Of course you’ve heard of “Ideal Weight” and you’ve most likely used the term “Goal Weight.” Perhaps you’re even familiar with “Fighting Weight” in boxing and MMA. But how does something like “Fighting Weight” matter to us regular mortals? Good question. Glad you asked! Heh.
So why do we at Ronin Fitness of Richardson use the term “Fighting Weight” instead of “Goal Weight”?
A: It just sounds badass…we could stop there.
B: “Fighting Weight” implies a specific function. And since our training here most definitely has some “wax on, wax off” blended into our methods (surprise, surprise—more martial arts hidden in your martial arts training), it fits.
To give a little background: We use a certain weight standard to give our bodybuilding/shaping movements a point of reference. That reference is based on a PERCENTAGE (usually 65 to 75%) of the ESTIMATED 1 Rep Max standard on the Major Lifts (Bench, Deadlift, Squat, Overhead Press, 5RM Yates Row/Cheat Curl, 5RM Row, Power Clean, Weighted Pull-Up, Kettlebell Snatch). The standards for those lifts are based on relative bodyweight.
So for example, a 180-pound client should have an ESTIMATED 275-pound one-rep bench press. If he’s doing a few sets of 12, we’d have him working toward 175 to 205 pounds.
However great this key is (largely borrowed from the excellent MMA conditioning specialist Sabina Skala), it begins with the assumption that we’re working with highly conditioned athletes who are already at their perfect (sport-specific) bodyweight. Where does this leave us? We certainly can’t apply the same squat standards to a 200-pound man at 30% body fat versus one at 200 pounds and 15% body fat. The 15% guy could be left alone (although with some basic modifications, we can have him walking around at 9–10% and looking and feeling badass) and just base our lifting (and eating) standards as-is. As for the other one? We have to play some games.
For one thing, no matter how you want to look at it, 30% is overweight. The end. So it wouldn’t make sense to base his strength standards on his current weight. But what do we base his weights/target bodyweight on? This is the exact point where almost ALL of us get off on the wrong foot. This is the mental swamp of the “shoulds” and “ought tos” and “What I heard” where we more or less make wild guesses. Wolverine looks badass + Hugh Jackman weighs X = Google “the Wolverine workout” and then go fail.
I played this game for years. For most of those years, I just asked clients what they wanted and built their training around that. It worked pretty good—but I knew there was a missing piece, and it was driving me nuts. Successful or not, something felt off.
The real question was: How do we decide an ideal bodyweight that’s not based on hardcore athletes or stage-lean physique athletes? Where’s the standard for regular people who just need to be fundamentally, no-BS fit?
Then one night, it hit me when I was asleep. I was ripped out of my sleep and walked out of my house at 3 AM to find a Denny’s and write it out: Army Basic Training standards. Now, if you’ve read my bio, you know I was in the military for a few years. I don’t lead with it online—to be honest, I was a terrible soldier. Conformity wasn’t my strong suit, I guess.
But I remembered those entrance requirements—the height/weight charts and fitness tests they use to weed out anyone who couldn’t handle basic. And that’s when it clicked: The military’s standards are the ultimate “fit enough” baseline. Not elite. Not pretty. Just “can you survive training without breaking?”
The genius is in the proportions: Hit those height/weight ratios, and your body fat has to be within reasonable limits. And if it’s not? The training math still holds up. Even the protein math stays reliable (though for beginners, the line between weight loss and recomp gets blurry—the scale might not move much, but the body changes).
Click HERE for Male and Female Height/Weight Standards
Click HERE for Male and Female Pushup/Situp/2-Mile Run Standards
For my clients here at the gym, I just use an online calculator similar to THIS ONE HERE, and that usually gets us off to the races. It gives us the goal weight right away and a decent goal corridor to start shooting at. From here, we start building our diet (getting rid of 90% of the trash except for ‘cheat days,’ then establishing the ‘calorie ceiling’ and finally the ‘protein floor’—carbs and fats tend to work themselves out over time, though you should probably get used to rice and sweet potatoes in the meantime) and working on our bodyweight skills, learning those fundamental weightlifting and kettlebell skills.
The absolutely insane part is that after 10 weeks, I regularly see my “civilian” clients CRUSHING the results any Drill Sergeant can produce. This is partly because I’ve been doing this for 13 years and poured my soul into the Ronin Fitness of Richardson Method—and also because most Drill Sergeants are freakishly incompetent. Literally one level below high school PE coaches. But I digress. Heh.
What comes next?
The biggest chunk of my clients are totally happy just being at an acceptable weight with heightened physical abilities. Unlike a lot of personal trainers, I always train my clients to no longer need me after a few months. I give everyone what they need—not only training-wise but with all the information and a proven roadmap to move forward for life. It’s a huge compliment to run into a former client months or years later and see them looking great, training on their own. My job is truly done then!
However, for my maniacs who stick around and want to do more extreme things, we can start moving away from scale weight. Then, tracking exact bodyfat-to-muscle ratio (DEXA scans are crucial for this) and metrics like hip-to-waist or shoulder-to-waist ratios start to matter. Most people never need to go there, but everyone profits from using these military baselines as the beginning of their fitness journey.
“Always Forward!”
—Lex Ronin
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Want to Know More About Lex Ronin?
Check out my background, certifications, and certified fitness misadventures:
My Fitness Misadventures