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With three to 8 weeks completely off training, you will lose some muscle. The good news it only takes 2-3 weeks to retain it.

Right now, we all need to stay home, stay safe, stay healthy, and try to stay strong. The final part of that sentence might be something you are anxious about. Many stressed-out people have contacted me worrying about losing their gains. So, are they right to be worried?

 

My answer is emphatic…no!

 

There are two parts to that answer:

 

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microworkouts-at-home-workouts

A lot of us get hung up on this idea of what an exercise session is supposed to look like. We think about driving over to the gym, squeezing into a crowded class, or working through a room full of complex contraptions, machines, and heavy plates. In our minds, it has to be a certain duration or intensity, or it doesn’t count. It has to have a warm-up and a cool-down, and we’re supposed to sweat so we’ll need to shower when it’s over. That mindset turns the simple act of moving your muscles into something you don’t have time for, something you’re too tired or sore to do today, something that seems too overwhelming for the moment you’re in right now. Don’t underestimate the power of short, at home workouts.

I’m challenging you to change your mindset, emerge from our flawed, dated and narrow approach to fitness and step into a much broader perspective about what it means to be fit. The concept of microworkouts is taking hold, and being touted by emerging science, respected coaches, trainers and elite athletes. I’m seeing a shift in the way people think about how to get fit: we’ve had enough with making the same mistakes over and over.

Microworkouts: Reframing our Approach to Exercise

The revolution is definitely a work in progress, and I still see misguided and destructive marketing messages and programming being thrust upon well-intentioned fitness enthusiasts. I still see the “no pain, no gain” approach being encouraged by fitness personalities and celebrated on social media.

For those of us willing to examine outdated beliefs and behavior patterns, and replace them with simple ways to get fitter, healthier, and happier, together we can help usher in a New Fitness movement.

I can attest that things like frequent traveling, minor aches and pains limiting certain activities, or hectic periods of work can throw me off even the most regimented fitness devotee. Often I won’t even realize that my routine has been slipping until I review my workout journals and realize I haven’t bagged a formal sprint session in three weeks.

Enter microworkouts.

What are Microworkouts?

Microworkouts are quick strength moves that you do throughout the course of the day. They can take a few seconds or a few minutes, they can be structured or unstructured, and you can roll them into the more mundane parts of your day, like waiting for your morning coffee to brew or going out to get the mail. These brief, at home workouts don’t seem like much while you’re doing them, but the effects compound over time.

Some examples of microworkouts:

  • Doing calf raises every time you climb the stairs in your house
  • Holding a plank while you’re waiting for your smoothie to blend
  • Ripping out a quick set of tricep dips at your desk before every meeting

The key is that you don’t overthink it. You do it, and then it’s over until you decide to do another microworkout. Even though they involve true energy expenditure, microworkouts seem effortless. The benefits compound over time, and you don’t feel like you’re disrupting the flow of your day at all.

In Keto For Life, we call it JFW, or Just F—ing Walk. Quick, at home workouts or microworkouts outdoors might sneak in there next. If it stops there for the day, great. Or, you may be up for that long-standing foundation of structured cardio, resistance training, or sprint workouts.

Reference the Primal Blueprint Fitness Pyramid recommending 2-5 hours per week of cardio at aerobic heart rates (180 minus age in beats per minute or below), two strength sessions per week lasting 10-30 minutes emphasizing functional, full-body movements, and one sprint workout every 7-10 days featuring all-out efforts lasting between 10-20 seconds with full rest between. These are simply guidelines. Life happens, and microworkouts are there to fill the gap.

Mark’s August 2019 post on microworkouts attracted a ton of feedback from readers. Clearly, this concept is taking hold in the fitness scene and is poised to become a major stand-alone element of a well-balanced program. Devoted MDA reader, Primal Health Coach, and 50+ athletic wonder Stephen Rader wrote a nice article with photos here. Rader mentions that microworkouts are great for skill acquisition because they don’t wear you out and can be performed frequently. He also pointed out that the Blue Zone research is touting the concept as a winning longevity component. Here’s a helpful podcast/video from Matt Schifferle at the Red Delta Project on the subject. He makes an excellent point that frequency and consistency are fitness essentials, and it can often be difficult to achieve those with a formal workout routine.

Matt makes the clever comparison that a microworkout is like chillin’ at home and watching Netflix, or watching a quick video on your mobile device, versus a proper evening out at the movie theaters. A theater experience is still fantastic (as is a full-length workout at the gym), but it’s not always practical, and it’s often less appealing than a micro-entertainment experience at home.

Thanks to forward thinking fitness leaders like Angelo dela Cruz, Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece, Joel Jamieson, Brian MacKenzie, Dr. Craig Marker, and Dr. Kelly Starrett, we have things like mobility/flexibility training, recovery-based workouts, cold exposure and heat exposure, breath work, and High Intensity Repeat Training adding variety into our fitness plans.

How to do Quick and Effective at Home Workouts (With Video)

The possibilities for microworkouts are infinite! All you need is some creativity and a way to put your body under some form of resistance load. The most important success factor for microworkouts is to adopt the proper mindset and commitment to the project. This is the difficult part, because we have been socialized to view workouts as a big production, requiring significant time, energy, and logistics. The truth is, home workouts can be just as effective.

This all-or-nothing mindset can make you resistant to hauling off a single set of deep squats during a busy workday, because you might think, “what’s the point?” It’s important to embrace the idea that engaging in any and all manner of physical movement throughout the day is essential to your general health, particularly for fat burning and cognitive performance. Recall that sitting for as little as 15 minutes can deliver a significant decline in glucose tolerance and increase in insulin resistance. Simply standing up at work increases caloric expenditure by 10 percent. Talking a leisurely 15-minute walk after a meal lowers the insulin response by half. Walking every day is directly correlated with a boost in brain function.

Little things make a big difference. When some of your movement breaks include brief, explosive microworkout efforts, you enjoy not only the general benefits of movement, but also achieve a significant fitness benefit over time. If you start doing a single set of pull-ups here, a single set of deadlifts there, two years from now you will have hundreds of thousands of pounds and thousands of reps in the bank.

Here are four microworkouts that I do at home, including three that I have set up right in my home office.

Microworkout 1: Air Squat

Microworkout 2: Pull-ups, or Chin-ups

Microworkout 3: Stretch Cord Circuit

Microworkout 4: Hexbar Deadlift

Let’s take a three-step approach to excelling in microworkouts:

  1. Commitment: I know your fitness to-do list is already long, not to mention your overall life to-do list. However, adding microworkouts into the mix is arguably the easiest way to boost your fitness. You don’t have to schedule time on your busy calendar, nor line up child care to escape for an hour to the gym. You simply have to acknowledge the importance of movement, and the incredible cumulative benefit of brief, explosive bursts, and make a sincere commitment to a microworkout program.
  2. Environment: It’s essential to set yourself up for success with cues, triggers, implements, and apparatuses that make microworkouts compelling and impossible to ignore. The videos accompanying this piece offer some clever suggestions to help you get into the groove. Making a minimal investment in some Stretch Cordz gives you a ton of options to work different muscle groups. Ditto for installing a pull-up bar, a TRX kit, or having a kettlebell nearby. Beyond actual equipment, there are other environmental cues you can associate with microworkouts. For example, if you mount your pullup bar in your closet door, entering the closet is call for a set of pullups. Ditto for my hex bar located on the route to the garbage barrel. Put your microworkout triggers in plain sight, begging you to engage. If the example is doing a set of deep squats at your work desk, write a sticky note or use an app to generate a reminder every two hours. Alas, dialing in your environment will not automatically lead to success unless you integrate the next objective…
  3. Incentives, Rewards, and Benchmarks: Establish some minimum standards to accomplish each day, such as one set of deep squats, one set of Stretch Cordz, and one additional effort choosing from pull-ups or kettlebells. Enter it into your calendar or display a simple sticky note. Don’t break for lunch or leave the office for the evening until you have completed your bare minimum objectives. When I finish a thoughtful email, hang up a lengthy phone call, or reach a natural breaking point in my writing, I’ll reward myself with a cognitive break in the form of a microworkout. If you can enroll a partner in your microworkout journey, this is the best source of inspiration and accountability. Perhaps you can meet in the building stairwell for a quick sprint up two flights of stairs at least once a day, or more by invitation. If you enjoy relaxing in the evening with digital entertainment, establish a rule that you’ll do at least one set of something during each episode of your binge-watch. There are many more ideas of this nature to consider, but it really helps to put some structure into the picture and take it seriously. Seriously, don’t leave the office, ever, until you do at least one set of deep squats every day.

Hopefully the videos will create some inspiration and momentum for your at home workouts. Let me know how microworkouts are going for you, and perhaps share some of your clever ideas for environment, incentives, rewards and benchmarks with the community. Good luck!

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The Good Morning is an exceptional exercise for stretching the hamstrings and in some cases the ankles. It also helps for developing the hamstrings for athletic movements.

Strict good mornings with the feet placed wide, the knees locked and the back held straight is an excellent movement that solves a number of problems for beginning lifters. They also provide supplemental strengthening for veteran lifters.

 

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Mark Sisson doing a plank outsideGyms all across the world are closed right now. Many of us are stuck at home, unable or unwilling to even get to parks and hiking trails and beaches. We’re all homebodies now, and yet the need for physical activity hasn’t diminished. If anything, it’s more crucial than ever that we stay active and healthy, fit and strong.

Today, we’re going to start with core workouts.

The core is, well, the core. It’s the foundation of your body. It’s how strength and force is transmitted to the world around you. It keeps you upright. And, although this might seem unimportant (it’s not), it’s a major component of LGN—looking good naked. Form and function depend heavily on the strength of your core.

You can do this entire workout in one block, sprinkle it throughout the day, or do some of it every day in addition to other training.

Primal At-Home Core Workout

Planks

planks

This is the most basic core exercise. It’s simple (but not easy).

  1. Get in the pushup position, only put your forearms on the ground instead of your hands. Your elbows should line up directly underneath your shoulders. Toes on the ground.
  2. Squeeze your glutes and tighten your abdominals.
  3. Keep a neutral (straight, plank-like) neck and spine.
  4. Create a straight, strong line from head to toes—a plank, if you will.
  5. Hold that position for as long as you comfortably can. Stop short of failure.
  6. Rest for a minute and repeat twice more.

Make them easier:

  • By doing them on your hands rather than forearms (like at the top of a pushup).
  • By doing them on your knees; rest your knees on the floor or an exercise mat.

Make them harder:

  • Slide your elbows forward, so they no longer line up underneath your shoulders. This will increase the difficulty.
  • Add side planks. Hold a side plank on the left side for 30–60 seconds. Switch to the right side and hold for 30–60 seconds.

Watch the video in this link to give you some visual ideas of what to do.

Toes to Bar

toes to bar core exercise

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Hang from an overhead horizontal bar, and touch your toes to the bar. Lift and lower in a slow and controlled manner for 3–5 reps.
  2. If you can’t do the toes to the bar, try just bringing your knees up to your elbows. Again, slow and controlled for 3–5 reps.
  3. If you can’t do the knees to elbows, try bringing your knees up to your chest. Slow and controlled for 5–10 reps.
  4. Do 3 sets, resting for 30 seconds between sets.

Check out the video here for an example.

Hollow Body Rocks

hollow body rocks core workout

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Lie down on your back with your arms overhead and your legs straight out.
  2. Brace your core and lift your legs and arms slightly off the ground, creating a shallow U with your body.
  3. Start rocking back and forth while maintaining that solid shallow U position with your body.
  4. Rock for 20 seconds. Rest for one minute. Repeat twice.

Hands and Feet

hands and feet core exercise

There’s probably a better/more official name for this one, but it’s what I call it.

  1. Sit upright on the ground.
  2. Lift your feet off the floor.
  3. Touch your right hand to your left foot.
  4. Touch your left hand to your right foot.
  5. Keep going, never putting your feet on the ground.
  6. Do this for 20 seconds at a time. Rest for 40 seconds between sets; repeat four times.

Make it easier: Touch your hands to your knees.

Make it harder: Touch your elbows to your ankles.

There you go, that’s the workout. Once again, you can sprinkle these movements throughout the day or do them all in one fell swoop.

How are you training your core these days?

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Are you on pins and needles with everything that is going on in the world? If so, you are not alone, and in many respects, this is a good thing. This pandemic is new to all of us and not something that we have ever experienced before. There is no precedent, no established response, and […]

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An 8-minute, no-equipment workout that actually works – sound like a gimmick? Researchers reviewed the literature on bodyweight exercise and came up with this new circuit.

I love research that makes exercise more accessible to everyone. An article published by the American College of Sports Medicine does just that. Researchers reviewed the literature on high-intensity circuit training and designed a circuit of bodyweight exercises that can be performed anywhere in a little less than eight minutes.

 

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woman getting body fat measured with caliperWith so many people choosing to track health data nowadays, I get a lot of questions about the best way to measure body composition. Today I’m going to cover some of the most common methods, their pros and cons, and also tackle the question of whether there is an “ideal” body composition.

When it comes to fitness, body composition refers to the relative quantities of fat, muscle, bone, and water in your body. These are measured by weight or as a percentage of your total body weight. Clinically, body composition differentiates between fat mass or adipose tissue, muscle, bone/bone mineral content, and residual mass (organs, connective tissue). For the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on “body composition” as it’s used for fitness and general health, not medically.

Body composition is not the same as body weight and height. Two people of the same height and weight can have vastly different body compositions. One might be a very lean, muscular fitness competitor, while the other has a corpulent figure. Nor is body composition the same as build—ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph.

Body composition is a measure of the building blocks, so to speak. Colloquially, when people talk about body composition, they typically mean how much body fat and lean muscle they carry. Although bone density is technically a part of the equation, I’ve never heard someone say they were going to improve their body composition by increasing bone mineral density.

I’m going to assume that’s what you mean, too: When you say you’re interested in measuring body composition, you want to know your body fat percentage and possibly how much muscle you’re carrying. Likewise, when people ask me whether there is an “ideal” body composition, they want to know whether a certain amount of body fat and muscle are optimal for health and longevity.

A Quick Note On Fat and Muscle

I write about fat and muscle a lot on MDA, but I want to reiterate a couple important points before moving on to the meat of this post.

First, we talk about fat like it’s one uniform thing we carry around in our bellies and butts, but that’s not the case at all. For health purposes, we want to distinguish between white fat and brown fat, and especially between subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. The former is the fat stored under your skin—the stuff you can pinch—while the latter is the relatively more dangerous kind that packs around your internal organs. We’re also learning more about the health risks associated with excess intramuscular fat.

Second, I know I don’t need to convince you that lean muscle is important. Not only does it produce important proteins and metabolites, it correlates with overall health and organ reserve. Having sufficient lean muscle serves a protective role in aging.

From a purely functional perspective—setting aside the aesthetic question—it’s important to have enough lean muscle and not too much body fat. What do “enough” and “not too much” mean, though? I’ll try to provide some insight into that shortly. It’s not as straightforward as you might think. First, though, let’s look at how you measure body composition.

How to Measure Body Composition

There are a variety of ways to assess body composition. For today I’m going to stick to the ones that are widely available. The gold standard for body composition analysis is either CT scan or MRI, but you aren’t going to be using those to track your gainz. Hydrostatic weighing (aka underwater weighing) is also very accurate but not so readily available. Plus you have to be willing to be dunked underwater.

Body weight is not by itself a good measure of adiposity (fatness) or lean mass. Likewise, BMI, which is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height in meters, provides a crude estimate of adiposity at best. In fact, BMI was never designed to be a measure of body composition in any given individual. It was meant to look at population-level trends in body size. Various researchers have proposed mathematical adjustments to make BMI a better predictor of fat mass, but it remains imprecise. Your doctor may care about BMI because it’s the anthropometric measure used in most medical research, but it won’t tell you what you want to know here.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can measure body composition relatively easily and affordably, starting with the most sophisticated and working down to the more basic:

Air displacement plethysmography (ADP, aka whole-body air displacement plethysmography)

ADP is similar in principle to hydrostatic weighing. With ADP, you sit inside a small chamber, and body composition is assessed by air displacement. This technology is commercially available as BOD POD®.

The pros of ADP are that it is relatively inexpensive and scores well in terms of reliability. It’s also easy. All you have to do is sit quietly in a big egg, and measurement takes approximately three minutes. It’s not available in all areas, though. The biggest drawback is that it gives you body fat percentage but doesn’t tell you anything about muscle volume. The report simply breaks down fat mass and “other.” It also may not be as accurate for lean individuals.

Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (aka DXA or DEXA)

DEXA is currently the best option for people who want a comprehensive body composition analysis. In medical settings it is often used to measure bone density to screen for osteoporosis. Many medical offices now offer DEXA scans for general body composition analyses as well, and mobile scanning services operating out of vans are popping up all over.

When you get a DEXA scan, you lie on a table with your legs loosely held down by straps. An arm emitting low-dose x-rays passes over your body while another passes underneath. The scan takes about 10 minutes. The technician then generates a report that includes:

  • A visual representation of your fat and muscle distribution
  • Total mass broken down into fat, lean (muscle), and bone, plus visceral fat
  • Bone density
  • Detailed analysis of fat versus lean tissue in your left and right arm, leg, and torso

Repeated DEXA scans—completed every three to six months, for example—can be a good way to track your progress if you are actively trying to lose body fat while maintaining muscle, or if you’re trying to bulk up. While generally regarded as very accurate and safe, there are still questions about the accuracy of DEXA’s visceral fat measurement specifically. If visceral fat is your primary concern, try combining repeat DEXA scans with simple abdominal measurements (more below), and follow up with your doctor.

Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA)

BIA devices pass small electrical currents through the body. Muscle is a better conductor of electricity than fat or bone, so by measuring the resistance to the current, these devices estimate the relative amounts of fat, muscle, and bone in your body. Because the calculations are based on the amount of water in your tissues, BIA can be thrown off by how well hydrated you are.

BIA technology is popular to its widespread availability and ease of use. There are many types of BIA devices on the market, some more reliable than others. I don’t put much stock in those cheap bathroom scales that claim to tell you your body fat. The more sophisticated InBody machines have been shown to give readings on par with DEXA scans. Unlike scales that only offer body fat readings, InBody devices also offer skeletal muscle mass and, in the more premium devices, visceral fat estimates.

Unless you have access to one of the more expensive devices, I think BIA should be used in the same way as regular bodyweight scales: Use it to track trends over time, but don’t get too hung up on any single measurement. Just as with body weight, BIA can vary for reasons having little or nothing to do with your actual body composition.

Electrical impedance myography (EIM)

Handheld EIM devices like the Skulpt Chisel™ are another option. Like BIA, EIM works by passing an electric current through tissues at different depths and measuring impedance. EIM is used in medical settings to measure muscle quality, or muscle strength relative to size. The technology has more recently been adapted to fitness tracking.

The advantages of these devices are that they are easy to use at home, allowing for daily tracking of body composition if you want. The Skulpt device gives you full-body and 12 region-specific (right/left shoulder, chest, biceps, etc.) measurements of muscle quality and body fat percentage. One study showed it to be fairly reliable when compared to DEXA, at least in young, healthy individuals. It’s not clear how accurate the device is in people with higher levels of body fat.

Skinfold devices

Skinfold calipers, aka plicometers, are extremely cheap and simple. When used with proper technique, they are reasonably accurate, although not as accurate as any of the methods already listed. I’d guess that most people using calipers to measure their own fat at home aren’t properly trained to use them, though, which means they almost certainly aren’t getting accurate results.

Calipers can only measure subcutaneous fat. They tell you nothing about visceral fat or lean tissue. Measurements are also affected by age, gender, and fat distribution. Given that there are much better options available now, I don’t think skinfold measurements have much to offer anymore other than being inexpensive unless (a) all you care about is subcutaneous fat, and (b) a trained pro is taking the measurements for you.

Tape measure

Navy body fat formula: The Navy body fat formula simply requires two measurements for males (waist at navel and neck) or three for females (waist at narrowest point, hip, and neck). Plug those values into one of the many online calculators to get your fat mass, body fat percentage, and lean mass.

The Navy adopted this method because it was looking for something that was relatively reliable and easier to train personnel to do correctly compared to skinfold calipers. Although it has its detractors, the Navy validated this method against hydrostatic weighing and found it to be acceptable.

Waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, or waist circumference: None of these measurements provides information about body fat versus lean mass. However, they may be indicative of having more of the dangerous visceral fat. As a health marker, abdominal fatness is more directly linked to negative health outcomes than fat that is distributed across your entire body.

Summary:

  • If you care to have a very accurate, detailed reading, spring for a DEXA scan. From what I’ve seen, they are much more accessible and affordable now than they used to be, at least in the U.S. DEXA is also your best bet if you want to assess bone health.
  • If you just want a body fat estimate that’s good enough for tracking fitness or setting your keto macros, the Navy body fat measurements will do.
  • Tracking a simple waist measurement is a good idea for health reasons. If yours starts to climb, it’s time to dig deeper into diet or lifestyle variables that might be at play. (Stress causes abdominal fat accumulation, for example.)

Whichever method you choose, understand that it will have some degree of error. That’s not a huge deal in the context of tracking body comp for fitness and general health.

Know, though, that body composition assessments tend to be less reliable in obese individuals. Studies find small gender differences as well, and there may be systematic errors based on other demographic characteristics. This is all the more reason not to get hung up on the exact number. Instead, track trends over time to see how your body composition is changing or staying more or less the same.

Is There An Ideal Body Composition?

First we have to define what we mean by “ideal.” Let’s set aside the aesthetic question. It’s subjective, and it changes across time and cultures. Anyway, as much as I’m open about my desire to LGN (look good naked), I also maintain that function trumps form. That is, I care more about how my body functions than how it looks.

“Ideal” body composition should therefore reflect the amount of fat and lean muscle that leads to optimal functioning: staying healthy and strong for the longest time possible. The questions I’d like to answer here are:

  • At what body fat percentage are people, on average, healthiest?
  • How much lean muscle tissue is optimal for health?

The thing is, I can’t. The data just isn’t there. Oh, there are plenty of studies looking at the relationship between BMI and health risk factors, chronic disease, or mortality. As I’ve said, though, BMI is a poor substitute for actual measures of body composition.

There are also smaller but sizable literatures looking at specific measurements—waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, DEXA, BIA—and those same outcome measures. Trying to glean specific recommendations from the literature is tough, though, for a few reasons:

  • Results vary by age, gender, probably race/ethnicity, and according to what outcome variable you’re talking about.
  • Researchers frequently divide people into categories—low, medium, high body fat, or low versus high waist circumference—when assessing risk. That means we can’t pinpoint specific thresholds for body fat or muscle that might be ideal.
  • Studies are inconsistent in what possible confounding variables the researchers control for. In particular, smoking is a known confound in this area of research because it is associated with both lower body weight and more health problems. Still, not all studies control for it.

The biggest problem, though, the one that even the best-designed study won’t overcome, is that there is a lot of individual variability. Take 100 people with the same body fat percentage, and their health could vary tremendously. There are just too many factors that interact to create health, including the likely interaction between body fat and lean muscle.

All that said, we can make some broad generalities. In general, risk of developing metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease seems to increase with increased body fat. Again, though, there is a lot of variance from study to study that makes it impossible to nail down any kind of firm cut-offs.

When risk increases more or less linearly, how do you decide where the cut-off is between “still ok” and “getting into the danger zone?” It’s tough.

If I had to make any kind of recommendation, I’d probably tell you to track simple waist circumference. It’s easy to assess, and this research showed that when waist circumference is used as a continuous variable—that is, not broken into categories like “normal” or “high,” which are always imperfect—it predicts risk of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and metabolic syndrome by itself. Adding BMI to the equation didn’t increase predictive power.

In the U.S., the NIH recommends a cutoff of 102 cm (~40 inches) for men and 88 cm (~34.5 inches) for women as a healthy cut-off. The International Diabetes Foundation recommends a cutoff of 80 cm in women, 94 cm in men of European descent, and 90 cm in South Asian, Chinese, and Japanese men. The European Union recommends a cutoff of 94 cm for men and 80 cm for non-pregnant women. So as you see, it’s still somewhat subjective.

Nevertheless, being in the ballpark or below is probably a decent goal. Perhaps more importantly, you want to track over time. If you’re slightly above the cutoff but stable and otherwise healthy, I’d be less concerned than if you were seeing waistline expansion year over year.

What about muscle, you might ask? Same thing, I don’t have a great answer. A recent review concluded that having less lean body mass predicted greater mortality until old age, at which point the association disappears or perhaps even reverses. I’m of the mind that when it comes to muscle, measuring amount is less important than measuring strength or functional capacity. The goal for most of us isn’t to be jacked when we’re old. It’s to be mobile and independent, with a firm handshake.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that although we usually talk about risk at the higher end of body fat percentage, you can of course go too low as well. The minimum body fat percentage for survival, known as essential fat, is 2–5% for men and 10–13% for women. Many people, especially women, need considerably more to feel well and have healthy hormone balance. Low body fat is a risk factor for hypothalamic amenorrhea (losing one’s period), but there are no specific guidelines for what constitutes “too low.” It varies from woman to woman.

Bottom Line

We don’t have the fine-grain data to definitively say what amount of body fat and lean muscle is optimal. Being at the extremes seems clearly associated with poor health and mortality. Beyond that, there is a significant range in the middle where any given individual could be considered healthy.

In the absence of specific and reliable recommendations, I’m going to say what I’ve been saying all along: Lifestyle is more important than any one measurable data point. If you’re checking all the boxes—eating plenty of plants and animals, moving your body, resistance training, getting lots of sleep and sunlight, managing stress, nurturing social connections—that’s the most important thing.

If you want to try to get from 20% body fat to 17% body fat for aesthetic reasons, hey, that’s up to you. Just understand that losing that 3% body fat doesn’t necessarily buy you significantly better health, especially if you use extreme measures to do it.

Do I think it’s worth having a general sense of how much body fat and muscle you’re carrying? Yeah, probably. If nothing else, it’s good to make sure that you’re not losing significant muscle mass as you age. A yearly or biannual DEXA scan plus checking in semi-regularly with your waist circumference seems like a reasonable plan. DEXA will also allow you to track your bone mineral density, which is important. If you need to know your body fat for the purposes of setting your keto macros, something like the Navy body fat calculator will do just fine.

Otherwise, I’m more interested in subjective markers like how I feel on a day-to-day basis and whether I can perform at the gym. My jeans and my mirror tell me everything I need to know about abdominal fat. I don’t need to know exactly how many pounds of lean muscle I’m packing to know whether I’m as strong as I want to be and whether I can get off the floor after playing with my granddaughter.

What about you? What measures do you use to track your body composition—if you even do? What other body composition questions do you have? Tell me in the comments below.

References

Aune, D., Schlesinger, S., Norat, T., & Riboli, E. (2018). Body mass index, abdominal fatness, and the risk of sudden cardiac death: A systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis of prospective studies. European Journal of Epidemiology, 33(8), 711–722. 

Collins, M. A., Millard-Stafford, M. L., Sparling, P. B., Snow, T. K., Rosskopf, L. B., Webb, S. A., & Omer, J. (1999). Evaluation of the BOD POD for assessing body fat in collegiate football players. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31(9), 1350–1356. 

Fields, D. A., Goran, M. I., & McCrory, M. A. (2002). Body-composition assessment via air-displacement plethysmography in adults and children: A review. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 75(3), 453–467. 

Flegal, K. M., Shepherd, J. A., Looker, A. C., Graubard, B. I., Borrud, L. G., Ogden, C. L., Harris, T. B., Everhart, J. E., & Schenker, N. (2009). Comparisons of percentage body fat, body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-stature ratio in adults. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89(2), 500–508. 

Francis, P., Lyons, M., Piasecki, M., Mc Phee, J., Hind, K., & Jakeman, P. (2017). Measurement of muscle health in aging. Biogerontology, 18(6), 901–911. 

Gallagher, D., Heymsfield, S. B., Heo, M., Jebb, S. A., Murgatroyd, P. R., & Sakamoto, Y. (2000). Healthy percentage body fat ranges: An approach for developing guidelines based on body mass index. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 72(3), 694–701. 

Hames, K. C., Anthony, S. J., Thornton, J. C., Gallagher, D., & Goodpaster, B. H. (2014). Body composition analyses by air displacement plethysmography in adults ranging from normal weight to extremely obese. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 22(4), 1078–1084. 

Knapp, K. M., Welsman, J. R., Hopkins, S. J., Shallcross, A., Fogelman, I., & Blake, G. M. (2015). Obesity increases precision errors in total body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry measurements. Journal of Clinical Densitometry: The Official Journal of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry, 18(2), 209–216. 

Lee, D. H., & Giovannucci, E. L. (2018). Body composition and mortality in the general population: A review of epidemiologic studies. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 243(17–18), 1275–1285. 

Lee, D. H., Keum, N., Hu, F. B., Orav, E. J., Rimm, E. B., Willett, W. C., & Giovannucci, E. L. (2018). Predicted lean body mass, fat mass, and all cause and cause specific mortality in men: Prospective US cohort study. BMJ, 362. 

Lee, S. Y., & Gallagher, D. (2008). Assessment methods in human body composition. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care, 11(5), 566–572. 

Ling, C. H. Y., de Craen, A. J. M., Slagboom, P. E., Gunn, D. A., Stokkel, M. P. M., Westendorp, R. G. J., & Maier, A. B. (2011). Accuracy of direct segmental multi-frequency bioimpedance analysis in the assessment of total body and segmental body composition in middle-aged adult population. Clinical Nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland), 30(5), 610–615. 

McLester, C. N., Dewitt, A. D., Rooks, R., & McLester, J. R. (2018). An investigation of the accuracy and reliability of body composition assessed with a handheld electrical impedance myography device. European Journal of Sport Science, 18(6), 763–771. 

Meredith-Jones, K., Haszard, J., Stanger, N., & Taylor, R. (2018). Precision of DXA-Derived Visceral Fat Measurements in a Large Sample of Adults of Varying Body Size. , 26(3), 505–512. 

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Vescovi, J. D., Zimmerman, S. L., Miller, W. C., Hildebrandt, L., Hammer, R. L., & Fernhall, B. (2001). Evaluation of the BOD POD for estimating percentage body fat in a heterogeneous group of adult humans. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 85(3–4), 326–332. 

Wingo, B. C., Barry, V. G., Ellis, A. C., & Gower, B. A. (2018). Comparison of segmental body composition estimated by bioelectrical impedance analysis and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 28, 141–147. 

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Adopt a general training framework and use these methodologies to adapt our programming to take into account factors influenced by individualization.

Writing programs is easy. You just need to do between 1-20 sets of 1-100 reps per muscle group at between 5-120% of your 1RM and rest for 1-300 minutes between sets. It’s science. This is obviously an exaggeration of what is written in most textbooks, but most textbooks provide general guidelines but fail to explain how to individualize those numbers for your client.

 

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Bet you didn’t know how much history we have on the plank. Here’s what it’s good for, its variations, and debunking some of the myths surrounding this ideal pandemic-friendly exercise.

Let’s start with the first and most commonly known thing about the plank and that is how to perform one. A standard plank is performed with arms shoulder-width apart and toes on the ground, raise your body until your body is in a line, from the top of your head to the top of your heels. If you are interested in learning more about the plank and its history and variations, continue reading below.

 

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Bet you didn’t know how much history we have on the plank. Here’s what it’s good for, its variations, and debunking some of the myths surrounding this ideal pandemic-friendly exercise.

Let’s start with the first and most commonly known thing about the plank and that is how to perform one. A standard plank is performed with arms shoulder-width apart and toes on the ground, raise your body until your body is in a line, from the top of your head to the top of your heels. If you are interested in learning more about the plank and its history and variations, continue reading below.

 

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