Are you making progress towards achieving your ideal physique?
I feel that many recreational bodybuilders have a difficult time guaging their progress- especially after they’ve already made their noob gains. Personally, I have often found it very hard to determine if my current workout routine was working efficiently. Here are a few tools I have used to guage my progress in the past three years- The scale, bodyfat %, and strength records. Unfortunately, it took me three years to realize that these are not the best indicators of progress when it comes to building the ideal physique.
I now believe that watching the scale is one of the most misleading and inefficient ways to track bb’ing progress. For instance, Sylvester Stallone weighed around 180lbs when he looked incredible in Rocky III. One of my friend is about Sly’s height and also weighs 180lbs…and looks nothing like Rocky. Now you will tell me, "Duh. Their bodyfat percentages are way different." That’s true- but let’s say that someone exists who is the exact same height, weight, and bodyfat % as Stallone during his prime. Would they look exactly the same? Would the hypothetical man store fat in the same areas as Stallone? Would he have the same ripped abs or balanced proportions as Sly simply because they have the same bodyfat %? In short, we cannot fully rely on the scale and bodyfat percentages to tell us where we are and what we should do next in our bb’ing pursuits. If the scale ever tells me I weigh 200lbs and the calipers tell me I’m 6% bodyfat, but I still don’t have wide enough shoulders or large enough legs, then I haven’t reached my goal yet- regardless of how impressive the stats appear to be.
Tracking strength also appears to be a good strategy for guaging muscle gain progress, but it has some flaws. Now, it is obvious that strength usually leads to size. Ronnie Coleman, one of the greatest bodybuilders of our time, is also one of the strongest. A guy in your gym repping 225lbs on bench is most likely going to be bigger than a guy repping 95lbs on bench. This is common sense. However, strength gains and size gains are not directly proportionate to one other. For instance, elite powerlifters can often push more weight than bodybuilders twice their size are able to lift. Because of this, we can’t completely equate making strength gains with gaining muscle. Over the past month, I’ve the upped the weight I use on Incline Dumbbell Presses by about 10lbs. Have I gained strength? Yes. Have I gained muscle? Most likely, but it is not guaranteed that I have gained muscle based on this strength increase alone. If I don’t take in enough calories and protein, I can stay the same size forever and gain strength. Therefore, we can’t rely on tracking strength alone to guage our progress in terms of building muscle.
So what’s the best way to guage progress? Aside from pictures (the camera never lies), MEASUREMENTS. This summer, I finally shelled out for a cheap Myotape measuring device for sale on bb.com. Since then, it has really helped me determine what it takes to put on quality muscle. For instance, during a 4 week bulking phase over the summer, I gained 10lbs and increased my strength. This seemed pretty good…until I looked at the measurements. My waist got bigger and my arms barely got bigger at all. WTF? How did this happen? Maybe it was because all I was eating was fast food and ice cream…I was getting in my protein though! After this, I started to clean up my diet. Once I did this, my waist started to shrink and my arms continued to slowly get bigger. I learned a great deal from this experience. Even though measurements are still just numbers and can’t compete with progress pictures, they can help you track progress in an objective way that sometimes the naked eye can’t accomplish.
Now, rather than shooting for a certain weight, a certain bodyfat percentage, or a certain level of strength, I am shooting for certain measurements. I have found a great article that helps you determine your own personal ideal measurements based on the Grecian standard (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson207.htm). While I have no intentions of stopping to work on my body once I reach these goals, this is a good method of determining what areas to focus on in order to achieve the Greek Physique. Now I know that if my arms are getting bigger and my waist is staying the same or getting smaller, then I am making progress and will one day reach my goals.
