Strength standards calculator
Enter your bodyweight, the lift and the load you handled: the calculator estimates your 1RM, places it between untrained and elite on the ExRx standards for your sex and bodyweight, then tells you exactly how much is left to the next level.
About 30 seconds
How the level is worked out
For every sex and bodyweight, the table gives the load a lifter handles at each of five levels: untrained, novice, intermediate, advanced, elite. Your 1RM is checked against those five thresholds from the top down, and the first one it clears sets the level.
If you enter more than one rep, the load is first turned into a 1RM using the average of the Epley, Brzycki and Lombardi formulas — the exact calculation behind Ekklo's 1RM calculator, so the two tools never disagree.
ExRx standards — Male, 80.0 kg, Squat: a 1RM of 140.0 kg, or 1.75 times bodyweight, sits at Intermediate level. The Advanced level starts at 164.0 kg.
ExRx.net “Weightlifting Performance Standards” (kilogram tables, adults aged 18 to 39), provided by Dr Lon Kilgore from close to 70 years of weightlifting and powerlifting classification data. Between two published rows the thresholds are interpolated linearly and snapped to the half kilo; pound figures are a conversion of the kilogram standards.
Reference standards — Squat, Male, 80.0 kg
| Level | 1RM | × bodyweight |
|---|---|---|
| Untrained | 53.5 kg | 0.67 |
| Novice | 98.0 kg | 1.23 |
| Intermediate | 119.5 kg | 1.49 |
| Advanced | 164.0 kg | 2.05 |
| Elite | 213.0 kg | 2.66 |
The four lifts at Intermediate level (Male, 80.0 kg)
| Lift | 1RM | × bodyweight |
|---|---|---|
| Squat | 119.5 kg | 1.49 |
| Bench press | 88.5 kg | 1.11 |
| Deadlift | 140.5 kg | 1.76 |
| Overhead press | 61.0 kg | 0.76 |
Testing your max properly
The standards assume a full repetition to competition rules with no assistive gear: a belt is fine, a suit or wraps are not. On the bench press the bar touches the chest and pauses; on the overhead press the knees stay straight and the elbows lock out.
Test warm, after a gradual build-up in load, and always have the bar spotted. A true maximum is worth measuring a few times a year, not every week.
If you are not testing an actual max, enter a heavy set of 2 to 5 reps: the estimate holds up well in that range and degrades noticeably past 10.
Estimate your 1RM first with the 1RM calculator · See all calculators
Frequently asked questions
Here are some common questions about the strength standards calculator.
On the ExRx table an 80 kg man reaches intermediate at about 119.5 kg, roughly 1.5 times bodyweight, and advanced at about 164 kg, a little over twice bodyweight. For a 60 kg woman intermediate starts at 60 kg — exactly bodyweight — and advanced at 77.5 kg.
They describe training age, not chronological age or talent. Untrained is someone who performs the lift correctly but has never trained it, novice is a few months of regular training, intermediate one to two years, advanced several years, and elite is the level of a strength-sport competitor.
The calculator uses the average of the Epley, Brzycki and Lombardi formulas, the same as Ekklo's 1RM calculator. The conversion is dependable from 1 to about 10 reps; beyond that you are measuring muscular endurance and the estimate overstates maximal strength.
Because no serious table documents it: ExRx publishes standards for the press, bench press, squat, deadlift, power clean and power snatch, but not for the row, whose execution varies too much from gym to gym to be graded. We would rather ship four sourced lifts than five with one invented.
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