Weight lifting formulas?
May 13, 2012 3:44 PM   Subscribe

If I know how much I can dead lift, is there a formula (or something similar) to predict healthy weights for other lifts?

My Google fu failed me so I thought I'd ask.

I'm thinking of lifts like the snatch, press, overhead squat, jerk, front, squats, clean and jerk, etc.
posted by Vault13 to Health & Fitness (7 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
You might find the weightlifting strength standards useful for a general idea, but you wouldn't want to say "Oh I'm an intermediate therefore I can squat x" if you have never actually squatted before, or not squatted heavy. All of those lifts (and especially the Olympic lifts - the snatch, clean and jerk, etc) have an element of technical skill to them, and raw strength is only part of it.
posted by restless_nomad at 3:55 PM on May 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


Not really, no. Each exercise, even relatively similar ones, are going to emphasize different muscle groups. Any prediction would have to assume you're equally familiar with each exercise and that each muscle group is proportionally fit. Those are dangerous assumptions.
posted by vohk at 3:59 PM on May 13, 2012


No, but if you tell me your bodyweight, gender, and the amount you can deadlift and for what number of reps, I can give you some "healthy" suggestions (I assume by "healthy" you mean safe estimates of working weights that you could do right now... if you mean something else let me know). There's no formula, I would use my intuition based on working with a lot of different lifters and knowing what's typical.
posted by telegraph at 4:59 PM on May 13, 2012


The comparison is really only valid for the "untrained" category in the strength standards, and even then only for a "balanced" physique without much fat. For instance, after nine months of training I can just about do the "novice" deadlift standard for my weight, but there's no way I can do even the "untrained" bench press standard. My legs are just a lot stronger than my arms.
posted by wnissen at 9:16 PM on May 13, 2012


at a certain point, I could deadlift twice my body weight 10x2 with good form, but still not get through a full set of body weight bench presses.

Different strokes, I guess.
posted by flippant at 2:47 AM on May 14, 2012


Response by poster: I weigh 156, am male, deadlifted 95# 20x. By "healthy" I do mean what telegraph suggests. I'm easily "untrained" according to the weightlifting strength standards restless_nomad cites.

Thanks for your willingness to help.
posted by Vault13 at 6:58 AM on May 14, 2012


Ah, ok. So, what you can deadlift 20 times is not a super useful number - it's not going to give you your 1-rep max, which is what all of those tables are about. I would strongly suggest picking up something like Stronglifts 5x5 or Wendler 531, starting with just the 45# bar, and following the progression given there. It will feel ridiculous for the first couple months, but a) you won't get hurt and b) you WILL get stronger.

(I have no advice about Oly lifts - I tried learning them on my own and decided that I would need a coach to get anything out of them, and if you've got a coach you won't have to worry about picking your own weights.)
posted by restless_nomad at 8:28 AM on May 14, 2012


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