Structural Balance

Structural balance is a concept that I have been intrigued by for over 10 years. Charles Poliquin, to my knowledge, was the first to popularize this concept. His view is that there is an optimal strength ratio for multiple lifts and muscle groups of the upper and lower body. Charles Poliquin, along with Bill Starr, where the first two guys I really studied when I first started lifting. I still use many of his concepts to this day. Much like movement screening, these tests should reveal where an athlete is weak and what area he needs to bring up in order to be able to perform at his highest level. If an area is severly lacking, it is what is holding the lifter or athlete back.  He based all of the upper body tests on the 14 inch close grip bench press. Here are the ratios...
100%-Close Grip Bench Press
83%-45 degree Incline Bench Press-Medium Grip
81%-Chinups-Bodyweight + added weight
64%-Behind the Neck Press
46%-Preacher Curl with a Straight Bar
30%-Reverse Barbell Curl
9%-External Rotations-Done for 8 reps instead of max single. Search his article for a description on how to do this exercise.

When I ran the numbers on myself, I found that I was weak on preacher curl and external rotations. This wasn't suprising as I have done maybe 10 sets ever of preacher curl and haven't worked my external rotators directly in quite some time.

I know he has one for the lower body but haven't been able to find much about it. The only thing I found is that your front squat should be 85% of your back squat. I am sure that this is a high bar olympic back squat along with a full front squat.

Test yourself and see where you stand.