Here we are in March! That was fast! So: how about we take a moment to check in with our bodies and see how the year is going? Today I’ll discuss what we might want to evaluate at this point and tomorrow I’ll talk about what we might want to do to tweak our fitness plans (or, you know, make a fitness plan in the first place).
First let’s talk about the quantitative measures we can use. Two useful sorts of measurements are weight and circumferences. For the first one, we just step on the scale and see how we’re doing. As with all of the measurements I’m going to discuss, we want to do our best to take them under the same circumstances as much as possible; that is, in the same or similar clothes, at a similar time of day, using the same devices, and so on (hydration level can be important!). Personally, I forget stuff when I don’t do it first thing in the morning, so that’s my preferred time, but other people have different sorts of rhythms.
Circumference measures require either a sewing-type tape measure or a long enough piece of string and a regular tape measure. The most common and useful measurements to track are the chest (at the nipple line), the waist (at the belly button), the hips (at the widest point), the upper arm (halfway between the shoulder and elbow), the thigh (halfway between hip and knee OR at widest point—remember which one!), and the calf (at the widest point). The reason for all those parentheses is that we need to make sure that we are measuring the same spot each time. The narrowest part of our waist might not be at the belly button, but the belly button is a useful landmark for where to measure so we can track the changes.
People with fancy fitness trackers/Apple Watches/wristy overlords may want to track some other pieces of data. Depending on your gizmo, you can track all kinds of things, but one metric I would like to point out is HRV (heart rate variability). Research suggests that this measurement is one of the best indicators of cardio fitness. NOTE: it is a highly individual measurement and we should NOT compare ours to anyone else’s because that’s just not useful data. In general, we want our HRV to trend higher. (Folks who want to get REALLY fancy can track the measurement for a couple of weeks, figure out an average HRV, and then plan workouts for each day based on whether a particular day’s measurement is above or below average—a harder workout on a higher HRV day and a more recovery-based workout on a lower one; this has been shown to produce better results than plain old planning alone.)
Those of us who want even more gizmos can acquire a blood pressure cuff and track that, but it is not necessary unless high blood pressure is a problem. Those of us who are curious about our body fat percentage can get a bioelectrical impedance monitor. The consumer versions are not as accurate as the medical ones or as the water displacement tests, but they do allow us to track changes if we use the same device under the same circumstances every time. The monitor I have also computes BMI, but anybody with a calculator (or a pencil and paper) can do the same (I am not putting the formula here because I think BMI is a bad measurement and less useful than many other indicators of health and fitness—anyone who wants the info can Google it).
One other kind of tracking we might consider is food tracking. There are tons of apps out there to make it easy. If we have been tracking, now we might want to do a little evaluating of how we are doing. If we haven’t been tracking, we can start now.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about what to do with all this data.
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