Strength Standards

[petramom]

For those of you who are interested in knowing how much weight is considered "standard" for various exercises, the following link is really helpful. It gives guidelines for 1RM based on weight, gender and experience level (e.g., for an adult female, 165 lbs whose been training less than 9 months, the squat 1RM is 130 lbs).

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.html

 

[PhyllisG]

Wow! I am nowhere near those weights. How about factoring in age?

 

[kgalas]

I have been working out with Cathe for 6 years and I'm way off those 1 rep max numbers. I put myself between intermediate and advanced, but there is no way I could press 67# or bench 97#. I'm a weakling I'll keep trying, though.

 

[petramom]

Somewhere it says that the numbers aren't the "norms," so I didn't take it to mean what I should be lifting to be strong relative to the general population. My impression is that these numbers reflect more the expectation for people who are doing strength training pretty seriously (i.e., people who are doing it with an expectation of competing or being able to compete). At the bottom it has more explanation of where the numbers come from -- a purely subjective standard, based on observation.

 

[Gayle]

Okay...I like this chart. My numbers put me at high intermediate with everything but the bench press...which makes sense since I hate the bench press. In all honesty though, my recent weight training has been in line with that of power lifting and not the type of training that Cathe does.

This chart was provided by Lon Kilgore, who is an expert in power lifting. The chart reflects that type of training.

Klaudia - I would bet that with a very short amount of training in this specific area, you'd be putting up some very respectable numbers.

 

[kgalas]

Thanks for the encouragement Gayle! Are you still doing crossfit stuff? I so want to take a crossfit class and do more kettlebells, too. If only I had a money tree!

 

[Gayle]

Thanks for the encouragement Gayle! Are you still doing crossfit stuff? I so want to take a crossfit class and do more kettlebells, too. If only I had a money tree!

Yes, I'm still doing some CrossFit along with a kettlebells and some heavy lifting. I hear ya on that money tree!! There are a couple of certs that would be close enough for me to attend, but the $$ is the limiting factor at this point.