Self Assessment; physical and UFGs. | Specific Routines | Forum

I figured it was time to take at look at where I'm at; reassess where I want to go; and what I need to change to my program to start moving towards to my refined goals.

This time I didn't take shortcuts on my physical assessment.  I now know what causes some of my limitations on building mass/strength and creating a more tapered shape.  Two things really stand out on my bone structure.

1. My shoulder to hip ratio is very poor, which is a good indicator (according to my source) of my ability to gain and maintain mass.  My ratio is 1.04.  My book states that anything above 1.45 is optimal for gaining mass.  As one can see, my ratio is rather girlish.  However, my shoulder width to height relationship is .213, which is good.  This number gives an indication of how ectomorphic a person is.  According to this number, I'm not an ectomorph at all.  Since these two facts seem somewhat contradictary, I've concluded that my hips must just be awfully wide for my overall height; not that my torso is particularly narrow.  This may explain why I perceive myself to have a pencil-shaped torso, even though I've built my back size and strength pretty well.  In other words, maybe it's not that I lack muscle mass in my upper torso, rather, I'm wide at my hips keeping me from achieving the aesthetic look that I want.  I've never been a fast runner or good high jumper.  This is also indicative of wide hips.

2. I've recently thought that my torso length is relatively short; now it is confirmed.  My femurs are 1 7/8" longer than my torso.  This explains some of my shortcomings on squats.  Due to this physical constraint, it is hard for me to do deep squats w/o leaning forward.  Widening my stance and limiting the depth of my squats are recommended to combat this physical constraint.  I'm assuming that this situation may partially explain why I've never been able to build my leg strength to the degree of my upper body strength.  I've got to figure out some lower body exercises that will overcome this shortcoming, because this is my biggest shortcoming overall.  My legs are too weak and too small for the rest of my body.

Flexibility issues were not as pronounced as I thought they may be.  My calves are pretty flexible Cameron.  Although I scored some negative points in a few areas, my flexibility is pretty good, save my lower back and hip area.  This area is not horrible but I do need to work on them.

Weak areas with regards to strength.  It was hard to assess this on my upper body, because the book has one test with the assumption that most lifters have chest/lat dominance over their upper back.  I easily passed the test for upper back strength, but I have a theory that I may have the opposite problem, because I have a sunken in upper chest.  The only test that may indicate the opposite problem is the Incline Bench Press to unilateral external rotation relationship.  The purpose of this test is to insure one has enough strength in one's external rotators as compared to one's chest and lat strength.  The goal is to be at least 9% as strong on the rotation as the incline press.  The book doesn't address being too strong on the rotation versus the press, but my percentage is 13%.  I'm not sure if this tells me anything other than I'm not strong enough at chest presses.

With regards to my legs, I scored poorly on every test reqiring quad and ham strength (no surprise!).  To my surprise, however, my glutes are not weak.  I also show weakness in my core area, but I think most of this can be attributed to the lack of flexibility in this area.

Post edited 6:27 pm – August 11, 2010 by gregsfc

Scrawny to Brawny.  The authors don't fully explain the significance of each test other than to show you what flexibility exercises and strength exercises each person may need depending on how they score.

Basically, after each test, you score yourself based on how well you perform.  Points are bad.  If you pass a particular test, you get zero points.  If you need some work, you score one, and if you fail miserably, you score two.  I scored myself a two on a couple of tests (unanchored situps and torso turns at a door jam), but I didn't perform miserably at either.  It was probably more like 1 1/2s.  Also, when I'm not warmed up, my back is pretty stiff, and there was no mention of warming up before taking the test, so this may have hindered some of my core performances. 

The biggest failure on my legs is a test where you stand with one knee bent and behind the standing foot.  You then squat down, with your back bowed and try to touch an item one foot in front of you and one foot tall, and then stand back up w/o your knee going forward of your toes and without your knee or body twisting.  I can do this sometimes, but I have to really focus to keep my heel on the ground and to keep my balance from side to side as well.

Greg, sounds like you have a calf flexability issue. (Althought that's been said before.)  Darrin, what kind of issue do you have, SMR (foam-rolling) will probably help both of you. How much do you two know about it??? Was trying to think of a newish article, I could write one for you if you need me to?

That's fine, If you want I can write one on the principles behind it and how to properly foam roll?