percentages for various lifts

Trying to get an idea of what percentages to use for some lifts

If basing of back squat

what % would a single leg squat be?

If basing off bench press

what % would push press or jerk be?

if basing off clean

what % would snatch be?

Thanks for any feedback, answers, ideas

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dave Schall on February 4, 2012 at 5:28pm

I'm not sure there is neccesarily a standard protocol of percentages for these but the #1 thing I try to keep in mind is technique dictates whatever weight is used. In other words, 40% of Squat max for one kid may not work for another kid at the same percentage. That's where our expertise as coaches comes in to play. We have to observe and make adjustments based on what we see. That said, here is what we do at our high school. I'm not saying this is the way everyone should do it, but it has worked for our kids.

1. Single Leg Squat: If you're talking about the movement off of a box or step, then body weight suffices. The technique points, are sitting back, keeping the knee over the ankle, while keeping the chest up. Work on getting deeper, while maintaining technique, each time the lift shows up in the workout. If they get really good at body weight, a 5-20 lb dumbbell may be appropriate, based on the individual kid or goup I'm working with. When we do split squats or 1 leg Bulgarian box squats, then we are in the 25-40% range of 1 RM.

2.Push Press or Push Jerk: We base our jerks and presses off our Clean maxes. We go as low as 20% and a high as 100%...again depending on the kid or group of kids.

3.Snatch: We also use our Clean max for the Snatch. Because I want the emphasis to be on speed in addition to technique, we stay in the 20-40% range.

A couple things to keep in mind from my answers are that these are high school kids; college programs may have a different approach. We have 2 levels of kids in our program based on ability levels and my answers are for what we deem an advanced level. At the beginner level, though, we don't use percentages b/c they aren't skilled enough to max yet in our core lifts (squat, clean, bench). Over about a 4 month period, as we teach the lifts, and they practice the lifts, we gradually start to test them (Bench-first, then Squat, then Clean). In the mean time, the beginner kids follow the basic 3x10/3x8/10,8,6/etc. cycle. During this time, we try to get them used to the concept and feel of Progressive Overload, in the context of an individual workout and throughout an entire lifting cycle....again keeping the focus on the technique of the movements.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Adam Blalock on February 7, 2012 at 3:34pm

Not going to get into a bunch of details as Dave said it really depends on quite a few factors like technique and experience, etc. So I'll give you some generalized numbers. 60% of clean for snatch (high level lifters are around 78-82% and females are around 82-85%). Jerk at around 80% of clean (high level guys are 100%+, Mario Martinez did 260 kg when his best C&J was 232.5 kg for example) but the jerk really is its own animal. Push press is very safe at 10% above Military Press and the push press (military and bench too) may have no relationship to a jerk whatsoever. I like testing the Press but usually program at 60% of bench (did have a kid at 75% the other day), if it is lower than that the kid has been doing way to much bench. Front Squat can be tested easily but i usually go about 80% of squat for most athletes, I know some people go much lower than this. Split squats and lunges I usually start at 65% of squat max and build up from there.

-Adam