Benchmarking Progress
“What gets measured gets managed” – Peter Drucker
Part of setting SMART goals is ensuring your goals are measurable. Measuring your progress is important for keeping you motivated. If we see that we are squatting an extra 5kg than a few weeks ago, or we have lost a few cm around our waist or we can run 100m in a quicker time, that makes us feel good and gives us another reason to continue to work towards our goal.
How Can I Track My Progress?
There are a variety of ways you can track your progress. I will highlight some of the main ones but each goal is going to be different for every individual, and so there is going to be a different way or ways to track progress. How often you should measure your progress is again going to be up to you. I have given rough timelines below for the mentioned benchmarking strategies.
Take progress photos - Every 4-6 weeks
Body measurements - Every 4-6 weeks
Track daily steps - Everyday
Keep a food diary or log your food - Everyday
Keep a sleep diary - Every night
Track your training – weight, reps, sets, technique – Every workout
Weigh yourself - Everyday
Let’s break these down a little more to find out exactly how we can do these in an efficient and accurate manner.
Progress Photos
Progress photos should be taken in the same place with the same lighting and if possible, wearing the same clothes. It is ideal to be wearing minimal clothing so you can see your body and not the clothes you are wearing. This is important to keep the photos accurate. When taking them, try and get someone else to take them for you, one facing forward, one facing the side and one facing away from the camera in a relaxed position. If desired you can also take progress shots when flexing to see muscle gain/definition too.
Body Measurements
Taking body measurements is a great way to see if you are gaining muscle or losing fat. You can do measurements yourself or get someone else to do them for you. All you need is a fabric measuring tape and something to record the measurements.
Again, each way to track progress is individual to your needs so you can choose what you want to measure. If your goal is to put on muscle on your arms you may want to measure your arms both in a relaxed and flexed state. Make sure to note whether measurements are taken in a relaxed or flexed state. Make sure to measure before working out, as post-workout your muscles will be filled with blood. The measuring tape should be snug, not too tight and not too loose. Below are the measurements I will generally do, aiming generally to measure the biggest part of the body part you are measuring.
Right Arm - Biggest part generally halfway between elbow and shoulder
Left Arm - Biggest part generally halfway between elbow and shoulder
Chest – Biggest part of chest – normally aligned with nipples
Waist – Around belly button or thinnest part of midline
Hips – Measure the biggest part around your hips (where your butt sticks out the most)
Right & Left Quad – Biggest part of leg – generally ¾ way up leg towards hips
Right & Left Calf –Biggest part of calf – generally ¾ way up towards knee
Tracking Steps
Tracking your steps each day is easy with wearable technology or if your phone has it built in. Either wear some form of wearable technology, get a pedometer or if you have your phone on you at all times, you can use that. Ensure to record your steps somewhere so you can keep track.
Food Diary/Logging food
Keeping a food diary is as simple as recording anything and everything you eat and drink. You can record it on paper, on your phone or in an app. The best way to keep a food diary is to write down when you ate the food and roughly how much. Waiting until the end of the day generally means we will forget at least one if not more things that we had and thus being inaccurate. Also track all liquids you drink including water. You can also use any tracking app such as ‘My Fitness Pal’ to track your food.
Example:
9am - Breakfast
3x Weetbix
1x medium banana
250ml milk
Sleep Diary
Some phones and wearable tech allow you to track your sleep but they don’t track everything so if you choose to manage your sleep, I recommend using a sleep diary.
This should include the following:
Date/Date
Time I slept/woke up
Total sleep hours
How I felt before going to bed
How I felt when I woke up
Energy levels/mood throughout the day
Food and water before bed and time
Tracking Training
This is a must for anyone completing any sort of training, no matter your goal, you should always be striving to better yourself in your workouts.
Tracking each workout by writing it down on pen and paper, on your phone or any other way you see fit is imperative. Tracking sets, reps and weight used. Progressive overload is the only thing that matters when it comes to improving. Whether you get another rep on the same weight or get the same amount of reps on a heavier weight. The other thing to remember is technique. It should always be in your mind to ensure you are doing exercises properly and not compromising form for weight.
Weigh Yourself
Weighing yourself can be useful data when looking at losing/gaining weight but is not the be all and end all. It is simply data to help see if you are in a caloric deficit or surplus, it does not determine self-worth, how you look or anything else along those lines. You could be 80kg ripped with muscle or 80kg and holding some extra weight, that number is not an accurate representation of how we look. Weighing yourself should be avoided if you have any issues attached to the number on the scales. Simply think of it as data tracking and nothing more.
When weighing yourself:
Use the same scales, on the same surface, on a hard floor
Weigh in the morning, after going to the toilet
Be naked
Before you eat anything or do any exercise
So, there you have it, a variety of ways to track your progress. There are many more ways so aim to pick the one(s) specific to you and your goal(s). Measuring our progress is important to see if we are tracking towards our goal and by how much, it also allows us to readjust our plans if need be to help achieve our goal.