So You Think You Know Strong
by Michael Boyle
It's interesting, ask a strength coach what a good bench press is for a
200 pound male and chances are you'll get a reasonable answer. Maybe
everyone won't be in agreement, but surely they'll all have an opinion.
Now, try asking a reputable strength coach what constitutes
superior single-leg strength or first-class vertical pulling strength.
Good luck finding the same level of agreement, if you get an answer at
all. It might seem like you just asked a youngster about foreign trade.
"Say what?" Last
spring and summer, I set out on a mission to answer both questions.
What are the limits of single-leg and upper back strength? If you're
going to train, you need a goal. If we're going to train for strength,
we need to know what strong actually is. The
four-minute mile is a great example of breaking down athletic barriers.
In 1957, Roger Bannister became the first to run a mile in under four
minutes. On that day, he broke a twelve-year old record. By the end of
1957, sixteen other runners had added their names to the list. It's
amazing what someone will do once they've seen what's possible. My
goal is to raise the bar on both single-leg strength and upper back
strength by telling the strength and conditioning world exactly what's strong.

Getting Stronger One Leg At a Time I've written extensively about single-leg strength in my books and articles. When I wrote Functional Training for Sports
in 2004, I thought it was great that I had athletes who could do a
one-leg squat. I was an early proponent of unilateral training and
pushed both my male and female athletes to be able to perform this
feat. However, in 2007 my thoughts began to change. I noticed
a sense of complacency among my athletes. They were just like me. They
were happy that they could do a one-leg squat with some level of
external resistance. Some were actually getting pretty strong,
routinely using 20 to 25 pound dumbbells. Initially, I thought this was
great. However, we quickly became stagnant. Part of the
problem was that over time, the dumbbells became too heavy to properly
lift into position, and the weight vests we used at the time only went
up to a whopping 20 pounds. This meant that the top weight we were
comfortably able to add was about 60 pounds. The other problem
was that we encountered the same issue many coaches encounter in
two-leg squats. As the load increased, the depth decreased. To solve
the loading problem, we purchased X-Vests. X-Vests can, in theory, be
loaded up to 80 pounds. We made up 40 and 50 pound vests.
Strap one on. To
solve the depth problem, we began to use the same method we used to
insure depth on our two-leg front squats. We placed a box behind the
athlete and asked them to touch it. The only difference is that they're
now standing on one leg. Now we could dictate depth and increase the
load. Sounds like a prescription for success. We were half right.
The "pistol type" one-leg squat. The
"pistol type" version we used initially caused low-back pain in some
athletes, particularly those with long femurs. We solved that by using
two boxes — one to stand on and one to squat to.

You've Trained, Now It's Test Time The
next thing we had to do was to actually test our athletes. Testing
isn't the same as training. In test situations, athletes compete. I
found the results rather surprising. Jay Pandolfo, assistant
captain for the New Jersey Devils, did 95 pounds for 11 reps on each
leg. Our Boston University hockey captain did 110 pounds (a 50 pound
vest with 30 pound dumbbells) for 5 reps on each leg. The average for
our hockey team was 80 pounds for 5 reps. Now
when someone asks me to give them a parameter for single-leg strength,
I can tell them that 80 pounds for 5 reps is good for a one-leg squat.
Excellent would be 5 reps with 110 pounds. The same situation
applies to upper back strength and chin-ups. If someone asks me what's
"strong" for a male, I say 135 pounds for 3 reps. If someone asks me about female athletes, I reply with 45 pounds for 3 reps.

The Strength Chart The following is a chart of what constitutes "strong" in some basic exercises for drug-free adult males:
Bench press: 1.25 to 1.5 x bodyweight (250 to 300 pounds for a 200 pound athlete)
Clean: 1.25 to 1.5 x bodyweight (same as above)
Front squat: 1.5 to 1.75 x bodyweight (300 to 350 pounds for a 200 pound athlete)
One-leg squat: 0.5 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Chin-up: 0.5 x bodyweight for a single rep Ideally,
athletes should have the same, or similar, bench press and clean
numbers. If you don't have this relationship, your athletes are
spending too much time benching and not enough time on power movements. I
also like to see the total weight for a chin-up (external load plus
bodyweight) be greater than or equal to their bench press one-rep max
(1RM). In other words, a 280 pound bench presser who weighs 180 pounds
should be able to do a chin-up with 100 pounds.

Dealing With the Relatives Another
area in which we evaluate strength is by comparing related exercises.
It's amazing how many "groove lifters" or specialists you run into.
Strength isn't about how much you can do in a particular lift that you
specialize in, but rather the ability to reflect that strength at
numerous angles. With this in mind, we developed the
following relationships. Please note that this is in many ways
old-fashioned trial and error, developed over the last decade.
Bench press = 100% (using an example of a 300 pound 1RM)
Incline bench press = 80% of bench press (or a 240 pound 1RM)
Dumbbell overhead press = 40 to 50% of bench press (or a pair of 60 to 75 pound dumbbells) Overhead
pressing really is a lost art. It's startling to see the disparity in
overhead pressing strength as it relates to bench press strength. Most
trainees are capable of much more in the overhead press, yet no one
does it anymore! With my athletes, this has been a prominent area of
emphasis over the last year.
We also use the following formula for any dumbbell variations:
Dumbbell weight = 80% of bar weight divided in half So, continuing with the 300 pound bench press example:
80% (or a 6 to 7RM) would be 240 pounds A dumbbell bench press 6RM would be 80% of 240 pounds divided in half, or 95 pounds. In other words, a 300 pound bench presser should be able to dumbbell bench press 95 pound dumbbells 6 times. For
the incline bench press, we again use our 80% rule. So to determine a
dumbbell incline bench press 6RM for a 300 pound bench presser, we take
50% of the 1RM divided in half, or 75 pounds. Another method is to
simply take 80% of the flat dumbbell bench press weight. Our
theoretical 300 pound bencher should be able to dumbbell bench press 95
pounds for 6 reps. He should also be capable of a dumbbell incline
bench press of 75 pounds for 6 reps. If we continue the trend and take
80% of 75 pounds, he should also be lifting 60 pound dumbbells in the
overhead press, as indicated above. The overhead press is
where things typically fall off. Most athletes in this day and age need
a lot of work on overhead movements. Watch most athletes overhead
press. They'll make a concerted effort to turn any overhead exercise
into an incline press. This allows the clavicular head of the pectorals
to take over for the deltoids in the pressing action. We've
actually begun to utilize seated dumbbell overhead presses to control
hip motion better in our beginners. We progress from seated, to
half-kneeling, to standing to force athletes to learn to use the
shoulders versus the chest. One tip: If you want to develop
shoulder strength, don't allow your athletes or clients to use a bench
with a back. They can sit in place on one, but leaning back isn't an
option. As soon as they lean back, they'll shift to a
clavicular/pectoral version of an incline bench press.

Taking a Hard Line on Strength Bottom
line: For athletes, strength must exist on one-leg and must be
demonstrated in more than just the bench press (sorry, Mr. Monday
bencher). The key is well-rounded strength, not an impressive
performance on a "pet" lift. Whenever I have an athlete who arrives as
a good bench presser, I immediately shift the focus to the hips and
lower body. I
tell my athletes that if you're going to do bad at one of our test
lifts, I hope it's the bench press. If you're going to be good at just
one, let's hope it's the hang clean. I'll take hip power over prone
strength any day!

About the Author
Michael Boyle is the editor of StrengthCoach.com,
a website for coaches interested in serious strength and conditioning.
In addition to speaking and writing, he owns and operates Mike Boyle
Strength and Conditioning. He's also an assistant strength and
conditioning coach at Boston University, responsible for men's ice
hockey.
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