Strength standards calculator
Updated 16 July 2026
Wondering if you are strong? A good lift depends on your bodyweight. As a rule of thumb, a bench at your bodyweight, a squat at 1.5 times bodyweight, and a deadlift at 2 times bodyweight mark a solid intermediate male lifter, with lower bars for women. Enter your numbers below to see your exact tier.
For the squat, bench and deadlift the calculator also compares you with drug tested powerlifting competitors, so you can see how you stack up against people who compete.
It covers more than twenty five lifts across barbell, dumbbell, and machine, from the big three to the overhead press, hip thrust, dumbbell bench, and leg press. Search or type a short name like ohp or rdl to pick yours. Relative strength (your lift divided by your bodyweight) is the fairest way to compare lifters of different sizes.
Enter your best set at any rep count up to 12 and we estimate your one rep max. Got a true max? Use 1 rep. See the full one rep max calculator.
Your strength tier
…
of your bodyweight
Enter your bodyweight and your best set to see where you stand.
These tiers adjust for your bodyweight but group all ages together, so anyone over 40 is doing better than the tier suggests.
| Tier | Lift needed | Your target (kg) |
|---|---|---|
| Select gender and lift to see thresholds. | ||
How to check your strength standards
- 1 Pick your gender and lift Choose your gender and search for the lift you want to rate, from the big barbell lifts to dumbbell and machine movements.
- 2 Enter your bodyweight and best set Add your bodyweight, the weight you lifted, and the reps. For a true one rep max, enter 1 rep.
- 3 Read your tier See where your lift lands from beginner to world class, adjusted for your bodyweight, plus how far you are from the next tier.
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. For the five lifts beyond the squat, bench and deadlift, the tiers follow the same conventions scaled by the well established strength relationships between lifts, for example a strict overhead press is roughly 60 percent of a bench press and a front squat roughly 85 percent of a back squat.
The tiers adjust for your bodyweight. Relative strength falls as you get heavier, so a given tier takes a higher ratio from a lighter lifter and a lower ratio from a heavier one. We hold each tier at its reference value (about 90 kg for men and 60 kg for women) and scale it with the allometric surface law, strength rising roughly with bodyweight to the two thirds power. Change your bodyweight and the thresholds move with it. Ages are still grouped together, so treat the labels generously if you are over 40.
The competition comparison applies to the three powerlifts only. It uses a 2024 peer reviewed analysis of 809,986 entries from drug tested, unequipped powerlifting meets (Lee and colleagues, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport). Among competitors aged 18 to 35, the 90th percentile relative strength is 2.83 × bodyweight for the male squat, 1.95 for bench and 3.25 for deadlift; 2.26, 1.35 and 2.66 for female lifters. Those figures describe people who compete, which is already a strong, selected group.
Ratios are computed as weight lifted divided by bodyweight, so the calculator is unit agnostic as long as both numbers use the same unit.
Common questions
What is a good bench press, squat or deadlift?
A good lift depends on your bodyweight. As a rule of thumb, a bench at your bodyweight, a squat at 1.5 times bodyweight, and a deadlift at 2 times bodyweight mark a solid intermediate male lifter; the bars are lower for women and for lighter lifters they are relatively higher. Enter your numbers above to see your exact tier for eight different lifts.
Am I strong for my bodyweight?
Relative strength, your lift divided by your bodyweight, is the fairest way to answer this because it compares lifters of different sizes on the same scale. Put your bodyweight and best lift in above and the calculator places you from beginner to world class, and for the three powerlifts shows how you compare with drug tested competitors.
Which lifts does this cover?
More than twenty five lifts across three groups. Barbell: squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, front squat, row, power clean, incline and close grip bench, Romanian and sumo deadlift, push press, hip thrust, curl, and shrug. Dumbbell: bench, shoulder press, row, curl, and goblet squat, where you enter the weight of one dumbbell. Machine and cable: leg press, lat pulldown, chest press, leg extension, seated row, and shoulder press. Start typing a name or a short form like ohp or rdl to filter.
Where do these standards come from?
The tiers are the bodyweight ratio milestones that 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. For the lifts beyond the big three they follow the same conventions scaled by the well established strength relationships between lifts. The competition benchmark is separate: it comes from a 2024 peer reviewed analysis of 809,986 drug tested powerlifting competition entries, so it exists only for the squat, bench, and deadlift and describes competitors, not the general population.
Should I use my true max or an estimate?
An estimated one rep max from a hard set of 2 to 6 reps works fine and is safer to obtain. Our one rep max calculator gives you that number, and you can bring it straight here.
Do these standards change with age?
They do in real life. Relative strength peaks between about 18 and 35 and declines gradually with age, so a 55 year old hitting intermediate numbers is doing relatively better than a 25 year old at the same ratio. This calculator uses the all ages coaching tiers; treat the labels generously if you are over 40.
Are these numbers realistic for natural lifters?
The competition benchmark comes exclusively from drug tested meets, so yes. Bear in mind competitors are a selected group: reaching their 50th percentile already puts you well ahead of the average gym member.
Strength standards by lift
Want the full table for one lift? These pages break down the standards for a single lift, from beginner to world class, for men and women.
- 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
- Barbell shrug 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
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- 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.
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