strength age

How competitive strength changes with age median DOTS · OpenPowerlifting raw

In raw powerlifting, the median competitor's bodyweight-adjusted strength (DOTS) peaks early — about age 28 for men and age 23 for women — then declines steadily. The median man's DOTS tops out near 389 and the median woman's near 344; by age 50 both sit below the 18-year-old cohort's median, and by 70 the median is down roughly a third from peak. This is a cross-sectional population median — different lifters at each age, not one lifter tracked over time — and DOTS adjusts for bodyweight but not training age, so the young peak is partly a population effect (younger competitive cohorts are overrepresented; see the FAQ below). The table is the exact median-DOTS-by-age curve this calculator inverts, computed from 977 010 qualifying raw full-power meet entries in the OpenPowerlifting public dataset (CC0, snapshot 2026-05-16). Bold rows are the per-sex peak.

Sample sizes are the lifters in each one-year age bin; bins under 50 lifters are flagged thin (here only female age 80, n = 44), so read the deep tail as directional. Source: OpenPowerlifting public dataset, CC0. The DOTS coefficient itself is defined and benchmarked on scores; full method at /method.

frequently asked

What is Strength Age?

Strength Age is the age of the median competitive powerlifter whose bodyweight-adjusted DOTS score matches yours. A 32-year-old with a Strength Age of 24 lifts like the typical 24-year-old in raw competition; the same total at 22 with Strength Age 38 means the same DOTS as a typical 38-year-old. Lower means stronger relative to age peers.

How is Strength Age computed?

Your competition total and bodyweight feed a DOTS score (Konertz / BVDK 2019, the de-facto raw-open standard on OpenPowerlifting). The median DOTS at every integer age (18–80) is precomputed per sex from 977,010 qualifying raw full-power meet entries in the OpenPowerlifting dump. Your Strength Age is the age on the post-peak decline branch whose median DOTS matches yours, linearly interpolated between bracketing ages.

What does "Prime" mean?

Prime is shown when your DOTS is at or above the peak median for your sex — male peak age 28, female peak age 23 in the current dataset. At or above the peak there is no decline-branch age to map onto, so the page reports Prime rather than a number that would imply you are stronger than the strongest age-cohort median. Prime is the ceiling outcome.

Why is the dataset peak so young?

DOTS adjusts for bodyweight but not training age, and competitive raw powerlifting has grown substantially since 2015 — younger cohorts are overrepresented with recent-era technique, programming, and equipment. The median competitor at 24 reflects a population effect, not an individual one. The framing is "your DOTS vs population median at every age," not "your potential."

Is this real data?

Yes — derived from the OpenPowerlifting public CC0 dump (cutoff 2026-05-16), filtered to raw equipment, full-power (squat + bench + deadlift) totals, valid sex, plausible bodyweight, ages 18–80. The ETL is published at scripts/build-strength-age-curve.mjs and the exact sample size at every age is recorded in the dataset. Age bins with fewer than 50 lifters are flagged as thin.

Does Strength Age work for the older lifter?

Yes — this is the most informative direction of the metric. A 55-year-old with the DOTS of a typical 32-year-old gets Strength Age 32. The decline curve is densest between 35 and 65 where sample sizes are largest. The 70+ tail thins out (especially female 75+) and is clamped; treat extreme tail readouts as directional, not precise.