Strenf Standards Model v1 · strength dataset openpowerlifting-2026-06-06-aa0dd710.csv · generated 2026-06-12
Squat, bench press and deadlift thresholds are percentiles of competitive lifters — best raw lift per athlete across 3,941,811 sanctioned meet results in the OpenPowerlifting archive (282,657 men / 131,210 women for squat; 393,838 / 155,997 for bench; 324,539 / 146,778 for deadlift). There is no general-population barbell dataset anywhere — sites that imply otherwise are comparing you to their own self-reported user entries. We compare you to people who actually compete, and we say so.
Elite = top 5% of meet entrants · Advanced = top 20% · Intermediate = 15th percentile of meet entrants (roughly: you could enter a meet and not finish last) · Novice and Beginner extend below the competitive population, spaced by the same ratio observed between rungs at the bottom of the competition distribution.
Lifts contested in competition are measured directly. Everything else — cable, dumbbell and machine movements — is modeled: a documented coefficient applied to a measured anchor lift (e.g. overhead press ≈ 0.62× bench), with the basis stated on each page. Machine and cable loads vary by manufacturer; treat those thresholds as guides.
Multipliers are derived from Masters competition results (median best-ratio by age band vs the 24–34 peak band), interpolated smoothly. Your lift is scaled up before grading.
Submaximal sets are converted with the Epley formula: 1RM = weight × (1 + reps/30).
Running is graded against population data: published finish-time percentiles from RunRepeat's analysis of 35 million race results across ~28,000 races. Each tier is a real published decile — Elite = top 1% of finishers, Advanced = top 10%, Intermediate = top 30%, Novice ≈ the median finisher, Beginner = top 90% (only the slowest tenth of finishers fall below it). Each distance uses its own deciles, because marathon finishers are a fitter, self-selected group than 5K finishers — projecting one distance onto another would distort the standard. The 1-mile tier (which RunRepeat doesn't publish) is filled with the Riegel endurance formula, T₂ = T₁·(D₂/D₁)1.06 (Riegel, 1977 — public).
Cycling is modeled: no population percentile dataset exists, so its tiers come from published average-speed-by-ability bands repeated across coaching sources, with a mild slow-down applied for longer distances. Treat cycling tiers as guides, not measured percentiles.
Both are age-adjusted with an endurance-decline curve, and your effort is graded at its logged distance (interpolated between the benchmark distances).
Strength: OpenPowerlifting, contributed to the public domain — this page is the attribution they request. Running: population percentile statistics published by RunRepeat (aggregate facts), scaled with the public Riegel formula. Strenf's derived standards are © Strenf, published openly here.