Any news on your boy? Hope everything’s ok and he recovers quick. Was behind on your log and just caught up. Being a small guy I can’t even imagine some of the deadlift and squat numbers being thrown around lol.
Once the leg heals up I’m thinking I might chase some strength goals. It’s an avenue I’ve never been down before and I’m starting to see the appeal. A tangible goal to work towards.
Anyways. Hope your well man
Hey buddy, I appreciate you checking in. I called yesterday and there was no news. Meaning there wasn’t going to be any today either (sunday), so I’m hoping by tomorrow we hear something, or by Wednesday (a week out from the test) at the latest. His hip is definitely still not 100%, but the hardest part right now besides agonizing over a really tiny chance of him having a deadly disease, is stopping him from running and jumping. He’s 4. He’s on a regimen of anti-inflammatory drugs, prescribed to him, that make him feel virtually no pain until he runs and jumps too much, and then he feels it and doesn’t want to walk. He cried today after I told him for the twentieth time not to run, and it was clearly out of pure frustration from not being able to be a fuckin 4 year old. Kind of heartbreaking.
I very much appreciate you checking in though.
I also know you bench a lot for your weight, I’m betting you could pile on some mass with deads and squats.
Yeah that sucks when kids have pain. My daughter has hip dysplasia and at times is in a ton of pain until the joint and tendons cool down after a flare up or bad motion. She’s 15 so cam at least verbalize what’s going on though.
As for weights, I like the idea of lifting a number based on percentage of your body weight. I remember I believe @littlesleeper had a chart posted rating certain percentages as ranging from average to superior or the like. Maybe something like a 2x body weight bench, 2.5x body weight squat and 3x body weight dead. I don’t remember exactly.
I can’t remember the exact one I posted, but there is a chart in this article that could be used for reference!
I think that’s the one… Thanks!
Wow, my back is weak AF
I should fix that
This particular article is quite a bit less…forgiving…than most standards. Google “strength standards” and you will get a bunch of links to something more mainstream.
Not saying this one is wrong or anything, but I think it is a bit of an outlier.
(although I will add that, in my opinion, some of these standards are absurd)
I initially agreed with you. Some of the standards seem out of whack with my experience. The more I thought about it though, the more I agree with the article.
I thought the deadlift was absurdly low, but then deadlift has always been my best lift.
I thought rows was absurdly high, but my back strength is pathetically low.
On balance, I think it’s about right.
I think it helps to make more sense of it as you think of “decent” as something around Intermediate/Advanced on the normal scale.
But some of these are out of whack (the rows are insane, your instinct was correct), fail to account for bodyweight or are absolutely useless exercises for measuring strength (plank, skullcrusher, EZ curls, jesus christ). And then something like 40 dips being considered “good” and the same with 20 pullups. I have never seen a human being get even close to 40 dips before. Except for myself lol.
And that’s kinda the problem. “Good” here is like top 1% of gym goers.
Edit: He also puts the same multiplier on squats and deads, which is crazypants. Until the last category, for some reason.
I don’t train either rows or dips to get any kind of handle on how good that is.
That depends on your gym. How many gym goers are strength athletes?
For me, I can hit all of the “decent” numbers that I train for, and the others simply highlight a lack of training. I consider myself to be piss weak, so that’s about right.
Well, the whole basis of the article is “how well do you stack up against others in the gym”, so I am applying it as broadly as possibly. Certainly the steroid gym across the street from my usual place would have a different baseline. But even then, I bet they would have a lot of trouble with some of these. Lots of guys can hit the marks on Squats, Deads and Bench in the “good” category, but almost none of them would be able to do that Press, and even fewer would manage anything else on that list.
Really? That press seems like a pretty low ball offer to me.
But I think the main problem is who we’re comparing to. I read it as “among strength athletes” ie. People who lift seriously, because just “people who go to the gym” sets the bar so low its actually insulting. My paltry lifts would put me in the top 5% of my gym and at that point the standards have no meaning.
Apologies to @flappinit for cluttering up his log.
Yeah, I think that’s a fair way of viewing it, I guess it just depends on who you want to compare yourself against.
I still maintain that some of them are out of whack, but that could just be me. If nothing else, not accounting for BW for some of these is dumb. Pressing 165…if you weigh 225, that’s nothing to get excited about. If you weigh 160, that’s pretty damn impressive. Etc.
I am going to assume @flappinit enjoys us shitting up his log until otherwise informed =)
Funny I fall way short on dead’s and squats. Probably slightly above decent in each, but could crank out probably 60 dips no prob and maybe 25 pull ups. It’s all dependent on your strengths.
I just like having someones unreasonable Standards to live up to lol
Good discussion @Cyrrex and @dagill2 (sorry Flap, if you were hoping this discussion was going to die - we can move it over to my log if you prefer?).
I think my view is closer to dagill’s. I don’t really think any of these claims are super crazy. The lifts that I would consider my best (squat/dead), I am “great” at. My weaker lift (bench), I’m only “good” at (if using the BW multiplier).
“It wasn’t the result of a specific scientific study but simply the end result of literally tens of thousands of hours spent in a variety of fitness type settings: commercial gyms, private training studios, powerlifting competitions, recreation centers, athletic training facilities, etc.”
(Just so we are clear where these standards came from)
Do I think some of these standards are high? Yep. The ones that I’m bad at! (Bodyweight movements primarily)
While I agree that there could have been some bodyweight multipliers added to a few of the other movements (overhead press, specifically), I think that the article starts shifting to the “strong is strong” idea for the movements outside of the big 3.
This is where our mentalities differ slightly. While I may be more impressed that a 160lb male pressed 165lb than a 225lb male, I’m still not actually impressed. If my 110lb wife presses it, than maaybbbeee (jk, I’d be impressed). 165lbs is just such a light weight to me, that it would be hard for me to get exciting about someone else lifting it, regardless of weight. I’m biased though, I’m 217lbs right now and can strict overhead press 245-255lbs.
Good discussion though gents, I’m not trying to downplay anyone’s achievements, just offering my view on the topic! (@MarkKO)
And that would put you in pretty rare and unusual company. I assume you are buitl for and/or focus a lot on BW exercises?
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the conversation. As someone whose only real goal is to be “relatively good at everything”, I pay a lot of attention to these kinds of standards and my own relative strength.
You make an interesting argument about relative strength, but the problem is that it slices both ways. The dude you are not impressed at pressing 165 at his 160 bodyweight might pump out 50 dips and laugh at your sad attempt to hit 15 or 20 (not saying this is you, but pull-ups tend to favor the smaller guys).
But maybe somehow that’s the point. Being good at all of them is in and of itself quite a challenge.
Well I was a competitive gymnast so I did thousands of dips and pull ups as an athlete. Also a light guy at 170
Exactly, I would expect him to! Sure, I may feel proud about a certain bodyweight movement for my size, but I don’t consider myself to have good/great chinup/dip numbers because they are sad compared to someone who is actually good at them. If I received this list of exercises and had to rate myself on this scale from decent to great, it wouldn’t be far from where this table places me.
I don’t think there are many people who would fall into “great” under all of these exercises, but think that is part of the point. I don’t often train bodyweight exercises, and I’m a heavier guy not exactly built for them so I agree that I would fall into the decent/good categories.