Circumference Measurements - Personal Trainer Community - Forum

[muscletrainerdh-NSCA CPT]

I know the rhetoric that trainers are supposed to get their clients to stop focusing on the number on the scale and pay more attention to how their clothes fit, how they look in a mirror, and how many inches they have lost.

But many people (clients), believe that they are getting "HUGE MUSCLES" when they workout and the muscle doesn't necessariliy lead to smaller circumference measures.

Has any trainer ever kept circumference measures for their clients from the very start to the time the client reached their goal which showed this to be true? (That adding muscle produces a smaller circumference measure).

Or have studies been done that prove weight lifting and using circumference measures is better benchmarking than "weight lost on a scale".

If you have a resource, let me know!

Thanks,

Dave

[GFitness]

Circumference measurement is a good tool, but varies in its ability to convey accurate health and fitness progress to an individual. If a skinny person trains to gain muscle mass, they will likely increase circumference. An overweigh person man have a significant loss in circumference even while he or she is gaining muscle at an appropriate rate.

What do you think about circumference measurement in conjunction with Body Mass readings to motivate a client and convey to them the (sometimes not so obvious) progress that they are making?

Gregory