I like Thibaudeau’s standards:
Bench 1.5 x bodyweight x 6 reps
Squat 2 x bodyweight x 6 reps
Deadlift: 2.5 x bodyweight x 6 reps
Military press: bodyweight x 6 reps
If you can do this, you are strong.
He gives additional standards for other lifts as well…check in his Locker Room.
Why don’t any of these “standards” take into account age? Am I supposed to be as strong at 51 as I was at 30?
There is a book, Strength and Speed Ratings that breaks down everything into age groups. It’s a really interesting book. Worth the price if your interested in this sort of stuff. The only drawback, at least with my very old edition, it never gives the source of the information.
According to it for age 50
squat 99.9 percentile 230
90 percentile 215
clean & press 99.9 115
90 percentile 100
Bench 99.9 percentile 200
90 percentinle is 170
They show numbers like this for many ages, but never say where they got them…
[quote]mrcat wrote:
There is a book, Strength and Speed Ratings that breaks down everything into age groups. It’s a really interesting book. Worth the price if your interested in this sort of stuff. The only drawback, at least with my very old edition, it never gives the source of the information.
According to it for age 50
squat 99.9 percentile 230
90 percentile 215
clean & press 99.9 115
90 percentile 100
Bench 99.9 percentile 200
90 percentinle is 170
They show numbers like this for many ages, but never say where they got them…[/quote]
I’m curious, is that kg or lb? I’m thinking lb, since 50 is already on the downhill side (for most people, at least).
Pounds…
Some more interesting infor from the book at the bottom of the link below…
[quote]Ramo wrote:
I like Thibaudeau’s standards:
Bench 1.5 x bodyweight x 6 reps
Squat 2 x bodyweight x 6 reps
Deadlift: 2.5 x bodyweight x 6 reps
Military press: bodyweight x 6 reps
If you can do this, you are strong.
He gives additional standards for other lifts as well…check in his Locker Room. [/quote]
Those are good goals to shoot for, but I would be weary of using strict bodyweight #'s for a goal.
By those standards, I’m not “strong” until I can squat 550 * 6 and DL 700 * 6.
700 * 1 is pretty good even by Powerlifting standards. 700 * 6 is a little much for merely a baseline level of “strength”.
I find it more useful to just use your environment as a gauge. You’re “strong” if you can pretty much count the number of people stronger than you in your gym on one hand. If you’re far and away the strongest guy in your gym, find a better gym (or pat yourself on the back, Ed Coan).
trying to get a definitive quantitative definition for “strong” is a waste of time, IMO.