Hi Jordan/Austin,
It’s been approximately 6 months since I’ve tested my 1RMs. In that time I ran Powerbuilding II and Low ISF 4-Day and enjoyed it. This week I’ve tested my 1RMs and saw what I think is decent improvement:
S: 405 lb, up 21%
B: 265 lb, up 10%
D: 450 lb, up 8%
My question is, is there any sort of guideline or thought process for what’s considered “good” improvement? I know there probably isn’t one easy answer for it and a lot of nuance and opinion, but for the future I’m curious how I should evaluate myself and my training program. For example, if I only added 5 pounds to my lifts in 6 months, that’s technically an improvement but mediocre I think for 6 months of training for someone like myself who’s still pretty novice (I’ve been training for 1.5 years). This is an easy example, but I’m unsure how to evaluate progress for when the line is a bit more blurred and when adjustments to training are warranted or not. Apologies if this has been asked before, and thanks in advance!
Nice job on the PR’s, Jacob!
To be sure, “How much progress is enough progress to call a program successful?” is a good and reasonable question to ask. I don’t have a good answer to that, as there are large amounts of intra- and inter-individual variance in how folks respond to a given exercise program. There are no reliable standards for strength gain in a given time period either, thus, any answer I give is fairly arbitrary.
If we model strength responses for a given population, it’ll look something like a bell curve. If we model all responses/adaptations, e.g. strength, hypertrophy, conditioning, health improvements, etc. some of these may correlate and some may not- though each will likely have its own bell curve. Some people will thrive, others will see minimal improvements, but most will see an average response. We just don’t know what that average is for sure.
If I had to guess, 2.5-5% in 6-months seems a bit below average for someone who is trained, but not an experienced competitive lifter- though some people will fall into this category nonetheless. 10% seems like it’d be around average, and more than that above average. I just made all those up based on my experiences with others, but I’m not confident in those numbers either.
My rule of thumb, if numbers are going up, you’re enjoying the programming, and don’t have a strong reason to shake things up based on a plateau or declining trend, I’d probably keep things the same for the most part.
-Jordan
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