Recognizing improvements as a bodybuilder will be exceedingly difficult. You’re employed hard within the gym and strictly monitor what goes in your mouth, yet your physique appears unchanged. Since you see yourself so often, it’s hard to know whether you make gains, stagnating, and even going backward.
That is why you would like an objective method to evaluate your body. Standing on a scale will inform you how much you weigh but not how much of that weight is fat and the way much is muscle. Body fat percentage evaluation offers you your body composition, but it surely won’t inform you anything about your symmetry and proportion or your overall body shape.
For that, it’s good to take body measurements recurrently. Taking body measurements will let you recognize whether you are adding mass to specific muscle groups, how balanced your left and right muscles are, and the way ideally proportioned your physique is. But it should only do those things should you know how you can take body measurements the best way.
Read on to find how you can take bodybuilding measurements like a professional and the way your measurements compare to ideal proportions.
Why Take Body Measurements
Bodybuilding success is about greater than adding slabs of muscle to your body. It’s about sculpting a living murals where your individual muscles are ideally proportioned and symmetrically balanced. Doing that takes loads of dedication, perseverance, and labor. And it requires careful monitoring.
Body measurements offer you data you could’t get from the dimensions. The dimensions offers you a raw weight but inform you nothing concerning the distribution of that weight or the ratio of fat to muscle.
Your body fat percentage is a helpful data point, but it surely, too, is proscribed. From it, you’ll be able to work out your amount of lean body mass but not how that mass is proportioned in your physique.
There is a scene in Pumping Iron where Arnold Schwarzenegger compares bodybuilding to a sculptor adding clay to a sculpture with the intention to create the proper end product. Arnie emphasizes the importance of proportion, saying he would never exercise one side of his body greater than the opposite for fear of destroying his balance and symmetry.
There’s just one method to truly know in case your body is developing symmetrically and in proportion: recurrently taking your measurements. Doing so will inform you in case your upper arms are in proportion to your calves, whether your right quad is symmetrical along with your left, and should you’re achieving the perfect lat-to-waist v-taper.
This feedback lets you adjust your training to correct any issues that turn out to be apparent. In case your right bicep is half an inch larger than your left, you will have to begin training with dumbbells as an alternative of a barbell to bring up the lagging side. And in case your quads are lagging behind proportionally along with your upper body, you may have to begin prioritizing them with more targeted training.
How one can Take Bodybuilding Measurements
Taking your measurements requires consistency, accuracy, and a spotlight to detail. Adding size to your muscles is a slow process, measured in fractions of an inch. So, it is vital that your measurements are taken as accurately as possible and the identical way every time.
To organize for taking your measurements, it’s best to acquire a measuring tape that’s flexible and sturdy. It must have clear markings which might be divided into tenths of an inch. Ideally, the measuring tape should mark units in each metric and imperial readings. Select a versatile vinyl or cloth measuring tape.
Discover a well-lit area for measuring body parts. If possible, stand in front of a full-length mirror so you’ll be able to see that you simply are measuring each side of your body the identical way.
Men should wear nothing but workout trunks or underwear, while women should wear a sports bra and shorts.
Ask a trusted friend to assist take your measurements. Explain to them the importance of keeping the tape measurement straight all the way in which across the body.
Don’t exercise prior to taking your measurements. Doing so will unnaturally pump up the worked body parts, engorging them with blood and making them temporarily larger than they’re of their normal state.
Here is where it’s best to measure your body:
Chest
Stand along with your arms outstretched in order that your partner can circle the tape measure around your chest, just above the nipple line. Now lower your arms to your sides. Breathe out just before your measurement is taken. It’s critical that the tape remain parallel to the ground all the way in which around.
Upper arm (flexed)
You’ll measure each arms within the flexed bicep position. Within the flexed position, your arm needs to be bent at a right angle. Measure the fullest a part of the bicep.
Forearms
That you must measure each forearms. Take the measurement on the widest a part of the forearm, which needs to be halfway between the elbow and wrist. Make certain that you simply measure the identical point on each arm.
Shoulders
Stand along with your arms at your sides and have your partners run the tape measure around your shoulders on the widest point. Resist the temptation to expand your chest and shoulders. Relatively, stand relaxed so your partner can get an accurate recording.
Waist
Extend your arms out to the side to permit your partner to wrap the tape around your waist at the extent of your navel. Now, bring your arms back to your sides. Be certain that the tape is level all the way in which around. Don’t suck in your gut; stand naturally relaxed.
Thighs
Stand along with your feet barely wider than hip-width apart and your feet firmly planted on the ground. Have your partner kneel alongside you and wrap the tape across the mid-thigh. Don’t flex your quads. Measure each legs, being sure to place the tape around the identical a part of each thigh.
Calves
Measure each calves around their thickest part. For this measurement, it’s best to flex your calves.
Tracking Progress Over Time
It is best to take your measurements recurrently enough to get a very good handle on the changes which might be happening along with your body. But you do not need it to be so frequent that you simply don’t see any changes, as this could possibly be demoralizing.
I like to recommend that you simply take your measurements once per thirty days. Do it on the identical day of the month and the identical time. If possible, use the identical partner to do the measuring. This can make it more likely that the measurements will probably be taken in a uniform manner. It is best to also wear the identical outfit every time.
We have created this convenient image so that you can print out and help keep track of how your measurements are progressing.
One other great method to track progress is to take pictures and we go into great detail into taking professional-level progress pictures here.
How one can Assess Your Bodybuilding Measurements
There are three key ways to evaluate your bodybuilding measurements:
- Comparing the measurement to previous results.
- Comparing the left and right sides of a muscle.
- Comparing your measurements to ideal proportions and ratios.
1. Comparing Measurements to Previous Results
If you end up measuring your muscles on a monthly basis, it’s good to be realistic concerning the likelihood of creating gains. The longer you have been training, the smaller your progress increments will probably be.
If you’ve gotten been understanding for lower than 18 months and are training intensely while maintaining a protein-rich day by day caloric surplus, you’ll be able to expect to realize a number of tenths of an inch every month to every measurement.
In the event you’ve been training between 18 months and three years, your results will come more slowly. A gain of one-tenth of an inch in a month is an excellent result. Experienced trainers with greater than three years of gym time under their belt can expect less frequent gains.
2. Comparing the Left & Right Sides of a Muscle
Your goal as a bodybuilder needs to be to realize symmetrical development of your body. That signifies that the left and right sides of a muscle must have similar measurements. Unbalanced muscle development will throw off your body shape, no matter how big your individual muscles could also be.
The muscles which might be affected listed here are the upper arms, forearms, thighs, and calves. In the event you find that you’ve gotten a disparity between the left and right sides with any of those muscles, it’s good to concentrate on unilateral training with the intention to bring up the lagging body part.
3. Comparing Measurements to Ideal Proportions & Ratios
Achieving physical perfection has been the obsession of many individuals over the centuries. The traditional Greeks were especially enamored with the topic, as seen by the numerous statues from that point which might be still in existence.
Three ideals have emerged as the idea for the proper male body:
The Golden Ratio
The golden ratio is an aesthetically pleasing pattern that’s present in nature, art, and architecture. That ratio is 1.618:1. The golden ratio is utilized in reference to humans to point the perfect proportions of things like the length of the forearm to the hand and the length of the face to its width.
The golden ratio will be applied to body proportions, equivalent to the chest-to-waist differential. In response to the ratio, an individual with a waist measurement of 32 inches must have a chest measurement of 52 inches. Bear in mind that that is the proper ideal and will not be realistic for everybody.
The Vitruvian Man
Within the 1490s, Leonardo Da Vinci created his famous Vitruvian Man drawing, based on the work of ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. The image shows a person together with his legs and arms outstretched in two positions and represents the perfect proportions of the male human body.
The Greek Ideal
The Greek Ideal represents the culmination of the traditional Greek obsession with the male physical ideal. It represents a mixture of physical beauty and athleticism. The perfect relies on specific ratios between body parts and bones.
From these sources, we’re capable of arrive at the next ideal proportions and ratios you could compare your measurements to:
- Upper arm measurement needs to be 2.52 X wrist measurement
- Chest measurement needs to be 1.48 X hip measurement
- Waist measurement needs to be .86 X hip bone measurement
- Thigh measurement needs to be 1.75 X knee measurement
- Calf measurement needs to be 1.92 X ankle measurement
For instance of the above, a person with a wrist measurement of seven.1 inches needs a flexed upper arm measurement of 18 inches to have perfect arm proportions.
One famous bodybuilder of old who got here as near a wonderfully proportioned physique as anyone ever has was Steve Reeves. Listed below are Steve’s measurements at his prime:
- Chest = 54 inches
- Upper Arms =18.4 inches
- Waist = 30 inches
- Thighs = 27 inches
- Calves = 18 inches
Why You Should Also Assess Body Fat Percentage
While your body measurements are an excellent method to know what’s happening along with your individual body parts, they’ll not inform you how much of that body part is muscle and the way much is fat. Nor will it indicate body composition changes. For that, it’s good to know your body fat percentage.
That is why I like to recommend having your body fat percentage taken on a monthly basis similtaneously your body measurements. The simplest method to accomplish that is to speculate in a set of scales that measure your body fat percentage with the help of bioelectrical impedance evaluation (BIA). You possibly can put money into a top quality scale for lower than 100 dollars.
Adjusting Your Workouts Based on Your Measurement Results
By taking your measurements on a monthly basis, you’ll have an objective gauge to evaluate whether your workouts are producing the outcomes you wish. In the event you find that your left and right muscles are usually not symmetrical, it’s best to adjust your training so that you simply are working unilaterally.
In the event you’ve been training with a barbell, it’s likely that your strongest (and largest) side is taking greater than 50% of the load of the resistance. By switching to dumbbells, you will probably be forcing both sides to hold its own weight. Over time, the smaller, weaker side will come as much as match the opposite side.
In the event you find that your upper and lower body are out of proportion, it’s best to consider cutting back the frequency of coaching your dominant body parts. You would possibly train the dominant part once per week and the lagging part twice per week.
Within the rare case that your measurements have actually gone down, it’s good to take no less than a full week off from training. It is probably going that you simply are in an overtrained state, so every week of complete rest will do you good. Then, reassess your training frequency. Experiment with training a body part once per week for a month after which recheck your measurements.
It is best to also check your caloric and protein intake should you are losing muscle size. Make certain that you simply are achieving a 250-500 calorie surplus on daily basis to provide your muscle cells the fabric they should get larger.
We now have a complete article dedicated to assist fix muscle imbalances and asymmetries.
Wrap Up
Taking body measurements once a month is a habit that each bodybuilder should develop. Doing so will provide an objective assessment of how successful your training and nutrition program is.
Follow our guidelines to be certain that you take measurements which might be as accurate as possible. Then, use that feedback to regulate your program as you gain muscle and work towards getting as near your ideal proportions as you’ll be able to.
