What are some good weightlifting goals?

15min guy wrote:

Male, age 24, 175cm (5'9''), 66kg (145 pounds).

So I just started a gym membership to start lifting some weights in order to get faster on the track.

I can't see me deadlifting more than 50 for 5-6 reps now and I was wondering what would be some good goals for short and long term.

50 pounds? That is not too great for a guy but we are all different. With the deadift you can really improve your weights rather quickly. Your initial goal would be to improve to 135 pounds for 10 reps. It might seem like a lot now but you can get there fairly fast. 50 pounds - are you sure about that? That is like only the bar. Are you serious?

Sally Vix wrote:

15min guy wrote:

Male, age 24, 175cm (5'9''), 66kg (145 pounds).

So I just started a gym membership to start lifting some weights in order to get faster on the track.

I can't see me deadlifting more than 50 for 5-6 reps now and I was wondering what would be some good goals for short and long term.

50 pounds? That is not too great for a guy but we are all different. With the deadift you can really improve your weights rather quickly. Your initial goal would be to improve to 135 pounds for 10 reps. It might seem like a lot now but you can get there fairly fast. 50 pounds - are you sure about that? That is like only the bar. Are you serious?

Sorry, I meant 50kg or 110 pounds for 5-6 reps on the deadlift.

What would be a reasonable progress from here?

Also, I'm talking about progress in Strenght not endurance. Increasing to 10 reps wouldn't make the workout more endurance focused?

Sally Vix wrote:

15min guy wrote:

Male, age 24, 175cm (5'9''), 66kg (145 pounds).

So I just started a gym membership to start lifting some weights in order to get faster on the track.

I can't see me deadlifting more than 50 for 5-6 reps now and I was wondering what would be some good goals for short and long term.

50 pounds? That is not too great for a guy but we are all different. With the deadift you can really improve your weights rather quickly. Your initial goal would be to improve to 135 pounds for 10 reps. It might seem like a lot now but you can get there fairly fast. 50 pounds - are you sure about that? That is like only the bar. Are you serious?

Think he meant 50kg. Honeslty that is still very light though. Light to start while working on your form is a good idea but if youre reasonably fit you should have no trouble surpassing 50kg for 5-6 reps. Good starting goal is 1.5 times your body weight for 1 rep imo.

Brazilian Guy wrote:

Sally Vix wrote:

50 pounds? That is not too great for a guy but we are all different. With the deadift you can really improve your weights rather quickly. Your initial goal would be to improve to 135 pounds for 10 reps. It might seem like a lot now but you can get there fairly fast. 50 pounds - are you sure about that? That is like only the bar. Are you serious?

Sorry, I meant 50kg or 110 pounds for 5-6 reps on the deadlift.

What would be a reasonable progress from here?

Also, I'm talking about progress in Strenght not endurance. Increasing to 10 reps wouldn't make the workout more endurance focused?

Most important is to eat well. Try to consume about 150 grams in protein each day. Take 1 or 2 protein shakes daily to meet that goal.

As far as deadlifting, you are already close to 135 pounds. 5 to 8 reps is good but I always liked to do 10. Do deadlifts 3 times a week and I can see you doing 185 in just a few weeks and even 205 in a few weeks longer. You can really improve your deadlifts quickly.

Short term

Deadlift 200 pounds

Bench 120

Squat bodyweight

Long term:

Deadlift 290 or more

Bench 160 or more

Squat 1.5 times bodyweight or more

Like the last poster said eat plenty of protein, and also get a good amount of sleep every year.

paris2024hawk wrote:

Short term

Deadlift 200 pounds

Bench 120

Squat bodyweight

Long term:

Deadlift 290 or more

Bench 160 or more

Squat 1.5 times bodyweight or more

Like the last poster said eat plenty of protein, and also get a good amount of sleep every year.

It would be possible for him to work up to 290 pounds on the deadlift, but I think it would adversely affect his times on the track. Someone as light as he who can deadlift 290 pounds would just have to much weight in his glutes and hamstrings to not slow him down. Deadlifting 290 pounds is really going to increase the mass of his glutes.

Sally Vix wrote:

It would be possible for him to work up to 290 pounds on the deadlift, but I think it would adversely affect his times on the track. Someone as light as he who can deadlift 290 pounds would just have to much weight in his glutes and hamstrings to not slow him down. Deadlifting 290 pounds is really going to increase the mass of his glutes.

Strength does not equal mass, just look at olympic weightlifters for reference. There are multiple ways of building strength and hypertrophy is just one of the tools (and an inefficient one at that). We look for males to be able to:

Deadlift 2.25x BW.

Bench BW 10x.

Squat 2x BW.

Swim Bike Run wrote:

Sally Vix wrote:

It would be possible for him to work up to 290 pounds on the deadlift, but I think it would adversely affect his times on the track. Someone as light as he who can deadlift 290 pounds would just have to much weight in his glutes and hamstrings to not slow him down. Deadlifting 290 pounds is really going to increase the mass of his glutes.

Strength does not equal mass, just look at olympic weightlifters for reference. There are multiple ways of building strength and hypertrophy is just one of the tools (and an inefficient one at that). We look for males to be able to:

Deadlift 2.25x BW.

Bench BW 10x.

Squat 2x BW.

I am just speaking from personal experience. I weighed about 150 at the time and got up to about 335 deadlifting for 10 reps and my glutes were pretty massive. No way could I run like I did with smaller glutes.

Swim Bike Run wrote:

Sally Vix wrote:

It would be possible for him to work up to 290 pounds on the deadlift, but I think it would adversely affect his times on the track. Someone as light as he who can deadlift 290 pounds would just have to much weight in his glutes and hamstrings to not slow him down. Deadlifting 290 pounds is really going to increase the mass of his glutes.

Strength does not equal mass, just look at olympic weightlifters for reference. There are multiple ways of building strength and hypertrophy is just one of the tools (and an inefficient one at that). We look for males to be able to:

Deadlift 2.25x BW.

Bench BW 10x.

Squat 2x BW.

Can attest. I am same height and about 5 lbs heavier than OP and i based my numbers off where I was when I started. 290 is not a heavy deadlift by any means. It's a good deadlift target for a lighter-framed runner but it's not heavy enough that you need to pack on muscle mass to get there.

Sally Vix wrote:

I am just speaking from personal experience. I weighed about 150 at the time and got up to about 335 deadlifting for 10 reps and my glutes were pretty massive. No way could I run like I did with smaller glutes.

That's because you did 10 reps. 8-12 reps enlarge your muscles more than 3-5 reps.

The rule of thumbs is:

3-5 reps for neuromuscular stimulation.

8-12 for muscle enlargement.

15-30 reps for muscular endurance.

At OP's age, he should look at 2 x BW for squat and 2.5 x BW for deadlift as long term goals.

I wouldn't be as concerned with leg weights. Yes, you should do some but I wouldn't make it a primary focus. I would concentrate more on upper body and core strength. Work on biceps and triceps. A good goal would be to bench your weight. After achieving that, move on to 110% of your weight and reps.

Benching 225 ( 2 x 45 pound plates on each side) is a decent goal. Probably like a sub-18:00 5K.

120 lb bench press

Arnie Schwarz wrote:

I wouldn't be as concerned with leg weights. Yes, you should do some but I wouldn't make it a primary focus. I would concentrate more on upper body and core strength. Work on biceps and triceps. A good goal would be to bench your weight. After achieving that, move on to 110% of your weight and reps.

This is not great advice. Injury prevention aside, you should absolutely do “leg weights” (deadlift/squat). They will greatly enhance your ability to generate force into the ground, thus making you more powerful thus translating into improving your sprinting ability and stride length. If done correctly, they will also tax your “core” (posterior chain) as you need to flex and hold you ab/lower back muscles to brace and hold the weight. Really, they are whole body lifts, and every athlete should be doing them.

For upper body, I’d stick to bench and overhead presses, as they are multi joint lifts that work your back and “core” (to brace the weight). Although not as important as deadlifts or squats, doing these will simply just contribute to making your whole body stronger, which again, makes you a better athlete, and thus a better runner. You could maybe add rows or chin ups, but pressing is great.

I wouldn’t worry about “triceps/biceps” as mentioned above. Bigger/stronger arms aren’t very useful in running and are a waaaaaaaaaay lower priority than the lifts I discussed. Doing the presses and rows will work your arms enough. Prioritize the others I mentioned, ESPECIALLY deads and squats.

Strong Lifts 5x5.

You say you can only lift 50kg for 5-6 reps but weightlifting is similar to running in that if you told a newbie he just ran that 400m rep at mile pace he would say no way haha that’s absurd that I would be able to maintain that pace for a mile. But then in a race they somehow go faster. 50kg’s for 5-6 is quite weak and you are most likely underestimating yourself. Trust me even I often deadlift 50kg and think to myself, wtf that was so heavy there is no way my max is twice that, even though it is. If you gear up mentally for an all out effort I’m sure you could lift a lot more. As for advice, there’s already plenty of good advice here.

Forgot to add, considering I think you judgement is off, you should probably find your true 1rm to accurately follow rep schemes for various weights and stuff

Don't do conventional deadlifts. The reward isn't worth the muscle soreness you'll have days afterwords. Meaning once you start doing heavy deadlifts it's going to interfere with your running.

Instead, do a trap bar deadlift.

Also don't worry about doing back squats. Do front squats.

Now I've given you two exercises that are dummy proof. Guess what happens when you fall forward or cave your chest on a front squat? The bar rolls off your shoulders. The trap bar deadlift is also a much easier deadlift variation to learn and is much easier on your lumbar.

So....

Trap bar deadlift

Pullups

Front squat

Dips

1-2x week on your hardest running days AFTER the running workout prefer in afternoon/evening.

1mo:3x10-15

2mo: 5 x 5 @ 80% 1RM

2mo: ramp up to a set of 3 @ 90% 1RM

1mo: recovery, 3 x 5 @ 50% 1RM

Alan