As a personal trainer, I am often asked by clients how their strength stacks up against their peers. Now, I believe age plays a role in strength potential but this is only minor compared to one’s training age, or experience in the gym. As a powerlifter, I have seen people do some amazing feats of strength relative to their body weight, regardless of age.
Inspired by Dan John’s strength standards, I have put together my own strength standards chart that reflects a primarily barbell style of training for the squat, hinge, upper body press, and upper body pull. Click the link below to download a copy.
Ideal Strength-Standards Chart
Here is how you use it:
Start with one movement such as the squat, and begin with the first level on the chart “Proper Form in the Goblet Squat”. If you can complete the first, move on to the second, continue until you can no longer complete the following level and enter the highest level completed into the chart under the movement, in this case “SQUAT.”
Continue this with all four movements until you have a score for each. It is recommended that you test each movement on separate days. As you can imagine, warming up and testing each level can take some time and can be quite taxing.
Once you have a score for each movement, check out your graph to see how balanced or imbalanced your skills are. A good goal for most individuals would be to reach a level four on all movements but more importantly remain fairly balanced throughout each movement.
Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
-Dan