Fitness Standards

[M4Mike]

I'm very curious about the standards of fitness I often hear and read about. One example is your strong if you can bench press 2x your body weight, and anything less than that is unimpressive. There are many others. An example is a 200 lb man benching 400 lbs vs a 300 lb man benching 400 lbs. The total weight lifted is the same, but the strength to weight ratio is obviously higher for the 200 lb man. Does this make the smaller man stronger than the larger or does the whole strength to weight ratio go out the window as the size of the lifter increases?

[strambo]

Depends on what type of strength you are talking about...

There is "limit strength" which is simply how much you can lift. A 200lb man benching 400lbs has less limit strength than a 300lb man benching 425.

There is "relative strength" which is strength/weight ratio. Obviously in the example above, the 200lb man has a lot more relative strength. Relative strength is important for things like climbing, moving your body plus gear etc.

Finally there is "strength-endurance" which is how much you can move for how long. Benching 225...not impressive. Benching 225 for a set of 20 reps, pretty good strength-endurance.

For the military, I focus mostly on relative strength and strength endurance. However, I also do some limit strength work like heavy dead lifts and presses. I have heard a saying: "You must first possess strength before you can endure it." Makes sense to me, if you can bench 400 once, you could bench 225 lots. If you can barely bench 250...you won't have so much endurance at lesser weights.

[samuse]

I've never measured up very well on those charts. I'm light-built at 144lbs.

I'm pretty fit and spend 3-5 nights a week in a gym boxing and lift weights once a week.

According to most charts, I'm pretty strong for a woman my size!

[travistheone]

pull ups and push ups are a real test. a lot of guys benching 200% can't do 3 pull ups.

[lunchbox]

pull ups and push ups are a real test. a lot of guys benching 200% can't do 3 pull ups.

+1 use your own body weight as work out, its the most "real world" work out there is. Push ups/pull ups/burpes/MTclimbers/sit ups/etc. will better prepair you for chance encounter with bad guy than benching 300 can...OH yea BTW I always had to work extra hard on keeping up speed/agility when weight building in football.Too much muscle is too slow, too slow is easy target .All this is from self defence standpoint.

[IYAAYASwarrior]

I will agree with other when they say your own body is a great "weight" to lift. Push-ups, Pull-ups, dips, sit-ups, ect. mixed with a good free weight routine can have some serious results. I like to use a more Cardio based workout to ensure I can "go the distance if I ever have to. Someone else said it already but too much muscle is no good. I'm no expert and I am sure one will chime in, but a good mix will provide you better results versus either end of the spectrum.

[WillBrink]

I'm very curious about the standards of fitness I often hear and read about. One example is your strong if you can bench press 2x your body weight, and anything less than that is unimpressive.

There are no fitness standards anywhere in mil, LE, etc that requires a 2X BW bench press I'm aware of. Few can do a true 2X BW bench press but it's not the norm.

There are many others. An example is a 200 lb man benching 400 lbs vs a 300 lb man benching 400 lbs. The total weight lifted is the same, but the strength to weight ratio is obviously higher for the 200 lb man. Does this make the smaller man stronger than the larger or does the whole strength to weight ratio go out the window as the size of the lifter increases?

Strength/weight ratio applies regardless of the weight of the person when looking at absolute strength. In strength sports (PL, SM, OL, etc) a formula is always used for strength/weight ratio to decide who is "strongest."

[Smash]

I don't think anyone here is going to have to deal with having "too much muscle"

Do you know why there is weight classes in fighting?

Does someone like Jeff Monson have too much muscle to win a fight against someone like Carlos Condit?

Mike Tyson against Andre Ward?

There aren't weight classes in real life. Bad guys aren't going to pray on the biggest guy in the room.(usually)

I'm not saying a 2X bench is everything. I know some big upper body guys that have no leg strength and therefore no base.

Just don't think all the body weight stuff is going to win you a fight against really strong people that lift heavy weights.


As for the original question:

Your answer is based on what it's applied to.

For lifting sports its going to be relative to weight.

For real life, if there is a 6'3 280lb man that benches 560 and a 5'8 220lb man that benches 440 who do you think will have an advantage hand to hand? Given training and knowledge are equal.

If these two guys were in a lifting competition the comparison would be based on other people in their own weight class.

The worlds strongest man competition has a wide range of sizes of competitors and it's about who can complete the task at hand. They don't change out the weights for farmers walk or atlas stones based on the individual.