18 Year Old Numbers

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
61

[quote]TY_G wrote:
I think you guys are missing the point that members of T-Nation are a self-selected group of serious lifters. Therefore, the numbers should be expected to be well above average!

As a freshman at 18, I was 6’3 275 benched 400, squatted 525 and could clean 300. [/quote]

True, but there’s also people who are limiting themselves by their own preconceived notions of what strong is. In the 50’s, the world record bench press was 336! and squat was 650!. The bench jumped to 500 in a matter of a couple of years (officially) and we had, Paul Anderson, at the very least squatting 900 for 10 reps, whatever his true max was (reportedly anywhere from 1050 to 1200!

You can believe its possible and get stronger, or you can not believe and stay where you are.

And as far as this being a special population on T-Nation, as I said before, most highschools will have 2 or maybe 3 guys in the mid to upper 400s in squat and dead and with close to 350 bench press, and around 1300 total. Multiply that by what 10,000 highschools in America and you’ve got safely 20,000 18 year olds who could total 1300+ legitimately.

62

im 17, 5’8, 155
Bench 225lbs
Squat 365lbs 6 reps
Don’t do deads any more at school but im going to do them once football is over.

63

18 right now…

Bench - 215
Squat - 360
Deadlift - hell if i knew
Incline - 200

Just found this forum not too long ago. Lookin to make major gains. I LOVE THIS SITE WITH A PASSION!

64

[quote]Marvelous_MaCaw wrote:
Yeah I am also a little confused about the numbers being put up as high school students. I go to a town high school of about 700 or so students a large number of which are farm guys. I find that usually hockey players farm boys or other athletes can usually max around 135-145 bench as a start, and people that don’t play sports can usually not even bench 100. There is only two people that have good genetics for powerlifting in my school. one of them is 5’8 275 (he doesn’t look that heavy) and without working out benches 195 the other one works out a bit i don’t know how heavy he is and he can bench around 225. These numbers i find are very very phenominal for high school students that haven’t trained a long time. The highest deadlift i’ve seen for starters was 365(the guy was on steroids and he didn’t work out, kinda bad…) and the second closest 355 from one of the two genetic gifted guys. Squats are never done correctically ever. If they are, it’s with lower than 200 pounds. Personally i’ve been working out for two years(although I have just started eating well enough to gain weight) and can put up 245 bench 395 deadlift and 225 ass to grass squat(my legs wouldn’t grow because of poor nutrition and bad genetics for it, but they’re starting now) I am probably either the strongest or second strongest guy in my entire high school

I don’t understand these 350 benches and 490 deadlifts in high school. I’m sure it happens but it just seems that it’s happening very often when looking at this forum. Maybe the form is off, maybe they are wearing equipment, who knows. The bottom line is, something is fishy![/quote]

I was thinking the exact same thing. benching 400 and squating 500+ at 17? That is extremely rare.

65

[quote]KiloSprinter wrote:
I was thinking the exact same thing. benching 400 and squating 500+ at 17? That is extremely rare.
[/quote]

Yes 400 bench 500 squat would be rare.

But 300 bench and 400 legitimate squat are common and should be more common.

Now MANY people just don’t develop that early and end up with their biggest growth spurts either from 18-22 or from say 27-32.

66

[quote]KiloSprinter wrote:
I was thinking the exact same thing. benching 400 and squating 500+ at 17? That is extremely rare.
[/quote]

Let me just add that at the HS I teach, which is medium sized and good but not overwhelming at sports (there are probably 50 similar highschools within the metro area, we have one or two kids from each class who hit a good 300-330 pound bench press by their late junior year and if they had trained for more of a powerlifting form would be 350+. Some of these guys lift in meets with shirts and one guy who I saw do 335 raw with a flat back and pretty close grip and elbows OUT big time, got 435 with a shirt.

We don’t have too many kids who actually will squat deep because the coaches change their training philosophy every damn year.

But there’s again 1-2 kids in each years class who probably decided that they were going to do deep squats, or learned what parallel really meant and are right at 405 by the end of their junior year. Other kids, just as naturally strond who don’t squat deep may struggle with 225-275.

Just for some real numbers, nothing amazing:

We had one kid who as a sophomore before his 16th birthday squatted 465 DEEP and Cleaned 255 an benched about 315, and his two older brothers had both been stronger when they had gone here. He was 6-1 260.

We had another kid who I saw struggling to squat 225 around age 15 (though he was 6-4 230) by age 16 he had 350 solid and byt 17 was doing 500. He was 275 by then but would have gotten a lot stronger if he hadn’t done wrestling and track in the football offseason.

But these two guy were just trained that they had to squat deep. You give kids the right program and we’ve got 2-3 kids from each class in the 300/400+ range for sure. Then there’s kids who are good football players who just have not developed the strength coordination by age 17 to show it with the weights.

Also, MANY freshman who don’t even play any sports hit a 300 deadlift by the end of their freshman year if they take a weights class.

67

Congrats Mert! Now, onward to 1100!

LJ

68

well i still have a couple years to go but
5’8" 170lbs
squat- 365
bench- 225
dead- 385
power clean- 205
i have a sort of ed coan build… i look about 6’ sitting down

69

I’m 25 now…I recall at 17 my lifts were:

BP 295
SQUAT (never tried)
VJ 27"
POWER CLEAN 295
POWER SNATCH 220
WEIGHT ~228-235, HEIGHT 6’5’’

In college my bests were:
BP 295
INCLINE BENCH PRESS 305 (higher than flat…I’m an oddity)
SQUAT (still don’t know…never has been very good…sub 500 for sure)
VJ 33"
HANG CLEAN 155KG (341)
POWER SNATCH 112.5KG (248)
WEIGHT ~240 (STILL 6’5")

I’m going to post this on CT thread too…since he might have some input on my question…question is this…

People with OLs that high usually have much better PLs than I do. How might one train that has this kind of background? As in…should I do similar reps/sets on BP as I do on OLs (used to…don’t do OLs anymore) What frequency as well?..OLs are pretty often during the week.

About OLs (well…variations of them) they don’t seem to die off much…hadn’t done a hang clean in over a year and just walked into my gym here in VA Beach about a month ago and was able to do 295 for 3…form wasn’t too pretty…but still can do it…interesting…PLs seem to atrophy MUCH faster.

70

[quote]gtdiscus wrote:
I’m 25 now…I recall at 17 my lifts were:

BP 295
SQUAT (never tried)
VJ 27"
POWER CLEAN 295
POWER SNATCH 220
WEIGHT ~228-235, HEIGHT 6’5’’

In college my bests were:
BP 295
INCLINE BENCH PRESS 305 (higher than flat…I’m an oddity)
SQUAT (still don’t know…never has been very good…sub 500 for sure)
VJ 33"
HANG CLEAN 155KG (341)
POWER SNATCH 112.5KG (248)
WEIGHT ~240 (STILL 6’5")

I’m going to post this on CT thread too…since he might have some input on my question…question is this…

People with OLs that high usually have much better PLs than I do. How might one train that has this kind of background? As in…should I do similar reps/sets on BP as I do on OLs (used to…don’t do OLs anymore) What frequency as well?..OLs are pretty often during the week.

About OLs (well…variations of them) they don’t seem to die off much…hadn’t done a hang clean in over a year and just walked into my gym here in VA Beach about a month ago and was able to do 295 for 3…form wasn’t too pretty…but still can do it…interesting…PLs seem to atrophy MUCH faster.[/quote]

I don’t know about being weak in the PLs for OLifting. I’ve read about guys who are good in the OLifts but not very good in the Powerlifts (especially squats) A couple guys with C@Js in the 300-340 range, but best back squats only just at 400.

Generally, these people will improve their OLifts almost immediately if they increase their strength.

Others who are way stronger in the squat, say 575 squat but still only 340 C@J.

My theory: If you are explosive, but not relatively strong (like the numbers you’ve indicated) then train for maximal strength in paused movements, such as sets of 2-3 near rock bottom squats with a 2-3 second pause, but NOT paused and slack, you should be supporting the weight with your leg muscles at the bottom maybe an inch above total rock bottom.

And bent over and arched back goodmornings with a static hold.

71

I think with all you guys at 18 putting good numbers on the BP, Squat and DL like 300 and 400 or even 400 and 500. We should be looking at a few record holders now that the years have gone by? What happened?

72

[quote]one2njoy wrote:
I think with all you guys at 18 putting good numbers on the BP, Squat and DL like 300 and 400 or even 400 and 500. We should be looking at a few record holders now that the years have gone by? What happened?[/quote]

To make that statement you make the assumption that there is a steady progression in lift numbers comparable to other athletic endeavours. Not quite. Few things to consider (some of which has been brought up already).

  1. While teens performing such numbers are in the minority, this site is likely to draw specifically that minority because of the information here.

  2. Kids are starting to lift younger and younger these days. I started lifting at 15, with our assistant coach who, as I now realize how lucky I am, happend to be a former competitive powerlifter and oly lifter. I learned good technique at a younger age and more kids are starting to follow that trend.

  3. High school athletics are becoming more and more competitive. Baseball players being drafted at 16, Basketball players going right from highschool. Last year SI had a “Sign of the Apocolypse” caption that some major basketball magazines rated the best 6th graders in the country. 6th graders! High school isn’t about playing friday night and then driving your cheerleader gf to the drive thru in hopes of nookie. It’s playing friday night, watching film sat, get back to lifting on sunday, practice lifting, and putting your high light tape together monday and repeating until thursday.

  4. When you were 18 ( I don’t know how old you are, but for those who are older now) Did you have access to the best powerlifters in the world at your finger tips? Could you sit down and read up on GVT, or the West-Side method? Depending on how old you are probably not. Hell for some of you guys those workouts didn’t even exist then.

  5. I drink Whey Hydroslate for my PWO, ZMA at night, Micellar Casein thru out the day, HOT-ROX when I want to lose fat… Anybody remember the sound nutrition advice of football coaches past? Son if you want to gain wieght eat alot of steak and drink alot of milkshakes. Not saying that that didn’t work to a degree, but a McDonalds milkshake doesn’t quite have to same nutritional value as 2 scoops of Surge (god how I wish it did.)

  6. Everyone is good at sports now, scouts and college coaches aren’t just looking for great players, they want great players who are also great athletes. This is why the 40 yard dash is over emphasized, or the Vertical leap. This also explains why kids begin training for these testing benchmarks at a younger age. The age old high school locker room question has transformed from “Yo, how much you bench” it’s now “Hey, where’d you end up signing?”. Kids are now taking extra years in prep school, or mom and dad are holding them back in 8th grade, just to get one more year of preperation in hopes of getting a scholarship.

  7. Steroids are accessible to more kids. It’s the truth.

  8. Well those records have been going up year after year. Remember when 800 was the magical number, and within a short period we’ve gone Gene benching a grand? Besides, not all 18’s who bench alot now plan on going into PLing, some just want to get strong for their sport.

Combine all of these things, and it’s much easier to see how 18 year olds are throwing up these numbers. Think about how Mertdawg isn’t phased by these numbers, he’s a teacher and I’m willing to bet he’s seen this progression from back when he was an 18 year old to now.

73

2 months before my 18th I was at the following Nov 02 (~3.5 yrs lifting):
5’9 185 lbs
285 bench (raw)
245 Clean and Press (belt)
475 Squat (belt, trust me, it was past para)
525 Dead (belt, and cheated with wraps then)

Broke my ankle and tore 4 ligaments wrestling didnt squat or dead for a year after surgery, played baseball 3.5 months after however.

Now, at 20 finally back in the game without pain. These numbers are from the first week of June 05, I’ve slacked on the heavy lifting due to baseball since, just hitting the Clean portion and Mixed Squats and light accesories 3x a week between games, and no benching.

5’11 186 lbs (today 194)
335 Bench (Inzer HpHd 48 single ply)
275 C&P (belt)
475 Squat (finally too a while to get this back 2m wraps and belt)
515 Dead (Only Chalk and belt)

Can’t wait for that 400 bench and 500 squat. I want to do that by Jan 06 all natural(I have my doubts). Startinng up for the quest in a few weeks.

74

[quote]one2njoy wrote:
I think with all you guys at 18 putting good numbers on the BP, Squat and DL like 300 and 400 or even 400 and 500. We should be looking at a few record holders now that the years have gone by? What happened?[/quote]

Again, I was no where near those numbers in highschool, or even by my mid 20s even though I lifted regularly.

Some kids just come in to highschool physically much more as adults. They will respond to weights very early but if they don’t have a well informed plan or desire they often stall.

In my case, I never could have benched 225 in highschool even if I had trained right. Even though I wasn’t growing taller, my natural physical coordination was very immature and started to come along over the course of my 20s.

As an example, in highschool, I could do a leg extension on the machine with a 170 pound stack with one leg and get 10 reps with the stack with both legs, but I could not squat 225 to parallel.

Now, some of it is that I didn’t really get in to sports at a young age. I “played” baseball, and basketeball (for a few minutes) but I didn’t really know what my body was doing.

Now, I was not physically a slow developer. I was the first guy in my class to hit puberty (start of 6th grade).

I think that kids need to play lots of sports to develop coordination. Kids are coming in to 9th grade, physically ready to start building strength now. In the 80s, they came in and needed a year or two just to learn how to move.

IN OTHER WORDS, a lot of these kids who squat 500 in highschool, (and that’s again still not common, you might see one every 3 years in a typical highschool) just hit the same plateaus at 17 that I’m now trying to work through at 34. If they don’t train right, they will be squatting 500 or less ten years down the line even if they lift. Its not a greater natural ability to get strong, its just an EARLIER natural ability to get strong.

75

I am 19 right now at 5’10 180lbs

Bench: 345
Squat: 450
Dead: 445

I am started doing a west side based program and the numbers really shot up…if only I had started earlier :frowning:

76

I just turned 19 , hockey player 5"10 205 lbs

Bench: 405
Deadlift: 405 (no straps)
Squat: 495
DB sholderpress : 100 lbs dumbells

77

I just turned 15, so I have a few more years until 18, but I’ll post anyway. I have been training seriously for just under a year, and here are my stats:
Bench- 215, after 4 work sets
Squat- 315, after 8 work sets
DL- Don’t max, most ever- 295 for 3 reps
I weigh roughly 180 lbs and about 12-14 percent body fat. I am training for my sport of wrestling.

-CJ

78

damn I’m late, my numbers are the following, 365 squat 230 bench press and a 430 deadlift @220 and 16 years old. hoping to total around 2,000 raw @220 and in my early 20s.

79

I think those are some pretty awesome numbers for 18 OP. It’s probably been said, but lifting x weight at x age doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Keep progressing and doing what you need to and you’ll be strong for any age.

Just for laughs: At 18 6’0" 145lbs my best lifts were 295/205/395 in the gym and 286/176/430 (with a deadlift bar) in a meet. I’m still laughing at my bench that meet. Haha

Edit: Just realized this post is a decade old. lol…

80

So basically you’re an average lifter right now, and your goal is to be one of the greatest lifters ever in your weight class in about 5 years, and at the same bodyweight you are now. I can’t accuse you of setting the bar too low here…