Bench Press Standards
This page shows where your bench press ranks by percentile using real competition data from sanctioned meets.
Bench Press Standards Calculator
Unlike typical strength calculators that only rely on estimates or self-reported lifts, this tool is built from raw powerlifting competition data from the most recent (2025) season. It shows how your bench press total compares to sanctioned meets of 50,000+ lifters and also provides general training benchmarks for non-competitors.
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Men’s Bench Press Standards
These men’s bench press strength standards show how your bench press ranks by percentile in real powerlifting competition results.
| Percentile | Lift |
|---|---|
| 10th Percentile | 209 lb (95 kg) |
| 25th Percentile | 247 lb (112 kg) |
| 50th Percentile | 287 lb (130 kg) |
| 75th Percentile | 331 lb (150 kg) |
| 90th Percentile | 375 lb (170 kg) |
Women's Bench Press Standards
These women’s bench press strength standards show how your bench press ranks by percentile in real powerlifting competition results.
| Percentile | Lift |
|---|---|
| 10th Percentile | 99 lb (45 kg) |
| 25th Percentile | 121 lb (55 kg) |
| 50th Percentile | 143 lb (65 kg) |
| 75th Percentile | 172 lb (78 kg) |
| 90th Percentile | 198 lb (90 kg) |
Recreational Bench Press Tiers
These bench press standards provide estimated gym-level benchmarks to help interpret your strength outside of competition data. They are not rankings or records, they simply describe typical stages of recreational strength development for an average male and female. These values apply to general lifters, not the general population.
| Tier | Male Bench | Female Bench |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 160 lb (73 kg) | 65 lb (29 kg) |
| Intermediate | 205 lb (93 kg) | 90 lb (41 kg) |
| Advanced | 250 lb (113 kg) | 125 lb (57 kg) |
| Elite | 355 lb (161 kg) | 170 lb (77 kg) |
Recreational Strength Levels Defined
Beginner – This category represents individuals training at least three times weekly who have mastered basic lifting form and follow a structured plan. At this stage, the lifter’s body responds rapidly, allowing them to successfully increase weight or volume during nearly every workout.
Intermediate – At this level, the lifter continues to follow a dedicated strength program but has moved past the stage of daily progress. The body now requires more recovery time, meaning performance gains in weight or volume typically manifest on a weekly rather than daily basis.
Advanced – These are experienced lifters whose strength development has slowed as they approach higher levels of proficiency. They no longer see progress every week; instead, improvements in loading or volume require more complex programming and are observed over multi-week or monthly periods.
Elite – This tier consists of highly developed lifters. Because they are so highly adapted, further gains in strength are marginal and are measured across multi-month, annual, or even longer training cycles. These lifters typically total above the median of competitive powerlifting results, falling into the upper-mid competitive range.
Methodology
These powerlifting strength percentiles are derived from 58,154 competitive powerlifters (ages 16–65) who competed in sanctioned, drug-tested raw SBD events during the 2025 calendar year.
Full Competitive Percentile Methodology
Dataset overview
- Source: Competition data from OpenPowerlifting
- Timeframe: January 1 – December 20, 2025
- Total lifters: 58,154
- 38,441 men
- 19,712 women
Inclusion Criteria
Only results meeting all of the following conditions were included:
Raw equipment only
Full SBD (Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift) events
Sanctioned competitions
Drug-tested meets
Male and female lifters (Mx excluded)
Ages 16–65
Valid, non-zero lift and total results
Weight Class Standardization
Because federations use differing bodyweight class systems, all lifters were first assigned to standardized IPF-style weight classes using recorded competition bodyweights. A custom weight class column was created such that each lifter’s recorded bodyweight was mapped into a single standardized class (e.g., 83 kg).
Deduplication
To avoid over-representing frequent competitors, only the best performance of each lifter was captured for the given time-frame.
Overall Totals (All Lifters)
For overall, non–weight-class comparisons:
Each lifter is counted once per year
If a lifter competed multiple times in 2025, only their best total of the year was retained
In rare cases where a lifter changed age categories mid-year, they may appear more than once
Weight Class Comparisons
For weight-class–specific percentiles:
Lifters may appear in more than one weight class if they competed in multiple classes during the year
Within each weight class, only the lifter’s best result in that class was retained
All filtering, standardization, and deduplication steps were performed using Power Query to ensure consistency and reproducibility.
Percentile calculation
Percentiles are derived directly from empirical competition results
Each distribution consists of 99 discrete percentile values
No interpolation or smoothing is applied between values
Calculator outputs snap to the nearest empirical percentile point
The recreational lifter tiers are modeled after training progression standards developed by Dr. Lon Kilgore, PhD. They are constructed from exercise science research, drug-tested performance results, and decades of supervised training observation to translate lifts into typical stages of strength development for average gym lifters. These benchmarks are based on average adult bodyweights and corresponding reference charts.
Full Recreational Standards Methodology
Unlike competitive powerlifting percentiles, there is no verified recreational lifter census. There is no clean, judged, population-wide dataset that defines what average gym-goers can lift. Because of this, any recreational strength standards must be treated as estimates, not objective rankings. Two types of recreational strength data exist:
Crowd-reported gym datasets (StrengthLevel, StrengthLog, etc.)
- Represent what people report lifting
- Limitations: polluted data pool, inconsistent form standards and inflated reporting, lack of standardization
Kilgore training progression standards
- Represent strength capability at stages of training progression based on exercise science research, drug-tested performance results, and decades of supervised training observation
- Limitations: not a population census; expert subjectivity involved
Why we chose to use Kilgore’s charts:
- Models strength as stages of training progression rather than true percentiles
- Provides coherent, physiology-aligned development benchmarks that align with reported lifts in the strength training community
Additionally, these reference charts were compared against popular crowd-reported gym datasets and were found to fall within similar modern gym-lifter ranges, suggesting a consistent pattern of strength progression.
Data Referenced
Based on the average adult bodyweights of 199.0 lb for men and 171.8 lb for women, the following reference charts were used from Dr. Lon Kilgore’s most recent strength standards:
- Male, age 20–29, 200 lb bodyweight
- Female, age 20–29, 175 lb bodyweight
Data Adjustments
Rounding: For clarity and real-world applicability, all recreational lift benchmarks were rounded to the nearest 5 lb increment. This rounding does not materially affect percentile placement, but improves readability and consistency with standard plate loading.
Adjustment to men’s advanced deadlift tier: During validation against competitive powerlifting data, most Kilgore Advanced benchmarks for men aligned within a similar OpenPowerlifting percentile range (approximately the 26th–28th percentile). The original Kilgore Advanced men’s deadlift benchmark, however, mapped substantially higher—approximately the 56th percentile—creating an inconsistency relative to squat and bench.
To preserve internal tier alignment and maintain a consistent interpretation of “Advanced” across lifts, the men’s advanced deadlift value was adjusted to a level that maps to a comparable OpenPowerlifting percentile (~28%), resulting in a benchmark of 455 lb.
Limitations & Individual Variability
These estimates do not account for bodyweight scaling, age, genetics, limb proportions, or other variables like individual response to training. Tiers should not dictate what training program you use, and should only be used as a rough guide to what benchmarks are attainable for an average lifter.