Comments on: Strength standards for women

By: gubernatrix

gubernatrix — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 11:02:33 +0000

Thanks Shayne. I just tried the exrx calculator out on my own numbers for squat and deadlift and they seem pretty close.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that I’ve been training for a number of years and therefore have increased neuromuscular efficiency? The 70sbig article was interesting; I’d like to know where the author got his data from.

By: shayne

shayne — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:49:14 +0000

thanks for putting this together – i first came across it over a year ago and i still refer to it periodically, so definitely a good resource!!

i don’t know if this would be possible, but i’d also really like a 1RM calculator for women. the ones that are out there (http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/OneRepMax.html) don’t really match up with my numbers at all, and i suspect (?) it may be because women aren’t as neuromuscularly efficient as men (see: http://70sbig.com/blog/2012/09/why-females-lift-less-efficiently/, and i know i’ve read a rippetoe article about this, too, or maybe it was in starting strength). while i don’t use calculators like this to know my 1RM (my only 1RM is the weight i’ve actually lifted for 1 rep!), i do find them useful for programming and goals.

thanks again for this resource and all the wonderful information you share here

By: gubernatrix

gubernatrix — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:02:18 +0000

Hi Lisa, Good luck on your strength journey – it’s great to be aware of both strengths and weaknesses.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:08:00 +0000

Oh gosh, I am all over the place on this table! Barely above 125% bw/good on my squat, 50%/v good on the press (assuming strict/military press?), 225% bw/excellent on the deadlift (due to monkey arms) can only do one pull up and one dip but about 30 proper push ups. I’ve never benched so no clue about that. Seriously need to work on my squatting particularly.

I’m going to print the table off and keep at it. Thanks gubernatrix!

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:09:45 +0000

Hmm fat loss for me has been a focus on body comp, getting tighter / leaner and therefore I think my trainer agrees with you. Don’t know the definition of depletion training. I’ll be interested to see what happens, it feels a bit experimental, but in a good way. We are waiting a couple of weeks to take all stats (tape / bf / scale) due to “cycle” issues and then going for it!

By: gubernatrix

gubernatrix — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:53:47 +0000

Sounds great!
It depends what you mean by ‘fat loss’. You can lose fat while strength training (I do this all the time) but it is not possible to commit to a serious ‘get lean’ programme and improve maximal strength at the same time – different types of training and dietary management.
However you shouldn’t necessarily gain fat either if you manage things well – unless you’ve been going full on with getting lean e.g. depletion training.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:25:41 +0000

Yay, after talking to PT again last night we are going into a full on strength phase training to see what happens. He is of the opinion I will be sacrificing fat loss to do this, I disagree, we will see what happens. Very excited by this and looking forward to some new PB’s.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:15:16 +0000

Thanks for the reply, I actually mentioned these standards to my PT at this weeks session, and he admitted that this week after we’d done our strength session, some of the more experienced PT’s have been commenting to him that they’ve noticed what results we are getting and that in a commercial gym setting it could be considered quite exceptional given the time we’ve been doing it, and that we are not actually targetting pure strength. It’s okay I slapped him for not telling methis earlier

It’s been suggested that we should switch to pure strength for a few months just to see what sort of figures I could actually achieve.

I’m not so sure I’ll take him up on this just yet as I like the intensity of the weights for conditioning, but it’s certainly something I may consider in the future.
I’ll return to let you know!

By: gubernatrix

gubernatrix — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:52:59 +0000

Well done Liz, it’s useful to have something to compare your performance to and your benching and pressing is definitely pretty good. You are also a good example of the fact that higher volume does make people stronger as well as heavy low rep work, because of the hormonal response (testosterone, growth hormone). Anyone training for strength needs a bit of both.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:27:41 +0000

This is really interesting. I have been with my PT for 6 months and most of our training is using weights in a conditioning context, so in the region of 4 x 12 with minimum rest periods. However once a month we actually do a 1RM session to see whats going on. In an hours session I truthfully never get to failure, there is always something left in the tank but always set a new PB. Even without training specifically for strength I am outlifting some of his male clients. However what shocked me about your standards was that whilst I was really proud of my dedlift of 80kg (BW 52kg) and aiming to get to 200% by Christmas, it would appear that my upper body strength is further on than I thought, with a 3 x 45kg bench and 3 x 28kg press comfortable. I think because my PT only really sees men lifting, he’s no idea that these may be quite a good standard. I also realise my deadlift is no big deal, even though it’s the one that gets the most attention in the gym as all the men around us watch him load more and more weight on, and you can see them saying “yeah right, she’s never going to lift that”. Ha Ha!!