How good are your RAW lifts?

Thanks to Michael Taylor on powerlifting watch.

Hey guys this is Michael Taylor, I am a small time high school powerlifter. Though I am pretty excited to lift for the LSU team next year. I took the time to do a little research on the performance of other lifters so that you can visualize how well your lifts compare. The following chart is a very simple piece of work which I designed to rank men's raw and drug-free lifts.

Squat

< 1.0000 XBWT
1.0000 – 1.2499 XBWT
1.2500 – 1.4999 XBWT
Bad
1.5000 – 1.7499 XBWT
1.7500 – 1.9999 XBWT
Ok
2.0000 – 2.2499 XBWT
(2.2500 XBWT = Average Raw Squat)
2.2500 – 2.4999 XBWT
Average
2.5000 – 2.7499 XBWT
2.7500 – 2.9999 XBWT
Good
3.0000 – 3.2499 XBWT
(3.2500 XBWT = Average Elite Raw Squat)
3.2500 – 3.4999 XBWT
Excellent
3.5000 – 3.7499 XBWT
3.7500 – 4.0000 XBWT
> 4.0000 XBWT

> 5.0000 XBWT = Few people have achieved this level of strength.

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Bench Press

< .62500 XBWT
0.6250 – .74999 XBWT
0.7500 – .87499 XBWT
Bad
0.8750 – 1.1249 XBWT
1.1250 – 1.2499 XBWT
Ok
1.2500 – 1.3749 XBWT
1.3750 – 1.4999 XBWT
Average (1.5000 XBWT = Average Raw Bench Press)
1.5000 – 1.6249 XBWT
1.6250 - 1.7499 XBWT
Good
1.7500 – 1.8749 XBWT
1.8750 – 1.9999 XBWT
Excellent
2.0000 – 2.1249 XBWT
2.1250 – 2.2500 XBWT
(2.2500 XBWT = Average Elite Raw Bench Press)

> 3.0000 XBWT = Few people have achieved this level of strength.

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Deadlift

< 1.0000 XBWT
1.0000 – 1.2499 XBWT
1.2500 – 1.4999 XBWT
Bad
1.5000 – 1.7499 XBWT
1.7500 – 1.9999 XBWT
Ok
2.0000 – 2.2499 XBWT
2.2500 - 2.4999 XBWT
Average
2.5000 – 2.7499 XBWT
(2.7500 XBWT = Average Raw Deadlift)
2.7500 – 2.9999 XBWT
Good
3.0000 – 3.2499 XBWT
3.2500 – 3.4999 XBWT
Excellent
(3.5000 XBWT = Average Elite Raw Deadlift)
3.5000 – 3.7499 XBWT
3.7500 – 4.0000 XBWT
> 4.0000 XBWT

> 5.0000 XBWT = Few people have achieved this level of strength.

---------------------------------------------

Total

< 2.6250 XBWT
2.6250 – 3.2499 XBWT
3.2500 – 3.8749 XBWT
Bad
3.8750 – 4.6249 XBWT
4.6250 – 5.2499 XBWT
Ok
5.2500 – 5.8749 XBWT
5.8750 – 6.4999 XBWT
Average (6.5000 XBWT = Average Raw Total)
6.5000 – 7.1249 XBWT
7.1250 – 7.7499 XBWT
Good
7.7500 – 8.3749 XBWT
8.3750 – 8.9999 XBWT
Excellent
(9.0000 XBWT = Average Elite Raw Total)
9.6250 – 10.250 XBWT
> 10.250 XBWT

> 11.000 XBWT = Few people have achieved this level of strength.

---------------------------------------------

The squat and deadlift go up by a quarter of your bodyweight; they start off at your bodyweight and end at four times your own weight. And the higher the number, the better the lift. The bench press goes up by .125 increments and starts off at .625 times your own weight and ends at 2.25 times your own weight. The total is a sum of the corresponding numbers.

The way it works is you take what a normal person who trains can lift and place the number in the middle. You take elite lifters numbers and place them in a higher place on the chart. The next thing I did was place words to describe the lift by a common number and if the weight you lift over your weight falls in one of these places, you know the word to describe it. If you lift 1.5 times your own weight, your bench press is average, if you lift at or over 1.75 times your own weight, your bench press is good etc.

It’s very simple.

Now why such low numbers?

If you know, most totals over 9 times ones bodyweight are rare.

The average numbers are “average”

The lighter the lifter, the higher the pound for pound number and vice versa.

450 – 550 are typical elite deadlifts if you are a 114’er. Take a nice number like 4 and multiply it by 114 and you get 456. That falls between 450 and 550. These numbers come straight from the all time record books btw. Now take a SHW and you have a different story. Anything between 2.75 and 2.50 XBWT is elite. A 400 pound guy pulling 2.5 times his weight is 1000 and that is a pretty accurate number to use since most of the SHW deadlifts are in the 900’s and a 400 pound guy is pretty fat lol.

You take the average of the small guys pound for pound strength and the big guys pound for pound strength and you get a number coming out to be 3.375 XBWT. That number is what I would consider elite if a drug and equipment free 198er can pull or even squat times his own weight. Take Sam Byrd's 705 @ 210 for example. His lift is 3.36 times his own weight. The great thing about it is, the average weight of a man is 190 pounds, and the 198 pound weight class is smack in the middle of the other weight classes. This chart works like magic and it correlates so well to real life numbers.

Now the average pull is higher than the average squat and but because I know some people work differently, Like C4's 800 pound squat at 225, its 3.55 times his own weight. Becuase of this difference I came up with two new numbers. I did that becuase I thought it would more accurate to describe the strength of almost all elite lifters and their pound for pound strength. I chose 3.25 for the average raw squat and 3.5 for the average deadlift. The numbers still average out to be 3.375 so I kept as an average but placed sentences to denote the actual averages in another place on the chart. Notice that I only did that for the normal lifters only.

I did the same thing for every other lift.

The numbers make a whole lot of sense. And if you take a 3.25 XBWT squat, a 2.25 XBWT bench press and a 3.5 XBWT deadlift, you get a 9.0 XBWT total and I doubt that average can be any higher. If Sam Byrd, Tony Conyers, or Oleksander Kutcher total around the neighborhood of upper 8x or lower 9x then there is no reason to go higher. I am sure most people who pull 4.5x only specialize in deadlifts, etc. I only found midgets to be able to lift over 10 times their weight on the total.

Raw lifting is different from equipped lifting. And I think the predictability of raw Powerlifting is much simpler than equipped. The numbers are slow moving; only to be changed by a prodigy that has a little bit more than everyone else.

So that’s what that graph was for.

I hope I wasn’t too boring.

As for myself, it all started when I was 14 and I asked my father how good is a good bench press. Twenty years ago when he was my age, he was in the 148 pound weight division and had a raw bench press of over 300 pounds and that’s just over two times his own weight. I just got the hang of bench pressing and I was 110 pounds and could only do 115 when I asked him that question. Though for a skinny teenager like I was, 115 was good. So after I asked him the question, he quickly told me that from what he learned doing Powerlifting was a bench press over 1.5 times your bodyweight was good. I had the funniest look on my face because I didn’t really know what he meant. Until I realized that you take the weight you lift and divide it by your weight you get a number and the higher the number, the better the lift.

About two months after I started, I could only do 135 but I was getting closer to 1.5

And now at 18 years old I have a pretty good bench press. Its consistanty between 235 and 250 and my highest lift is 265. Pound for pound it is as good as my fathers was but is thirty or so pounds less.

Now what I did from there was to keep lifting correctly and keep eating. I gained twenty pounds and by the time I was in high school, my gym lifts were very good. My coach, Brandon Bankston, taught me the fundamentals of the sport and I owe much of what I do today to him. I learned the key to strength gains was to eat and switch your routine out often. I kept a log for when I needed it. Sometimes I ask myself what I did to get to here and I go and look and do it again. Things like that are what make me keep going.

I placed first in the 123 pound weight division that year I trained with him. I had a 650 pound total, which isn’t too bad for a skinny 14 year old.

Though from there on in I have been more dedicated to my school work and job and can’t train anywhere but home.

From the time I left the team I applied many of the concepts I learned to my training at home. I grew out of wearing equipment because I don’t benefit from them very well. I feel as if training my body to the limits with out the aid of steroids or equipment is the way to go.

So now my total is consistently between 900 and 1000, my best being 1000, and I weight about 135 pounds. Replicating these numbers next year at LSU is my only short term goal. I want to get my 7.5 x total in a meet and after that, I want to go for 8x and by my junior year, I want to go for 9x. It’s sure possible, a guy can dream right?

--Michael Taylor--