As an athlete training for certain goals one of the things that I am constantly monitoring and gaging are the numbers that I am putting out during training. Measurements are an important part of tracking progress and checking your trainings efficiency. Every level of fitness or sport has a need to take measurements. However, the kinds of measurements and how often take an important toll on the approach and goal setting for your training. It is important to understand the pros and cons of measurements and the benefits and problems they bring to a training program.


There are various types of ways to measure a person in regards to fitness or sport. Weight, Circumference, Skin folds, 1 repetition maximums, VO2 max, Lactate Threshold, 10 repetition max, Biomechanical analysis, Bioimpedence, hydrostatic weighing, flexibility tests, reaction time, resting heart rate, maximum heart rate... etc etc. In general there are lots of ways to measure two different things. Body composition, and physical performance. 

Body composition brings a lot of benefits to program planning. The majority of people who go to a gym or begin exercising do so because they want to lose weight, look better, or something along the lines of aesthetics. Body composition is directly related to the way the body looks. The benefits of measuring body composition come in the form of visual progress. It's a clear number that is written down and tracked, there's little room for interpretation and is a good indicator of nutritional and physical efficiency. The cons of body composition focus are numerous in that body composition only indicates progress in a single sense, weight is weight, not body fat percentage. It can also be a poor indicator of good health as most guidelines for body composition measurements are based on a very general population and often neglect to address outlying issues like: genetics, chronic disease, age groups, and previous history. 

Performance measurements are a method of determining the bodies capacity for specific types of work. Be it cardio, strength, speed, agility, flexibility, etc. Performance measurements are taken for a different aspect of fitness programming, that which ignores body aesthetics. The benefits of measuring for performance tell more than just a single aspect of your fitness. For example if you can have increased your 1 repetition max for a lift, you have increased mental confidence, muscular strength, muscular efficiency, proprioception, and others. Performance measurements also compliment other facets of your training, as performance increases, the body naturally changes to become more efficient at performing various activities. The disadvantages of performance measurements are that it is very easy to create excuses to justify a lack of progress, there's a lot of interpretation in performance and a lot of factors are involved, so it is not so straight forward and easy to not take as seriously. 

As a trainer and an athlete I prefer to steer my clients towards a performance oriented training style where measurements are based off of their performances in workouts and activities. Training to perform in a specific activity induces transformations for the body and also makes it more physically capable of doing a variety of tasks, athletic and everyday tasks. In some cases I do measure for body composition, it is a useful tool, as long as it is not abused or over analyzed. 

Every Day... A Little Stronger