Strength Ratios in Program Design: A Guide to Smarter Exercise Selection

Building strength isn’t just about lifting heavy, it’s about doing so with balance. Strength ratios offer a reference point to identify gaps between key movement patterns and muscle groups, allowing coaches and athletes to make more targeted decisions in program design.

At KILO, we don’t use strength ratios as strict rules. We use them as a strategic guide,to flag imbalances, prioritize development, and enhance performance across foundational lifts. When applied correctly, they decrease strength discrepancies, reduce injury risk, and drive more efficient gains.

This article outlines how strength ratios fit into the broader training system and how to use them to sharpen your coaching without falling into the trap of over-prescription.

What Are Strength Ratios?

Strength ratios compare performance across key compound movements to highlight asymmetries or disproportionate development. Common comparisons include:

• Back Squat vs. Deadlift
• Back Squat vs. Front Squat
• Bench Press vs. Chin-Up
• Bench Press vs. Overhead Press

These ratios act as benchmarks. When one lift significantly lags behind its counterpart, it may indicate a need to address muscular imbalances, movement inefficiencies, or overlooked training priorities.

But strength ratios don’t tell the whole story. They must be interpreted in the context of the trainee’s structure, activity demands, and training history.

Why Strength Ratios Matter

No lifter is perfectly balanced,but that’s not the goal. The goal is to ensure no major limitation is holding them back.

Strength ratios help coaches:

• Detect underdeveloped patterns

• Make informed exercise selections

• Prevent performance bottlenecks

• Reduce risk of overuse injuries

Think of them as diagnostics. They don’t solely dictate the entire program, but they help you ask better questions and make more precise adjustments.

How We Use Ratios at KILO

At KILO, we use a defined set of ratios as reference points across primary strength lifts. These ratios are informed by long-term training outcomes and biomechanical considerations,not arbitrary numbers.

Some general targets include:

• Front Squat = 85% of Back Squat

• Deadlift = 125% of Back Squat

• Overhead Press = 72% of Bench Press

• Chin-Up (bodyweight + added load) = 87% of Bench Press

These are guidelines, not rules. Everyone’s built different. The goal isn’t to fit the chart,  it’s to understand what’s working for you and what’s working against you. Athletes will naturally trend above or below these based on limb lengths, training background, and body composition.

The key is recognizing what’s expected versus what’s limiting.

Ratios in Action: From Insight to Implementation

Strength ratios become useful when they inform actual training decisions.

Let’s say an athlete has:

• A high back squat but a significantly lower front squat

• We might increase knee extension exercises that strengthen a weak link within the kinetic chain and implement targeted methods to the front squat itself to drive further adaptations.  

• Strong pressing numbers but poor chin-up strength

• We might prioritize building hanging pull work capacity by increasing chin-up volume and frequency within the microcycle to drive a faster strength response.

Ratios guide interventions, not define limitations.

Applying Ratios Across the Training Year

Strength ratios are not static. They evolve based on the training phase.

During accumulation phases:

• More time is spent addressing muscle architecture and movement rehearsal.

During intensification phases:

• Strength is expressed and tested. Motor pattern imbalances may become more apparent under load.

Between macrocycles:

• Ratios can help assess how adaptations have shifted, and what should come next.

What matters most is not hitting a perfect number, it’s moving toward more balanced performance over time.

Avoiding Misuse

While strength ratios are powerful tools, they’re easy to misuse.

• Don’t treat them as strict performance standards.
• Don’t assume that fixing a ratio guarantees better performance.
• Don’t ignore athlete individuality in pursuit of strength symmetry.

Use them as an internal audit. Let them inform your coaching decisions, not override.

Re-assess ratios within the context of movement quality, speed, and fatigue, meaning that estimated 1RM values from training data are more relevant than testing week numbers.

Ratios should enhance, not replace, your programming intuition.

Final Thoughts

Strength ratios are not the end-all tool for program design, but when applied strategically, they can enhance muscular balance and improve performance across foundational lifts.

They offer insight. They reveal opportunities. And they guide smarter exercise selection.

At KILO, strength ratios are one part of a larger system, a system built on phase-based planning, method progression, and long-term adaptation. When used within that context, they help you coach with more clarity and confidence.

For a deeper dive in the analyses and implementation of strength ratios, look into our Optimizing Strength Ratios Course.

Train with systems. Coach with clarity. Progress with purpose.