Your Strongest Bodyweight | Carl Raghavan

[stef]

This one is going to ruffle some feathers, I’d put money on it. But here it is, for your viewing pleasure – a scatter graph designed to visually show what your ideal bodyweight should be as a lifter. Not for an ultra-marathoner, an elite rings-specialist gymnast, or a free-solo rock climber. This is for someone who takes training seriously and wants to measure all the variables that truly move the needle.

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[bucket .]

@ 5'10" and some change, the thought of adding 90ish pounds to get to 310 seems wild. That's what the guys at Olympia weigh, so I can't really argue there. But...this chart also says that Hafthor is about 110lbs above his maximum weight, which is interesting.

[irongeek]

Good article. I feel much better now about gaining 10 lbs going from 215 to about 225 at 6' tall.
The gym gains have been substantial.

[JamesFazz]

Alright already, I'll gain 10 pounds!

[Subby]

Thank you for providing comments from the haters content for the rest of the year.

[Peter Bex]

Great to finally see this in a graph, instead of target weights being quoted at people. If there's ever a new edition of the books, this should certainly go in.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to shovel some food into my mouth. I'm still stuck in the "underweight" range. Also, good to see that Carl himself also struggled to put on weight. That gives me some hope that I might break out of this stupid weight plateau.

[Daveyboy]

Does this apply to older lifters, too? Is it feasible for (say) a nearly 61 years old, 70 inches tall man who weighs 93kg to put on the 12kg needed to make the 'minimum' weight? Or is his 'peak strength' at that age so much lower that a different metric would apply?

[Cole Gorton]

Does this apply to older lifters, too? Is it feasible for (say) a nearly 61 years old, 70 inches tall man who weighs 93kg to put on the 12kg needed to make the 'minimum' weight? Or is his 'peak strength' at that age so much lower that a different metric would apply?

my guess would be the 55+ demographic would have a different chart thats not quite as aggressive as the one carl put out. i would think having extra mass complicates conditions that are more likely to aggrevate older individuals like HTN/high blood pressure, apnea, metabolic syndrome...thats with the caveat that the individual is not underweight to begin with. in other words, it helps a younger person to get stronger by gaining weight bc there are less side effects to the weight gain and more advantages to the gains in strength. an older persons risk/reward is probably skewed more conservative towards getting only as strong as possible within the constraints of maintaining a healthy body composition that doesnt induce the previously noted complications. really that goes for all people (just younger people tend to be able to handle the positive energy balance better, make more lean tissue from it, and are less at risk of complications from it) at least this is what i gather from Sully/Baker BBrX, which is the best book in print on the topic.

[Steve Cox]

Does this apply to older lifters, too? Is it feasible for (say) a nearly 61 years old, 70 inches tall man who weighs 93kg to put on the 12kg needed to make the 'minimum' weight? Or is his 'peak strength' at that age so much lower that a different metric would apply?

Being 63 going on 64, and now retired so less active on average than before, I'd be interested in this too.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I like Cole's response.