So, as I promised yesterday I said I would post on how to track goals and progress. The best tool for tracking actual progress is by making a bodyspace at
bodyspace.bodybuilding.com. Here you can connect with various other people, set specific goals, keep track of your lifts, body weight, bodyfat %, and more.
Weighing:
Specifically tracking size and such is sort of self explanatory, but we need to be careful sometimes. Get your self a scale, I prefer digital with large numbers, make sure to get an accurate one. Weigh yourself. Best time to weight yourself? In the morning I feel is most adequate, also I like to be wearing similar clothing every time so my numbers do not get thrown off to much. How often to weigh yourself? Some people like to weigh themselves once a day. This is a bad idea in my honest opinion. It is normal to have weight change + or - 5 pounds or so. So seeing to much fluctuation may be discouraging at first. Pick one day a week and weigh yourself on the same day every week (I have to agree with the WeightWatchers fellows on this approach). Also when it comes to weight fluctuation sodium can play a large factor in this, I will touch upon this in another post.
Muscle Measurement:
You could also measure actual size of muscles and areas. This is not an easy task though. I have never gotten it done professionally, but a kinesiologist would be the professional that would properly measure muscle size with something called a gullick measuring tape. I am not one to keep close track of these types of measurements, but if you are looking for a ballpark measurement, then go grab yourself a tailor's tape and you can do some measurements with that at home. One of the most general measurements everyone would like to know is the size of the arm (upper arm, not the forearm). The way I was taught is to flex your arm as if you are trying to get some babes attention at the beach. Then have a friend measure the largest point on your arm, and make sure not to pull the tape to tight. So, theoretically, the lowest point of your tricep and highest point on your bicep. After you have taken this measurement....measure again for consistency, and measure both arms. Like I have said though, I am not one to practice this type of measuring regularly.
Lift Progress:
Another source of tracking is a very simple one. Are your lifts increasing? I feel you should be able to up the weight on lifts every week, the weight intervals may vary from week to week, for example a squat's weight interval increase will most likely jump higher in weight than a bicep curl's weight interval increase, just because of the size of that muscle group. It is always important to make lifting progress. Write down your lifts (I keep mental track) and then try to up it a bit every week. I usually up it every two weeks because I am a freak about over doing weight, but I see a lot of people like to up weight week to week.
Body Fat % Measuring:
Ehhhhhh I don't like this one. If you would like to try it, get your self a pair of calipers and measure up. The calipers will most likely come with a fat % measuring chart. Do not be afraid of some fat gain though. I got scared because I though I was getting fat my freshman year here in college, then I ended up not eating for a week. (Such a chick move.)
Goals:
I handle my goals pretty simple. What I do is pick a goal for weight, say for example I want to be able to put the 100lb dumbbells up on flatbench 4x as a goal. I will set the goal over a course of a year (it is not bad to set a quarterly or half year goal either, I just happened to do it a year at a time) then on top of that I set one unrealistic goal so I would say 150lb dumbbells at the unrealistic, then I shoot for the unrealistic one. Sound weird? It is. But it keeps me pumped up, and if I don't hit the unrealistic one, then no big deal; i tried. Then I set an overall weight goal (also yearly, but I do keep track weekly). A realistic goal over the course of a year is 12-18lbs (this number may vary depending workout experience, beginner gains, puberty etc.) for me, this is realistic. Unrealistic I say about 30lbs. Once again I shoot for the 30, but I do not want to get to carried away with that one because I don't want to get fat.
Pictures (Smile):
The final, and one of my favorite progress trackers (and most important) is images. Take pictures of yourself. Take pictures of yourself in a regular setting from all angles, flexing, relaxed, etc. Then take another picture in a couple months with similar "poses". I have seen some pretty impressive results for people trying to lose weight, in just under a month, but losing is a bit different. Gaining may take some time seeing as how the process takes a bit longer. Don't expect to see INSANE results just after a couple months, but if there are traces of progress, then you should be happy. Remember to stay positive and confident on how you look no matter what. If some b***** are calling you thin (happened to me before; often) take that anger out on some weights and show them whose boss.
Oh man, GUNS! On the left is a picture of myself I found on facebook from high school senior year (it was 80s day, I like the wig). Pretty sure that shirt was waaaayy to big for me. It was an X-Small.
On the right, here is a picture from a few
weeks ago. Not huge, but decent progress.
Conclusion: Make sure you are making gains on the scale and weigh yourself regularly every week and at the same time of day. Measure a muscle or two, or all of them. You should be lifting more and more every week (at the same reps of course), but do not over do it. Take pictures of yourself. It is really easy to track all this information in a bodyspace account on bodybuilding.com. Most importantly, do not get discouraged and do not take progress benchmarks EVERDAY or else it is really easy to get discouraged.
