The Gym Connection in Denville, New Jersey is happy to announce our newest addition: The Inbody scan. To celebrate its arrival, we’re giving a complimentary scan to anyone who comes in for a free consultation. But what is an InBody Body Composition Analyzer (its formal name) and how can it help you optimize your workouts? Let’s take a look.
A Quick Overview of the InBody Scan
The InBody Body Composition Analyzer does exactly what the name suggests — it’s a test to analyze your body composition. It’s similar to stepping on a scale but has enhanced technology to give you greater insights into your body and health.
A scale has long been the traditional measurement for health and fitness progress, but it only measures your weight — and what does weight really represent? Knowing your weight won’t tell you how much muscle or fat you have and those are the measurements you need to understand to know where you stand and to track your progress.
An InBody scan is a quick and easy test that gives you a detailed breakdown of your weight in terms of muscle, fat, and water in just minutes. You’ll get a results sheet that shows your current body composition, helping you to track progress and formulate a targeted fitness plan.
Why Is Body Composition Important?
Body composition is more than just your weight — it’s your weight broken down into its core components: fat, protein, minerals, and body water. This gives a more accurate description of your weight and provides a better overview of your overall health than traditional methods like BMI and weight.
A body composition analysis can accurately show you changes in your fat mass, lean muscle mass, and body fat percentage, giving you a more accurate representation of your health and fitness.
Many diet and fitness programs focus on weight loss or gain and completely overlook the fact that two people of the same gender and body weight can have completely different body compositions. Learning your body composition will tell you your body’s unique makeup and help you identify areas to work on, whether that’s gaining more lean muscle mass or lowering your body fat percentage to achieve your fitness goals and a better health outlook.
Benefits of the InBody Scan
Your weight on a scale is just that — a number without much context for you to use. And what does it really tell you? Think about how many times you’ve stepped on a scale and don’t see the number you expected to see. We’ve all been there! Plateaus happen to everyone and, at times, it can be difficult to see progress, but there’s likely more going on beneath the surface.
An InBody scan can give you that information. You might be burning fat and building muscle, which makes it seem like you’re not “losing weight” on the scale. That can be frustrating and derail any workout plan, which is why the insights provided by an InBody scan are so important. You’ll gain visibility into results that you couldn’t previously see.
Enhanced Insights Into Your Body
You’ll be amazed at what you can learn about your body from a simple InBody test.
Your results sheet will tell you your:
Total Body Water (divided into Intracellular and Extracellular Water)
Lean Body Mass
Dry Lean Mass
Body Fat Mass
Weight
This information gives you a clearer picture of your body. You’ll learn your strengths and weaknesses, baselines and targets.
For example, your water levels show much more than whether or not you’re drinking enough H2O. We actually have two types of water in our bodies: Intracellular Water (body water inside cells) and Extracellular Water (body water outside cells) that make up our Total Body Water. While both are important, your extracellular water count in particular can provide deep insights. An increase in ECW but not ICW might indicate acute inflammation due to overtraining.
Together with your trainer, you’ll then work in a rest day or ease off the intensity a bit to aid in recovery and avoid burnout.
Meanwhile, an increase in dry lean mass (the weight of the protein and mineral content in your body) tells you that you’re gaining muscle. How? Protein makes up most of your muscle, and dry lean mass excludes your body water. Therefore, if your dry lean mass increases, it is likely a sign that you’ve gained muscle mass.
Plus, you’ll get to know your LBM — your Lean Body Mass. This measurement is the sum of everything in your body except fat, including your body water and dry lean mass, bones, and organs. Generally speaking, an increase in your LBM means an increase in muscle mass and an improvement in your overall body composition.
These are measurements that a scale simply cannot provide.
Using the InBody Scan to Form Workouts & Fitness Goals
Many fitness goals start simply. “I want to lose weight.” Or, “I want to gain muscle.” But we all know that goals are only achievable when you get specific. An InBody test helps you set those specific targets.
If your goal is to lose weight, your scan will show you the importance of body fat percentage over BMI. You’ll learn your target healthy range for body fat percentage, see where you currently stand and gain a data-driven approach to reaching your weight loss goal.
Meanwhile, tracking how you gain muscle is tricky without an InBody scan. You can likely see results and the mirror and feel yourself getting stronger, but our progress can often be stalled when we don’t see pounds adding or coming off on the scale.
The InBody scan accurately tracks your progress and gives you measurable insights into your muscle gains. You’ll learn if your program is working or if you need to switch up your workouts and diet to achieve better results. There are no shortcuts here — health and fitness programs take time and hard work, but the InBody scan helps you track your progress and modify your program to help you reach your desired results.
How The Gym Connection Uses InBody Scans
By integrating InBody scans into our free consultation process, we gain an instant analysis of your body. We learn who you are, what you want, and then can use the scan to form an achievable program and help you get there.
We added the InBody scan to our gym to be able to offer these measurable insights and use a more data-driven approach to fitness. As the leader in personalized fitness in the Denville, New Jersey, area, we will use the scan to create an even more customized program for each individual in our gym.
We’ll be able to tell you specific foods to eat or not eat, exercises to work into the program to target specific areas, and more. We can track your progress over time with periodic scans forming a more individualized fitness program than ever before.
How To Prepare For Your Free Consultation & InBody Scan
The InBody test is a quick and easy way to gain insights into your health and fitness levels. Here’s what to expect from the scan.
Wipe down your hands and feet to increase your conductivity.
Step onto the InBody scanner and align your feet with the foot electrodes.
Enter your info into the screen, including your ID, height, and age.
Grab the handles and place your thumbs on the oval electrodes.
Get into position — keep your arms straight and hold the handles away from your body at a 45-degree angle.
Maintain your posture until the test is completed.
Receive your results on a printed sheet.
A member of our team will walk you through the entire process and go over your results with you to help you understand your readings.
To make the most of your InBody test and get the most accurate results, please follow these simple steps before coming in:
DO | DON’T |
Maintain your normal fluid intake the day before your test | Eat or exercise for at least 3 hours before your test |
Stand upright before your test for at least 5 minutes | Consume alcohol of excess caffeine (like a pre-workout drink) at least 24 hours before your test |
Remove your socks or pantyhose | Shower or use the sauna |
Remove all heavy accessories like jewelry, watches, and jackets | Use lotion or ointment on your hands and feet |
If it’s cold, take some time to warm yourself up without elevating your heart rate | |
Use the restroom before you test |
Taking these steps before your first and each subsequent test is necessary to get consistent and accurate readings.
Book Your Free Consultation with The Gym Connection Now
The Gym Connection in Denville, NJ is Morris County’s premier personal training experience. We are proud to offer a free InBody scan to anyone who comes in for a free consultation. Schedule your session now, which includes a consultation and InBody test to establish your baseline, followed by a sample workout created on the spot according to your fitness goals. We can’t wait to begin your fitness journey!