Elite Physique The New Science of Building a Better Body

CHAPTER 1
Assess to Impress
The information in this chapter gives you the opportunity to perform an honest
assessment of yourself. This will help you establish a starting point to more
accurately gauge your progress, beyond looking in a mirror. We go through a
series of assessments ranging from posture to strength and endurance. Even if
your primary goal is to build muscle and burn fat, these assessments are valuable
tools for monitoring your orthopedic health, a key to long-term wellness
and performance. The goal is to determine which area(s) of your body might
need soft tissue work or less fat, and which muscles might need more strength
or endurance.
Before we begin, it is worth mentioning that a joint or muscle we don’t test
here could be causing a problem in your body or negatively affecting one of your
exercises. If you experience pain in any joint during or after exercise, it’s imperative
to get it checked out by a licensed therapist. There is no honor in working
through pain, because it will probably get worse.
Posture
Most of us think of the general term posture as standing tall with your shoulders
pulled back and eyes straight ahead, like a good soldier. As kids, we were told
not to slouch. Even though this might have seemed like unnecessary disciplinary
tactics, there is merit to the relationship between posture, health, and well-being
(Golec de Zavala, Lantos, and Bowden 2017). There is no doubt that posture is
directly related to performance and health.
The way you normally stand can reveal key orthopedic issues. For example, a
hunched upper back can indicate stiffness in the thoracic spine or weak abdominals.
If one shoulder is higher than the other it could mean the high side has a stiff
upper trapezius or the low side has a stiff latissimus dorsi, which can pull that
shoulder down. Even though you might not have the education or background
to understand what all the various nuances in posture mean, it is helpful to
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