Your strength goal would be different than every other “normal” 52 year old. Much would depend on what you would like to be able to do, say in a certain period of time and your genetic’s.( We all know guys that look great without any effort). A coach would be a big help, keeping the training focused and not too dogmatic. That being said, I would opt for a basic fitness program, with ever increasing workload. it doesn’t have to be much but I think you would be suprised at the results.
I’m a BIG kettlebell fan. Start with that and following eating with something like Primal Blueprint. When you start seeing what your body can take then decided what your goal should be.
Mine was to get control of my weight, gain some strength and than take it from there. I started at 293 lbs and I am down to 227.

I’m not sure what normal is anymore! LOL We are all so unique in our body type and proclivities. Certainly, in many ways it would be easier to set a body weight or BMI goal but why stop there?I also feel that performance goals by their nature are more positive and thus healthier. Just my humble opinion.

Often, we can reverse engineer our way into a performance goal. One of my goals is to dead lift 2.5 times my body weight by age 50. I can assure you that I am built as well for powerlifting as Albert Einstein. So it is challenging but I’ve designed a long term program for success by knowing the goal and backing into it. I have a coach who is helping me. We all can use coaches no matter our own level of proficiency. Tiger Woods has a coach for goodness sakes (maybe not the best example these days) As I get closer to my goals my health gets better and better.

Maybe someone wants to get stronger and build endurance. A kettlebell and its exercises would certainly be a wonderful modality for such an ambition.

First you would need to know what you can do today and set a goal based on being realistic. I have another goal to press the 48 KG kettlebell or Beast as it is known.. My max for one rep is currently 40 kg. My periodization schedule reflects that desire. A good place to start for kettlebell strength and conditioning is an appointment with an RKC. In lieu of that you may want to look into Enter The Kettlebell.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

I hope that this helps.

It seems a lot easier to set body weight or BMI goals, activity level goals (like 10,000 steps/day), dietary goals (calorie intake or foot group intake), but how does a person decide how strong they want to be? How do you set a strength goal? What would be a strength goal for a “normal” 52 year old male?