What strength standards measure
A strength standard answers one question: compared with whom? The same 100 kg (220 lb) squat is weak in a powerlifting meet, impressive at a typical commercial gym and remarkable among people who never train. Charts online disagree mostly because they compare you with different groups, not because one of them is right.
Gripp compares you with regular gym-goers: adults who have trained for at least a few months. That group is the one most lifters actually want to know about. It also keeps the scale motivating, because a complete beginner can climb the first levels within months instead of being measured against competitive athletes.
Three things move the numbers. Sex, because men and women differ most in upper body strength. Bodyweight, because heavier people lift more in total but less per kilo, so a fair comparison cannot just divide by bodyweight. Age, because strength drifts down slowly after the mid thirties and faster after 60.
What the strength levels mean
Each level is a slice of the modelled population. The cut-offs are Gripp's design choice, picked so that someone who has trained for a few months usually lands in Novice or Intermediate.
| Level | Where it starts | What it usually looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 0th percentile | The first weeks or months, learning the lifts |
| Novice | 25th percentile | Stronger than a quarter of people who train; steady weekly gains |
| Intermediate | 50th percentile | Stronger than half; gains slow from weeks to months |
| Advanced | 80th percentile | Stronger than four in five; years of consistent work |
| Elite | 95th percentile | Top 5 % of gym-goers, close to where strength sport begins |
Inside each level Gripp has three tiers (I, II and III), so there is a smaller milestone to reach between the big ones. Your score for a lift is your percentile, from 1 to 99, and the app shows how many kilos you need for the next tier.
Strength standards chart for men
Values for a man of 80 kg (175 lb), aged 18 to 35, as the one rep max where each level starts. Follow the link on each lift for every bodyweight and age.
| Lift | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bench press | 67.5 kg (150 lb) | 80 kg (175 lb) | 97.5 kg (215 lb) | 120 kg (265 lb) |
| Squat | 90 kg (200 lb) | 107.5 kg (235 lb) | 135 kg (300 lb) | 167.5 kg (370 lb) |
| Deadlift | 105 kg (230 lb) | 127.5 kg (280 lb) | 160 kg (355 lb) | 197.5 kg (435 lb) |
| Overhead press | 45 kg (100 lb) | 52.5 kg (115 lb) | 62.5 kg (140 lb) | 77.5 kg (170 lb) |
| Pull-ups | 1 rep | 5 reps | 10 reps | 5 reps with +25 kg (55 lb) |
Add the three big lifts and the median man of 80 kg has a total of about 315 kg (695 lb). The pull-up row counts strict reps at bodyweight; Gripp converts reps and added weight into a load so that heavy, light and weighted sets compare fairly.
Strength standards for women
Values for a woman of 60 kg (130 lb), aged 18 to 35. The gap to men is smallest on the lower body and largest on pressing and pulling.
| Lift | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bench press | 30 kg (65 lb) | 35 kg (75 lb) | 45 kg (100 lb) | 57.5 kg (125 lb) |
| Squat | 45 kg (100 lb) | 57.5 kg (125 lb) | 75 kg (165 lb) | 95 kg (210 lb) |
| Deadlift | 55 kg (120 lb) | 70 kg (155 lb) | 90 kg (200 lb) | 117.5 kg (260 lb) |
| Overhead press | 20 kg (45 lb) | 22.5 kg (50 lb) | 30 kg (65 lb) | 37.5 kg (85 lb) |
| Pull-ups | 1 rep with 15 kg (35 lb) assistance | 1 rep with 10 kg (20 lb) assistance | 1 rep | 8 reps |
Two things stand out. A bodyweight deadlift is already a Novice lift for most women who train, while a single strict pull-up is Advanced. If upper body numbers feel slow compared with your legs, that is the normal pattern, not a sign you are doing something wrong.
Strength standards by age and weight
Gripp adjusts every level with two factors taken from powerlifting norms. The age factor compares each age group's median with the 18 to 35 median. The bodyweight factor does the same across weight classes. Your lift is divided by both before it is rated, so a lighter, older lifter is not compared on raw kilos with a heavy 25 year old.
| Lift | Age 18 to 35 | Age 50 |
|---|---|---|
| Bench press | 80 kg (175 lb) | 75 kg (165 lb) |
| Squat | 107.5 kg (235 lb) | 92.5 kg (205 lb) |
| Deadlift | 127.5 kg (280 lb) | 112.5 kg (250 lb) |
The bench holds up best with age in the data and the squat drops most. For bodyweight, the factor peaks around 62 to 70 kg for men and in the lightest classes for women, and falls off for the heaviest lifters. If you want one number to compare lifters of very different sizes, the DOTS calculator scores a powerlifting total the way competitions do.
Bodyweight multiples for other lifts
Gripp rates more than the big lifts, which is what makes a per-muscle rating possible. These lines are derived from a core lift with a fixed ratio and flagged as low confidence (dumbbell bench is the exception, based on a published comparison). Values are the Intermediate start, one rep max as a multiple of bodyweight, age 18 to 35.
| Lift | Men | Women | Derived from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front squat | 1.08 | 0.76 | Squat × 0.80 |
| Trap bar deadlift | 1.68 | 1.21 | Deadlift × 1.05 |
| Romanian deadlift | 1.12 | 0.81 | Deadlift × 0.70 |
| Hip thrust | 1.49 | 1.05 | Squat × 1.10 |
| Incline bench press | 0.80 | 0.48 | Bench × 0.80 |
| Dumbbell bench press, per dumbbell | 0.42 | 0.25 | Bench × 0.83 ÷ 2 |
| Barbell row | 0.75 | 0.45 | Bench × 0.75 |
| Lat pulldown | 0.85 | 0.51 | Bench × 0.85 |
| Barbell curl | 0.45 | 0.27 | Bench × 0.45 |
Core strength is rated on endurance instead: the Intermediate line is a 90 second plank for men and 75 seconds for women, 12 and 8 strict hanging knee raises, and 10 and 5 ab wheel rollouts from the knees. Those are Gripp estimates too. Machine numbers such as the leg press vary so much between brands that you should mostly compare yourself on the same machine.
How to find your level
- Estimate your max instead of testing itTake a hard set of 3 to 8 reps with good form and enter it in the 1RM calculator. Sets above 10 reps give poor estimates, so Gripp does not use them for ratings.
- Use full repsThe standards assume competition-style range of motion: squat below parallel, bench to the chest, press to lockout, pull-ups from a dead hang. Partial reps inflate the result.
- Read your rowOpen the page for the lift and find your bodyweight and age. Being Intermediate on one lift and Novice on another is common and tells you where to put extra work.
- Move up with small, steady jumpsMost people below Advanced improve fastest by adding reps, then weight, to the same lifts week after week. The progressive overload guide shows how.
Your strength rating, per muscle group
Gripp is coming to iPhone. It rates each lift you log against people of your sex, age and bodyweight, combines them into a score for chest, shoulders, back, arms, legs and core, and shows the weight and reps that take you to the next tier.
Join the waitlistWhere Gripp's numbers come from
The bench press median rests on general-population norms from the Cooper Institute and on Falch et al. (2023), a study of experienced recreational lifters. The squat median is the bench median times the squat to bench ratio from that study and from powerlifting data, and the deadlift median is the squat median times the deadlift to squat ratio of competitive lifters. Elite sits deliberately below the median tested powerlifter: for men, a 2.10 times bodyweight squat against a powerlifter median of about 2.28.
Age and bodyweight factors come from van den Hoek et al. (2024), "Normative data for the squat, bench press and deadlift exercises in powerlifting", J Sci Med Sport 27(10):734-742, published under CC BY 4.0, which Gripp reworked into ratios. Everything else on this page is a Gripp estimate that will be updated once enough anonymised training data exists.