If you look back at your training logs, what percentage increase have you made each year in the weight you use for the big lifts (e.g. squat, deadlift, bench, row, overhead press, chins)? How many years have you kept up that level of increase?
Excluding newbs and competitive powerlifters, I am wondering what would be a reasonable ongoing goal for the typical T-Nation type: intermediate-level lifter (say, 2+ years, can pull 8+ plates [edit: 180+kg]) who is working on building muscle and strength, solid program and nutrition, no drugs.
[Edit: And would it be different for the 35+ lifter?]
um, when you say 8+ plates, do you mean 8 on each side of the bar, i.e. 765 lbs? Or 8 total, i.e. 405lb? I assume the latter, but usually when people say “I pulled 5 plates” or “5 wheels” they mean each side (so 5 plates is actually 10 total, plus the bar, so 495 lbs).
To answer your question, I think there’s just too many variables. Injury, sports seasons, life changes, sicknesses, job stress, etc… Not to mention changes in training focus. Lifts will go up more if you’re training is more strength & size oriented than they will if you’re trying to cut down some fat or get in shape for a triathlon or something. I don’t know that you can really come up with an “average T-Nation lifter” like that.
I go by the general 10lbs a month guideline. Do you people actually think he meant you will infinitely move up 10lbs on every single lift forever?
You really don’t think this person had the common sense you have just because he didn’t type out everything that can easily be assumed?
Are you at such an advanced level with your weights right now that 10lbs a month is out of the question?
[quote]mr popular wrote:
I go by the general 10lbs a month guideline. Do you people actually think he meant you will infinitely move up 10lbs on every single lift forever?
You really don’t think this person had the common sense you have just because he didn’t type out everything that can easily be assumed?
Are you at such an advanced level with your weights right now that 10lbs a month is out of the question?[/quote]
If you read the original post, then you would have realized he said for lifter past newbie gains and lifting over 2 years. At that point I think 10 pounds per month is unpractical. So in 3 years you would have added 360 pounds to all your lifts? Your adding 10 pounds/month to curls, and tricep extensions? Are you talking about the big 3 (Bench Press, Deadlift, Squats), I’m sorry, but the majority of people are not going to still be able to add 10 lbs/month to their lifts on their third year of training natural.
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
I’m sorry, but the majority of people are not going to still be able to add 10 lbs/month to their lifts on their third year of training natural.[/quote]
That’s great, but he asked for a reasonable goal. This is a reasonable goal. What if he doesn’t reach that goal, but makes only 8 lbs? That would be great, especially if compared to someone telling him to only shoot for 4lbs a month instead.
It’s a shoot for the stars, and hit the stars or end up on the moon mentality.
[quote]Fulmen wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
I’m sorry, but the majority of people are not going to still be able to add 10 lbs/month to their lifts on their third year of training natural.
That’s great, but he asked for a reasonable goal. This is a reasonable goal. What if he doesn’t reach that goal, but makes only 8 lbs? That would be great, especially if compared to someone telling him to only shoot for 4lbs a month instead.
It’s a shoot for the stars, and hit the stars or end up on the moon mentality.
[/quote]
I still agree with my post, but you’re right in the sense as to set goals even if they’re high. Any gains are better than none.
[quote]m0dd3r wrote:
um, when you say 8+ plates, do you mean 8 on each side of the bar, i.e. 765 lbs? Or 8 total, i.e. 405lb? I assume the latter, but usually when people say “I pulled 5 plates” or “5 wheels” they mean each side (so 5 plates is actually 10 total, plus the bar, so 495 lbs).
Thanks for that. Yeah, I meant 405lbs or more. Basically, I’m thinking of someone who has worked hard and is past newbie gains.
To answer your question, I think there’s just too many variables. Injury, sports seasons, life changes, sicknesses, job stress, etc… Not to mention changes in training focus. Lifts will go up more if you’re training is more strength & size oriented than they will if you’re trying to cut down some fat or get in shape for a triathlon or something. I don’t know that you can really come up with an “average T-Nation lifter” like that.[/quote]
Sure, fair enough. Your working weights aren’t going to go up when you are cutting. I’m thinking of someone whose main goal is building muscle and strength, and who is average in the sense that they are not a genetic anomaly, has a day job and family, and not on drugs.
Sure, fair enough. Your working weights aren’t going to go up when you are cutting. I’m thinking of someone whose main goal is building muscle and strength, and who is average in the sense that they are not a genetic anomaly, has a day job and family, and not on drugs.
[/quote]
The thing is, as others pointed out your lifts aren’t going to go up by some specific amount each and every month. You’re going to hit plateaus on lifts at which point you’ll either try to break through that plateau, or switch to a different variation and work on getting strong on that.
It also depends on which lifts you’re talking about. Someone is probably going to be able to add a fairly substantial amount to something like squats, deads, leg press, hack squats, bench, rows, etc… But they probably aren’t going to be able to make huge gains on things like curl variations, leg curls, forearm work, tricep extensions, calf work (well if they are actually using their calves that is), etc…
Don’t get me wrong, they will make progress, but it’s not going to be all that substantial in relation to the big movements. So you also need to be specific about which exercises you mean.
Are you asking this question simply for a point of reference? Or is there another reason? If I were you I’d just do my best to add weight to the bar and be happy with that.
Mine have gone down on occasions during this period as I had an appendix removed in the old school manner (ie no key hole)which meant no lifting for 7 weeks, also think that the right mindset for maxes counts alot as well.
Also, for me anyway, pretty easy to see a correlation between my body weight and the amount I’m lifting.
By the end of this year I’ll be writing 300/400/500 into those columns.
EDIT-anyway i guess that after a couple of years training, ie once you have used up the newbie gains, you can aim for a 10-20% per annum improvement realistically. More for some less for others. You aren’t going to continually improve by 20% pa for very long though.
Its gonna depend on so many things that you arent going to be able to find an “average.” Someone following a program designed to increase strength and someone who doesnt care about strength at all and only trains for size will see drastically different improvements in numbers.
If you adopt something like west side template vs a body building template you can bet on having different rates of strength progression.
[quote]
EDIT-anyway i guess that after a couple of years training, ie once you have used up the newbie gains, you can aim for a 10-20% per annum improvement realistically. More for some less for others. You aren’t going to continually improve by 20% pa for very long though.
Burnesy[/quote]
I am assuming the OP was asking what type of expectations one should be looking for - especially when one factors in age and lifting experience. Obviously ymmv (your mileage may vary) in that everyone is genetically different, has different goals, has different body comps, different mentalities, etc. However, someone more experienced that I (or maybe even a REAL trainer) should be able to offer me a reasonable goals for improvement. Burnesy offered what I considered what I consider to be something reasonable - 10% improvement per year. This means that if someone deadlifts 400lbs right now, a reasonable goal would be to deadlift 440lbs a year from now. A stretch goal may be to deadlift 480lbs next year, but it is probably unreasonable to set a goal of 500lbs by next year. To reiterate - it is reasonable to assume that if one is focused and dedicated enough one can reach the goal of increasing their deadlift by 10% in a year.
not enough information to come to a reasonable conclusion with respect to you specifically
If you want to avg percent gains for a serious lifter with 2 years exp that would make more sense, but the 35+ and 405 deadlift doesn’t help much w/o knowing bodyweight.