bench press 1RM calculator
Your bench press 1RM is your one-rep maximum on the bench press. Enter the heaviest set you can do — load × reps × RPE — and LiftGauge runs seven formulas (Epley, Brzycki, Lombardi, O'Conner, Wathan, Lander, Mayhew) in parallel, reports the mean and spread, and ranks your result against real OpenPowerlifting meet data. No signup, no ads, offline PWA.
Lift-specific anchor: a paused (competition-legal) bench is 7.6–8.3 % lower than touch-and-go in the same lifter — Lilly et al. 2021 (J Strength Cond Res, PMID 33541232) measured this directly in 113 adults across both sexes. Anchor from a paused top set for meet-relevant projection; touch-and-go inflates the estimate.
1RM spread
what is your bench press 1RM
Your bench press 1RM is the heaviest weight you can press for a single rep on the flat barbell bench, with hips down, both feet on the floor, and a pause-and-press if you're calling it raw and competition-legal. Touch-and-go reps are fine for training. The 1RM is a single number; what your hands and shoulders actually do under that number is everything. A grindy, slow lockout at RPE 10 is still a 1RM. A bounce off the chest with reactive flop and arched recovery is not — call that a touch-and-go single.
Because true 1RMs are stressful and rarely tested honestly, every formula on this page estimates the 1RM from a sub-maximal set. The cleanest input is 3–5 reps at RPE 8–9 on the bench — heavy enough that the percentage table is well-anchored, light enough that bar-speed didn't completely die. If you're benching with a pause every rep, mark it; the same load with touch-and-go will project a higher 1RM that won't carry over to a meet attempt.
why seven formulas, not one
Single-formula 1RM calculators hide the disagreement between estimators. LeSuer, McCormick, Mayhew, Wasserstein & Arnold (1997, J Strength Cond Res 11:211–213) tested seven 1RM equations against actual 1RM tests in trained lifters across squat, bench, and deadlift. At 5 reps the estimates spread by roughly 8–12 %; at 8 reps the spread widens further. No single formula was uniformly best — Mayhew tended high on bench, Brzycki tended low past 6 reps, Wathan handled the mid-range best on squat for the trained subjects. On the bench press this matters because picking your favorite formula picks your favorite number.
LiftGauge runs all seven (Epley, Brzycki, Lombardi, O'Conner, Wathan, Lander, Mayhew) and shows the mean ± spread. RPE-anchoring follows Tuchscherer's Reactive Training Manual (RTS Press, 2008): the bar-speed-derived %1RM table at RPE 6–10 for reps 1–12. The implied 1RM divides your top-set's actual %1RM into the load; the seven formulas agree on easy reps and diverge on hard reps. Reading the spread is reading the uncertainty.
bench press-specific notes
On the bench press, the typical limiter is the sticking-point — the position roughly 4–8 cm off the chest where the triceps haven't taken over but the pecs have already maxed out their lever arm. Single-rep failures usually happen there, not at lockout. This means rep-projected 1RMs from set-load × set-reps tend to over-estimate the bench more than the squat or deadlift, because bar-speed in the easy part of the press masks the sticking-point. If your 5-rep bench feels easy until rep 4, the formula will project a 1RM you won't actually grind out.
Practical adjustment: on bench, anchor your input from a paused set with RPE called honestly — RPE 9 means one in the tank against the sticking-point, not one in the tank against lockout. Touch-and-go can flatter the 1RM estimate by 3–6 %; pause-bench is the meet number. Stoppani 2017 (NSCA Essentials, ch. 15) notes that bench-press rep-tests overpredict the 1RM more than the other two competition lifts, which the seven-formula spread on this page captures by widening the band.
bench press percentile context
Reference cohort below is a neutral cell (raw, male, ~83 kg, all ages) for a head-line read. The full per-user cell — your sex, your bodyweight class, your age, your equipment — lives on /rankings. Source: OpenPowerlifting public meet data (CC0 license, snapshot 2026-04, ~141,000 raw-lifter records).
RPE → load for bench press
common rep ranges for bench press
NPL = number of prescribed lifts per session in this intensity zone. Range is the productive band; below it is too little volume, above it is too much. Prilepin's zones are powerlifting-anchored — they apply to the bench press with the same shape.
how to use this page
- Pick your bar weight (15 kg, 20 kg, or 45 lb) and your unit (kg or lb) using the chips above.
- Enter the load (plates only — the bar weight is added automatically), reps you completed, and the RPE you'd call honestly (6 = easy, 10 = max effort).
- Read the headline mean ± spread band, the seven individual formula estimates, the RPE → load chart for your training percentages, and your percentile vs OpenPowerlifting meet data.
- For the full meet protokoll (plate-load visual, warmup ramp, lift-toggle), open /calculator. For percentile against your sex, bodyweight class, age, and equipment, open /rankings.
FAQ
- How accurate is a bench-press 1RM calculator?
- Across the seven formulas the spread on a 5-rep set is typically 8–12 % for the bench (LeSuer et al. 1997, J Strength Cond Res 11:211–213). Bench-press projections tend to over-shoot more than squat or deadlift because bar-speed in the easy range masks the sticking-point. The mean of seven formulas is more honest than any single one.
- Touch-and-go or paused bench for the input?
- For a meet-relevant 1RM, anchor from a paused set — touch-and-go inflates the projection by 3–6 % because the chest-bounce contributes elastic energy. For a training 1RM, touch-and-go is fine but write down which one you used.
- What RPE should I input on bench?
- RPE 8–9 is the sweet spot. RPE 10 inputs project the same 1RM as the bar weight, RPE 6–7 stretches the formula too far past its anchor. RPE 9 means one paused rep in the tank against the sticking-point.
- Why does my bench 1RM estimate change so much between formulas?
- Mayhew (chosen by some 1RM calculators) tends to read high on bench past 4 reps; Brzycki tends to read low past 6 reps. Pure-linear formulas like Epley over-extend at high reps. The mean is the honest read.
- How often should I test my bench 1RM?
- For peaking blocks, every 6–8 weeks at most; for off-season strength work, every 12–16 weeks. Daily projection from training sets (this page) replaces frequent maxing — that's the entire point of an RPE-anchored 1RM estimate.
- Does this work for incline bench or close-grip?
- The formulas don't care about variation — they're rep-to-1RM curves. But the percentile lookup is competition-bench specific (flat, paused, raw). For variant lifts use the page for the implied 1RM only, not the percentile.