Hi Guys so I am an amateur body builder and one of the things I have always been curious about and never really found an answer to is proportions of lifts to each other, could you take a look at the below and identify any areas I’m too weak in proportion to the others please;
Deadlifts 140kg
Squat 120kg
Bench Press 100kg
Overhead Press 70kg
Bent Over Rows 70kg
Barbell Shrugs 80kg
Upright Rows 60kg
Seated Shoulder Press 60kg
Close Grip Press 70kg
Chin Ups body weight + 25kg
Tricep Dips body weight + 25kg
Wide Grip Pull Ups body weight + 25kg
Looks reasonable to me. Bent over rows and shrugs seem a bit low but maybe you are just using very strict form which is no problem. Perhaps the traps are lacking a bit given this and that the deadlift could also be higher relative to bench/squat. Just focus on getting them all up about 50% then you can worry about ratios.
If you’re an amateur body builder, does it really matter if your lifts are in proportion with each other? Probably not since aesthetics are your main goal. A better question is, do the weights you can move on each of these movements facilitate muscle growth for you? If the answer is yes, then it doesn’t really matter.
So the main 4 are in proportion? (OHP, DL, SQ BP) I thought my OHP may be little low.
[/quote]
wtf? You thought your OHP was the low one?
If those are 5rms I am going to estimate your max bench around 255lbs and your max overhead around 180lbs. If those are anywhere close to accurate you have, in my opinion, an extremely strong OHP in comparison to your bench press.
In general your upper body strength is better than your lower body strength relative to your size. If I am going to assume something around a 360lb deadlift and a 310lb squat, then those are lagging somewhat. You seem to be pretty close to a 1.5x BW bench, which is a nice milestone, and you may already have a BW overhead press, which is great, but you are quite a ways off from a 2x BW squat and a 2.5x BW deadlift, which I would consider to be somewhat similar milestones.
Obviously I’m having to make some assumptions about your 1rms, but that’s what I see. Work the lower back and legs!
Also what do you mean by “close grip press”? Is that a close grip bench press? Because if so then that seems to be strangely low compared to your regular bench and overhead. It’s the same as your overhead in fact. My press is only like 60% of my close grip bench…
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
If you’re an amateur body builder, does it really matter if your lifts are in proportion with each other? Probably not since aesthetics are your main goal. A better question is, do the weights you can move on each of these movements facilitate muscle growth for you? If the answer is yes, then it doesn’t really matter.[/quote]
While as a bodybuilder I agree with the notion that strength levels do not matter so long as the asthetics and size are gained, I also think I understand the OPs concern.
My brother once explained to me that the way many bodybuilders train, they’re unknowingly setting themselves up with imbalances that can lead to potential injuries. While I don’t think how much you squat needs to be in a certain proportion to your bench press, I’m would guess that how much you row vs much you bench should be withina certain range for structural health.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
If you’re an amateur body builder, does it really matter if your lifts are in proportion with each other? Probably not since aesthetics are your main goal. A better question is, do the weights you can move on each of these movements facilitate muscle growth for you? If the answer is yes, then it doesn’t really matter.[/quote]
While as a bodybuilder I agree with the notion that strength levels do not matter so long as the asthetics and size are gained, I also think I understand the OPs concern.
My brother once explained to me that the way many bodybuilders train, they’re unknowingly setting themselves up with imbalances that can lead to potential injuries. While I don’t think how much you squat needs to be in a certain proportion to your bench press, I’m would guess that how much you row vs much you bench should be withina certain range for structural health.
S[/quote]
100% agree. I didn’t mean to imply imbalance is okay, just that the numbers themselves don’t matter as much as the training affect.
Certainly if you can bench 450, but can’t do a pull-up there’s a problem.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Certainly if you can bench 450, but can’t do a pull-up there’s a problem. [/quote]
Nearly every super heavyweight powerlifter ever lol
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Certainly if you can bench 450, but can’t do a pull-up there’s a problem. [/quote]
Nearly every super heavyweight powerlifter ever lol[/quote]
I classify myself as an amateur body builder because I don’t compete in anything lifting or shows I just do it as a hobby. Aesthetics are important I wont lie but strength and fitness are too for me.
So overhead seems ok in proportion to Bench and you would say increase squat and deadlifts at faster rate than these two now.
Close grip press I mean when you lay down and push from the waist with close grip and tucked in elbows so its a predominantly tricep exercise, is this a bit low then?
Yep you got it mate I’m completely natural at the moment but planning on running my first cycle in the new year and want to know what I should be upping more than others so I don’t slip further out of proportion both aesthetically and health wise as in what you said about my lats not supporting my pecs etc.
So my weight is 82kg / 180lb and my bench is 100kg / 220lb so using that as a base where should all the others be ish?
So overhead seems ok in proportion to Bench and you would say increase squat and deadlifts at faster rate than these two now.
Close grip press I mean when you lay down and push from the waist with close grip and tucked in elbows so its a predominantly tricep exercise, is this a bit low then?
[/quote]
If that’s what you’re doing then don’t worry about it. I’ve never really heard of that though lol.
I classify myself as an amateur body builder because I don’t compete in anything lifting or shows I just do it as a hobby. Aesthetics are important I wont lie but strength and fitness are too for me.
Nope just for fun mate so weren’t sure how to classify that other than amateur body builder. Is that you in the pic? Nice traps mate, I think I need to work on mine a bit but I only do shrugs and upright rows for them any tips?
[quote]Sam_Boy wrote:
really I thought that was called close grip press like this;
Okay so you ARE talking about a close grip bench press. It threw me off massively when you said “push from the waist”. In that case, yes I think your close grip bench is lagging enormously behind based on your strength on the other pressing movements.
[quote]Sam_Boy wrote:
Nope just for fun mate so weren’t sure how to classify that other than amateur body builder. Is that you in the pic? Nice traps mate, I think I need to work on mine a bit but I only do shrugs and upright rows for them any tips? [/quote]
Ya, that works. I like gym rat personally.
That’s me, my traps are probably my best feature (note I’m not saying they’re awesome just my best feature. I don’t think I’m anything to brag about).
My traps grew a lot from years of heavy (1-5 rep) deadlifts.
This past year 4 exercises have made a huge differnce, I beleive in this order:
Snatch
Cleans
SGHP
Power cleans
I also think band face pulls for high reps helps too.
@csulli no worries you do push them from waist though don’t ya? They probably seem lagging because I do them after my bench press sets will try and up them a bit though as I have hit a bit of slow down on increasing bench at the minute.
@usmccds423 Haha ye I like gym rat, so do you compete then or a gym rat too?
Ye I was sort of hoping that over time deadlifts would do it but I can see why yours are so big now with the snatch and cleans, I don’t really do anything powerlifting moves like that but am thinking of adding them to get to the next level.
