Find out how to take helpful progress footage in 3 steps
It’s simple to get discouraged once you’re beginning a program pondering you aren’t seeing sufficient “weight” come off (don’t use the size as your solely indicator of progress!) or that sure areas in your physique aren’t responding “quick sufficient.”
That’s why I all the time suggest taking progress footage and measurements periodically and methodically all through your journey, as a result of it helps you see your self extra objectively and helps you see the larger image of progress you’re making (fairly than specializing in one space day-after-day).
I would like you to you’ll want to learn The Truth About Your Weight to know physique composition so you’ll be able to benefit from the journey and never be exhausting on your self for no purpose!
1. Take your footage and measurements on the similar time each week, from the entrance, sides, and again.
You can even do each different week if you happen to like too, simply decide an interval and be constant. Add a reminder to your calendar each 7-10 days or at your chosen interval so you’ll be able to keep on high of it.
Put on the identical outfit ideally, utilizing the identical lighting. This might be actually useful once you line your footage up aspect by aspect and search for adjustments.
2. Take extra full size physique pictures than simply footage of your abs or one particular physique half
It’s tempting to only zero in on the areas we most need to see change in, but when I personally simply concentrate on my abdomen or butt, I miss essential adjustments taking place in my arms, legs and again!
I see this on a regular basis with the ladies I work with – they write me discouraged that their abdomen isn’t altering quick sufficient – and they’re completely lacking the superior muscle tone they’re creating of their legs, again, arms and different locations…which in the event that they preserve going will have an effect on their abs shortly!
We now have to have the ability to search for the precise progress we’re making – all of it! Not simply the bodily adjustments that present in an image, but in addition our vitality. Our temper. Our self-confidence and energy.
Sure, it’s okay to need to look your greatest, however beating your self up mentally alongside the best way is NOT the best way to benefit from the journey, and also you by no means must really feel dangerous about your self.
So take a look at the massive image (actually take an image of your total physique) and bear in mind to concentrate to the opposite adjustments that you could’t see within the picture.
A pair notes on progress and fats loss –
Fats doesn’t come off the physique within the order that we would like it to, it’s a truth of life. We will’t spot scale back areas on our physique both. So doing quite a lot of crunches or ab workout routines will not be going to make your abdomen flat.
Burning off your fats systemically (that means throughout) AND including lean muscle to your physique is the quickest solution to change your form. Fats comes off within the order it went on – an order primarily ruled by genetics. So if you happen to achieve first in your abdomen, guess what – it’s going to come off the abdomen LAST.
Within the image of Joanna, she didn’t lose her abdomen fats by doing quite a lot of ab workout routines. She did a mix of energy coaching and HIIT (excessive depth interval coaching) in her Rock Your Life challenge workouts, and he or she caught together with her wholesome consuming.
Having the group to verify in with and us coaches to speak to helped her keep targeted, accountable, and preserve going. She didn’t see quite a lot of change between day 1 and day 7, however as soon as she took her day 14 footage and lined them up together with her day 1 footage, she was capable of actually see the distinction, which motivated her to maintain going.
That is EXACTLY why you need to take a look at your total physique to see the adjustments that you simply’re making. In the event you’re making some adjustments, you’re on track. The LAST factor it is best to do is cease, get discouraged or give up now!
Right here is an excerpt from Sculpted and Strong: How Muscle Works (an important put up to learn subsequent):
How muscle impacts your physique composition
If fats burning is a spotlight for you, constructing muscle is without doubt one of the handiest methods to assist that objective as with every contraction of your muscle, you’ll use extra vitality (and burn extra energy).
I do know it might not be in your radar to concentrate on muscle achieve over fats loss as a result of we’ve been so educated by weight-reduction plan tradition to consider our “physique fats” as the first needle mover, however I need to reframe that viewpoint, and break down some essential issues that you must learn about what muscle does, the way it works, and the way essential it truly is to protect as you undergo your life as a robust, succesful and wholesome lady.
Physique composition is commonly missed in “weight reduction” targeted coaching. 5 kilos of muscle and 5 kilos of fats each weigh 5 kilos, however they take up very completely different quantities of area in our our bodies (see image beneath). Fats is looser and takes up more room per pound than muscle, which is dense and compact.
As you add muscle to your physique, not solely do you turn out to be a extra environment friendly fats burner (as muscle burns extra energy as a result of elevated vitality output when a muscle contracts) however you additionally change the form (composition) of your body – normally to an aesthetically tighter, extra “toned” form.
This doesn’t all the time translate to the quantity of “weight” misplaced – if you happen to had been to switch a pound of fats in your physique with a pound of muscle, you wouldn’t change your “weight” however the composition and form of your physique would change to look smaller and also you’d be reaping all the advantages of carrying that extra muscle tissue.
Shedding fats with out strengthening and rising muscle could make the physique seem smaller, however looser. Whereas I dislike the time period “skinny-fat” this precisely describes the flabby state of a non-muscular physique.
Individuals who concentrate on extreme cardio and weight-reduction plan (with none concentrate on energy coaching) can expertise adverse outcomes, together with a lowered immune response and an elevated stress response – which contributes to muscle breakdown, and slows fats loss.
When weight reduction is your objective, contemplate adjusting your body to incorporate “muscle acquisition” as a shared objective with fats loss.
If including or bettering the standard of our muscle is already a objective, we are able to immediately affect fats loss in related methods as we affect muscle energy – with mobility and suppleness work, resistance coaching, cardiovascular coaching, wholesome consuming, common relaxation and good sleep, and mitigating our stress ranges.
3. Line your footage up from oldest to latest left to proper.
Since we learn left to proper, that is the best approach to have a look at your footage. In the event you share your footage with us after rocking a Betty Rocker program, we’ll rearrange them this manner for you if you happen to haven’t accomplished it already as a result of it’s simply simpler to have a look at.
I like to recommend lining your footage up one pose per collage, aspect by aspect of the identical pose. It’s tougher to concentrate on the physique elements and adjustments once you make a giant collage of 6 photos all collectively. You are able to do no matter you need after all! We simply discover it’s simpler to understand and concentrate on what we’re taking a look at when there are simply 2 photos per image.
Once I’m engaged on a objective, I’ll line up my first image in a single pose on the left and every week, drop my latest image in the identical pose to the proper. I’ll mark them with the dates so I can see the progress on a timeline.
Apps like Live Collage, Diptic, Pic Stitch or related work nice for all of this. I personally wish to take my very own progress pics within the morning earlier than I’ve eaten, however that’s completely as much as you.
I actually don’t see adjustments in myself daily simply trying within the mirror – and as we’ve talked concerning the scale actually isn’t an important indicator of “progress.” It may be one fascinating knowledge level, nevertheless it shouldn’t be what dictates how you’re feeling about your progress as so many components can affect your total physique weight.
Bear in mind: how you’re feeling is an important factor. Don’t push your self once you’re low on vitality, don’t practice exhausting if you happen to haven’t slept nicely. It’s a journey, not an in a single day categorical practice. The stuff you study caring for your self and the habits you create alongside the best way are the identical practices you’ll want to make use of to keep up that wholesome life-style and match physique.
A progress pic is nice, however what goes into creating it, and the way you’re feeling earlier than, throughout and after is what actually issues. 
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