High School Strength Standards

Coaching Lab Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Coaching
1

Jim,
In 5/3/1 Forever you outline some relative strength standards (pg 33) for male High School students. I was wondering if you have any opinions or expertise in those standards for High School women.
The numbers are (all 10 minuted tests):
Push Ups - 100
Dips - 75
Chin ups/Pull ups - 50
Hanging Leg Raises - 50

I have a co-ed strength class, and we use these numbers as our year-end goals. So far, the females have been doing fine. They have accomplished the pushups and are progressing well on the Hanging Leg Raises. The pull ups and dips are very challenging; however, this is true for both the boys and girls.
I don’t want to give them a cop out and adjust the numbers until I see what steady dedication and effort will produce. I just wondered if you or anyone else could shed some light on what I could expect from them.
Thanks.

2

seem to easy for men and too hard for girls. Ive never seen a girl crank out dips like a man.

3

I tell my students that it is a strength minimum. These are standards that they should be able to do at any time.

4

I have very little experience training females so I really have no idea. I’ve seen numerous female teams train in the HS weight room and couldn’t even venture a guess; the important thing is that you set some standard; don’t make it impossible but make it challenging.

5

You could run a test of all of the girls that you work with and set the goal to the highest score in each category.

6

FYI Dan John coached loads of girls to state champs in various sports, has a bunch of levels. His main standards posted below, also could google his q&a forum and ask him some qs there…

"My High School Standards, for Girls Varsity:

Big Silver Club (Girls)
One Arm Bench 12kg10 Right/10 left
Standing Press 70
Power Clean 95
Deadlift 205
Back Squat 135
Front Squat 95
Power Clean & Jerk 75
All done in one workout, by the way."

7

This is great! Thank you.

8

That seems like a good idea, but they are too new to strength training. The highest score would be zero if I did that.

9

My advice to you is this: right now, don’t worry about it. One of my coaching tenets is “I don’t care how much they lift.” I don’t have lifting clubs (1000lbs club or 300lbs bench press club) because the focus is NOT on how much they lift, rather that they do things correctly and make progress.

I assume these girls are athletes. So it’s not about how much they lift, rather that they learn how to lift and get stronger than they are now. So focus on having great training sessions; one day at a time. The goal is to always have a good day; solid training, solid performance, great attitude.

I never get wrapped up on what weight is on the bar, not until the kids “get it”. And even then, we don’t care what weight is on the bar. For HS athletes, it is a 4 year journey (and we are now introducing physical culture to the athletes in junior high school - thus a longer journey).

You focus on having solid days and the standards will miraculously define themselves.

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10

Thanks for your advice. I held onto the standards but introduced bands for the dips and pull ups. This gave them the confidence to attack it and allowed them to progress. I made sure to let them know that I wasn’t giving them an easy pass, but that they were developing strength using this technique. They all loved the challenge and rose to meet it.
I would love to find out what you do with the junior high. I’ve tried some things and looked for information and guidance, but there isn’t a lot of information out there.
Thanks again!