One-Rep Max Statistics: Strength Standards by Lift

The 90th-percentile squat for drug-tested powerlifters aged 18-35 is 2.83 × bodyweight for men and 2.26 × for women

From 809,986 drug-tested, unequipped powerlifting entries (571,650 men, 238,336 women), with percentiles by sex, age and weight class. Competitive lifters are a strong reference group, not average gym-goers.

The 90th-percentile bench press for drug-tested powerlifters aged 18-35 is 1.95 × bodyweight for men and 1.35 × for women

Same dataset. Relative strength peaked in the 18-35 age group for all three lifts and declined after it.

The 90th-percentile deadlift for drug-tested powerlifters aged 18-35 is 3.25 × bodyweight for men and 2.66 × for women

Same dataset. The authors publish the full 10th-90th percentile tables in a free online tool.

Powerlifters over 80 still post a 90th-percentile squat of 1.72 × bodyweight (men) and 1.01 × (women)

Their 90th-percentile bench press was 1.31 and 0.92 × bodyweight, and deadlift 2.30 and 1.68 ×.

The median men's squat in drug-tested, unequipped powerlifting rose from 185 kg in 2000 to 200 kg in 2024

From 850,972 entries on openpowerlifting.org; mean age 30.3 years and body mass 82.4 kg. Squat and deadlift medians typically rise 2.5-7.5 kg every five years, so the authors recommend updating norms at that interval.

The median women's deadlift rose from 114 kg to 142.5 kg between 2000 and 2024; the median men's bench press, 127.5 kg in 2024, barely moved

Women's bench press improved slightly, to a 65 kg median. Gains were largest among adolescents and young adults.

National-level powerlifters outperformed local-meet lifters by a moderate-to-large margin (Cohen's d 0.76 for men, 1.09 for women)

2,137 competitors at local, national and international meets. National and international lifters did not differ meaningfully within weight classes, and totals varied by 17.4-22.9% at every level.

The 1RM test is highly repeatable: test-retest ICCs ranged from 0.64 to 0.99 (median 0.97), with a median coefficient of variation of 4.2%

Systematic review of 32 studies with 1,595 participants. Reliability was high with or without training experience or familiarization sessions, for upper- and lower-body lifts, and in both sexes and all ages.

Estimating 1RM from a 5-rep max was most accurate: R² 0.993 for the chest press and 0.974 for the leg press

70 adults (34 men, 36 women) aged 18-69 tested at 1, 5, 10 and 20 reps. Accuracy fell as reps rose, and the authors advise using no more than 10 reps in linear equations.

Chest press 1RM ≈ 1.1307 × 5RM weight + 0.70 kg, with a standard error of 2.98 kg

The study's own regression. For the leg press it was 1.0970 × 5RM + 14.25 kg, with a much larger 16.16 kg error.

The Epley and Brzycki formulas agree exactly at 10 reps but differ by 3.7% at 5 reps and 9.1% at 15 reps

Epley = weight × (1 + reps/30); Brzycki = weight × 36 / (37 − reps). Computed with the formulas our calculator uses.

Across the six formulas in our calculator, the gap between the lowest and highest estimate is 5.8% at 5 reps, 12.6% at 12 reps and 56.9% at 20 reps

For 100 kg lifted, the formulas give 112.5-119.0 kg at 5 reps and 134.9-211.8 kg at 20 reps (Epley, Brzycki, Lombardi, Mayhew, Wathen and Lander). High-rep sets are why estimates spread.

Over 21 weeks of training, untrained men raised maximal leg-extension force by 20.9% against 3.9% for strength athletes

Eight strength athletes and eight non-athletes. Quadriceps cross-sectional area rose 5.6% in the untrained men and changed by -1.8% in the athletes: progress slows sharply with training age.

When sets are taken to failure, loads above 60% of 1RM build more 1RM strength than loads of 60% or less

Meta-analysis of 21 studies lasting at least six weeks. Muscle growth was similar across loads, so heavy work matters most when 1RM is the goal.

Older adults lost leg strength at 2.6-4.1% a year, about three times faster than leg lean mass (about 1% a year)

Three-year changes in 1,880 older adults in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study. Men lost almost twice as much strength as women, and gaining lean mass did not prevent the strength loss.

Grip strength correlated with total muscle strength at r = 0.736-0.890 in 384 healthy 8-20-year-olds

Handheld-dynamometer study in Dutch schools and a university. Controlling for body weight weakened the correlation to 0.485-0.564.