I’ve been sitting on this one for a while trying to get things just right. You see, I’m a nerd, and am known around my office for my love of spreadsheets to build useful tools. In the last few years, I’ve researched a lot of information about physical fitness. Highlights include various lifting methods, body composition targets, strength targets, aesthetic goals, heart rate zone training, and more. Over time, I started building these things into a spreadsheet I could reference for my goals and benchmarks.
In 2023, I decided it would be a useful tool to provide to for you. I converted my personal fitness tracking tool into something for public release, and set about testing it. To date I’ve given it to a few people on limited release for feedback, and continuously made tweaks to it. I’ve dubbed it the Martial Marksman Physical Calculator, and now it’s ready for you.
But first…
The Disclaimer
I am not a medical professional nor licensed fitness professional. This calculator is my own personal project stemming from my understanding of the scientific research and suggestions of coaches. It is meant primarily for entertainment purposes. Do not make any medical or training diagnoses from this calculator alone. Consult with a medical or sports professional before beginning any physical fitness training program.
The Big Picture
The goal of the physical calculator is providing a “one-stop-shop” to gauge a snapshot of where you’re at across a variety of training modalities. Whether it’s strength, conditioning, aesthetics, or some general health metrics, it’s covered in the calculator. That said, the intention is not for you to chase all of the goals at the same time. Rather, pick the metric you want to improve and then go for it as part of a properly-periodized training program. Come back to another goal when you’re ready.
When you open the calculator, you’ll need to make your own copy. The one I’m linking you to is read-only (meaning only I’m allowed to edit it). Go to the File Menu and “Download” to generate an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx), or File-> Make a Copy to add a copy of the calculator to your own Google Drive.
The Metrics
The Martial Marksman Physical Calculator has a few key metrics and goals to chase. After you input some basic profile and biometric data (I’ll get to that in a minute), the calculator returns suggestions across a variety of areas.
- Waist to height ratio
- Body composition estimation
- Strength & “Fighting Strength” targets
- Conditioning targets
- Estimated “ideal” body measurements for aesthetics
- Body mass targets based on body composition
- Estimated heart rate training zones
Let’s go through each of these metrics and discuss how it works and what you can do with it. This article uses dummy data, and it will be there when you download the sheet. You’ll have to input your own information, starting with…
Biometric Data
The first thing you’ll need to do is input some information for the calculator to use. These are in the basic biometric measurements and body measurements sections. Only edit the fields highlighted in blue. The calculator figures out the rest for you.
There are two parts. The basic biometrics use relatively fixed values like your date of birth to calculate your age, which then feeds into other items.
I used date of birth since you only have to enter it once and the calculator keeps track of age automatically from there.
Other items here include your height, wrist circumference, knee circumference, and ankle circumference. These numbers are fixed since they measure bones, and feed into the maximum amount of lean tissue calculator. The three heart rate values feed into the training zones calculator. Where needed, I’ve included links to videos explaining how to measure a particular item.
The other set of measurements include things that change as you train. Weight, abdominal circumference, and the circumference around several other muscular body parts are all here. This works with the body composition calculator as well as the aesthetics calculator. As with the basic biometrics, I’ve included links to videos explaining how to correctly measure each body part.
To accommodate the entire world, I’ve included both a calculator for imperial (inches/pounds) and metric (cm/kg) measurements. You can switch between them using the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet. When you’re inputting these measurements, try your best to get good quality data.
Don’t just guess things like your heart rate(s). Do your body measurements as accurately as you can (and I suggest doing each one 3 times to make sure you’re consistent). Garbage data in means garbage results out and the calculator won’t be as useful.
Again, I cannot emphasize this enough…do not edit anything except the fields highlighted in blue.
Waist to Height Ratio & Body Composition
I put this as the very first metric because I think it’s that important. If you recall my physical hierarchy, the very base of the pyramid was “Health and Liabilities.” For simplicity purposes, I narrowed that down to body composition and mobility.
I’ll start with the waist to height ratio. I’ve written about this before, but the current health advice is that your waist circumference should be less than half of your height. For consistency purposes, I’m taking the waist measurement for men across the belly button and not at the natural waistline, which is often narrower.
Ideally, the abdominal circumference should be between 45% and 47% of your height. This is best aesthetically, but also gives you room to go on a calorie surplus for muscle gain and still not cross the 50% threshold.
When you input your height and abdominal circumference, the calculator returns the ratio and color codes it. Between 0.45 and 0.47 will be solid green. From 0.47 to 0.49 will be light green, and 0.50+ will be red.
Next to the waist to height ratio is an estimated body fat percentage as well as an estimated amount of lean mass based on that percentage. The lean mass number comes in a bit later.
Body Fat Measurement
The best available methods for determining body fat are things like DEXA scans and water tank submersion. This isn’t practical for most people. Bioelectric impedance scales are another method, but the margin of error on those is so high that it’s not particularly better than the classic tape measure.
While building the calculator, I realized there were several methods for estimating body fat based on measurements. Rather than using just one of them, I ended up providing you with four, and then averaged the result.
The methods I used are:
- US Navy method
- YMCA formula
- Gallagher formula
- Relative fat mass formula
These different methods all differ significantly in results. You’ll find their output over on the right side of the sheet. The true result lies somewhere in the middle, so I figured taking the average was the best bet.
Of note, I compared the result of averaging all four formulas to my own DEXA scan results two different times. The calculator ended up being within 1%. That’s not to say it’s that accurate for you, but it’s probably useful enough to track trends.
Using the Body Comp and Ratio Section
The ideal performance body composition window for men is between 8% and 15%, with a middle ground of 12% being an excellent target to aim for. The medical community considers anything less than 20% to be healthy, though.
When you plug in the numbers, the calculator spits out the averaged estimate. If it’s less than 20%, then the indicator turns light green. If it’s in the ideal window, then it turns dark green. Between 20% and 25% it turns yellow, indicating “overfat.” The indicator turns red once it goes over 25% (the medical marker for obesity in men).
Again, don’t use this as a single source of truth. It’s merely a data point. But if I saw my numbers turn yellow or red here, then reducing the amount of body fat would become a priority for me. Update the calculator with new measurements from time to time (say monthly or quarterly) and see if you can get the number to trend in the direction you want over time.
Strength, Power, and Fighting Strength
The next block down on the calculator deals with strength, which is also the next level of the physical hierarchy. However, strength appears multiple times in the hierarchy as a foundational pursuit (level 2), fighting strength (level 5), and as a specialization (level 6, at the peak). Rather than divide this section of the calculator accordingly, I just lumped it all here with some dividers.
Level I Strength Targets
These represent a collection of goals that correspond to the “Foundational Strength” level of the pyramid. They are all set in terms of ratios to your own body weight and height. So losing a bunch of weight (as if you were trying to bring your body composition down) will also make these targets lower.
I’ve also included both a 1 Rep Max (1RM) value and a 3 Rep Max (3RM) value. Personally, I think the 3RM goal is better for most people to pursue unless they specifically compete in strength competitions based on 1RM.
You don’t have to pursue all of these movements. I simply included a selection of exercises to represent basic human movement. At a minimum, I suggest picking one press movement, one squat movement, either the deadlift or chin-up target. I would also keep the standing broad jump and farmer walk targets in there, and there really isn’t a good substitute for those.
Another note…why the broad jump? It’s often considered a simple way to measure power since it requires you to explosively launch your body over a distance. Be mindful of learning proper technique here.
Obviously, if you have physical limitations that prohibit you from performing any of these then don’t do them.
Once you’re able to achieve the Level I targets (whether it’s a selection of them or all of them), then your strength is not a limiting factor in living your life. Everything beyond this point is because you want to do it, not because it will make your life (or the life of a Martial Marksman) notably better.
Barring old age, poor body composition, and physical limitations, most healthy men should be able to reach the Level I goals within 1-2 years of correct consistent training.
Level II Strength Targets
The Level II standards represent specialization. Someone pursuing these is in it for the love of the iron game, not because it makes them more useful. They are achievable with another 2-4 years of consistent training.
Fighting Strength Targets
As a reminder, “fighting strength” is my catch all for other ways to display strength. It could be strength endurance, which means you would use moderate levels of load for very high repetitions. They could also be feats of power, where you display a high amount of strength in a very short amount of time.
They might also just be fun challenges to pursue. I derived several of these from the work of various unit selection tests, challenge workouts, and the advice of military/athletic coaches.
Final Note on Strength Standards
Realize that strength standards like these are more-or-less arbitrary. Yes, there is a general consensus amongst coaches and trainers on strength for performance- but realize it’s just a “best guess.” The real value of strength standards is that they are hard, but doable.
Why does that matter? Achieving these standards does not happen by accident. Meeting and exceeding them requires you to develop discipline, mental focus, and perseverance. In the end, it’s not really about hitting a 405 deadlift. It’s recognition that by working and beating that goal, you are effectively a different person than you were at the start of the path. I would argue you’ve become a better person, one who is able to set tough goals, organize a plan to achieve it, and then not let up.
Conditioning Targets
The conditioning section encompasses both the aerobic capacity (level 3) and anaerobic conditioning (level 4) of the pyramid. As with strength targets, you don’t need to pursue all of these targets at once. Instead, pick one or two modalities and work to beat the target listed.
I’ve arranged the targets in escalating intensity. So when you pick a modality (like running), aim for the first one in the list. Once you achieve it, aim for the next one down.
You’ll probably notice that the running targets all focus on an 8 minute per mile pace (or 8 minutes per 1.6 km), and then extending that pace for longer and longer distance.
The only metrics here that rely on your body measurements are the 8 mile ruck (13 km) and the air bike. The ruck uses 25% of your body weight as the target. Don’t start with that weight if you aren’t accustomed to it. The air bike uses multiples of your body weight as a target calorie goal within the time frame.
Again, if you have physical limitations that stop you from engaging in one of these then don’t do it.
All of these targets will be a challenge for a beginner. Don’t just go out and try to achieve them without proper training. That training should include plenty of time building up your core endurance levels (especially in that modality), and then increasing intensity over time.
Aesthetic Measurement Targets
Aesthetics is another form of specialization, and it’s not terribly important to the Martial Marksman. That said, most men who spend a lot of time in the gym want to look like they work out.
The numbers here stem from the work of classic bodybuilders from the bronze and silver era (before steroids were invented and became part of the sport).
I particularly drew from the work of Eugen Sandow, who spent years studying Ancient Greek statues and realized that the golden ratio (1.618:1) was a huge part of what make the statues and physiques so attractive.
He set out to train his body to reflect that ratio, and thus modern bodybuilding was born.
The targets all relate to the body measurements you input at the top of the sheet. The end goal is a lean and proportionate physique. However, do not obsess about being perfect. Genetics are a factor, and almost nobody will ever actually achieve all of the target numbers.
Use this only as a guide to see where you might have a measurement that’s wildly out of proportion to everything else. If you see something that’s way off, then you know there’s an opportunity to improve on that area as a priority.
If you’re trying to pick only a few things to focus on, I suggest prioritizing the following:
- Shoulder circumference
- Waist circumference
- Forearms
The combination of these three provide the striking “v-taper” look of wide shoulders narrowing down to a lean waist while also looking like you “mean business.” Shoulder circumference is not just shoulders, but also encompasses chest and upper back. You won’t be able to build big forearms without building up the rest of the arm and back musculature along with it, so it’s a good proxy.
Keep in mind that these measurements also expect a certain level of leanness.
Performance Body Mass Targets
I posted a basic version of this section before. That chart had a generic range of weight for each inch of height. In the actual calculator, we can use your measured height to estimate a range of body weights for different body composition levels. At the top of the block, you’ll notice three numbers corresponding to different amounts of lean body mass (LBM):
- LBM Light
- LBM Medium
- LBM Heavy
- Est. Max LBM
The Estimated Max LBM is an calculation based on the work of Dr. Casey Butt, who did a study on lean body mass with bodybuilders. He derived a formula based on body measurements like height, wrist circumference, and ankle circumference to guess the maximum amount of a muscle a man could develop. To compensate for the fact that Dr. Butt used bodybuilders, who may not all have been “natural,” I’ve reduced the end result of the calculation by 5%.
From there, the columns run down to show each respective amount of lean body mass with percentages of body fat to give an estimate of, “You would weigh about this much with this much muscle and that much fat percentage.” This helps provide goals to aim for.
But which goal to choose?
LBM Light
The “light” category is best suited to men involved in climbing sports, high level endurance, mountaineering, and other activities where being lighter is generally favorable. Keep in mind that being “light” here does not mean weak. There is still a respectable amount of mass, and it should not be an issue to still hit the Level I strength standards.
But do realize that when it comes to strength, there will be a plateau where you might not be able to keep progressing strength without also moving up to a heavier category. The trade off is that you will be able to develop very good strength to weight ratio while also being able to perform well with conditioning.
LBM Medium
The LBM Medium category is an “all rounder,” who can do just about anything reasonably well. This is a good category to aim for if you want to focus on just living an all-around healthy life without committing too much time and energy to any one area of training.
LBM Heavy
The Heavy category is best suited towards higher relative strength demands. That includes professions where going “hands on” is a regular risk (i.e. law enforcement, fire/rescue, etc.). It’s also the place to be if you have a need to carry heavy loads for long distances (i.e. rucking).
If you choose to pursue this category (and I wager most readers here would), then be prepared to spend a lot of time in the gym building lean muscle mass through focused hypertrophy programs and calorie surplus. Remember, you still want to maintain a good body composition, so going for “heavy” while getting (and staying) fat in the process isn’t all that helpful.
What about LBM Max?
I left the LBM Maximum column in place just so you can see the theoretical upper limit. Remember that this is only an estimate, and the chances that it’s actually true for you are quite slim. I know I’ll get criticism that my suggestions are too light, and that the maximum should be the goal- but so much depends on what you plan to actually do with that weight and what you sacrifice in the process.
In general, this isn’t that useful for you unless you’re in a very small percentage of the population.
At Current Lean Mass
In the far right column, the chart uses your current calculated lean body mass from the body composition section to provide an estimate of “where you would be” at different body fat percentages. This helps provide you with a comparison between where you are now against the Light/Medium/Heavy targets. It also gives you a weight loss/gain target to aim for assuming you want to keep your current amount of lean mass.
Estimated Heart Rate Training Zones
The next section deals with heart rate training. For some kinds of conditioning, such as low intensity cardio (AKA “Zone 2”), it’s helpful to have a target set of upper and lower bounds of heart rate. This helps you dial in the level of effort you’re putting in and not overly taxing recovery ability. The first thing to know is that “heart rate zones” are not really a fixed science, and the lines between one zone to the next are far fuzzier than a chart like this would indicate.
That said, I’ve built in three different ways to gauge heart rate zones.
- Generic maximum heart rate
- Heart rate reserve
- Lactate threshold heart rate
Each of these use different methods to establish appropriate training zones.
Generic Maximum Heart Rate
As you could guess from the name, this is the most generic method and the one you’ll come across most frequently in gyms. In my opinion, it’s the least useful of the three, but it’s the most convenient to use if you don’t want to do any extra work.
This section subtracts your age from 220 to estimate the maximum heart rate. The zones themselves are percentages of that maximum.
The problem here is that 220 minus age is an extremely rough estimation and says nothing about your current level of fitness or natural generic variance. Again, making it the least useful way to estimate heart rate.
Heart Rate Reserve
This method uses the difference between your maximum heart rate and your resting heart rate. This difference is called the “heart rate reserve,” or the amount of headroom you have between heart rate at rest and maximum effort.
The respective zones use a formula that adds a percentage of the reserve to the resting heart rate.
To make this work, at a minimum you must enter your resting heart rate in the biometric data. You can measure this yourself, or use the data provided to you by a sport watch. If you don’t enter a maximum heart rate, then the calculator uses the same generic 220-age method from the Generic HR Max method.
I like the Heart Rate Reserve method, as it uses two data points that reflect your actual biology and capability. Just make sure to use good data for resting heart rate and maximum heart rate. To get an actual maximum heart rate, you’re probably going to need to go to a sports lab or have a very good sport watch paired with a chest strap- so it’s not easily accessible to everyone.
Lactate Threshold Heart Rate
The lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) is a point in your effort level where you cross over into “maximum effort” territory. It represents the limit of what you can sustain for a moderate amount of time, say 10-20 minutes.
Once you determine your LTHR and input it into the biometrics section, the calculator uses percentages of it to determine the various work zones, including exceeding it for maximum effort work.
How do you determine your LTHR? The official way is using a sports lab, but there are unofficial methods that come close. One method is wearing a heart rate monitor and going for a 30 minute run, as far as you can go in 30 minutes. After completing the run, take the average heart rate from the last 20 minutes.
My personal method, which may be less accurate, is a 6-minute air bike test. Get on an Assault Bike, Echo Bike, Airdyne, or similar implement. After a warmup, you’ll start a six minute session and go as far as you can in those six minutes (be sure to wear a heart rate strap for this). After the six minutes are up, use the average heart rate of those 6 minutes as your LTHR. Alternatively, instead of 6 minutes, you could opt to go for 2 miles as fast as possible.
The LTHR method is a reasonable one to use as well since it bases the zones on your actual performance. From time to time you might want to run the test again and see if your LTHR changes along with your training- assuming you’re doing a lot of conditioning work.
HR Training Zone Reminder
As a reminder, HR training zones are not an exact science. If you’re trying to stay in Zone 2 and go one or two beats per minute over the upper limit, your workout isn’t going to fall apart and results invalidated. It’s just an indicator to back off a bit and try and keep a consistent relative effort. Figure that staying within +/- 5 beats per minute is fine.
The relative effort is the important thing here. Lower zones mean lower effort, which means you can do it for longer duration and more frequently without taxing your recovery too much. Higher zones mean higher effort, which means you can’t do it for as long nor as frequently.
As a general tip, when you start focusing on conditioning, you’re probably best served by a mix of low intensity (Zone 2) and high intensity (Zone 4/5). The ratio of one to the other comes down to whether you’re more interested in your aerobic base (Z2) or anaerobic conditioning levels (Z4/5). Vary this mixture throughout the year. My favorite mixtures are 75%/25%, 50%/50%, and 25%/75%.
Estimated Fat Mass, Cutting, and Bulking
This last section of the calculator has a few functions for you. The first is the actual results of the four different body fat calculation methods I mentioned in the body composition section. I’ve already covered that, so I’ll go on to the cutting and bulking blocks.
There, you’ll see two blocks, one for weight loss rates and one for mass gain rates. Why do we have this? Just about everyone knows that to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories, and to gain weight you need to eat more. Lesser known is that there are best practices around the rate that you should do that in order to minimize the negative effects?
What negative effects?
When cutting fat and going into a calorie deficit, your body still needs energy. The goal of the cut is to have enough of a deficit that your body uses stored fat for energy, but not so much that it also starts to break down muscle tissue as well. The point of a cut is to lose fat, not also lose hard-won muscle. So to support that, we’ve established ideal rates of weight loss per week that have the best chance of retaining muscle mass while losing fat. These ideal rates of loss are highlighted in green.
For what it’s worth, these rates come from the bodybuilding world and coaches like Dr. Eric Helms. With that rate, you also have a target weight loss per week and also a daily calorie deficit to aim for.
On the flip side is gaining mass. In order to grow serious muscle, you need to eat more calories than you burn each day. The risk is a so-called “dirty bulk,” where people eat an enormous amount of food because it’s fun.
The problem is that eating in too much of a surplus comes with a lot of extra fat gain. Gaining fat too quickly means you have less time to focus on building muscle mass before you’re forced to go into a cut phase again in order to keep a healthy body composition.
Again, the ideal rates of gain are highlighted in green along with how much weight per week that translates to and how many calories surplus per day to aim for.
You will probably be surprised how small of a surplus you actually need to gain muscle while minimizing fat gain.
There You Have It
This concludes the breakdown of the Martial Marksman Physical Calculator. I hope you find it useful! It can be a little overwhelming at first, but don’t worry about using every aspect of it at the same time. You also don’t need to use it on a daily basis or anything. Instead, I suggest coming back once per month or even once every three to four months to update your numbers and check your progress.
But Matt, what about women?
You might have noticed that everything I put together targets men. I did actually build a version of the calculator for females, and checked it with my wife who is absolutely killing it in the fitness realm. I ended up not including it in the final version. Why, you ask? There are two main reasons.
First, there just isn’t the same quantity of information out there on these topics for women. The body mass and physique calculators all derive from work on male bodybuilders and male statues. As far as I can tell, something similar has never been done for females. To that end, I don’t think the average woman is interested in (or capable of) growing the same muscular proportions as a man. The best resource I found focused mainly female bikini bodybuilder competitors, and it was pretty much just a hip to waist ratio.
In the same vein, there is way less data available for strength targets with females for martial contexts.
That leads to the second point. I could probably have invested a lot of time reviewing and synthesizing what standards for women do exist (Rob Shaul at the Mountain Tactical Institute has some, for example), but the reality is that 99.9% of my audience is men, and going that far down the rabbit hole to build something that almost none of my readers would use didn’t seem like a good use of time.
