Measuring techniques and equipment - Personal Trainer Community - Forum

[freetimefitness]

Hi all,

When a client starts a program with you what measurements do you take and what equipment do you use?

Is there any difference between plastic body fat calipers and the metal ones? are the electric bmi and body fat machines any good?

Tom

[muscletrainerdh-NSCA CPT]

Hey Tom,

The plastic calipers will do.
I use the accumeasure 3000 and the MyoTape measuring tape.

I take a 3 site skin fold test
and then tape measures around the Chest, Abdomen (Across the belly button), and hip for women. Maybe thigh and arm if they want to see changes there.

But be forewarned Most just want to go by the scale.

I don't use BIA devices, they are easy and convenient but very inaccurate and do not help you develop your skill for taking skin folds.

Good Luck,

Dave

[hazool]

If i have a client that is sensitive about weight issues and is new to fitness i use ribbon to mesure arm, thigh, hip and waist. I mark the mesurement on the ribbon and when back at my office a use a tape mesure to record the mesurement and then record it on there profile sheet. After each 12 week macro cycle i mesure again and tell them what the have lost in % and cm. The idea is that they don't have to go through the shock of the first set of mesurements which can bring a client down before they even start training with you.

[megfit]

Hi Tom!

Yea, there is enough research to show that the type of calipers you use isn't as important as the skill of the technician.. Too bad I didn't learn this BEFORE I had bought my Langes, many years ago, lol...

I also do a 3-site measurement for body fat and then tape measure chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf and upper arm measurement.

BIA is too dependent on outside variables. I believe this was just discussed, and at that time I had mentioned a great book that discusses each of the body assessment techniques. Here is that book information:
"Applied Body Composition Assessment" by Vivian Heyward and Lisa Stolarczyk.

Also, for anyone interested, I have various assessment and initial consult forms, some free, some for sale, from my website. Here is the direct link: http://www.meg-enterprises.com/conte...egory/6/18/58/.

Finally, I want to make a comment to what Haze said: When you have clients who are very sensitive to measurements, it's not so important what numbers you get, but that you have a way to measure progress. This is a bit off the main point, but I consulted for an eating disorder therapist many years ago, and the only way we could get weights on our clients was to have them stand on the scale backwards so they didn't see the numbers... Of course, OUR goal was they were to GAIN weight..

Margie