Max Deadlift Calculator — Calculate Your One Rep Max Deadlift

Find your peak deadlift strength with our intuitive 1 Rep Max Calculator. Designed to accurately estimate your one-repetition maximum, this tool also helps you calculate optimal repetitions and additional weights for your deadlift routine. Get personalized insights with a tailored 1RM table, empowering you to enhance your deadlift training effectively.

What is the One Rep Max Deadlift Calculator? 

The One Rep Max Deadlift Calculator is a tool that estimates your one repetition maximum (1RM) for the deadlift. This is the amount of weight you can lift once, but not twice.

It can also give you an indication of how many reps you should be able to do with a specific weight.

These calculations can be helpful for assessing your current strength, measuring your progress, and planning your next training cycle.

While you CAN test your one rep max by attempting to lift as much weight as possible, this is not always convenient. It could even lead to injury, especially for beginners. In addition, 1RM testing is exhausting and can take several days to recover from.

In contrast, the deadlift 1RM calculator requires less exertion, is 100% safe, and is suitable for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters.

So, whether you are a casual deadlifter or a die-hard powerlifter, this 1RM deadlift calculator will be very useful!

How to Use the One Rep max Deadlift Calculator

Our deadlift 1RM calculator is straightforward to use. Just follow these steps:

Option 1: Compute Specific Result

1 Calculator Mode: Reps to RM

1. Select your units – kilograms or pounds.
2. Input the weight lifted.
3. Input the number of reps you performed.
4. Read off your estimated deadlift 1RM.

2 Calculator Mode: RM to Reps for Specific Weight

1. Select your units – kilograms or pounds.
2. Enter your current 1-RM.
3. Enter the weight you want to use (training weight).
4. Read off the number of reps you should be able to do with your training weight.

 3 Calculator Mode: RM to Weight for Specific Reps

1. Select your units – kilograms or pounds.
2. Enter your 1-RM.
3. Enter the number of reps you want to do.
4. Read off the weight you should be able to lift for the desired number of reps.

Option 2: Calculate the Table

This option produces a table of your 1RM and various percentages and rep maxes based on that result. Print it out and carry it with you so you can quickly determine how much weight to use or how many reps you should do during your deadlift workouts.

1. Select your units – kilograms or pounds
2. Enter your 1-RM for the deadlift
3. View the table (see example below).

How to Improve your Deadlift 1RM

If you are interested in your deadlift one rep max, you probably want to improve it. After all, yesterday’s 1RM is old news! So, here are the training methods and strategies you need to use to put more weight on the bar and set a new deadlift 1RM record.

1. Perfect your deadlift technique

An improper deadlift wastes energy and makes for an inefficient pull. Technique faults that will limit how much weight you can lift include bending your arms, rounding your lower back, letting your hips rise faster than the bar, and letting the bar travel away from your legs.

Fix these faults, and your deadlift performance will automatically increase. Check out our in-depth deadlift form guide for more details on the correct form for deadlifts.

2. Deadlift twice a week

The deadlift is as much a skill as it is a test of strength. To get better at any skill, you need to practice it. That means deadlifting more than once per week. The deadlift is very strenuous, so you can’t do it every day, but you should be able to do it twice a week, e.g., Monday and Thursday.

Do one heavy deadlift workout per week using weights around 90-95% of your 1RM and a lighter deadlift workout with 80-85% of your 1RM a few days later.

3. Fix your deadlift weaknesses with assistance exercises

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Any weak muscles or muscle groups could sabotage your deadlift performance, and strengthening those weak links will increase how much weight you’ll be able to lift.  

Common deadlift weak links include:

• Grip strength
• Weak core muscles
• Weak lats
• Lower back weakness
• Weak glutes and/or hamstrings

Be honest about your deadlift performance, and then include the appropriate assistance exercises to shore up any weaknesses. For example, if you struggle to keep the barbell close to your shins, your lats are probably weak, and you should include more heavy rows in your workouts.  

Read more about programming for assistance exercises here.

4. Eat your way to a bigger deadlift

Powerlifters and bodybuilders often say that you need to eat big if you want to get big. They could also say that if you want to deadlift big, you need to eat big!

Nutrition plays a significant role in all types of weightlifting and strength training. The food you eat provides your body with energy for working out. At the same time, your muscles need protein to grow, vitamins and minerals for health, fats for hormonal balance, and a host of other nutrients to function correctly.

In other words, you are what you eat.

So, if you want to improve your deadlift, you need to ensure that your diet supports your training.

It’s beyond the scope of this article to tell you exactly what to eat, but here are a few deadlift-boosting nutrition tips:

• Adopt a slight calorie surplus to fuel your workouts, muscle growth, and recovery.
• Consume around one gram of protein per pound of body weight.
• Eat plenty of complex carbohydrates.
• Consume healthy fats.
• Minimize your intake of junk food, soda, refined foods, takeouts, etc.
• Drink lots of water.

Also, consider adding some carefully selected supplements to your diet. For example:

• Creatine – for energy and muscle building
• Pre-workouts – for fast-acting energy and better workouts
• Protein powder – for recovery and muscle growth
• BCAAs and EAAs – for recovery and muscle growth
• ZMA – for better sleep and hormone optimization

However, it’s important to remember that even the best supplements won’t help if you aren’t training hard, eating right, and getting plenty of sleep.

5. Follow a well-designed deadlift program

While you can probably increase your deadlift a little just by doing deadlifts as part of your regular workout, you’ll undoubtedly get better results if you follow a dedicated deadlift program.

The best deadlift programs are designed to increase training volume and intensity over several months to bring you to a peak. Most require that you know your deadlift 1RM at the beginning and then retest it at the end to see how much you have improved.

There are plenty of deadlift programs around, but these are some of the best.

• 9 Weeks to a Bigger Deadlift Program
• Three Deadlift Workout Programs to Enhance Strength and Performance

6. Be consistent

Even the best deadlift program won’t do much if you don’t do it consistently. Consistency is arguably THE most important part of successful strength and muscle building. The more workouts you miss, the slower your progress will be. Miss enough workouts, and you may not make any progress at all.

So, pick a deadlift program you know you can stick to. Not for a week or a month, but for as long as you want to see your deadlift poundage keep on increasing.

Don’t think that you’ll be able to train consistently? In that case, you are probably better off picking a different, less-committing workout plan.

One Rep Max Deadlift Calculator FAQs

1. How often should I retest my deadlift one rep max?

The great thing about our deadlift 1RM calculator is that you can use it to retest your deadlift whenever you want. Just input your current deadlift weight and the number of reps performed to determine your 1RM. So, in theory, you can retest your deadlift 1RM whenever you do deadlifts.

In contrast, doing a “real” 1RM deadlift test is so strenuous that you should only do it every couple of months.

Related: Average Deadlift By Weight, Gender, and Experience Level

2. How many reps should I do to estimate my 1RM?

All one-rep max calculators use equations to estimate your 1RM. While most allow you to input ten or more reps, you’ll get more accurate results if you work in the 3-5 rep range. The lower your rep count, the less of an estimate your 1RM result will be.

3. Does this calculator work for sumo and conventional deadlifts?

While sumo and conventional deadlifts use a different stance and movements, the basic mechanics of both lifts are very similar. As such, our deadlift one rep max calculator will work for both sumo and conventional deadlifts.

However, if you do both deadlift variations, you should test them separately, as you may be able to lift more weight with one or the other exercise.

4. Are deadlifts just for powerlifters, or do bodybuilders do them too?

The deadlift is the last part of most powerlifting competitions. A lot of events are won or lost during the deadlift! It’s also a common feature in strongman meets. However, the deadlift is more than just a test of brute strength; it’s also a bonafide muscle builder.

Bodybuilders do deadlifts to develop their upper and lower backs, glutes, and hamstrings. The deadlift has a reputation for packing on mass. While not all bodybuilders do deadlifts, those who do reckon it’s one of the best posterior chain exercises around.

5. Why do I need to know my deadlift 1RM?

There are a couple of situations where knowing your deadlift one rep max may be useful:

• Program planning – many workouts specify that you should train with a specific percentage of your 1RM, e.g., 75%. While you could estimate this weight, your workout will probably be more effective if you have a more accurate idea of your 1RM.
• Tracking your progress – if you are training for strength, it may be hard to tell if your program is working. Testing and then retesting your deadlift 1RM every few weeks will tell you if your program is effective or whether you need to make changes to make it more productive.  
• You’re a competitive powerlifter – powerlifters live and die by their squat, bench press, and deadlift 1RMs. Entire training cycles and competition peaking programs are based on current 1RMs. Using a calculator makes it easier to plan your next workout cycle.
• Just for fun – why not flex your ego a little and find out what your deadlift 1RM is? Have an informal deadlift meet with your training buddies. Use our calculator to compare results without doing a real one-rep deadlift test.

6. How much should I be able to deadlift?

At the time of writing, the current world record for the deadlift is 1,105 pounds/501 kilograms.

While it’s unlikely that you’ll be challenging that massive weight any time soon, there are standards that lifters can train to reach. These standards are determined by your age, weight, gender, and experience. For many, a double bodyweight deadlift is a good target.

Check out this article and find out how your deadlift performance measures up.

7. Aren’t deadlifts dangerous?

Deadlifts are actually a pretty safe exercise. In fact, they teach you the safest way to lift a heavy object off the floor, i.e., using your legs and back and without rounding your spine. However, because of the big weights that are often involved in deadlifting, small technical errors can cause injuries, some of which can be very serious.

One of the advantages of estimating your deadlift 1RM with our calculator instead of testing it for real is that you won’t need to use such heavy loads.

So, deadlifts are no more dangerous than squats, bench presses, or any other lift. However, that all changes if you perform them incorrectly.

Wrapping Up

Knowing your deadlift one rep max can be helpful for measuring your progress and determining what weights to use for your next training cycle. And while there is nothing wrong with doing a real 1RM deadlift test, it’s not always necessary or advisable, especially for beginners.

Use our one-rep max deadlift calculator to not only estimate your 1RM but also work out how many reps you should be able to do with a specific weight.

Retest your deadlift 1RM every few weeks to see how much your strength is improving.

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