As I have re-started my lifting, I am learning new things every day. And the concept of dividing your lifts by body weight is eye opener. Here is why.
Say you can bench press 200 lbs, but if you weigh 300 lbs that is Meh, but if you weight 150 lbs then it is impressive. Guess what, convert it to BodyWeight numbers to get full story, and you get 200 lbs is 0.66 for the 300 lb guy and 1.33 for the 150 lb guy and the difference is clearly perceptible.
Here are few numbers I have found prevalent in other lifting subreddits. Exact numbers are less important but the general idea and ball park is.
| Level | Squats | Bench | Overhead Press | Deadlift |
| Great | 2.5 | 2 | 1 | 2.75 |
| Good | 2 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 2 |
| Decent | 1.5 | 1.25 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| STFU | 1 | 0.75 | 0.4 | 1 |
Last row is my suggestion. For the newbies, if you are not above or equal to STFU then you don't have high enough SMV to AA/AM. Only exception would be if you have a very strong game, but then I doubt you will be here on this forum.
And yes, you could add BF to it but a 12% BF with numbers lower than STFU wouldn't yield anything either. So these numbers are pretty reflective of your strength level.
TLDR: If you think you have high SMV due to lifting, then your BW lift numbers should be in at least decent range. If you are below STFU, then STFU is your best friend until you grow stronger and have muscles to show off a bit.
EDIT: As many members pointed out, the strength is not linearly associated with SMV for both muscular looks and other reasons. As /u/Gtsed_mrp said: "Lifting can give the confidence to pull it off, but you could still get your confidence elsewhere."
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