Strength Standards for the general population

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  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    aggelikik wrote: »
    lisalsd1 wrote: »
    I like how Bret Contreras has a range in his chart. If you read his explanation with the chart, he does say that your environment can skew your perspective of strength. I also agree with him that it is likely that an untrained woman, which I'm equating with your 5%, could even bench an empty bar. This is just based on what I have seen at my gym.

    The average completely untrained woman most definitely cannot bench press an olympic bar.

    eh- it's only 45 pounds. I know a number of women who can't- but I know a number of newbs who can. I feel remiss and writing off the average untrained woman not being able to bench press the bar- but that's completely out of my own shock that someone couldn't- not out of any sort of real educational/scientific basis.
  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
    aggelikik wrote: »
    No clue about men, but for the general population, the women chart is completely nonsense OP, sorry. Just a collection of random numbers. From my personal experience.
    Ok, fair enough. That being the case though, I suspect the standards chart from Rippetoe and Kilgore is off as well. According to that chart, any untrained woman weighing more than 160 pounds should be able to bench at least 80 pounds. But from what's been said here, it seems like that figure is a lot lower.

  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited July 2015
    The figures in this chart are for intermediates from what I understand, not for the untrained.

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