Well first I would analyze my current diet. If its not consistent that will be a hard task but you have to start somewhere. Figure out your TDEE and then add 500 calories plus a macro ratio that you want to try. The macro ratio may take some dialing in as what works for someone else may not work for you. You have time on your side to figure it out. If you start gaining too quickly, lower the calories. Shoot for 1-1.5lbs per week. IMO when you’re young and undersized I like a 5x5 program that focuses heavily on the big 3. If you still got gas in the tank do some supplementals too. The exercises don’t need to be complicated, focus on getting stronger because with strength comes muscle size.
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All i am seeing is one excuse after another, good luck in figuring it out
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For bench? I hit 300lb x 4 (PR) flat bench about 2 weeks ago, but this is significantly below your strength metric because I weigh 220lbs…?
I’m gonna have to ask for either an explanation or agree to disagree here.
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It’s only 30lbs and 6 reps you/we got this.
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The only explanation I have is that was the rule of thumb for strength that we had.
Look at it this way. The powerlifting total for the lifts add to 5.5 times your body weight. A 200lb man should be able to get ten reps on the three lifts of 1,100lbs. Using percentages, where a man should be able to do 80% of their 1 rep max for 10 reps. Or for a 1,100lb total for ten reps = 1,375lbs (1,100lbs/0.80).
This is not a phenomenal total for a 200lb man.
(I mention using 5.5 times your body weight because some lifters are better at one or two lifts than the other one or two, but the best lifter has the highest total and not the highest bench press)
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Not a whole lot of lifters can do 10 reps with 80% of a 1RM. 10 rep sets are more in the range of the low 70s from a percentage perspective for most lifters. Someone who can do 10 reps with 80% sucks at expressing strength via singles.
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We used 2% per rep for most lifters.
For powerlifters that train CNS, 2.5% per rep. So the 80% works for 8 reps, instead of 10reps.
The OP has in no way trained CNS.
Also, this total (raw and tested) would be top ~17% in the world for 2021 among powerlifters who stepped on the platform and competed. Not a phenomenal total for a powerlifter but for someone who doesn’t train for powerlifting to put up such numbers would be impressive.
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Well, on that we can certainly agree.
I do not see these as conflicting statements.
I do not dilute the meaning of “strong” to give everyone a participation trophy.
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We have a different metric it seems when it comes to what “strong” means. And given how much that subject has been beaten to death, I’m just going to leave it at that!
I just threw out some metrics to gauge strength. My use of the English word “strong” did assume my appreciation of the capability. I don’t expect everyone to agree. The people I lifted with agreed that real strong does not get there being pretty strong. I did use 5 reps as “decent strength”
Having worked out with Charles Bailey, who could squat 1,100lbs and total 2,500lbs, it is difficult for me to see squatting double your body weight for 10 reps as STRONG.
This seems awfully similar to a certain poster with an affinity for cool whip…
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Agreed .
One question with that kind of rule of thumb is what is the intended demographic. From the context, you are clearly talking about young males. However, strong for the average young man is different than strong for the genetically gifted. Since the rule comes out of your power lifting and bodybuilding experience, and since participation in those sports has a strong self selection bias, you probably are stating a good benchmark for people who have the natural gifts to excel at strength sports. For those at the other end of the bell curve (genetically speaking), those numbers might be a stretch.
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That makes good sense. I do not see this as making it less valid. If anything, it is more a validation.
To speak of “strong” relative to the general public makes no sense within the gym. I would hope most all in the gym are strong relative to the general public.
If you view a normal distribution of the gym (people lifting weights) it would seem that 2 sigma from the mean strength could be considered “strong”
I wonder if most all of us would like to be considered strong. I appreciate the desire. I am far from what I would call strong. I don’t like it.
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In your prime were you strong by your criteria?
Yes I was.
But I have seen many much stronger than I ever was.
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Appreciated man thanks for that.