I’ve been lifting weights since I was 14 years old. I’ve long forgotten how it feels to be a beginner in strength training.

And I’m totally ignorant when it comes to empathizing with a woman in her 50’s trying to get in shape by lifting barbells for the first time.

Well, maybe not totally ignorant. I’m learning.

If you read my blog, you know I workout with three 50-something women. I keep playing with the workouts and the class format. We experiment with all sorts of things like eccentrics and drop sets added to the routine. For the last few months we’ve done Lift 4 on Beachbody which is a combination of hypertrophy workouts and HIIT cardio.

These women have stuck with me through all of this. Go figure.

This month, we went back to the basics of building strength: Lifting heavy, pushing limits, writing stuff down.

I say ‘back to basics’ because that’s what it is for me. For these women, however, it’s still new territory.

The exercise movements aren’t new. In fact they’re basic. What is new is that there is a focus on getting stronger. Sure, we’ll do some interval cardio and if we have time, some basic core work, but the focus is on getting our base level strength up.

Two of the keys to getting stronger are 1) tracking progress (metrics) and 2) having goals. If you’re a beginner, it is a must to track your progress. How else would you know if your exercise is making you stronger?

You don’t have to track forever. Once you have achieved your goals, you can go into “maintenance”. Maintenance means you’re just trying to keep what you have. The weights you workout with typically remain unchanged.

Many people who don’t have a good base level of strength go into maintenance mode way too early. They lift the same weights day after day. Truth is, they could lift a lot less often and still have the same result – not get any stronger. You can workout one day a week and not get any stronger, so why do it three days?

The goal should be to work to a solid base level of strength AND THEN go into maintenance.

But how strong should a woman in her 50’s be?

10 years ago I thought this was a valid question that was not answered satisfactorily in the fitness industry. Why aren’t there published standards on how strong a fit woman should be?

Remember the Presidential Fitness Awards back in High School? They had standards for how many sit-ups, push-ups, etc. a fit kid should be able to do. Why doesn’t something like this exist for adults? It would give us something to shoot for.

Back in 2006, Barb and I helped run the Tioga County Fitness Challenge. It was a competition for people throughout the county to compete in different areas such as bench press, chin-ups, shoulder press. 100 m dash and a 5K.

Armed with the data from the contests, I came up with standards for fitness for adults. They were based on how well the top finishers did. I called it my “Black Belt in Fitness” program.

Below are the standards for a 50-something year-old woman. Notice that the strength training activity is based on body-weight. For example, a very fit 140 lb woman (Black Belt Level) should be able to:

• Bench press 60% of her weight for 10 reps (84 lbs)
• Do 1 Chin-Up
• Shoulder Press 35% of her weight 8X (50 lbs or two 25 lb DB)
• Run a 100m dash under 20 sec
• Run a 5K under 33 min

(I put the weights for a 140 pound woman next to the achievement.)

You’ll notice that the achievement is based on bodyweight. There is a very good reason for this: you really aren’t fit if you’re not at a healthy body weight.

As the pandemic showed us, being overweight or obese by itself weakens our immune system. High levels of obesity are the big reason Americans didn’t fair well relative to other countries.

But if you are overweight you can still use some of the standards above. You can estimate how much you should weigh based on your bodyfat percentage and then use that weight for the standards. For instance, if you weigh 160 pounds and are an estimated 20 pounds overweight, you can use the standards for a 140 pound woman to start with.

So there you go: a new set of goals to take your workout to the next level(s)!

Ron