Let’s be real — most people (even advanced athletes and coaches) don’t have a solid tool to consistently measure muscle growth. If that’s something you’d like to get better at to track your progress, this is exactly what you need.
Here are 5 methods to help you correctly measure and assess the quality of the size you're adding to determine whether it's actually muscle:
- Body weight
Muscle weighs more than fat. To build muscle the scale must go up. There's no way around it.
And to be honest, if you’re not a little uncomfortable about how much you're gaining, you’re doing it wrong.
Start with a conservative rate of gain to avoid overshooting, then assess this against the other 4 metrics.
- Measurements
Measure the circumference of the body parts you want to get bigger as well as the ones you want to remain the same —a simple tool for you to determine whether there's quite literally more of you week to week.
Pro tip: aim to minimise increases in waist circumference. If your biceps are growing but the waist stays the same, you are adding muscle.
- Callipers
Huh? Callipers are a method of tracking pinchable body fat in millimetres. Yep, that's right. And no –– you don't need to worry about body fat percentage. This method of tracking is quite advanced and requires some skill so if you don’t like the sound of it, the next method is for you;
- Progress pictures. Visual changes will tell you if the higher number on the scale is mostly fat and water or mostly muscle. For the most accurate measure, progress pictures should be taken in the same lighting, same angle and time of the day. Keep all variables consistent and you will have data to refer to when assessing your progress.
Bonus point: You should be getting stronger in the gym. Slow but consistent strength increases are a great indicator of muscle gain.
About me: Hi! I'm Agga. I’m a personal trainer, an online coach and a bikini athlete. In my work and though my social media outlets I share my own fitness journey and try educate and inspire. Find me on Instagram at @coachagga
