Strength Calculator – How Strong Are You for Your Bodyweight?
A 100 kg bench press means one thing on a 60 kg frame and something else entirely on a 110 kg frame. This calculator grades your squat, bench press, deadlift and overhead press against the published bodyweight-ratio strength standards — your level on each lift, the exact weight of your next standard, and one honest overall score built from a formula printed in full below.
Your numbers
Bench press
Squat
Deadlift
Overhead press
🔒 Private by design: the whole calculation runs in this page. Your numbers are never sent anywhere.
Your strength profile
Across your four lifts you average 72.3% of the elite bodyweight standard for each lift. Your median lift level is Intermediate.
Overall level: IntermediateIntermediate overall — a trained lifter’s profile
Your bench press is your strongest lift relative to its elite standard, at 83% of the elite ratio. Your squat and overhead press are tied at the bottom relative to their standards — the clearest headroom in your profile. One level rarely tells the whole story, though: the four ladders are scaled differently on purpose, because the lifts use very different amounts of muscle.
Standards source: the bodyweight-ratio tables published across the strength literature — the consensus picture, not one federation’s rulebook. Coaches and federations grade the same lifts slightly differently, and the assumptions box below shows exactly how this page reads the table.
- Every standard is a multiple of bodyweight, and the sex you pick selects the table — the same barbell is a novice lift on one body and an advanced lift on another.
- A hard set converts with Epley (weight × (1 + reps ÷ 30)), and a lift left blank is marked not tested — it never drags your score down.
- Chase level parity, not ratio parity: the default bench (1.25) is strongest relative to its elite standard while squat and press sit at the bottom — ratios across lifts are not comparable because the ladders are scaled differently.
- The standards, in the open — with your rungs lit up
- How your strength grade is worked out, in three steps
- The formulas, and every assumption in the open
- Going deeper
- What bodyweight does to the same barbell
- Sets instead of singles: the Epley conversion
- The women’s ladders, in the open
- Chase level parity, not ratio parity
- Testing strength: what a one-rep max is, and how it is estimated
- Relative strength: bodyweight multiples, and what they mean
- Frequently asked questions
The standards, in the open — with your rungs lit up
These are bodyweight-ratio standards — the consensus of published strength-standard tables. Federations, coaches and weight classes carve the same territory slightly differently, and no single table owns the truth, so this page shows its numbers instead of hiding them. Your level on each lift is the highest standard whose threshold your ratio meets — meeting a threshold exactly counts. The kilo figures are the thresholds at your current bodyweight, and they move when it does.
| Standard | Bench press | Squat | Deadlift | Overhead press |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Untrained | 0.50 ×BW · 40 kg | 0.75 ×BW · 60 kg | 1.00 ×BW · 80 kg | 0.35 ×BW · 28 kg |
| Novice | 0.75 ×BW · 60 kg | 1.00 ×BW · 80 kg | 1.25 ×BW · 100 kg | 0.50 ×BW · 40 kg |
| Intermediate | 1.00 ×BW · 80 kg | 1.50 ×BW · 120 kg | 1.75 ×BW · 140 kg | 0.70 ×BW · 56 kg |
| Advanced | 1.25 ×BW · 100 kg | 2.00 ×BW · 160 kg | 2.25 ×BW · 180 kg | 0.90 ×BW · 72 kg |
| Elite | 1.50 ×BW · 120 kg | 2.25 ×BW · 180 kg | 2.75 ×BW · 220 kg | 1.05 ×BW · 84 kg |
The small ticks on each lift’s bar above sit at exactly these thresholds, and the bar runs from zero to that lift’s elite standard. Notice the ladders are not parallel: the deadlift’s standards are the highest multiples of bodyweight and the overhead press’s are the lowest, because the lifts involve very different amounts of muscle and leverage. That is by design in every published table — compare each lift to its own ladder, never to its neighbours.
Keep exploring
How your strength grade is worked out, in three steps
Start with bodyweight
Every standard on this page is a multiple of your bodyweight, and the sex you pick selects the table. The same barbell can be a novice lift on one body and an advanced lift on another — bodyweight is what decides.
Enter each lift’s best
Give a true one-rep max if you know it, or a hard set instead: weight times reps, converted to an estimated max with the Epley formula. Leave a lift blank and it is simply marked not tested — it never drags your score down.
Read the ladder
Each lift gets its ratio, its level, a progress bar across its standards, and the exact weight of the next rung. Your overall score and median level then summarise the four ladders in one line.
The formulas, and every assumption in the open
Here is the default example on this page, worked in full — an 80 kg man with a 100 kg bench, a 120 kg squat, a 160 kg deadlift and a 56 kg press:
| Lift | Best | Ratio (÷ 80 kg) | Level | Next standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bench press | 100 kg | 1.25 | Advanced | Elite at 120 kg |
| Squat | 120 kg | 1.50 | Intermediate | Advanced at 160 kg |
| Deadlift | 160 kg | 2.00 | Intermediate | Advanced at 180 kg |
| Overhead press | 56 kg | 0.70 | Intermediate | Advanced at 72 kg |
His score: (1.25 ÷ 1.50 + 1.50 ÷ 2.25 + 2.00 ÷ 2.75 + 0.70 ÷ 1.05) ÷ 4 × 100 = 72.3 — on average he stands at 72.3% of the elite ratio for each lift. His four levels are Advanced, Intermediate, Intermediate and Intermediate, so his median level — the overall level this page reports — is Intermediate.
Why your four ratios should not match
New lifters often look at a 2.00 deadlift ratio next to a 0.70 press ratio and conclude their shoulders are broken. They are not — they are reading four different ladders as if they were one. The deadlift recruits the most muscle of any standard lift and starts from a mechanically strong position, so every published table sets its standards highest. The strict overhead press uses the smallest muscle groups in the list and fights gravity through the longest path, so its standards sit lowest. A balanced, well-trained lifter has uneven ratios and even levels. Chase level parity, not ratio parity.
Assumptions, printed rather than buried
- The level rule: your level is the highest standard whose threshold your ratio meets or beats — meeting a threshold exactly earns the level (a 1.25 bench at 80 kg is Advanced, not nearly-Advanced). Below the first threshold you are classed Untrained, with that first threshold shown as your next target.
- The score is this page’s yardstick, not a federation ranking. It averages how close each tested lift sits to its elite standard, so 100 means elite-level ratios across the board. Competitive powerlifting instead ranks totals inside weight classes with formulas like Wilks or DOTS — a different tool for a different question.
- The overall level is the median of your tested lifts — the middle level when they are lined up, or the lower of the two middle levels when an even number of lifts splits them. One spectacular lift cannot carry the grade, and one weak lift cannot sink it.
- Estimated maxes are estimates. The Epley formula (1985) converts a hard set into a one-rep max and is most trustworthy under about 10 reps; beyond that it tends to flatter. A set of exactly 1 rep is counted as the weight itself — a single you actually lifted is a max by definition, not a formula’s business.
- Enter honest, current bests with clean form. A squat that stopped above parallel, a bench bounced off the chest, or a deadlift hitched up the thighs will grade you against standards set by stricter lifts. The calculator cannot see your form — your honesty is the input.
- Ratios move when bodyweight moves. Gain 5 kg without adding a kilo to the bar and every ratio drops. That is the standard working as intended: strength sports have weight classes for exactly this reason.
Going deeper
Strength standards feel like they should be carved in stone, but every published table is a snapshot of a particular population seen through a particular coach’s eyes. The ExRx standards were built largely from competitive lifting results. The Kilgore and Rippetoe tables came from decades of coaching novices in Texas gyms. StrengthLevel’s numbers are crowdsourced from millions of logged lifts by self-selected gym-goers. Ask three different rooms full of lifters what they can do, and you get three different answers to “what is intermediate?”
The disagreements are real but smaller than they look. Nearly every table agrees on the shape of the thing: the deadlift ladder sits highest, then the squat, then the bench, then the press; each level roughly doubles the training age of the one before; and the jump from intermediate to advanced is where progress slows from months to years. This page’s table is the consensus picture across those sources, expressed as clean bodyweight ratios so you can see every rung. Treat your level as a well-informed opinion about where you stand — because that is what every standard, ours included, actually is.
A tested one-rep max is a fact about one day: the heaviest single you stood up with, under gym conditions, on that morning’s sleep and breakfast. An estimated max from a set — Epley, Brzycki and their cousins — is a model of that fact, built on the observation that the reps you can grind out at a given percentage of your max fall in a fairly predictable curve. For sets of about 2 to 10 reps the models are good: typically within a few percent for experienced lifters whose technique holds together under fatigue.
Past 10 reps the curve flattens and individual differences take over — muscular endurance, fibre type, and plain willingness to suffer start to matter more than maximal strength, and the formulas drift optimistic. Two practical consequences for your grade here. First, feed this calculator sets of 8 or fewer when you can, and treat a grade built on a 20-rep set as approximate. Second, an estimated max and a tested max can straddle a standard boundary in either direction; sitting within a kilo or two of a threshold means the honest answer is “right at the line”, whatever the page prints. Test a true single rarely, with a spotter or safety arms, when the number actually matters.
What bodyweight does to the same barbell
Every standard on this page is a multiple of bodyweight, so the same four lifts earn different grades on different bodies. Hold the lifts at the defaults — a 100 kg bench, a 120 kg squat, a 160 kg deadlift and a 56 kg press — and change only the bodyweight. Every figure below was produced by the calculator itself.
| Bodyweight | Bench ratio / level | Squat ratio / level | Deadlift ratio / level | Press ratio / level | Score / overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 kg | 1.67 / Elite | 2.00 / Advanced | 2.67 / Advanced | 0.93 / Advanced | 96.5 / Advanced |
| 80 kg | 1.25 / Advanced | 1.50 / Intermediate | 2.00 / Intermediate | 0.70 / Intermediate | 72.3 / Intermediate |
| 100 kg | 1.00 / Intermediate | 1.20 / Novice | 1.60 / Novice | 0.56 / Novice | 57.9 / Novice |
The 60 kg row is the cautionary tale in reverse: nothing got stronger, yet the grade jumps from Intermediate to Advanced, because every ratio rose by a quarter when the denominator fell. The 100 kg row is the one most lifters actually meet: twenty kilograms of bodyweight gained without any added strength drops the score from 72.3 to 57.9 and the overall level from Intermediate to Novice, with the squat, deadlift and press all falling to Novice. That does not mean the lifter got weaker in any absolute sense — the barbell did not get lighter to lift. It means the grade measures strength relative to bodyweight, and bodyweight is half the grade. If you gained the twenty kilograms as muscle, your lifts should have risen with it; if they did not, the table is telling you the gain was not strength. Either way, compare grades only at the same bodyweight, and re-enter your weight whenever it changes by more than a kilo or two, because the kilo figures for every threshold move with it.
Sets instead of singles: the Epley conversion
If you do not know a one-rep max, any lift can be switched to weight times reps, and the calculator converts the set with the Epley formula: estimated 1RM equals weight times (1 plus reps divided by 30). On the default bench of 100 kg, the conversion table runs like this, with the 5-rep row produced by the calculator itself:
| Set (bench) | Epley working | Estimated 1RM | Ratio at 80 kg | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 kg × 3 reps | 100 × 1.10 | 110.0 kg | 1.38 | Advanced |
| 100 kg × 5 reps | 100 × 1.17 | 116.7 kg | 1.46 | Advanced |
| 100 kg × 8 reps | 100 × 1.27 | 126.7 kg | 1.58 | Elite |
| 100 kg × 10 reps | 100 × 1.33 | 133.3 kg | 1.67 | Elite |
Two warnings belong with the table. First, the conversion is a model, not a measurement: for sets of about 2 to 10 reps it is typically within a few percent for experienced lifters whose technique holds together under fatigue, but very high-rep sets make the estimate optimistic, which is why the reps field stops at 30 and sets under 10 are the honest choice. A set of exactly 1 rep is counted as the weight itself — you lifted it, so it is your max by definition. Second, the conversion can flatter a grade across a boundary without any new strength: the 8-rep row already reaches Elite on the bench, while the true single of 100 kg is Advanced. Treat an estimated max as a training number for programming percentages, and a tested single as the grade that counts. The calculator shows which one it used — “estimated 1RM” against a plain “1RM” — so the distinction is never hidden.
The women’s ladders, in the open
The sex you pick selects a different table, and the women’s thresholds are lower on every lift — not because the method changes, but because the underlying strength distributions differ. Here are the women’s standards exactly as the calculator applies them, as bodyweight multiples, with the men’s alongside for comparison:
| Level | Bench (W / M) | Squat (W / M) | Deadlift (W / M) | Press (W / M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Untrained | 0.30 / 0.50 | 0.50 / 0.75 | 0.60 / 1.00 | 0.25 / 0.35 |
| Novice | 0.50 / 0.75 | 0.75 / 1.00 | 0.90 / 1.25 | 0.35 / 0.50 |
| Intermediate | 0.65 / 1.00 | 1.10 / 1.50 | 1.30 / 1.75 | 0.50 / 0.70 |
| Advanced | 0.85 / 1.25 | 1.40 / 2.00 | 1.70 / 2.25 | 0.65 / 0.90 |
| Elite | 1.00 / 1.50 | 1.70 / 2.25 | 2.00 / 2.75 | 0.80 / 1.05 |
Run the default lifts as a woman and the profile transforms without any lift changing: the bench at 1.25 is Elite rather than Advanced, the deadlift at 2.00 is Elite rather than Intermediate, the squat at 1.50 is Advanced, the press at 0.70 is Advanced, and the overall score is 100.2 — over 100, because two lifts exceed their elite standards and the score averages ratios against elite without capping them. That over-100 score is not an error. It is what the formula does when a lifter stands above the top rung on a lift, and it is a reminder that the score is an average of distances to elite, not a percentage with a ceiling. Compare yourself only within your own table: a woman’s 1.00 bench is Elite, a man’s 1.00 bench is Intermediate, and neither comparison across tables means anything.
Chase level parity, not ratio parity
The default profile’s verdict contains the most useful coaching line on the page: the bench is the strongest lift relative to its elite standard, at 83% of the elite ratio, while the squat and press are tied at the bottom — yet the press ratio (0.70) is barely a third of the deadlift ratio (2.00), and both lifts sit at Intermediate. Ratios across lifts are not comparable, because the ladders are scaled differently on purpose: the deadlift recruits the most muscle and starts from a mechanically strong position, so its standards sit highest, while the strict press uses the smallest muscle groups and fights gravity through the longest path, so its standards sit lowest. A balanced, well-trained lifter has uneven ratios and even levels. Chase level parity, not ratio parity.
That advice also tells you where the next point of score lives. From the defaults at 72.3, taking the press from 56 kg to its next rung at 72 kg lifts the score to 77.1 — a gain of 4.8 points, because the press term rises from 0.70 over 1.05 to 0.90 over 1.05. Taking the bench from 100 kg to its next rung at 120 kg lifts the score to 76.5 — a gain of 4.2 points, even though the bench is the strongest lift in relative terms. The weakest relative lift pays slightly more per kilogram of progress, because its elite denominator is smaller. And if a lift is simply untested, leave it blank: the calculator marks it not tested and excludes it from the score and the median entirely, rather than dragging them down. On the defaults with the bench blanked, the score over the three tested lifts is 68.7 with an overall level of Intermediate — an honest summary of three lifts, not a penalty for the fourth.
Testing strength: what a one-rep max is, and how it is estimated
A one-rep max (1RM) is the heaviest weight that can be lifted once with good form for a given exercise. It is the reference point for programming: training loads are prescribed as percentages of 1RM, so a program calling for 5 sets of 5 at 80% needs the 1RM to mean anything. Testing a true 1RM directly is demanding and carries injury risk, especially for beginners and for exercises like the squat and deadlift where a failed rep must be escaped safely. The standard practice is to test a repetition maximum at a submaximal weight — the heaviest weight lifted for, say, 5 clean reps — and estimate the 1RM from a formula.
The common estimation formulas agree closely in the 3-to-10 rep range and diverge beyond it. Epley: 1RM = weight × (1 + reps/30). Brzycki: 1RM = weight × 36/(37 − reps). Both give about the same answer for 5 reps (Epley ×1.167, Brzycki ×1.125 — a difference of a few percent, which is within the noise of daily strength variation). Beyond 10 reps the estimates become unreliable, because endurance rather than strength limits the set, and the formulas extrapolate a relationship that no longer holds. The calculator on this page uses the standard formulas and shows the range across them; treat the result as an estimate with a margin of several percent, and re-test rather than trusting an old estimate when the program’s loads start feeling wrong.
Relative strength: bodyweight multiples, and what they mean
Relative strength expresses a lift as a multiple of bodyweight: a 100 kg squat by an 80 kg lifter is 1.25 times bodyweight. Bodyweight multiples allow comparison across sizes, and they are the basis of the common strength standards — for example, a squat of 1.5 times bodyweight and a deadlift of twice bodyweight are widely cited intermediate milestones for men, with lower multiples for women reflecting average differences in muscle mass distribution. The standards are descriptive of trained populations, not prescriptions: they describe what lifters at a given level of training typically achieve, not what any individual should achieve, and they say nothing about health, which is served by far lower levels of strength.
Relative strength favours lighter lifters, because strength scales with muscle cross-section (an area) while bodyweight scales with volume: a lifter twice as heavy is not twice as strong, all else equal. That is why powerlifting uses weight classes and scoring formulas (Wilks, IPF points, DOTS) that adjust for bodyweight non-linearly, rather than simple multiples. For personal tracking, the multiple is a useful shorthand; for comparison between lifters of very different sizes, it systematically flatters the lighter lifter, and the scoring formulas exist precisely to correct that bias.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good bench press for my bodyweight?
On the published bodyweight-ratio standards, a man benching his own bodyweight (a ratio of 1.00) is intermediate, and 1.25 times bodyweight is advanced — so for an 80 kg man those rungs are 80 kg and 100 kg. For women the same rungs sit at 0.65 and 0.85 times bodyweight. The classic milestone everyone remembers is the bodyweight bench itself: it is the line between “trains sometimes” and “clearly trains”, and it is a genuinely good target for a first year of serious lifting.
How does this calculator decide my level?
It divides each lift by your bodyweight to get a ratio, then walks up that lift’s ladder of standards — Untrained, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Elite — and stops at the highest standard your ratio meets or beats. Meeting a threshold exactly earns the level: a 1.25 bench ratio is Advanced, full stop. If your ratio has not reached the first standard yet, you are classed Untrained and that first standard is shown as your next target. Your overall level is the median of your tested lifts, and your overall score averages how close each lift sits to its own elite standard.
I don’t know my one-rep max. Can I use a set instead?
Yes — switch any lift to “Weight × reps” and enter a hard set: the heaviest weight you have lifted for a clean set of reps, taken close to your limit. The calculator converts it with the Epley formula, estimated 1RM = weight × (1 + reps ÷ 30), so 100 kg for 5 reps becomes an estimated 116.7 kg max. Sets of 2 to 10 reps convert most reliably; very high-rep sets make the estimate optimistic, so the reps field stops at 30 and sets under 10 are the honest choice. A set of exactly 1 rep is counted as the weight itself — you lifted it, so it is your max by definition.
Why are the standards different for every lift, and for men and women?
Because the lifts are different physical tasks. The deadlift recruits the largest muscle mass and the strongest positions, so its standards are the highest multiples of bodyweight; the strict overhead press uses the smallest muscles through the longest range, so its standards are the lowest. Grading all four against one ladder would call every presser weak and every deadlifter gifted. The men’s and women’s tables differ for the same reason — average muscle mass and its distribution differ, upper-body strength most of all — so each sex is graded against the population the standards were actually measured on.
What does the overall strength score mean?
It is the average of your lifts expressed as a percentage of their elite standards: score = average of (each lift’s ratio ÷ that lift’s elite ratio) × 100. A score of 100 means elite-level ratios on every tested lift; the default example on this page scores 72.3. It is a summary yardstick invented for this page — printed in full so you can recompute it — not an official ranking. Competitive powerlifting answers a different question (how does your total compare inside your weight class?) with points systems like Wilks and DOTS, and if you compete, those are the numbers your federation cares about.
How do I reach the next level?
The calculator shows you the exact weight of the next standard and the gap in kilos, because “get stronger” is not a plan but “add 20 kg to my deadlift” is at least a target. Roughly, the levels track training age: novice strength comes in the first months of consistent training, intermediate over the following year or two, and advanced is a multi-year project for most people — which is why the gaps between the top rungs are wider in time even when they look similar on the bar. Small, regular increases, technique that survives heavy weight, and enough food and sleep to recover are the whole secret; if a lift stalls for months or pain shows up, a good coach or clinician beats any calculator, this one included.
I gained 20 kg of bodyweight but kept my lifts. Did I get weaker?
Not in absolute terms — the barbell did not get heavier to lift — but your grade falls, because the grade measures strength relative to bodyweight. On the default lifts, moving from 80 kg to 100 kg of bodyweight drops the score from 72.3 to 57.9 and the overall level from Intermediate to Novice, with the squat, deadlift and press all falling to Novice. If the twenty kilograms came with matching strength gains, the lifts would have risen too and the grade would have held. If they did not, the table is telling you the gain was not strength. Either way, compare grades only at the same bodyweight.
Why is my deadlift ratio so much higher than my press ratio?
Because the ladders are scaled differently on purpose. The deadlift recruits the most muscle of any standard lift and starts from a mechanically strong position, so its standards sit highest — Elite at 2.75 times bodyweight for men. The strict overhead press uses the smallest muscle groups and fights gravity through the longest path, so its standards sit lowest — Elite at 1.05 times bodyweight. On the defaults, a 2.00 deadlift ratio and a 0.70 press ratio are both Intermediate: same level, very different ratios. Chase level parity, not ratio parity.
Can I leave a lift blank?
Yes. Leave a lift blank and it is marked not tested — it never drags your score down. The overall score averages only your tested lifts, and the overall level is the median of your tested lifts. On the defaults with the bench blanked, the score over the three tested lifts is 68.7 with an overall level of Intermediate. That is an honest summary of three lifts, not a penalty for the fourth — though a profile built on one lift alone will always be a thinner picture than one built on four.
Is an estimated max from a 20-rep set trustworthy?
Not very. The Epley conversion is reliable for sets of about 2 to 10 reps — typically within a few percent for experienced lifters whose technique holds together under fatigue — but very high-rep sets make the estimate optimistic, because endurance, not maximal strength, starts to decide how many reps you complete. The reps field stops at 30, and sets under 10 are the honest choice for grading. A 20-rep estimate can still be useful for programming percentages, but do not let it promote a lift across a level boundary: test the single if the grade matters to you.
How do I estimate my one-rep max without testing it?
Lift a weight for as many clean reps as you can in the 3–10 range, then apply a formula: Epley gives 1RM = weight × (1 + reps/30). 100 kg for 5 reps estimates a 1RM of about 117 kg. Estimates beyond 10 reps are unreliable. Re-test periodically rather than training off an old estimate.
What is a good squat relative to bodyweight?
Strength standards describe trained populations, not targets for health. A squat of 1.5× bodyweight is a common intermediate milestone for men (lower for women, reflecting average muscle-mass differences). General health is served by much lower levels — the ability to squat bodyweight with control matters more than any multiple.
Related calculators
Strength Levels Explained
One-rep max, relative strength, and the standards.
🏋️Bench Press
One-rep max and working percentages for the bench.
💪One-Rep Max
Estimate your max on any lift from a hard set.
📐FFMI
Fat-free mass index, adjusted to a standard height.
📏Body Fat
Navy-method body fat from tape measurements.
⚖️BMI
Body mass index from the same weight and height.
Built on the classic bodyweight-ratio strength standards and the Epley one-rep-max formula (1985) — because “strong” only means something next to a scale.
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