Originally Posted by
Michael Wolf
OK, then I'll talk about the other reason I don't like these ratios, regardless of bodyweight factors. Same reason Rip hates his own strength standards table. Same reason we all want to roll our eyes into the next zipcode when we hear of a doctor telling a 5'10" 225 lb lifter with 15% bodyfat that he's obese at his physical. These are useful things only when looking at large populations and trying to figure out trends at that population level, but attempting to apply that data to any one individual is useless.
Since most people aren't serious weight lifters or have abnormally high levels of muscular bodyweight, the actuaries can estimate risk reasonably well for millions of people based on BMI. But that alone, applied to an individual with vastly different conditions, makes the doctor look foolish.
Any given individual's genetic potential is subject to a massive amount of variance. Trying to extrapolate goals for a specific individual based on these kinds of population level norms or averages is, to me, a gigantic waste of time. Train as a Novice for as long as you can till you're not a Novice anymore. The train as an Intermediate for as long as you can till you're not an Intermediate anymore. Then as an Advanced lifter. After five years, someone your size with world class genetics may have a 350 squat, very good genetics 250-300, above average 185-225, average maybe 150-175, below average 135ish, and a really bad set of strength genetics might not be much above 100. Those are just random estimates, but the larger point is - there is absolutely no way to know.
Even being given numbers like "you should expect to get to about X" is a waste of time to me. Even if that's the mean or the mode or the median that a coach has seen over thousands of trainees - there is still a vast swath that's done better or worse. If you can do better, aiming for the moon when you could be aiming at the stars will hold you back. If you have less potential, you'll just get frustrated by not hitting unachievable numbers that you think you're supposed to hit.
Just train intelligently and let the numbers fall where they fall.
Maybe others see things differently but I see no use at all in these types of ratios or charts as applied to any one specific individual.