What are strength standards?

Strength standards place a recorded lift within a named comparison population. Here the population is OpenPowerlifting raw meet results, split by bodyweight class and sex, because a fixed barbell load means something different for a 60 kg lifter than for a 120 kg lifter.

Who should use these standards?

Use them to ask where a result sits among raw powerlifting meet entries. They do not describe the average gym member or the general population. For an exact comparison that also includes age and equipment, use /rankings.

What does n mean in these tables?

n is the count of OpenPowerlifting meet results in a cell, not a unique-person count. Repeat competitors may contribute more than one result. Every generated bodyweight page requires at least 200 meet results.

Strength standards

How does a squat, bench press, deadlift, or total rank in raw powerlifting meets? These standards use OpenPowerlifting meet-result data. Pick a lift and bodyweight to compare the median through top 1%, in kg and lb.

Updated 2026-07-26 · OpenPowerlifting meet-result data

Standards by lift

Each lift has a full table by bodyweight and sex, then a detail page for every weight class.

One named comparison population

OpenPowerlifting raw meet results. Every standards table is calculated from recorded competition entries separated by sex and bodyweight class. These are not general-population estimates. Cell n is a meet-result count, not a unique-person count, so a competitor may contribute more than one result.

Want these tables on your own site? Embed the free standards widget — the same OpenPowerlifting data, auto-updating, with attribution built in.

Average strength by age

Exact-age medians per bodyweight class — how the recorded median moves from 18 to 70:

Is a specific lift good?

Answer the milestone questions directly — what percentile a fixed barbell is at every bodyweight:

What percentage can lift it?

These pages answer only from OpenPowerlifting raw meet-result entries, weighted by bodyweight-class entry count. They do not estimate civilian-population prevalence or the share of unique people.

FAQ

What are strength standards?: Strength standards place a recorded lift within a named comparison population. Here the population is OpenPowerlifting raw meet results, split by bodyweight class and sex, because a fixed barbell load means something different for a 60 kg lifter than for a 120 kg lifter.
Who should use these standards?: Use them to ask where a result sits among raw powerlifting meet entries. They do not describe the average gym member or the general population. For an exact comparison that also includes age and equipment, use /rankings.
What does n mean in these tables?: n is the count of OpenPowerlifting meet results in a cell, not a unique-person count. Repeat competitors may contribute more than one result. Every generated bodyweight page requires at least 200 meet results.

Figures: OpenPowerlifting (public competition meet data (CC0), dataset date 2026-05-10). Cell n is a meet-result count, not a unique-person count. Full method at /method. Check your own lift on the percentile calculator.