Why We Begin With An InBody Scan

The golden rule for personal trainers when working with a client is to Do No Harm.

I don’t mean that the client won’t be sore but “feeling sore” isn’t the goal and it certainly isn’t indicative of a good workout.

Before working with a client, we meet them during a No Sweat Intro where we can learn more about their fitness history, exercise preferences, their schedule and current / previous injuries.

We also want to get a picture of an individual’s body composition and muscle distribution before making any exercise recommendations.

The goal of an Initial Training Session is to determine a client’s baseline on the primary movement patterns in as little work as possible.

This is why we begin with an InBody scan.

Three Basic Body Types

There are three basic body types that govern a person’s body shape and composition. However, everyone doesn’t fit perfectly into one of the three categories. It’s likely that you’re a combination of two of the basic body types.

Ectomorphs have a thin, linear body type with long limbs and low muscle mass. People with this body type have difficulty gaining weight and especially increasing their muscle mass.

Mesomorphs have an athletic body type with wide shoulers, narrow hips and well-defined muscles. People with this body type can gain muscle mass more easily.

Endomorphs have a round, curvy body type with a higher percentage of abdominal fat. People with this body type have lower muscle mass, a slower metabolism and can gain fat more easily.

As mentioned earlier, it is likely that you’re a combination of two of the above body types.

What The Numbers Tell Us

With our initial InBody scan, the two numbers we are focused on are the Skeletal Muscle Mass and the Body Fat Mass.

These numbers will give us excellent insight as to what would be appropriate from an exercise perspective for this individual.

An individual with low Skeletal Muscle Mass might not be able to meet a normal weight standard for a given exercise.

A healthy adult with average or above average Skeletal Muscle Mass can typically perform a Farmers Carry for 15 to 30 seconds with a kettlebell in each hand that add up to roughly half their bodyweight (even if they haven’t been exercising).

However, this could be too strenuous for an individual with low Skeletal Muscle Mass.

Additionally, an individual with significantly more Body Fat Mass than Skeletal Muscle Mass is likely to get tired from exercise quicker. If the goal of our Initial Training Session is to determine a baseline in as little work as possible, it’s important to know if the client is likely to become fatigued.

Additional InBody Insights

An InBody scan will also give us a quick glance into an individuals overall body water.

This can reflect their overall hydration and can also be an indicator of inflammation.

The Segmental Lean Analysis from the InBody scan will show the amount of muscle in each arm, each leg and your trunk. This can predict whether an individual is right handed or left handed.

Substantial differences in muscle mass from your left extremities to your right extremities could reflect an injury or movement compensation / imbalance.

Conclusion

Do No Harm is an overriding principle for personal trainers.

We want to help people safely improve and push their boundaries without taking on unnecessary risks.

Trainers are constantly assessing the risk / reward for their clients. What may be appropriate for one person could be wrong for another.

When working with a new client, we want to have the best information possible to help us make the best recommendations.

This is why we begin with an InBody scan.

Schedule your free intro

Talk with a coach about your goals, make a plan to achieve them.

Fill out the form below to get started

Take the first step towards getting the results that you want

By providing your phone number, you agree to receive text messages from No Limits Fitness