How To Correctly Measure 12 Skin Sites | 3 - PEC

So the third site in your skinfold test is the pec, and it is going to be different for male and female. Now, something I advise with clients who are new to this and maybe a little bit self-conscious about their body, the way you measure this is you say to the client, um, Jade, can I just get you to take off one arm? Um, just take off one arm. Usually I demonstrate, obviously Jade in this case knows exactly what I'm talking about. This way they're still wearing their clothes, you know, she's not standing there completely just in her crop top. She's got this over. That's a, that's a little bit more, I suppose, for new clients. Now, I have access to only what I need. I don't have everything else. So, and again, this is more gonna be relevant for the clients who are a little bit more overweight and maybe a bit more self-conscious and don't know you. It's their first meeting with you, for example. So this is a great way to do it. So first thing is just relax for me, Jay, go back to there. Now I don't have access to the side in this position. So the first thing I do with the client is I pull the shoulder back or at least get them to say, pull your shoulder back, stick your chest up nice and high for me. Now it's 2 fingers and there is a pec fold. So you can see there, there's a line of the pec that runs down. With the pectoralis muscle. So you're gonna get that pulled right back. It's 2 fingers from the armpit. And again, this is straight on a sagittal plane. This is the one that I see most trainers get wrong. So Jade's on a sagittal plane. She's rotating just a slight bit. So I'm just gonna get her to go kind of in a 2D angle, correct sagittal plane, 2 fingers there. That's exactly where the side is. So it's 2 fingers from the, basically the armpit on the pec fold line. And I'll show this when I get Liam up. You'll be able to see more clearly on a male's physique than a female's physique. So here, this is the female angle. Again, you can see I'm on my one leg is behind Jade. The calipers absolutely need to be in this position here. As you can see from the visual, they can't be here. They can't be too far back. They need to be straight in line. And the way I explain it is almost imagine like it's a robot arm going right in. That's where they go, two fingers. So you can see the calipers are flush there. So opening my arm, pulling it away, and getting the fold. Now in grabbing this one, you want to be wary of not grabbing fascia, 'cause if you grab fascia, the site will be more and it will be incorrect. And the only way, I can't really explain it on video, it is something you need to feel, and the more people you pinch, the better you'll get at it. But we'll see if we can show you a little bit more with Liam. So we have Liam here, and obviously for a male, it is slightly different than a female in the way you measure. For a male, it's 2 fingers from the pec. So again, if I'm gonna walk, I can start facing Liam in some cases. Again, you'd probably be more side on, but I'm gonna show you how I get into position with this. It's 2 fingers from the pec. Now I'm gonna point to where the sight is. Now again, in this position, I can't take the sight. So I have to position my body. I'm moving my body. Now I'm in position. Again, the calipers have to be at a sagittal plane. They can't be down, they can't be up, they can't be here. It's directly on a sagittal plane, on a horizontal angle into the bicep. So you can see Liam here, he's got a nice pec fold, quite developed through the pectoral. So you can see that pec fold line that goes on a diagonal that I was trying to explain before with Jade. That's absolutely where the— so again, it's not low, it's not above, it's in line with the pec fold or the insertion point of the actual muscle there. 2 fingers, there it is. Now Liam's already doing it because he's a pro, but he's pushing his thumb into his chest and flexing. Now the more overweight the client is, as you can see, as he does that, you can see the separation of the body fat to the muscle. So if I go grab it, so now he's flexed, what I'm gonna say is, Liam, relax for me. He relaxes. And now that site is a lot easier for me to grab. So Liam was flexing. Don't flex, Liam, just go soft. I can still grab it because Liam is, fairly lean in terms of doing that, but if he does flex, so flex for me, and again, look at my hand, it's nice and spread, it's nice and open, I'm not going in like that, it's nice and open up and flush against the skin, relax for me, the reason why he relaxes as I pinch, just easy to grab, now I've got it. So again, you do need to, and that also helps allow the separation between the fascia and the muscle. So I want to go ahead and grab some of Liam's fascia, right, just to give you an idea, that's, and you can see his face, he doesn't quite like that, and obviously, I got 8, right, by grabbing his fascia. And again, this is one of those things that is hard to demonstrate on camera, and he's 3, his measurement is 3. So it's hard to demonstrate on camera exactly the difference between grabbing fascia and not grabbing fascia, but do know that there is a difference. And that's why you always want to start with a big spread, pulling it in. And as you can see, when I grab it, it becomes an O. Never grab with a C, right? If you grab with a C, you're going to grab too much fascia. You always want to end up every grab, whether it's the chin or the cheek or all the other sites, you're going to finish your grab with an O, not a C like this. And it's particularly important for the pec. You can see here, you don't want to do this one too many times because people do start to get a little bit red, as they will with all of their measurements. They are going to get, you know, a little bit of— because, you know, you're grabbing quite firmly. That's okay, obviously that goes away. So let's move into the next one, which is tricep.