Bench Press Standards

Bench press standards for men by bodyweight

Each row of the chart is a bodyweight class and each column a percentile of the best raw competition bench press in that class. Half of the lifters in a class are at or below the median, and one in ten is at or above the 90th percentile. Pounds lead, with kilograms underneath, and the count under each class is the number of lifters behind its row.

Classes are set in kilograms and each one includes its upper limit: 166 to 181 lb is everyone above 75 kg and up to 82.5 kg. Weights are rounded to the nearest pound.

Bench press standards for women by bodyweight

The same table for women aged 18 and over. The comparison group is again women who entered powerlifting meets, not women in general.

Bench press standards by age

Here every bodyweight is counted together and lifters are grouped by their age class at the meet. A lifter who has competed in more than one age band counts once in each, with their best bench press in that band. For men the median is highest at ages 35 to 39, at 325 lb (147.5 kg). It is 220 lb (100 kg) at 16 to 17, 287 lb (130 kg) at 50 to 59 and 204 lb (92.5 kg) at 70 and over. For women it is highest at ages 24 to 34 and 35 to 39, at 138 lb (62.5 kg). It is 110 lb (50 kg) at 16 to 17, 121 lb (55 kg) at 50 to 59 and 90 lb (40.7 kg) at 70 and over.

Men

Women

The youngest and oldest bands hold far fewer lifters than the middle ones. Check the count under each age before reading much into its numbers.

How it works

Enter who to compare with, your bodyweight and your best bench press. The calculator finds your bodyweight class, looks up the best raw competition bench press of every lifter in that class, and gives the percentile of your lift: the share of those lifters whose best is at or below yours. Add your age and it does the same for your age band, with all bodyweights together.

The comparison group is 297,339 men and 121,005 women aged 18 and over with at least one raw bench press in a sanctioned meet. It is not a sample of people who go to the gym. People who enter a meet train for it, and each lifter is counted at their best, which is why a lift that stands out in a gym can sit in the lower half here.

The percentile is read between two points of the table that are five percentiles apart, so treat it as accurate to within a few points. Under the result you get a scale for your class, the class percentiles as a ladder with your max slotted in, and the distance from your max to each rung.

The formula

class       = your bodyweight class, for men or for women
percentile  = share of lifters in the class whose best
              bench press is at or below yours

between two points of the table:
percentile  = P1 + (P2 − P1) × (lift − W1) ÷ (W2 − W1)

P1, P2 = the table percentiles either side of your lift
W1, W2 = the weights at those percentiles, in kg
1 kg   = 2.20462 lb

The table holds the 5th to the 95th percentile in steps of 5, plus the 99th. A lift under the 5th percentile is reported as under the 5th, and a lift at or over the 99th as 99th+, with no guess beyond the ends of the table.

Worked example

A man who weighs 180 lb has a best bench press of 225 lb.

1. 180 lb is 81.6 kg, which is in the 166 to 181 lb class (above 75 kg, up to 82.5 kg). The class has 70,334 lifters with a raw competition bench press.
2. 225 lb is 102.06 kg. In that class the 15th percentile is 100 kg and the 20th is 105 kg.
3. Percentile: 15 + 5 × (102.06 − 100) ÷ (105 − 100) = 17.1, so the 17th percentile.
4. The class median is 276 lb (125 kg), which is 51 lb more. The top 10% starts at 347 lb (157.5 kg).

Who is in these numbers

The numbers come from the OpenPowerlifting project, an archive of powerlifting meet results that a small team of powerlifters enters by hand and releases into the public domain. This page uses the file dated 3 October 2026 (revision 199bb416), downloaded 4 October 2026. It holds 4,043,255 results, and 1,615,912 of them are counted here, from 488,916 lifters in 425 federations.

• Raw lifts only. The dataset files a result as raw when the lifter competed in a category with bare knees or knee sleeves. Categories that allow knee wraps, supportive suits or bench shirts are left out.
• Finished, sanctioned meets. Disqualified lifters, no-shows and unsanctioned meets are left out.
• One best lift per lifter. Someone who has entered twenty meets in one bodyweight class counts once in that class, with their best bench press there. Someone who has lifted in two classes, or in two age bands, counts once in each.
• Best of three attempts. A lift is the heaviest good attempt of the three a lifter gets, in any meet that includes the lift. Fourth attempts for records are not used.
• Bodyweight classes are adults. The bodyweight tables hold 439,370 lifters whose age class at the meet was 18 or over. The age tables hold all bodyweights together and start at 13.
• Tested and untested. 74% of the results counted were set in drug-tested categories and the rest in untested ones. Both are included. The dataset notes that a tested category does not mean every lifter took a test.
• Mostly recent, and worldwide. 98% of the results counted are from 2010 or later, and 41% are from meets in the United States.

Left out: results with no bodyweight or no age information, the small Mx category, and 11,543 results from World Para Powerlifting, the Paralympic bench press. That is a separate, bench-press-only sport for athletes with eligible physical impairments, and its lifters would otherwise make up much of the top of the lightest bench press classes. A cell needs at least 200 lifters to be shown, and every cell here has more.

This page uses data from the OpenPowerlifting project, openpowerlifting.org. You may download a copy of the data from its repository on GitLab. Plates & Pace is not affiliated with OpenPowerlifting or with any federation.

A meet bench press is not a gym bench press

Take the International Powerlifting Federation’s rules as the example. The bench press is paused: the lifter lowers the bar to the chest, holds it motionless, and presses only when the chief referee says “Press”. The lift ends with the elbows locked and the bar held still until the “Rack” command. A touch-and-go bench press in the gym is a different lift, so compare a paused max where you can.

Under the same rules a lifter gets three attempts at each lift, and the best good attempt counts. The numbers on this page are the best of those attempts, judged by referees on the day. The results counted come from 425 federations and their rules are not identical, which is why one rulebook is used here as the example.

Questions

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Sources

1. OpenPowerlifting. Bulk download of the full results database. Data file dated 3 October 2026 (revision 199bb416), downloaded 4 October 2026.
2. OpenPowerlifting. Documentation of the data columns: equipment, age class, bodyweight, best lifts, total and place.
3. OpenPowerlifting. Frequently asked questions: how meet results are collected, and the release of the data into the public domain.
4. International Powerlifting Federation. Technical Rulebook 2026, effective 1 March 2026: attempts and the rules of performance for the squat, bench press and deadlift.
5. International Paralympic Committee. About Para powerlifting.