Machine shoulder press strength standards

Updated 16 July 2026

The machine shoulder press guides the path, so the numbers sit close to a barbell press: an intermediate machine shoulder press is near 0.7 times bodyweight for men. Loads vary by machine.

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.

Calculate your exact tier

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Machine shoulder press standards as a ratio of bodyweight
Tier Men Men at 90 kg Women Women at 60 kg
Beginner Any Any Any Any
Novice 0.50× 45 kg 0.32× 19 kg
Intermediate 0.72× 65 kg 0.50× 30 kg
Advanced 0.90× 81 kg 0.68× 41 kg
Elite 1.08× 97 kg 0.86× 52 kg
World class 1.26× 113 kg 1.03× 62 kg

Standards for other lifts

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 machine shoulder press?

Around 0.7 times bodyweight is a solid intermediate machine shoulder press for men, close to a barbell overhead press, though it varies by machine.

Is the machine shoulder press easier?

A little. The machine supports the path, so most people press slightly more than a strict standing overhead press.

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