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Why keep track of the size of your muscles?
Bodybuilders, and others interested in fitness and a balanced physique, take their measurements in a certain way. This is in order to determine the growth of that muscle and its development as well as its size relative to the muscle groups of the whole body and their respective girth. Some may also use graphs that determine what range your measurements should all be within for your height and appropriate weight.
What exactly should you measure?
The several measurements you should take include the circumference of your neck, chest, upper arms and forearms, waist, hips, thighs and calves. You should also measure the width of your shoulders. With the proper measurements you can determine the portion of each measure that should be attributed to one muscle or another.
Proper tools and environment.
You should have at least one body length mirror. You should have a tape measure 60 inches or greater such as a seamstress would use. It should be longer if needed and as long as necessary. You should wear as thin an outfit as possible so as not to add to the measurements you take. This all ensures accuracy.
How to take all these measurements.
Taking your neck measurements.
Run the tape around your neck above the base. Measure fairly tightly but not enough to decrease the measurement. Certainly don’t measure anywhere tightly enough to cause choking.
Measuring the breadth of your shoulders.
You can stand looking in a mirror and hold the tape in front of you at shoulder height. Measure across from the widest part of your shoulders at the sides and above where the upper arms begin. Notice where you begin and end the measurement on the tape to get an accurate reading.
Take your chest measurement.
First, wrap the tape around your chest as high under your arms as possible. Bring the tape together in front of you. Lower your arms to their sides so your chest takes its normal and expansive size. Relax. The largest measurement in this process, the one you take once relaxed, is the accurate measurement.
Now, measure only the front of your chest from under one armpit to under the other. If you have a balanced measurement between the size of your chest and your upper back your chest should be about 1/3 of the larger chest measurement that you took just previously.
Sizing up the flexed upper arms.
Wrap the tape measure around the extended upper arm. Now make a muscle pumping your upper arm and lower arm together. Double check to make sure that the tape spans the broadest parts of your triceps (bottom) and biceps (top) of the upper arm. This is the accurate measurement.
Note that your triceps should appear to be twice the size of your biceps during this measurement. This will tell you that you have balance between your biceps and triceps and that you don’t need more training of one or the other.
Now the forearms.
The forearms are measured wrapping the tape around the fattest part and flexing. You flex the forearm by taking the position with the forearm that it would take if you were holding the handlebars on a motorcycle. Now flex the forearms by turning the hand and wrist down as though you were revving the motorcycle engine. This is the proper measurement.
The waist.
Measure the waist at the broadest part, the part that sticks out the most. Neither draw your waist in nor stick it out. This is the accurate measurement and if it is a healthy one, it will be a trim measurement without having to “suck in your gut”.
The hips.
Measuring the hips gives us the size of the hips and of the gluteal muscles or “the behind”. Simply measure all the way around at hip level catching the broadest part of the hips and the seat of your pants. This is the proper hip measurement.
The thighs.
The thighs are measured separately like the arms. Surround the upper leg as high up as possible. Now flex and extend outward the thigh muscles and this will give you the correct size for your thighs.
The thighs are made up of muscles to the front back and sides. With proper training you should be able to determine a fairly even development of each all the way around.
Finally the calves or lower legs.
The calves are measured at the thickest part and are flexed for an accurate reading. Extend the toe and raise the heel in order to flex and poke the calve muscle out at the same time. This will give you a full measurement.
One last word.
Experienced athletes know not to take their measurements more often than monthly. You shouldn’t expect big advances in your training more frequently than this and taking your measurements more often could be discouraging.
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