It’s an interesting, and somewhat moot question?
Why do I say that, and why am I asking the question?
Well, I see a lot on social media about how much weight people (men) should be lifting.
Like a bench press, for example.
I’ve seen a few posts saying that ‘an average male should be able to lift X’.
Is that a good thing? Is it meaningful? Does it matter if you can’t?
Let me deal with those in order.
Is it a good thing? In my opinion, no, not at all. It stinks of shaming, in that if you can’t lift the ‘average’, then you are a weakling. Is that a message we want to give to people, whether they are starting out in their fitness journey, or whether they’ve been going for a while? I don’t think so. You can lift what you can lift. If you practice, you’ll get better and stronger. That’s ALL that matters.
Is it meaningful? Again, in my opinion, not at all. Who cares what the ‘average’ is? People are varied and different. Some are naturally strong, some are not. Putting a measure like an
‘average’ on something that can be varied is completely pointless. We deal with individuals, not statistics. It means nothing at all.
You can easily go to the gym and lift weights and be fit and strong and not be ‘average’.
Does it matter if you can’t? Nope. Not one bit.
It’s not about proving yourself against some arbitrary target or measure that has been decided by anyone. It only matters that you lift weights, that you do it a lot (2-3 times per week), and that you adapt and get stronger the more that you do it.
It matters for your skeleton, your muscles, your mental health, nervous system, heart, lungs- everything.
No matter how you are, you are NEVER ‘average’.
You are you, doing your thing to keep yourself as fit and strong as you can so that when you get older, you’re in a better position to deal with what age does to you.
So if you see those things or people trying to belittle you because you’re not ‘average’, then
go right ahead and ignore them.
You do what you want and need to do. For you. Not them.
Image by Cookie Studio
