Fitness Ratios

In “Know Your Ratios, Destroy Weaknesses”  Christian Thibaudeau writes:

In bodybuilding it’s somewhat easy since you can see which muscles are underdeveloped. But for performance guys, the best way to find out what lift(s) are weaker or lagging is through strength ratios.

You do this by comparing ideal strength levels or ratios between lifts, which is something popularized by Charles Poliquin. The ratios presented here were adapted from Poliquin’s Structural Balance material and Russian Olympic weightlifting literature, as well as analysis of the powerlifting raw world records.

For example, if you can squat 300 pounds 5 times, you should be able to front squat 255 pounds 5 times, or 85% of your squat poundage.

These ratios aren’t perfect. Different body types might have leverages that are advantageous for some lifts and disadvantageous to other lifts.

Likewise, having more experience with one movement might make it artificially elevated. Still, ratios remain a very solid measuring stick to identify weaknesses.

Here are several ratio scales that will tell you what you need to be working on. They’re great because they take guesswork, opinion, and whim out of the picture and replace them with cold, hard, sometimes-disappointing facts.

As an example, he says:

Reference Lift: Back Squat 100%
Front Squat: 85% of back squat
Clean Deadlift: 100% of back squat
Clean & Jerk: 80% of back squat
Snatch: 66% of back squat
Clean: 81.6% of back squat
Jerk: 84% of back squat
Front Squat: 85% of back squat

Interesting stuff.