So I went to a local Japanese clinic and for about $50 US, the clinic took a new x-ray and the good doctor said in broken English, one more month in the boot. WOW! Eight weeks total. How disappointing. I will just have to make the best of it and continue to substitute the Fitnessblender.com circuit routines for my morning cardio. Don’t get me wrong, the routines are pretty challenging. However, they are still not a replacement for a good old morning run. I think I will take them outside, maybe that will help…………..
As can be seen in the X-Ray, it is a pretty good break. The cloudy area around the fracture is actually the new bone. The healing process is proceeding, just have to be patient.
Against my better judgment, I ditched the boot on July 14th. I had been wearing this thing for a month and a half, daily at work and in the evenings at the gym; the smell was beginning to creep past waist high. I had made the attempt to hang car air fresheners from straps but the odor was just too powerful. My office colleagues were starting to complain of the pine scented dirty sock smell.
I’m walking slowly, there is no pain. It will still be several weeks before I attempt a run.
More Homework…………….
I recently purchased the e-book Your Muscular Potential by Casey Butt, PhD. I have seen this book referenced on various natural bodybuilding websites, forums and discussion boards. This book provides a statistical approach in determining maximum values of Lean Body Mass, Total Weight and Girth dimensions for natural bodybuilders. When I see this type of publication I am always curious to see if they include alternate methods for supporting the definition of ‘normal’, the basis of this entire blog series.
The first thing to note about this book is that the statistical models presented are focused on younger men; 19 to 25 year olds. If you’re pushing 40, 50 or 60, the models presented may not be all that representative. However, if you are older and managing a range of weight and girth the good doctor calls out, you are probably spending a significant amount of time in the gym and people would take notice. And if you are a young lady; sorry, the models are male only.
In his book, Dr. Butt includes a section on Non-Resistance Trained Males. This section, I think, provides at least some logic on how he (Dr. Butt) judges the perception of normal. The doctor provides several calculations showing that a 5’9” (69”) untrained individual at approximately 15% Body Fat would weigh in at approximately 166 lbs. Keep in mind that 15% Body Fat is right in the middle of what many consider the ‘Fitness Range’. I’m not sure an untrained younger man at 15% BF could manage a weight of 166 lbs, my guess would be more in line with 135 or 140 lbs.
Anyway, I think that if Dr. Butt is looking at healthy non-trained (any training, not just weight trained) individuals, he should look at what would be considered more of an ‘average’ body fat, something above 15%, maybe 17 to 20%. This would be more representative of his 166 lbs basis and what society considers normal; 15% is awfully lean.
In all of Dr. Butt’s calculations, he uses wrist girth and ankle girth as a base value. He makes the assumption that these dimensions are characteristic of a person’s skeletal frame and representative of how much actual muscle can be carried on that frame. All of his calculations are based on 7” wrists and 8.8” ankles.
So for our 15% BF Non-Resistance Trained average Joe, Dr. Butt came up with the following;
Average Joe
|
Wrist/Ankle Ratio
|
Girth for 5’9” at 166 lbs, 15% Body Fat
|
Chest
|
5.53 X W
|
38.7”
|
Bicep
|
1.87 X W
|
13.1”
|
Forearm
|
1.73 X W
|
12.1”
|
Neck
|
2.19 X W
|
15.3”
|
Thigh
|
2.51 X A
|
22.1”
|
Calf
|
1.63 X A
|
14.3”
|
And for a Trained Individual at10% BF with the same skeletal frame characteristics; height, wrist and ankle size, we get the following maximum potential;
Chiseled Athlete
|
Wrist/Ankle Ratio
|
Girth for 5’9” at 191 lbs 10% Body Fat
|
Chest
|
6.50 X W
|
45.5”
|
Bicep
|
2.39 X W
|
16.7”
|
Forearm
|
1.90 X W
|
13.3”
|
Neck
|
2.32 X W
|
16.3“
|
Thigh
|
2.82 X A
|
24.8“
|
Calf
|
1.86 X A
|
16.4“
|
You should note that two girth dimensions are missing; Hips and Waist. Without these dimensions it is hard to gage where you are as an individual; normal, flabby or fit. But fear not, Dr. Butt pulls yet another rabbit from his hat in a section titled Most Attractive Body. In this section, Dr. Butt provides calculations for the ideal hip and waist girths. It should also be noted that Dr. Butt’s waist measurement is at the narrowest part of the torso, between the ribs and the navel and NOT at the navel.
Ideal Waist Size = (0.6412 X %BF) + (2.3111 X W) + 7.6829
Ideal Hip Size = (.8015 X %BF) + (2.8888 X W) + 9.6037
So our average Joe would have a waist measurement of 33.5” and a 41” set of hips and our chiseled athlete would fall in at a 30.25” waist and a 38” set of hips. This would make our final range of measurements;
5’9” Average Joe (15% BF)
|
5’9” Chiseled Athlete (10% BF)
| |||
Chest
|
38.7”
|
45.5”
| ||
Bicep
|
13.1”
|
16.7”
| ||
Forearm
|
12.1”
|
13.3”
| ||
Neck
|
15.3”
|
16.3“
| ||
Waist
|
33.5”
|
30.3”
| ||
Hips
|
41.0”
|
38.0”
| ||
Thigh
|
22.1”
|
24.8“
| ||
Calf
|
14.3”
|
16.4“
| ||
Torso Shape
|
Inverted V
à
|
Rectangular
à
|
V Shape
à
| |
As you can see from the table above, as you progress from an average Joe to chiseled athlete, you progress from more or less an inverted V, through a Rectangle to that sought after V shape.
Now these dimensions are all well and good IF (big if) you have 7” wrists and 8.8” ankles. What if you have smaller wrists and larger ankles? Mine are 6.8” and 9.2”. The doctor does go through this scenario in a section of the book called Hard Gainer.
If you have a wrist girth </= 0.1045 X height and/or ankle girth </= 0.1268 X height, you are considered small boned (small framed) and would most likely be at the low end of the range. Greater than the calculated values, your bone structure would allow for a larger muscle foundation and push you to the upper end of the range.
So if you are more like me, smaller wrists (6.8”) and larger ankles (9.2”), then you should consider yourself a hybrid; larger calves, thighs, hips with smaller forearms, biceps, neck and chest. Based on this, no matter how hard you train you may never get past a rectangle, e.g. you would have less of that classic ‘V’ shape. Your waist and hips would always be thicker.
In fact this very topic, a more rectangular torso was at least mentioned in an article found on MSNBC.com. The article title; Ideal to real: What the perfect body really looks like for men and women.
This article was reportedly based on a British study of what ideal body proportions of 19 to 25 year old men and women perceived as attractive (note that we are still dealing with a younger group). The perception of male attractive proportion basically falls in line with what Dr. Butt has published; both men and woman go for more of a ‘V’ shape. However, the article also gives the actual chest to waist and hip to waist ratios of the 40 men that participated in the study. The ‘as found’ ratios for the men involved were; chest to waist came in at 0.88 with a hip to waist at 0.87. Dr. Butt’s average Joe comes in at .87 and .82 with the chiseled athlete at .66 and .8.
In line with my comments above; when looking at the section Non-Resistance Trained Males, a 5’9” male at 166 lbs is a pretty heavy at 15% body fat. If he was a bit thicker through the waist and hips due to a bottom heavy bone and frame structure, more like the outcome of this British study, I think we would find our normal closer to 17 to 20% BF with a waist dimension closer to 32 → 36”. My opinion; this is closer to normal.
Bottom line on this book defining normal; my opinion is that it kind of sucks, the Army standard still holds the best criteria. However, if you are a natural bodybuilder, looking for starting point to judge where your potential maximums could fall, the good doctor’s book is excellent. And if you are trying to push the limits of what is perceived as normal, the book can help you determine what areas to concentrate your resistance training on; chest, arms, back, butt or legs.
So when closing in on that Last 10 Pounds it’s always beneficial to have a map (or in this case a book). However, most importantly if you are an inverted V, a rectangle or a positive V, never give up and always, always challenge yourself.
MMJennings
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