Thread: Benchmarks/ranks for bodybuilding?

Sorry if this is a dumb question or if it's been discussed before, but what if there were benchmark chart to rank peoples progress, sort of like in kovaaks or pvp games. Has anyone made a chart like this?

Bronze, Silver, Gold, Plat, Diamond, Master Grandmaster.

Bronze/Silver would be beginner or the average person that doesn't work out much. Gold and Plat are the center cluster of the bell curve (the middle 50% of people). Grandmaster is top 1%; would include professional or competition level.

Let's say 5-7 exercises were picked. And to attain a rank, you need to be able to complete that exercise at a specific weight (with X/Y number of reps/sets and proper form). For example, benchpressing 135 is Silver, 180 is Gold, 250 is Plat, etc.

What exercises would you include for this? Benchpress, deadlift, barbell rows, squats?

Of course, a different chart would have to be made for men and women. If height is a factor, would % of bodyweight be a better metric for a chart like this? Or are there just too many factors to make a chart that could apply to everyone?

What does how much you lift, how long you've been lifting or what exercises you do have to do with bodybuilding rankings? They have competitions to determine the "best", which is all still subjective. There's also no point having a chart apply to the wide field of natural & non-natural lifters.

Originally Posted by air2fakie

What does how much you lift, how long you've been lifting or what exercises you do have to do with bodybuilding rankings?

The weight matters. How long you've been lifting doesn't necessarily matter. The choices of which exercises are totally arbitrary, but if a chart were made, it would probably the most popular exercises.

This would be moreso for tracking progress and motivation. Or it may help people assess their strong and weak points. What if someone's benchpresses are at a high percentile, but their deadlifts are low percentile?

If this were a thing, there would probably need to be 6 charts total:
Chart for typical lifters (95-99% of people) (natural)
Chart for competitive lifters (natural)
Chart for competitive lifters (non-natural).
Then multiply that by 2 for men and women.

Originally Posted by tadpole25

The weight matters. How long you've been lifting doesn't necessarily matter. The choices of which exercises are totally arbitrary, but if a chart were made, it would probably the most popular exercises.

This would be moreso for tracking progress and motivation. Or it may help people assess their strong and weak points. What if someone's benchpresses are at a high percentile, but their deadlifts are low percentile?

If this were a thing, there would probably need to be 6 charts total:
Chart for typical lifters (95-99% of people) (natural)
Chart for competitive lifters (natural)
Chart for competitive lifters (non-natural).
Then multiply that by 2 for men and women.

IMO you're talking more about a set/rep powerlifting-type chart more than bodybuilding.

For bodybuilding, only the final visual result would matter whether it's due to special vitamins, genetics, lifts, years of lifting, etc. and even if you break it out into more specialized charts.

You can build muscle through so many types of training, exercises, equipment, techniques, ROM, etc. I don't see any reason to have a chart with exercise/set/rep/form benchmarks. Maybe if you take a cut at a full chart it'll make more sense in terms of utility.

Originally Posted by TolerantLactose

The biggest cluster of people would be bronze/silver in such a hypothetical model (>90% if I had to pick a number).

It depends if we're measuring this relatively or absolutely.

In absolute terms, the vast majority of people suck. The difference between the 95th and 100th percentile is probably a way bigger gap than going from 25th to 75th. This is true in just about any sport, competition or craft.

But if we're measuring it by relative terms, it should be more of a bell curve. For example, maybe people here might consider a 150-200 lb to be below average, but for the general population it would probably be plat.