Barbell shrug strength standards
Updated 16 July 2026
The barbell shrug is a short, trap focused lift people load heavily, so an intermediate shrug sits near 1.2 times bodyweight for men. The tiny range of motion lets most people move a lot of weight.
Relative strength, your best lift divided by your bodyweight, is the fairest way to compare lifters of different sizes, so the tiers below are ratios. Open the calculator to see your exact tier adjusted for your bodyweight.
Not sure of your one rep max? Estimate it with the one rep max calculator.
| Tier | Men | Men at 90 kg | Women | Women at 60 kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | Any | Any | Any | Any |
| Novice | 0.88× | 79 kg | 0.63× | 38 kg |
| Intermediate | 1.22× | 110 kg | 0.98× | 59 kg |
| Advanced | 1.58× | 142 kg | 1.33× | 80 kg |
| Elite | 1.92× | 173 kg | 1.68× | 101 kg |
| World class | 2.28× | 205 kg | 2.03× | 122 kg |
Standards for other lifts
- Squat standards
- Bench press standards
- Deadlift standards
- Overhead press standards
- Front squat standards
- Barbell row standards
- Hip thrust standards
- Power clean standards
- Incline bench press standards
- Romanian deadlift standards
- Close grip bench press standards
- Push press standards
- Barbell curl standards
- Dumbbell bench press standards
- Dumbbell shoulder press standards
- Dumbbell row standards
- Dumbbell curl standards
- Goblet squat standards
- Leg press standards
- Lat pulldown standards
- Machine chest press standards
- Leg extension standards
- Seated cable row standards
- Machine shoulder press standards
Or open the full strength standards calculator to check any of 26 lifts, adjusted for your bodyweight.
How this is calculated
The tiers are the bodyweight ratio milestones strength coaches have used for decades, the same five level vocabulary, beginner to elite, you will see on popular strength ranking sites. They are coaching conventions, not population percentiles, and they group all ages together.
Relative strength falls as bodyweight rises, so the table above is quoted at a 90 kg reference for men and 60 kg for women. The calculator scales the same standards to your exact bodyweight, holding lighter lifters to a higher ratio and heavier lifters to a lower one. The competition benchmark, where shown, comes from a 2024 peer reviewed analysis of 809,986 drug tested powerlifting competition entries and applies to the squat, bench, and deadlift only.
Common questions
What is a good barbell shrug?
Around 1.2 times bodyweight is a solid intermediate barbell shrug for men, with strong lifters well past 1.7 times, because the range of motion is short.
Why can I shrug so much weight?
The shrug has a very short range of motion driven by the strong trapezius muscles, so the loads are high relative to full range lifts.
More free tools
- One rep max calculator Estimate your 1RM for any lift from a recent set, with Epley and Brzycki formulas.
- Heart rate zone calculator Get your five training zones from your age, with an optional resting heart rate for Karvonen zones.
- Training volume calculator Find your weekly working set target per muscle group for your experience level and goal.
- BMI calculator Get your body mass index and WHO category, with an honest note on what BMI misses for lifters.
Choosing an app?
Honest comparisons of the AI workout apps, with verified prices and trials.
- The best AI workout apps Six apps compared honestly with verified prices, trials, and who each one suits.
- Fitbod alternatives Where to go after the 2026 price rise, from AI coaches to pure trackers.
- Ionik Health vs Fitbod A planned, coached week against session by session generation, side by side.
- Ionik Health vs Hevy A coach that builds your plan against the best pure tracker, compared honestly.
- Ionik Health vs Freeletics Barbell strength coaching against home and bodyweight journeys.
- Ionik Health vs Zing Weekly programming against camera form checks, with pricing you can actually read.
- Ionik Health vs JuggernautAI A coach for any goal against deep powerlifting periodisation, and what each costs.
- Freeletics alternatives Where to go for gym and barbell strength, and monthly billing, after Freeletics.
- Best AI workout app for beginners The apps that start you off right, explain the plan, and grow with you.
- Best AI workout app for home Home and no equipment training: which apps adapt to the kit you actually own.
- Best free AI workout apps What free really means: free trackers versus free trials, compared honestly.