2917: How Strong Should You Actually Be? The Numbers Finally Explained

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In this episode the guys break down exactly how strong you should actually be — covering the real strength benchmarks for men and women across bench press, squat, and deadlift from decent to good to great to advanced, why strength is one of the single best predictors of longevity and all-cause mortality, why we are in a muscle weakness epidemic, why mainstream workouts designed around sweat and soreness are terrible for building strength, why training to failure hurts more than it helps, and why focusing on 4-5 compound lifts for the first few years of training beats everything else. Sal shares the summer he met powerlifters at 15 and gained 17 pounds of lean mass, and the story of his ER doctor friend Justin who went up 40 pounds on bench in 4 weeks wondering why it felt so easy.

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0:00 - Intro

1:47 - How strong should you actually be — and why strength is the best longevity metric

2:51 - The muscle weakness epidemic — a college male today has the grip strength of a 60-year-old in 1984

3:48 - The good news — everyone can get significantly stronger with the right training

5:39 - The risk of weakness vs the risk of heavy lifting — and who this actually applies to

9:49 - Why mainstream workouts built around sweat and soreness are terrible for building strength

11:10 - The conversation Sal had with every new client for the first 30-60 days

16:36 - What the Soviets figured out that the US hadn't — scientific strength programming

17:38 - Strength programs have fewer exercises and more practice of each lift — here's why

21:07 - Why training to failure hurts your strength gains more than it helps

22:38 - Schedule your deloads — the study that showed a week completely off matched constant training

25:17 - The actual strength benchmarks — decent, good, great and advanced for men and women

26:55 - Bench press, squat and deadlift numbers for men broken down

27:22 - Bench press, squat and deadlift numbers for women broken down

28:05 - Why good is the right goal and why advanced post-40 is high risk with diminishing returns