nwistheone

The dark days of not being able to get data off your phone are largely over—at least for most smartphone users. With the launch of Best Buy's new mobile service this week called mIQ, there are now a handful of cloud syncing services for a plethora of different devices. The offerings may be similar, but they're not identical, so we thought we'd look at the most prominent syncing services.

If you want to grow you have to know!

This means that there must be some sort of objective means by which to measure your results. Without this you could be making no progress at all and not even knowing it.

Now, some people measure their muscle gain by scales. While this is better than nothing, total body weight fluctuates too much to be a reliable marker of muscle gain. Also, what if you lose fat and build muscle at the same time? This is a GREAT result, yet you may actually think you’re getting nowhere. I wrote an article here on why not to use scales to measure increases in muscle mass.

Another measure is the tape. This is a great tool (I recommend the ‘Myotape Body Tape Measure‘ for accurate results without the need for a second person) but suffers from the following:

• What if you’re losing fat on the same area that you’re building muscle e.g. the arms
• Small increases week on week are hard to detect with the tape and you may be fooled into thinking you’re not progressing at all
• If you hold the tape at a slightly different angle you can come up with very different results

So what do we do?

The key to measuring muscular gains is by measuring strength gains.

Any bodybuilding program worth its salt is essentially a strength building program and will centrally focus on the principle of progressive overload.

Here’s why you can count on strength gains as a good indicator…

The cross section of a muscle is directly proportional to its strength.

• In a man it’s about 140 pounds per square inch
• In a woman it’s about 105 pounds per square inch

Basically this means that strength gains correlate positively with muscle size. It does NOT mean, however, that everyone that can curl a certain weight will have the same size biceps – never make that mistake. We all start out with different strength levels, differing muscle fiber density, differing neuro-muscular efficiencies etc.

Always remember that it is YOUR job to make YOUR body as good as it can be. Stop looking over your shoulder at what the other guy can bench or squat or whatever; it doesn’t matter in the slightest. Get your ego out of the road to succeed.

Your only concern is yourself. Ensure that YOU are progressing over time, regardless of what the absolute poundages are. If you could only bench 45kg to failure on the 8th rep, that’s fine so long as you see a progression (even a small one) each and every workout.

Keep this mindset and you’ll reach your goal. Make use of the scales, body fat readings, and tape along the way, but remember that you most dependable friend is your strength gains.

Keep Progressing,

Mark

Related posts:

1. Warning! Do NOT Measure Muscle Gains With Scales. Here’s Why… The scales are NOT the way to track muscle growth!...
2. When To Increase Weight For Maximum Muscle Building Ok, this really needs to be cleared up once and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A pre-work run can help energize the rest of your day. To help make sure you get the most out of yours, resist the urge to hit the snooze button before getting up.

Photo by me and the sysop.

Runner's World has outlined some tips on how to optimize your running by regulating the activities you're inclined to do when not running.

To start, the post says to resist the urge to hit the snooze button, no matter how tired you are. Instead, get up with the alarm and let the running "shake off the sleepiness." According to Runner's World, the occasional night of sleeplessness followed by a less than rested morning won't have major detrimental effects, so you should push yourself to get up sans the extra snooze time.

The post also suggests stretching your legs every 60 minutes throughout the day. Browse the full link for other tips on how to optimize your workouts, then chime in with your own tips in the comments.