Strength Standards: How we recognize progress

Strength Standards

On a very regular basis, people want to know some sort of baseline that they can use to measure their progress – how strong do I need to be to be strong? And how strong is that, exactly? Well I’m going to share with you some strength standards we use to help people gauge their progress.

But first…

Why Have Strength Standards?

Of course, there are no “objective strength standards”. But we made them because people need something to sink their teeth into. Most people have no idea how strong they can be, or how strong other people can be. Having a simple set of standards gives people goals they can shoot for.

Our Level 1 Strength Standards

Without further ado… regardless of age, height, weight, experience… our level 1 strength standards are:

Men: 135lb press, 225lb bench press, 315lb squat, 405lb deadlift. This is otherwise known as the 1, 2, 3, 4! (One 45lb plate on each side, then two 45lb plates on each side, etc.) Very convenient and memorable.

Women: 80lb press, 105lb bench press, 205 squat, 250lb deadlift. Unfortunately, there’s not convenient plate additions here, but we consider these equivalent strength standards for men and women.

For most people, these strength standards represent a delineation between a total novice and an advanced novice, and potentially an intermediate lifter. This is obviously a very important distinction – as almost no one, regardless of the amount of time they’ve been training advances to intermediate.

Our Level 2 Strength Standards

The next stop after this… marks firmly that you are an intermediate lifter.

Men: 200lb press, 300 bench, 400 squat, 500 deadlift.

Women: 135lb press, 205 bench, 315 squat, 405 deadlift.

I’m biased but I think everyone should work toward these standards too – ESPECIALLY if you happen to be on the younger side. This will damn near set you up for life.

Do You Have Other Strength Standards?

The short answer is yes we do. We have a few ways that we recognize progress amongst members as they continue to get stronger. They are:

• The Blue Plate Club. This recognizes anyone that is capable of doing any lift with a blue plate – which is 45lbs. For men that would be a 135lb deadlift, and for women, a 125lb deadlift. (Or any other lift of their choosing).

After that we have a few other strength standards, or “clubs people” can join:

• 400lb/750lb Club – For men, this means that if you add up the total of your best bench press, best squat, and best deadlift, that it would total 750lbs or more, and for women, 400lbs or more. For the 750, to keep it really simple, you could Squat 250, Bench 250, and Deadlift 250 and you’d be there!
• 600/1000 – This is another important strength standard that all people should strive to achieve!
• 800/1250 – You’re getting pretty darn strong here. This took a pretty darn good amount of hard work in and outside of the gym. You’d do pretty well at a local meet!
• 1000/1500 – In this club, you’re a damn serious lifter. You’re competing regionally, and might have an eye for nationals.

As I dig into this further, I want to begin by answering a question most people are going to have about the “Level 1 Strength Standards”…

How did I come up with these ” Level 1″ strength standards?

Keeping in mind these are, “level 1″I came up with these strength standards while thinking about a few important questions…

1. What strength standards are achievable naturally by most people with proper strength training?
   • Obviously, these numbers need to reflect not using steroids or being genetically gifted. Next is “most people”. I’ll admit – for some, although VERY few – it’s not possible to hit these numbers. Most of those people will be hampered some how – very old, missing a limb, etc. “Most people” is the average person that occupies the normal range of a bell curve, assuming they are in good health, and aged 18-70.
2. What can be achieved by most people within 12-18 months with proper training, sleep, and nutrition.
   • I’ll go into this more below – but almost no one has proper training, or sleep, or nutrition, let alone all three for more than a few days in a row. For these strength standards, I assumed the lifter got their life together enough, and prioritized training enough (3x/week for 1 hour), and life outside of training enough that they could muster 12-18 months of both great lifestyle and consistent training… in a row. This is actually the hardest part about this. Most people don’t do more than 3 weeks of strength training, or 6 weeks of proper eating in a row every few years. Imagine what you would be capable of if “the stars aligned” for more than an entire year without fail. Most people can’t (ie won’t) do that and most will be beginners for their entire training career as a result.
3. How can I make these as simple, and straight forward as possible?
   • The strength standards need to be something people can easily grab on to. Yes – you could adjust these for age and weight, and as many factors as you want, and make these as complicated as you want. Here’s why that’s bad: 1) people don’t latch onto things that are unnecessarily complicated and 2) If people do latch on to it, the “adjustments” turn into a never ending list of excuses. “Well, we need a category for people that are short, have only been training for 4 years, and weigh x amount, and are x age.” No. If you spent half the time you training, sleeping, and eating as you did advocating for “a fair standard” that represents you in all your unique ways perfectly, you’d probably have met the standards already. Meet them, or don’t. Respect them, or don’t. Ultimately, it’s up to you to use them in a way to break down limiting beliefs and accomplish your goals (or not). (Look at how complex these are… potentially helpful, sure, but not something most people can sink their teeth into.)
4. In other fields of work or hobby, how long does it take to go from beginner, to intermediate, to expert? (So for example: how much proper study would it take to become intermediate at accounting, or at playing baseball?)
   • When it comes to strength training people do something really weird. They have poor eating, sleeping, training, bad form, and lift weights for x amount of time (the time isn’t really important here) and think they got strong. You may have been training a lot or for a long time, but that doesn’t mean you’ve progressed well. Just IMAGINE if I did the same thing when it came to accounting. I didn’t study, show up to class, or do well on tests, but studied some random accounting a few days per week, making it up as I go, and then thought I was an expert at accounting (or fill in WHATEVER example you want to). This is why having strength training standards is so crucial -almost every other field or hobby has some sort of benchmark that you should try to reach – it doesn’t mean you will – but it means you should try! The reality is, it takes a lot of hard work to NOT be a beginner in anything in life, and strength training is no exception. If you line up your training, nutrition, and sleep for 18 months, no matter your background, age, or weight, you’re going to smash these standards – or at least, give them a run for their money. Imagine if you did that for 2, 3, 4 or 5+ years.

Why Most People Won’t Meet These Strength Standards

For some people in the world (…almost no one) these strength standards won’t seem very heavy or impressive.

But for 99% of people this is very, very strong. And you know what – it shouldn’t be. With proper strength training and consistency, these level 1 strength standards are attainable for 99% of people, regardless of starting age/height/weight.

The majority of people don’t reach these lifts for 4 reasons.

1. Programming issues.
   • Without knowing it, most “functional fitness” programs don’t actually program for strength well… or include any real strength training at all. If you get on a true strength program, you’d be shocked at how strong you can become!
2. Limiting beliefs.
   • I’ve seen this a million times – and experienced it myself. People progress… reach a milestone – say a 200lb squat, and then knowingly or not, think “Well that’s about as strong as I can get… time to find a new goal”, when that is not true and is very self limiting!
3. Desire.
   • Strength Training is Irreplaceable. There really isn’t a thing as “too strong” when it comes to your health and fitness. Does being a strongman or bodybuilder max your health? Probably not – but they’re all also on steroids… they don’t do it to maximize health. If you’re a regular human being, not on drugs or having an eating disorder – then yes, you need to try and get as strong as possible through basic ass strength training. Strength is the most developable physical trait, the most persistent (it lasts LONG after you stop training), and is a true super power. If you think squatting 150lbs is enough, or you’ve max your benefit from strength, you are sorely mistaken. If you knew how truly, deeply important it was to get as strong as you can while you can, that 200lb squat wouldn’t feel so comfy – and your desire to reach the standards would increase… and with that desire… will be an effort to improve, and if you put that effort in to training appropriately, eating, and sleeping, you’ll improve. You’ll improve A LOT.
4. Consistency.
   • You are a beginning lifter for 6-18 months, regardless of where you start. Think about that – if you train 3x/week productively (you sleep well, drink water, eat well, etc) for 80 weeks in a row, and you are still probably a novice – almost certainly an advanced novice, but a novice none-the-less. Most people people just don’t train long enough or consistently enough to get anywhere near their potential. Think about this in terms of someone’s career. Say you’re in accounting… and you’ve been working as an accountant for 1 year. Are you an expert or advanced? You might be for someone that has been doing it for 1 year but people that have been doing that has a 35 year accounting career would think you are just starting!
5. Nutrition – and other lifestyle factors.
   • Nutrition is a significant reason. Everyone is absolutely, positively paranoid about gaining weight. But here’s the thing… muscle… has weight. Bone density… has weight. Stronger and thicker tendons and ligaments… you guessed it… have weight. Most people will never get nearly as strong as they could be because they want to become extremely strong while becoming skinny. It just doesn’t work that way. You have to eat in a caloric surplus to build muscle, and building muscle is a healthy thing to do – even if the scale goes up! You’ll be much healthier right now if you gained 10lbs of muscle. Other lifestyle factors matter as well – sleep, hydration, managing, stress, etc. Whatever you weigh + 30lbs of fat… is unhealthy and should be scary. Whatever you weigh – regardless of what you weigh now – +10, +20 or +30lbs of muscle is freaking awesome – more muscle, more toned, better shape, healthier! (And the beauty of it, if for some reason you sprout giant, huge muscles that everyone wants and no one can get – and you don’t like it, you can just go back!) If you want to meet these level 1 strength standards, you have to eat like it!

If you want to get into strength training, or take your training up a notch to meet our level 1 strength standards – bust plateaus, build muscle, reduce your back pain, and/or get sexier, come work with one of our Spark Fitness personal trainers!

Coach Connor