[bacan]

What are some specific eyeball tests you guys use to determine how in shape you are?

Ex: Certain veins or muscles are visible, certain ways that stomach fat folds or doesn't or whatever when you bend or flex a certain way.

What are some good objective eyeball tests or visual cues of this nature?

It would be nice to collect a good list and get a general idea of the progression from some eyeball tests to others --a checklist we can tick off item by item as we get in better and better shape.

[Frontenac]

I remember reading something that Arnold had said, which states the sign of a high level of fitness is having both well-defined abdominals, and 'v-shape', which is a narrow waist with wide shoulders. I regard these personally as the signs of someone who's in great shape. Other things that indicate good shape in my eyes are smaller things like veins on the bicep, well-developed horseshoe (tricep) on the upper arm, and, if you're body fat is minimal and you're crushing it on bench, etc. are lines on your chest, which are actually the fibers of the pectoral muscle.

[bacan]

Nice. Do you have any that you use? I am a bit out of shape at the moment but I remember tracking the lines of my abs as they came in first when I flexed the later slightly without flexing.

But I need something more concrete. I would fall off my diet and then just let my abs disappear slowly. I need like a definite yes/no type test that my fitness level either achieves or not, not something that isn't specific and lets my fitness level slowly degrade.

For some reason I'm really bad at being self aware of my body and have had swings of +/- 20 lbs during the last 10 years.

[Alpha Mind]

Forearms and posture are often overlooked, but one of the first thing women notice.

Source: All my female friends

[fkexpat]

For me, personally, it's my shoulders. I can tell how in-shape I am depending on how they look (ie: striations). It also depends - remember, there's a difference between appearing in-shape with a shirt off vs. with a shirt on.

[Moreless]

My personal fitness ques are:
Abs and chest
Veins on my forearms and biceps
That line going down the center of your back from dead lifts

My new favorite: Feeling my calve muscles on my slim fit pants

[bacan]

In more specific terms how can you describe the nuanced differences you look for in your chest and abs at different fitness levels?

[Dusty]

Posture is huge. Work your backs gents.

I used to be a "glory muscles" guy, focusing on chest and biceps .

Then I did p90x and I got more looks and compliments about how fit I look. My chest isn't as big, but I look better. When I see my reflection in a store front window, I'm quite pleased at what I see. The straight back especially makes me look fit and healthy.

[Hades]

Shotgun muscles - calves forearms biceps (to some degree) and neck. Dudes with huge necks are scary. My goal in life is to go from an 18" neck to 24"+

Posture - When somebody walks you can tell if they have tight hip flexors. When somebody stands in counterpose that indicates health or something (don't care to be honest, if you can stand in contraposto it makes girls wet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapposto ). Not having kyphosis in general suggest strong batwings. Rows are important, as are chinups.

V-taper - self explanatory.

[bacan]

This person asked the same question on this forum:
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/archi...-5764.html

The other day I scrunched my chin down to my chest and saw that I can make a bit of a roll. My face doesn't look fat normally, but some of this must be more than just skin. I might want to use this as an indicator, for example, of the thinness of my face.

Just like how when I'm standing up or lying completely fat I look reasonably thin, but when I bend forward, a bit of a gut can protrude over a tight pair of pants / belt or whatever.

You can't really tell that I'm that out of shape just looking at me, but I'm really far from being able to have my abs showing either.

[?Kick]

It's all about them striations and muscle definition for me. Which is an end product of low body fat percentage. Doesn't matter where but some keys areas I look for (trying to develop) include:

Shoulders- front, medial and anterior deltoid to get that tear drop shape

Traps - bill goldberg circa 1999 when he was spearing fools to death

Lats/waist ratio - for v-taper

Chest - striations

Core - oblique definition

And most importantly - medialis, lateralis and intermedius definition of the legs/quads. I mostly judge other peoples fitness by their legs too. Friends dont let friends skip leg day. Nothing looks worse than a huge upper body and tiny chicken legs.