Strength Standards: How Strong Am I?

Strength standards by bodyweight: the median lifter

The median best raw competition squat, bench press, deadlift and total in each bodyweight class. Half of the lifters in a class are at or below these numbers. Pounds lead, with kilograms underneath. The total column is the median of full-meet totals, so it is not the sum of the three medians beside it.

Men

Women

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.

Each cell is based on at least 4,140 lifters. The pages for each lift list the number behind every row.

For every percentile of one lift, by bodyweight and by age, see the bench press standards, squat standards and deadlift standards.

Strength standards by bodyweight: the top 10%

The 90th percentile in each class: one lifter in ten is at or above these numbers.

Men

Women

How it works

Enter who to compare with, your bodyweight and your best single rep in the squat, bench press and deadlift. The calculator finds your bodyweight class and looks up the best raw competition lifts of every lifter in that class. For each lift it gives a percentile: the share of those lifters whose best is at or below yours. With all three lifts entered it adds them up and does the same for your total, against the lifters in your class who have a full-meet total.

The comparison group is 439,370 adults who have lifted raw in a sanctioned powerlifting meet. It is not a sample of people who go to the gym. Take a man who weighs 180 lb and has a 315 lb squat, a 225 lb bench press and a 405 lb deadlift: three, two and four 45 lb plates a side. Among raw meet lifters at 166 to 181 lb those lifts are the 11th percentile, the 17th percentile and the 17th percentile. That says more about who enters meets than about him.

Each percentile is read between two points of the table that are five percentiles apart, so treat it as accurate to within a few points. Add your age to see a second percentile against lifters of your age band at every bodyweight.

The formula

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

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, for each lift in each class. A lift under the 5th percentile is reported as under the 5th, and a lift at or over the 99th as 99th+.

Worked example

A man who weighs 180 lb has a 315 lb squat, a 225 lb bench press and a 405 lb deadlift.

1. 180 lb is 81.6 kg, which is in the 166 to 181 lb class (above 75 kg, up to 82.5 kg).
2. Total: 315 + 225 + 405 = 945 lb, which is 428.64 kg.
3. Among the 52,319 lifters in that class with a full-meet total, the 10th percentile is 415 kg and the 15th is 437.5 kg.
4. Percentile: 10 + 5 × (428.64 − 415) ÷ (437.5 − 415) = 13.0, so the 13th percentile.
5. The same steps for each lift give the 11th percentile for the squat, the 17th percentile for the bench press and the 17th percentile for the deadlift.

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 squat, best bench press, best deadlift and best total 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.

Meet lifts are not gym lifts

A competition lift is judged. Take the International Powerlifting Federation’s rules as the example. A squat has to go down until the top of the legs at the hip joint is lower than the top of the knees. A bench press is lowered to the chest, held motionless and pressed on the referee’s command. A deadlift is stood up with the knees locked and held until the referee says “Down”. A lifter gets three attempts at each lift, and the best good attempt counts toward the total.

If your gym maxes were done to those standards, the comparison is fair. A squat cut high, a touch-and-go bench press or a deadlift with straps is a different lift. 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.