I spent years lifting weights, and I also believe that most people could deadlift 200lbs from the start. I also believe that once they learn technique, they could increase that to at least 250 without putting on any extra muscle. A big part of lifting something heavy is knowing the right way to lift and which muscles you should be using to do it.

Hell, if you can jump a few times and do two or three pushups, you've already got the muscles needed to deadlift more than your own bodyweight.

> most people

most males

Let's not forget females have approximately 75% the lower body strength that males have.

I don't remember what my starting DL max was, but I doubt I could do 200 at 18 years old. I'm only at like 265-ish now.

Fair correction, I was going off the parent's statement of males under 40.

I'm talking one rep max after warm up. A beginner would be hard pressed to rep nearly that much. My one rep max when I started was 185 and increased to over 300 within a few months. After a year I was maxing at 415, that's where I stopped going any further. I have had (and have seen) massive gains in one rep max just from learning good technique and getting your muscles used to lifting for a week.

I've had +25 lbs to 1RM simply by using reverse grip.

I posted a link to an article that shows the 50th percentile is around 180lbs for males. People always underestimate their deadlift. They don't realize they're using some of the strongest muscles in their bodies.

I think people also don't get a true 1RM on DL because they're scared of hurting something (and admittedly n00bs that aren't cautious often hurt themselves). It takes a month or two of getting comfortable with the technique before you can take your first accurate 1RM.

> I'm sort of an SS hater, but it IS a good program for people that are starting from little to no knowledge of lifting.

I'm curious, what would you replace it with and why?

SS is just very basic. It's great at getting you going but competitive athletes use more advanced programs.

I personally use college football lifting programs. These are built to get the maximum out of athletes in the span of four years and focus on building an all-around athletic strength, not just maxing out the big three lifts. Because of the nature of football, the competitiveness, and the revenue it generates, the lifting programs have to be on the cutting edge. The strength programs tend to be shared only within football circles. The teams keep meticulous track of players' maxes and are constantly tweaking their programs and collaborating with other strength and conditioning experts to get the maximum out of their players. And they actually have the data where they can compare success of last year's program with this year's with a hundred or so data points, which allows them to make faster iterations on their programs.

If you look the numbers that college football players can put up in olys and powerlifting, so many of them technically qualify for nationals in those sports. Even though lifting isn't their main focus. For example, my brother played D-I ball and had a 1,604 lb three lift total by his junior year. That's 243 lbs higher than the collegiate powerlifting qualifier for nationals (in his weight class) and he was by no means a freakish outlier for his team or conference strength-wise. Maybe only a bit above average for a lineman.

??? 180? I can't even DL close to that! I started out below 100 when I started SS.

How much do you weigh? That plays a big role. I used to lift with a friend who was 6' and weighed 120lbs. He struggled with just the bar (45lbs) initially because he had no muscle mass at all. Your average male under 40 has a decent amount of muscle.

Other than that, there's a lot to be said for a proper trainer who can help get your form right and give you motivation. I would easily lose 20lbs off my max when I was lifting with a partner who couldn't motivate me as well.

I'm 6', 160 lbs. My 1rm is definitely higher than 100 cut definitely below 200.

Yeah, from the chart I linked to, 50th percentile was around 180lbs.

But that's a 1RM, not what you're doing reps of.

A lot of it depends on your body weight. People that weigh a lot pretty much deadlift themselves all the time.

I'm 6', 160 lbs. My 1RM is definitely below 200.

Do you know what your actual 1RM is? Or have you calculated via submax?

Do you have good grip on the bar? That can also hurt your DL max as well.

Regardless, there is nothing wrong with being at a lower percentile than others when you start! My first bench max was like 65 lbs. Just keep grinding, man. :)