Novice goals?

[Tim Lofton]

Hi all,

I was curious what the thoughts are on novice goals as they apply towards strength training? I understand that maintaining a linear progression and weight gains for as long as possible are fundamental, and that we probably shouldn't get too numbers focused.
What are reasonable achievements in each of the five lifts though? Squat = 2x bw, bench = 1x bw, DL = 2x bw, etc.? I know we all make gains at differing rates but what, in the short term, is a quantifiable goal that most, if not all, novices should shoot for? Not trying to make this any harder than it should be, but just trying to create marks to assess progress by. Thanks for your input and comments.

tim

[stronger]

I'm not sure that there are any useful goals for novices other than to get to intermediate. Novices don't know much about their genetic potential, and any goal they set will have to be altered as they train a month, year, five years. Secondly, they might begin to focus on weightlifting, strongman or powerlifting, or use their strength base towards a particular sport eventually, so goals might not be so easy to discern, and are transient in nature.

I'd say just focus on the goal of proper form, intense effort and good recovery. Mark milestones though. They mean a lot

[Gary Gibson]

Milestones are good way to look at them.

Squat (belt only):
1.5x bodyweight = you've been paying attention and working hard and not merely showing up.
2x bodyweight = stronger than the average bear, but you won't impress really strong people with that.
2.5x bodyweight = competitive and about where varsity athletes in power/field sports want to be.
3x bodyweight = competitive specialist in a strength or barbell sport. Some high level field sport competitors (Olympics, professional) may be at this level.

Add 0.5 to all to the squat figures for deadlifts.

Same sort of thing for the bench.
1.25x bodyweight
1.5x bodyweight
1.75 bodyweight
2 x bodyweight

This is all for men. Women will want to subtract 0.5 or so from the multipliers for all these figures.

[Dastardly]

As has been said, it is hard to set relevant goals without trying the training out for a few months to learn more about your body, genetic potential & to some extent - ability to eat!

I have been lifting for a year, a few months ago I set what I thought was very realistic expectations for what id acheive by the end of the year. To me these were base-line expectations. But as the weeks went by and I started to stall, repeatedly - I have now not even got close to achieving these.

They were simply to get 1.5xBW squat and 2xBW deadlift. But I am a long way off on both. With the understanding I now have of how much time it takes me to progress, genetic limits, recovery & eating demands I can seen it is going to take probably another 5 months to get these. The squat will definetely take the longest.

[zepled37]

I'm not sure that there are any useful goals for novices other than to get to intermediate.

Must disagree with this and I think Mark would too! Why would the goal be to get to intermediate?

The goal would be to stay a novice as long as possible! This way you can milk linear progression workout to workout which translates into much greater strength increases than an intermediate that makes progress weekly.

[stronger]

Must disagree with this and I think Mark would too! Why would the goal be to get to intermediate?

The goal would be to stay a novice as long as possible! This way you can milk linear progression workout to workout which translates into much greater strength increases than an intermediate that makes progress weekly.

but they're one in the same! If you get to intermediate, you've stayed a novice for as long as possible, and as long as necessary

[imnotbncre8ive]

Personally, I set more numerous short-term goals for my lifting numbers. For example, my goal for squat is always the next 0.10xBW from where I am. Like, If I'm at 1.5 BW, then I'll set my new goal to 1.6 BW. For press, I'm a conservative guy... I set 5-lb increment goals. Don't laugh.

Thanks for the 'strength table', Gary Gibson, I thought that was informative. I had my mind set on attaining (in multiples of BW): 1x press, 1.5x bench, 2x squat, 2.5x deadlift. I'm just aiming to be stronger than the average bear of my size, for now. Although, for my size, 'cub' would be a more appropriate word, haha.

[pbjorge12]

Since I got to 225 on the back squat, my goal has been to get the "next set of plates on."

For instance, from 225 to 245, 245 to 275, 275 to 295, and finally 295 to 315!

[Raskolnikov]

^^^I tend to do this too. But I hate seeing little plates on the bar. (Silly, I know.) 185, 205, 225, 275, 295, 315, 365, etc., etc. are the benchmarks I tend to celebrate, if only because I get to put adult sized plates on the bar.

Anyways, my goals for novice programming are two "big boy" plates for bench, 3 for squats, and 4 for deads (3x5 and 1x5, respectively). Deads seem like a long shot at this point, but bench and squat seem within the realm of possibility.

[GdMisfits]

wow, 135 for press, 225 for bench, 315 for squas, and 405 for deads would be awesome to get to while still doing SS.

I'm not even up to 225 on squats OR deads yet, and am only putting up 150 on bench, and every time I make it through a workout it seems like a miracle. I hope the gains keep coming at this pace, but it really feels like I will have to switch to weekly increases soon if I can't find a way to micro load.

How much longer do most people keep up linear progression once the last rep of the last set of every lift seems like it was barely short of failure?