strength age
Your strength in chronological time.
Strength Age is the age your DOTS maps to on a three-age-smoothed curve of exact-age raw full-power meet-result medians — decline-anchored and Prime-capped at the smoothed peak.
result
DOTS computed with the Konertz / BVDK coefficients.
How competitive strength changes with age
LiftGauge computes raw median bodyweight-adjusted strength (DOTS) within every exact-age raw full-power meet-result bin, then smooths each published interior point with the adjacent-age raw medians. The resulting cross-sectional curve peaks at age 28 for male entries and age 23 for female entries, near 387 and 342 DOTS. It compares different observations at each age, not the same people tracked over time, and DOTS adjusts for bodyweight but not training age. The table is the smoothed curve this calculator inverts, built from 441,789 qualifying observations in the OpenPowerlifting CC0 source dump dated 2026-05-16 (latest included meet 2026-05-10). Each n is the exact current-age observation count even though the displayed DOTS blends the adjacent raw medians. Approximate n.5 ages, Wraps, DQ and DD rows are excluded; one person can contribute more than one observation. Bold rows are the per-sex smoothed peak.
| Age | Men · smoothed DOTS | Men · exact-age observations | Women · smoothed DOTS | Women · exact-age observations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 354.5 | 13,305 | 316.2 | 3,756 |
| 23 | 384.5 | 19,265 | 342.0 | 8,105 |
| 28 | 387.0 | 11,464 | 337.9 | 5,937 |
| 35 | 379.8 | 6,327 | 328.4 | 4,194 |
| 40 | 370.4 | 4,432 | 325.1 | 3,433 |
| 45 | 356.2 | 2,756 | 312.5 | 2,212 |
| 50 | 340.0 | 2,161 | 301.8 | 1,595 |
| 55 | 325.0 | 1,450 | 285.8 | 935 |
| 60 | 305.5 | 1,276 | 267.4 | 600 |
| 65 | 282.8 | 713 | 250.9 | 372 |
| 70 | 262.7 | 513 | 237.9 | 193 |
| 75 | 238.7 | 229 | 206.1 | 75 |
| 80 | 214.5 | 101 | 195.1 | 20 |
Published interior DOTS points are centered arithmetic means of the raw medians at age−1, age, and age+1; ages 18 and 80 use the two available ages. Sample sizes remain the exact-age meet-result observations in each one-year bin; one person may contribute more than one. Female ages 77–80 have fewer than 50 observations, so read the deepest tail as directional. DOTS bodyweight follows the runtime domain (men 40–210 kg; women 40–150 kg). Source: OpenPowerlifting, CC0. The DOTS coefficient itself is defined on scores; full method at /method.
frequently asked
- What is Strength Age?
- Strength Age is the age your DOTS maps to on the post-peak branch of a three-age-smoothed curve. LiftGauge first computes the raw median DOTS for each exact integer age and sex, then smooths each point with neighbouring ages. A Strength Age of 24 therefore means your DOTS matches the published smoothed curve at age 24; it is not the raw age-24 median, a typical person, or biological age.
- How is Strength Age computed?
- Your competition total and bodyweight feed a DOTS score (Konertz / BVDK 2019). LiftGauge computes the raw median DOTS at every exact integer age (18–80) per sex from 441,789 raw full-power meet-result observations. Each interior curve point is the arithmetic mean of raw medians at age−1, age, and age+1; ages 18 and 80 use a two-age mean. Approximate n.5 ages do not enter one-year bins. Strength Age is linearly interpolated between points on the post-peak smoothed branch.
- What does "Prime" mean?
- Prime is shown when your DOTS is at or above the highest point of the smoothed curve for your sex — 387.0 at male age 28 and 342.0 at female age 23 in the current dataset. At or above that point there is no decline-branch age to map onto, so the page reports Prime. Prime is the ceiling outcome, not a percentile or a claim about the strongest person.
- Why is the dataset peak so young?
- DOTS adjusts for bodyweight but not training age, and competitive raw powerlifting has grown substantially since 2015. The young smoothed peak reflects the mix of recorded results in the underlying exact-age bins, not one person's development or potential. The framing is "your DOTS mapped onto a cross-sectional smoothed curve," not "your potential."
- Is this real data?
- Yes — derived from the OpenPowerlifting public CC0 source dump dated 2026-05-16, with latest included meet 2026-05-10. It keeps exact integer ages 18–80, Raw full-power rows and the runtime DOTS bodyweight domain; it excludes approximate n.5 ages, Wraps, DQ and DD. The published file records raw exact-age medians, the three-age smoothing formula, and every age-bin observation count. One person may contribute more than one observation.
- Does Strength Age work for the older lifter?
- Yes — this is the most informative direction of the metric. A 55-year-old whose DOTS maps to the age-32 point on the smoothed curve gets Strength Age 32. Exact-age sample sizes remain substantial through ages 35–65 but are largest among younger adults. The 70+ tail thins out, especially for female observations after 75, and is clamped; treat extreme-tail readouts as directional, not precise.