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Strength Standards / Methodology

How Strenf grades strength

Strenf Standards Model v1 · dataset openpowerlifting-2026-06-06-aa0dd710.csv · generated 2026-06-12

Who you're being compared to

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.

The ladder

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.

Measured vs modeled

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.

Age adjustment

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.

Estimated one-rep max

Submaximal sets are converted with the Epley formula: 1RM = weight × (1 + reps/30).

Data & license

Competition data: OpenPowerlifting, contributed to the public domain. This page is the attribution they request. Strenf's derived standards are © Strenf, published openly here.

Standards: Strenf Standards Model v1 · primaries derived from OpenPowerlifting competition data (public domain) · full methodology · Track your lifts free on Strenf