Strength Level Calculator

Pick a lift and enter your one-rep max to see where it lands between beginner and elite.

Your strength level

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—Your one-rep max

Enter a one-rep max and a bodyweight

Strength standards

Compared against raw powerlifting competitors in OpenPowerlifting. Beacon holds no lifter data of its own.

What a strength level is, and is not

Each level is a percentile of real competition lifts by people of your sex, bodyweight and age: beginner is the 5th, novice the 20th, intermediate the 50th, advanced the 80th and elite the 95th. Where your one-rep max falls between two of them is your level. That is the whole mechanism — there is no model of you in it.

The comparison is against competitors. The numbers come from OpenPowerlifting, the public record of powerlifting meets: raw lifts only, disqualifications and missed attempts dropped, each lifter counted once at their best. Everyone in it trained for and entered a meet, so these levels sit well above the average gym. A group with too few lifters to say anything is left out rather than guessed at.

Why only these three lifts

Because they are the lifts powerlifting meets record, for hundreds of thousands of lifters. Nobody publishes a comparable record for a curl or a leg press, and a level for a lift nobody has measured would be made up.

Entering a one-rep max you did not test

An estimate from a heavy set you actually completed is fine here, and usually a better idea than testing a true single. The 1RM calculator works one out from any set of two to ten reps, using the same formula Beacon uses for your strength projection.

What it is not for

Not a target. A table describes a population; it does not know your leverages, your training age, your injury history, or what you are training for. Two lifters at the same band can be at completely different points in their training, and moving up one is not evidence that anything is going well.

Frequently asked

What do beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced and elite mean?

They are percentiles of real competition lifts, not a judgement: beginner is the 5th percentile, novice the 20th, intermediate the 50th, advanced the 80th and elite the 95th, among raw powerlifting competitors of your sex, bodyweight and age. Where your one-rep max falls between two of them is where you sit.

Where do the standards come from?

From OpenPowerlifting, the public record of powerlifting meet results. We take raw (unequipped) lifts only, drop disqualifications and missed attempts, and count each lifter once per bodyweight and age group, at their best. Beacon does not compute these from its own users.

Why do the numbers look high?

Because the people behind them compete. Everyone in the data trained for and entered a powerlifting meet, so the median here is well above the median gym-goer. Intermediate on this page is a strong lift anywhere else.

Do I need a tested one-rep max?

No. An estimate from a heavy set you actually completed is fine, and usually safer than testing a true single. The 1RM calculator on this site works one out from any set of two to ten reps.

Why only the squat, bench press and deadlift?

Because those are the lifts powerlifting meets record. There is no equivalent record for a curl or a leg press, and showing a level for a lift nobody has measured would be inventing one.

Should I train towards the next level?

Not directly. A standards table describes what lifters at a bodyweight tend to lift; it does not know your leverages, your training age, your injury history or what you are actually training for. Treat it as a reading, not a target.