking a bodybuilder’s measurements are;

Neck
Chest/ Back
Arm
Forearm
Waist
Thigh
Calf
Shoulder

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bodypartlog.htm


-Scales

Your typical bathroom scales can be a great place to chart progress if the results are used properly. You must remember that standard bathroom scales will give you your total weight, inclusive of fat. If your goal is to bulk and accept that there will be a fat increase, this is fine. On the other end of the spectrum , if your goal is weight loss and can accept some muscle loss in the process, the scales on there own will be fine.

However, to be used more effectively bathroom scales should be used in conjunction with a method for tracking body fat percentage. In this way you can gauge just how much fat you are losing or muscle you are gaining.


-Callipers

Callipers can be a great way of tracking body fat changes. Unfortunately, due to human error and the fact that they rely on standard sites for measurements there is a margin of error in the results they produce.

The best way to use callipers is as a means of tracking progress. Rather than looking at the actual numbers they produce it is often wiser to track individual trends with callipers over a period of time. Callipers are most effective when the measurements are done with consistency. This means using the same sites for measurements each time, measuring at the same time of the day and usually at the same point in the week.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson98.htm


-Hydrostatic Weighing

Hydrostatic weighing is the process of obtaining body fat measurements is one of the most accurate ways of obtaining a body fat measurement. However, this requires specialist equipment and trained personal to is not readily accessible to many people.


-Body Fat Scales

Body Fat Scales rely on a process known as bioelectrical impedance. A small current is used to measure the resistance offered by your body fat and this is subsequently converted into a body fat percentage. Although a lot ‘easier’ than callipers and more freely available than hydrostatic weighing there can be a large margin of error with bioelectrical impedance devices- particularly with people of higher body fat.

All body fat measurements should be taken in order to identify trends, not to provide hard and fast numbers. There is little point in reaching a target body fat percentage if it’s not comfortable or doesn’t help you with achieving your goals. With body fat measurements common sense should prevail.



2) STRENGTH AND SPEED

It may seem odd that I have decided to combine these but looking at my notes I've noticed a lot of similarities in the different ways of tracking progress whilst trying to achieve either of these goals.

-Logging results/ keeping a journal

This is probably the most obvious way of tracking progress. Personal logs allow you to keep an eye of previous best times/ lifts and give yourself focus for the future. They can help you identify week points and help you develop yourself to your best. They can provide motivation in giving your something to strive for and can be simply as useful as reminding you of exactly what you were capable of last week, and what you should aim for this week.

Keeping an actual journal is slightly different in my opinion. This requires some sort of organisation as you must make sure that dates run into each other and that the information is presented clearly. Logs often allow you the opportunity to provide personal feedback to remind you in the future of how you felt during your run/ cycle/ lift etc. The Bodybuilding.com forums allow you the opportunity to start your own training log, along with pictures, in order to help you track your progress, give you a permanent base for keeping your results and getting advice and encouragements off of other athletes.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/forumdisplay.php?f=66
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/worklog.html


-Chart Progress

Similar to logging results, charting progress involves physically charting progress with graphs. You can either do this by hand or set up an Excel spreadsheet to do this for you. The result is a graph which

a) allows you to identify trends in your training
b) allows you to compare training sessions directly over a period of time
c) allows you to identify dips and plateaus in your performance and correct potential problems


-Get a Partner

A carefully chosen partner offers numerous benefits, one of them being the competition they offer. If you pick someone faster/stronger/with more stamina than you, you will have to push yourself further to compete with them. This also allows you to your track your progress qualitatively. By this I mean times or weights lifted don’t matter. Instead you can constantly compare yourself to your partner knowing you are both training under the same conditions.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/workoutpartner.htm


-One Rep Max/ Best Times

It is not often that an athlete pushes themselves to their absolute limit. For one, constantly placing yourself under this exertion is simply not beneficial for improvement. However the occasional pursuit of 1RM’s or ‘bests’ can be beneficial in helping you tracking progress.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson39.htm


3) ENDURANCE

In this context endurance covers endurance-specific athletes, such as long distance runners and triathletes or those simply wanting to maintain cardio-vascular fitness whilst training for another sport. Many of the principles described previously still apply, although these methods of tracking progress can used in conjunction with them.

These tests offer the opportunity to get standardised results for those looking to track their cardio-vascular performance. They are not a substitute for actual training and should only be performed occasionally.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa109.htm


-Bleep test

This provides an estimate of aerobic power of the athlete. The multi-stage fitness test, or bleep test, consists of a short run which must be continuously completed in between a series of pre-programmed ‘bleeps’. As time goes on the bleeps get closer together and the challenge becomes harder. An occasional bleep test can be an excellent way of testing cardio-vascular endurance.


-VO2 Max Test (Cooper Test)

Another measure of cardio-vascular fitness although, unlike the bleep test, the VO2 Test only lasts 12 minutes. It should be stresses that the VO2 Max Test should only be performed by athletes UNDER SUPERVISION.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/vo2max.htm


For other examples of sport related fitness testing; http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/peak29.htm

[Blap Blaow]

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU CHECK YOUR PROGRESS?

In my opinion you should only track progress after a period when

a) there with be discernable difference from the last time you checked
b) it does not interfere with your actual training.

In regard to point a), a lot of people find that measuring body fat levels and overall weight once a week is both a long enough period to actually establish a change in body composition and a short enough period to avoid plateaus in progress. You must remember that change does not happen overnight. For some, a change in bodyweight or fat levels may only be distinguishable on the actual scales every 2 weeks or so, in which case they may wish to reformulate their workout and diet, or may be happy with slow and steady progress. Everyone is different.

Measurements and pictures need only be taken every month or so in my opinion. This is simply because a longer time span is required to notice any discernable difference in these regards. In fact, taking either of these too close together and expecting results can often lead to disappointment and de-motivation.

In regard to point b), many of the measures for tracking outlined require maximum physical exertion for them to be an effective measure of true progress. This means that in practice a recovery period is required in order to sufficiently recuperate from the maximum effort test. This in itself will interfere with a regular training regime.

Add to that the fact that maximum exertion testing also reduces the amount of time available for actual training and the fact that going to your maximum regularly is hard on the body. All of this means, to me, that such testing should be used once a month, if not less. Obviously this does not take into account actual competition, where athletes may be required to push their body to the limits week in week out for several weeks.

One important point to make is that whenever you measure your progress, make sure you do it with consistency. This is not only in your methodology, but also the time of day (for example, bodyweight and appearance can fluctuate depending on the time of the day they are measured) and day of the week (for example, your bench press may be significantly weaker if tested after an arm day rather than a leg day). This will ensure that you are getting a truer account of your progress over time.



BONUS QUESTION: What’s the best way to keep your workouts and diet in check? Do you use any methods of tracking progress, keeping workouts and diets in check, or do you just listen to your body and play it by ear?

The best way of keeping track of workouts and diet is by simply writing it all down. I keep both a notebook log at the gym and a computer log at home on the PC. On weekends I log the results of my weights sessions into the computer which allows me time to look over previous weeks and compare my progress. By keeping all of the information in one place I can easily track my progress and identify plateaus, strengths and weaknesses.

When it comes to food, this is pretty easy. I use a nutrient database in order to keep track of my basic diet in order calculate calories to ensure I am getting enough protein etc. Once I have a diet that suits me I no longer have to calculate anything- just eat, train and rest! If I find I need to up my calorific intake I can simply increase my portion size slightly or add an extra meal.

However, the ‘intuitive’ approach is not without merit. Sometimes you have to listen to your body in order to figure out a routine, diet and recovery plan which works best. Rarely does something which looks good on paper pan out to be how you expected! I have found it is always best to combine the intuitive method with a more considered, scientific approach for best long term results.





Thank you for reading

[sword chucks]

I thought I'd let you guys know that Im still alive... good job to all the winners lately, crap I didnt know it was week 43 already! Im gonna try to write next week- Im actually almost out of store credit!

[ho_124]

What’s The Best Way To Keep Track Of Your Progress?
Keeping track of your progress is one of the most important things you can do outside the gym. This is usually overlooked by most people who just hit the gym without keeping track of the weight they use and reps they perform. They don’t even keep track of their weight, diet or even take pictures of themselves to chart their gains. By doing this, you won’t even know if your making any gains at all. If this is the case, your wasting a lot of your time and you can prevent this by putting a little time into keeping track of every part of your training and diet. By doing this, you will know when to increase the amount of weight, if your overtraining, if your program and diet is good or not, or most importantly if your gaining muscle or losing weight. The list is endless and you will have a much clearer idea of what your doing. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time and it hardly costs any money so it only makes sense to keep track of everything.


What are some of the best methods to keep track of your progress?
There isn’t just one method of keeping track of your progress but quite a few, and you also shouldn’t rely on one way. For example if I just relied on a scale for keeping track of my gains and it says I gained 10 pounds, I might not know if I gained fat or muscle. So it is important to use a variety of methods to reduce error and get a more accurate idea of your gains. You also don’t have to rely on complicated lab tests since it would probably be expensive and you would just be wasting your time. It doesn’t matter if your decimals off your weight or body fat composition.

1. Keep a log
Keeping a log is the most important. You won’t be able to memorize all the calories you had each meal, every day for however many weeks. You probably won’t be able to remember how much weight you used in each exercise and the exact amount of reps.
That’s why you have to keep a log, it is the key to keeping track of your progress and seeing which diets and training programs are best for you and which ones don’t work. It’s exactly like your binder in school, without it you wouldn’t do well in school and without a log, you won’t succeed in achieving your goal. In your log you should put in your training program as well as a bunch of important things I will list below. Everytime you change your weight training program which you should be doing about every 2 months, change your log also. This will make things easier because if your log is just one mass of pages it might get confusing. It also helps to have a mini-goal you want to achieve each time you change your log and training schedule. For example if a 100 pound person is bulking, then he might want to have it as his goal to gain 10 pounds of muscle by the time he changes his workout and log two months later. Keep in mind though, you will want to keep each of your logs, don’t throw them out. Keeping your logs allows you to see which diet and training program gave you the best gains and which diet and program didn’t work so well.


2. The scale and your weight
Probably every household has a weighing scale. This is the easiest and most convenient way of seeing if you have gained or lost any weight although there may be a few minor changes from day to day. If your plan is to lose a lot of weight, then this machine won’t lie. If the weight on the scale keeps going down then that’s probably a good indication you’re losing all that fat. But there is a problem when it comes to gaining muscle. You might not know if your are really gaining fat or muscle (Especially when bulking). That is why you can’t just rely on the scale to tell keep track of your gains. That’s what most people do, just hop onto the scale, and if they gained 5 pounds they just assume it was muscle and keep on doing what their doing not knowing if their diet or training is doing them any good. It is a good idea though to keep track of your weight in your log.

[ho_124]

3. Body fat composition
This is especially important when your cutting. You can estimate using your eye but it would be best if you used a body fat caliper that tells you your body fat percentage. For most people, a good body fat percentage for pretty good muscle definition should be about 7-9% maybe even 10%. But for professional and serious bodybuilders they usually shoot for about 4-6% body fat which is hard to get. If you want to know how much muscle you have or have gained then you need your body fat %. To do this take your body fat percentage and multiply by your weight. So if you weight 100 lbs and you have a 10% body fat then you would have 10 pounds of fat (100 x .10 = 10 remember 10% is a decimal for you math genius’s) and 90 pounds of other things such as muscle, water , bone mass, and organs. Finding out how much muscle you have isn’t that important even though some people want to know, finding out how much you gained is even more important however. This I will show you below.

To find out how much muscle you gained, here’s a situation. Let’s say your bulking. If you are 100 lbs and you gain 20 lbs with a body fat percentage of 10% before and after the 20 lbs (I know its impossible but I don’t want to complicate things) then you need to find out how much body fat you got. So 120 x .10 = 12 pounds of body fat. So to find how much muscle you gained you find out how much non fat body weight you had before you gained 20 pounds and after you gained 20 pounds. So before you gained 20 lbs you had 90 lbs of non fat body mass and after you gained 20 lbs you had 108 pounds of non body fat weight. So you take 108 minus 90 to get 18 pounds of gained non fat mass. You can assume that most of this is muscle but of course it isn’t pure muscle (We already know that none of it is fat either). You can assume it is mostly muscle since you are training and altering your diet, you don’t just gain 18 pounds of water or something.

4. The mirror
The mirror never lies. It is also a surprisingly good way of seeing if your gaining or not without all those numbers. Since you know what kind of body you want, then you should check the mirror often to see if your coming close to that goal body you want. It also gives you a good idea on what your lacking on. For example you might notice that one arm is bigger than the other arm and in that case you know that you need to fix that.

5. Measurements
This is another great and accurate way of charting your gains. Take a measuring tape and measure your around the forearms, biceps, chest, stomach, legs and calves (Write down the circumference that gives you the largest measurement). There are also a lot more things you can measure too but the above list will give you a good idea if your gaining or not. So if your biceps are 10 inches at the start of your log and 12 inches at the end, you know for sure you have gained muscle unless your arm is just a huge chunk of flab and all you did was sit and eat.

6. Increase in reps and weight
In your training log you should be keeping track of how many reps you perform in each exercise as well as the amount of weight you use. So if at the start of your log you record that on your bench press you fail exactly at 8 reps with 100 pounds and at the end of your training log you still achieve muscle failure at 8 reps with 100 pounds. Then something is obviously and seriously wrong with your training and probably your diet too. But if you notice that your bench press at the start of your log was 100 pounds and at the end it was 125 then you have obviously gained some muscle and obviously strength.

7. Pictures
This is a really good way to know if you have gained or not. Take a picture when you start a new log and every week take another picture. After your finished take another picture and compare all of them to see how you have progressed. If you notice you have gotten bigger or more ripped then you know for sure that you are making some real progress. Just like the mirror, pictures don’t lie. You should also show your pictures to someone else to see what they think since you might have some huge ego.

Organize your log like this

You should organize your log in 3 sections. The training section, the diet section and the stats section.

Training section
- Training schedule: This is the base of your log. Practically everything is based on your training. Make a 2 month log or make the log however long it takes you to change your workout schedule. Divide the log into weeks, and write down what body part your doing in each day of the week. Then write down the exercises your doing for the body part.
- The sets, reps and weight you use: Write this beside the exercise.
- Write how long you spent in the gym. This could be important if you’ve overtrained for example. If your going for 1 hour and a half, then you would know your probably spending too much time in the gym.
- You should also write in how you felt each day before going to workout. So if you felt a energized one week and did 10 reps on an exercise, then 2 weeks later your still at 10 reps or lower. Then it could be because you felt tired that day you worked out.

Diet section
- What you eat each day. Put a section for each meal that counts the calories. Then at the end of the day count the total calories which lets you know if you are eating properly.
- You should also write down how many carbs, calories and fat are in each of the foods you eat.
- If you want, you can put a tiny section that indicates how much water you have taken in and how much sodium you have taken in as well. Since lack of water and excess salt promotes less muscle definition, you know how much your getting so you don’t lose any “rippedness”.
- Also as your gain more muscle your maintenance calorie level will increase. Make sure you calculate your maintenance level every two weeks and make adjustments to your diet.

[ho_124]

Stats section
- Divide this into a weekly sections
- Put the measurements of your body parts in each week
- Put your weight in each week
- Put your body fat percentage in each week
- Put your muscle gain mass in each week (I told you how to do this in the fat composition part)
- Put before and after pictures in this part


How often should you check your progress?
I would say check your progress every week. That means taking your weight, measurements, body fat %, and muscle mass gained. You should also look over everything carefully every two weeks. That means looking and seeing if your weight maybe went up a little bit or your body fat % went down a little bit. You want to be able to act fast if you see a problem which is why you should check over all your stuff every two weeks (You don’t want to be wasting precious time, especially when your preparing for a contest). So if you notice you haven’t gained any weight or your fat level is still the exact same, then there are a number of things you should look over. Most of the time it’s your diet. Almost all screw ups are made in diet, so check if your getting that 500 calories over your maintenance level if your bulking or getting under that level if your cutting. Make sure you’ve calculated your maintenance level correctly and see if your getting to many carbs or maybe to little protein. Also check to see if your overtraining. 99% of people train each body part once a week. So if your training each body part twice a week and you notice your not gaining, then its probably because your training too much. Also if you train over one hour each session you maybe be overtraining. If you wait to long to check your progress like a month or something, then if you find out your diet and training is not getting you anywhere, you’ve basically wasted a month doing nothing.


BONUS QUESTION: What’s the best way to keep your workouts and diet in check? Do you use any methods of tracking progress, keeping workouts and diets in check, or do you just listen to your body and play it by ear?
Like I mentioned above the best way to keep your workouts and diet in check is by keeping a log which contains three sections, one about training, one about diet and another that has your stats. There is no other way of keeping on top of your training and diet than keeping a log. Think about it, for training it tells you what exercises you did, how many sets, reps and the exact weight you used. When you write all this information down weekly and you look back at all of it you know if you progressed in the gym by increasing weight or maybe doing one or two more reps. And if your stats are constantly getting better then you know for sure your progressing.
The diet section of your log is also the best way of keeping your diet in check and up to date. When everything is written down about what you ate including the type of food, the amount of calories, the carbohydrates, protein and fat content your chances of screwing up on your diet are slim. Even if you do screw up all that information is right there and you don’t have to wonder why you screwed up and try to remember what foods you ate.

Playing it by ear is risky. If you don’t have any serious goals and your not bulking or cutting and just lifting weights to get a little stronger and a bit bigger, then its probably all right. But if you’re a serious athlete or bodybuilder playing it by ear is no effective at all. If your trying to bulk and you just guess the amount of food you need to get about five hundred calories over your maintenance level, your probably going to fail miserably. This is the same for training. If you don’t record everything you did in the weight room you would never know how much progress your making. You wouldn’t know when to up the weight, or what exercises to do in your next training program let alone even know what exercises your suppose to do. You would never know what training and diet programs worked best for you. And worst of all if your overtraining or doing something very wrong with your diet you wouldn’t know what the problem would be since nothing is written down. So just invest a little time and make a good quality log, don’t play it by ear and be lazy.

[mivi320]

Great articles this week, everyone. Good luck and let the best man win!