Strength Standards - How Strong Are You?

Find out where you stand. Compare your squat, bench, and deadlift to thousands of real competition results from drug-tested powerlifters.

These standards are based on actual meet data—not arbitrary categories. Filter by sex, age, and bodyweight to see how you compare to lifters like you.

Compared to lifters in your weight class

Your strength level

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Stronger than
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Your lift is
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Using nearest available data due to limited sample size.
Level Standard
Level Squat Bench Deadlift Total

These standards are derived from OpenPowerlifting meet results filtered to sanctioned, drug-tested, raw, full-power (SBD) competitions. Entries marked as disqualified (DQ), doping disqualification (DD), or no-show (NS) are excluded. Each lifter is counted once using their best recorded competition performance to prevent duplicate inflation.

Age-banded standards use the lifter's recorded age when available. If recorded age is missing, the lower bound of the reported AgeClass is used. Entries without usable age data are excluded from age-based calculations.

If age is left blank, standards are calculated across all ages (still filtered by sex and bodyweight).

“Natural” refers to results recorded under a drug-tested meet category in the OpenPowerlifting dataset (Tested = Yes). This does not guarantee an individual was drug-tested or drug-free. It reflects how the meet was categorized under tested federation rules in the source dataset.

This page uses data from the OpenPowerlifting project, https://www.openpowerlifting.org.
You may download a copy of the data at https://data.openpowerlifting.org.

Dataset version: openpowerlifting-2026-02-14-f64540c5

How It Works

  • Data source: OpenPowerlifting database—hundreds of thousands of drug-tested competition results
  • Percentiles: Your lift is compared to everyone in your demographic (sex, age, bodyweight)
  • Levels: Beginner through Elite represent percentile bands within the competitive population
  • Context: These are competitors, not general gym-goers—being "intermediate" here is strong

What the Levels Mean

Beginner

Bottom 20% of tested competitors. Still learning technique and building base strength.

Novice

20th–40th percentile. Technique is solid, linear progression is working.

Intermediate

40th–60th percentile. Training requires periodization and fatigue management.

Advanced

60th–80th percentile. Years of consistent training, competing regularly.

Elite

Top 20% of drug-tested competitors. National-level strength.

FAQ

These are competition results, not gym estimates. The average competitor has trained seriously for years. "Intermediate" in this context means middle of the competitive pack—stronger than most recreational lifters.

Most strength standards online are made up or based on outdated data. This uses real competition results from OpenPowerlifting—over a million entries from drug-tested federations.

Use whatever you've actually lifted with good technique. Gym lifts and competition lifts are close for most people. If you only have rep PRs, use the 1RM calculator to estimate.

Yes. Select your age group to compare against lifters in the same range. A 50-year-old is compared to other masters lifters, not 25-year-olds in their prime.