How Are Strength Standards Calculated?
Every exercise page has a level table: the one-rep max for each of five levels at each bodyweight, for men and for women. These tables are the FitnessVolt strength standards model. On squat, bench press and deadlift the competition percentiles shown beside them come from OpenPowerlifting raw meet results, but the level numbers themselves are model values, not meet percentiles. On every other lift the levels are FitnessVolt model estimates, some of them scaled from a base lift by a fixed ratio (see the next sections). A level name never means you are stronger than a given share of lifters.
Level score 5. The first number on the table, a starting target when the lift is new to you.
Level score 20. The next step up, reached with steady practice of the lift.
Level score 50. A useful first serious target for anyone training the lift regularly.
Level score 80. A much harder standard, well above the Intermediate number.
Level score 95. The top of the table.
How the Level score works. The Level score places your lift on the table at the nearest bodyweight: Beginner 5, Novice 20, Intermediate 50, Advanced 80, Elite 95. A lift between two levels scores in proportion to where it falls between their two numbers. A lift above Elite scores from 95 up to 99, and a lift below Beginner scores 5 or less. It is a score on the level scale, not a population percentile.
Levels and competition percentiles are different scales. On squat, bench press and deadlift, the page's "in Competition" section (for example, "Bench Press in Competition") shows the FitnessVolt Competition Percentile (FVCP, explained below) from raw meet results. People who enter meets are a trained, self-selected group, and the level tables were not built from their results, so a level does not match any fixed competition percentile.
The competition percentiles are computed from sex, equipment, and bodyweight cohorts only. They are not split by age. Where a page offers an age-adjusted view, that adjustment is a separate, clearly labeled step (McCulloch age coefficients applied to your lift), not an age cohort drawn from the competition data.
Which Lifts Have Which Data?
Our database covers 412 exercises. Each exercise page carries up to three kinds of data, always labeled and never blended:
| Data | Lifts | Source | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level table and Level score | All 412 | FitnessVolt strength standards model | A target number for each level at your bodyweight |
| Competition percentile (FVCP) | Squat, bench press, deadlift | OpenPowerlifting raw meet results | Where your lift ranks among judged meet results |
| Gym percentiles | 13 lifts | Symmetric Strength self-reported gym dataset | Where your lift ranks among gym lifters who reported theirs |
Each exercise page says which of these it has. A page without an "in Competition" or "in the Gym" section has the level table only.
How Does the Ratio-Based Estimation Method Work?
125 of the 412 exercises get their level table from a base lift and one fixed ratio:
- Pick the base lift. Each of these exercises is linked to the base lift closest to it in movement pattern: bench press (54), squat (38), shoulder press (23) and deadlift (10).
- Set the ratio. Each exercise has one FitnessVolt ratio to its base lift, for example 0.95 for the Barbell High Bar Squat against the squat. Each ratio carries a confidence tag of high, medium or low.
- Scale the table. Every number in the base lift's table, for men and women, by bodyweight and by age, is multiplied by that ratio and rounded.
The ratios are FitnessVolt estimates. They are not measured from a group of lifters, so a scaled table is a set of targets, not a description of how people actually lift.
The other 287 exercises, including the squat, bench press, deadlift and shoulder press, use editorial level tables carried over from the earlier FitnessVolt strength standards calculator. These tables are not computed from the OpenPowerlifting data.
What Is the FitnessVolt Competition Percentile (FVCP)?
The FitnessVolt Competition Percentile (FVCP) ranks a squat, bench press or deadlift against 2.5M+ judged powerlifting meet results from the public OpenPowerlifting dataset. Your FVCP is the percentile of your one-rep max among raw meet results from lifters of the same sex and bodyweight class. An FVCP of 50 means half of those meet results were lighter than your lift.
FVCP exists only for the squat, bench press and deadlift, the three lifts contested at powerlifting meets. No other lift on this site has a competition dataset, so no other lift has an FVCP. The Beginner-to-Elite level tables on every exercise page, the three powerlifts included, are a separate scale: the FitnessVolt strength standards model, explained above.
FVCP at a Glance
| Full name | FitnessVolt Competition Percentile (FVCP) |
|---|---|
| What it measures | The percentile rank of a one-rep max among raw powerlifting meet results |
| Lifts covered | Squat, bench press and deadlift only |
| Data basis | Judged meet results from OpenPowerlifting, using the best successful attempt in each lift |
| Cohorts | Sex × equipment (raw, wraps, single-ply, multi-ply) × bodyweight class. Exercise pages show the raw cohorts. |
| Scale | 0 to 100 percentile. This is not the Level score on the Beginner-to-Elite tables (Beginner 5, Novice 20, Intermediate 50, Advanced 80, Elite 95), which marks a position on the level scale, not a percentile. |
| Vs self-reported data | Kept apart from the Symmetric Strength self-reported gym percentiles, which lifts that have them show in their own section |
How Do We Process Competition Data?
This is how the competition percentiles for squat, bench press and deadlift are built:
- Data Collection - Meet results come from OpenPowerlifting, an open database of powerlifting results, with results from 200+ federations.
- Filtering - Each entry keeps its best successful attempt in each lift. Entries with no successful attempt in a lift are left out of that lift.
- Cohort Grouping - Results are grouped by sex, equipment class (raw, wraps, single-ply, multi-ply), and bodyweight class, so each lift is compared with like-for-like entries.
- Percentile Computation - For each cohort we compute the 1st, 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th and 99th percentiles. A lift between two of those points is placed by interpolation.
- Sample Sizes - Each cohort keeps its sample size, and the lift's "in Competition" section shows it next to the percentiles.
The tables are rebuilt when a newer OpenPowerlifting release is imported. The Beginner-to-Elite level tables are not part of this process.
Why Does Competition Data Matter?
Many strength standards tools rank you against self-reported data: numbers their users typed in. Those numbers come from real people, but nobody checks them, and they carry biases that judged meet results avoid:
- Selective memory - Lifters remember their best sets and forget failed attempts
- No depth verification - Squat depth, bench press pause, and lockout rules are not enforced in self-reported data. A "300 lb squat" might be a quarter rep.
- Selection bias - The people who enter their numbers are a self-selected group
- Rounding up - "I almost got 315" becomes "my max is 315" in self-reports
We keep each population apart instead of blending them. Judged meet results drive the competition percentiles, Symmetric Strength self-reported lifts drive the gym percentiles, and the FitnessVolt level tables are a separate model. Every figure on an exercise page names its source.
Where Does Our Data Come From?
Fitness Volt's competition percentiles are computed from judged meet results spanning decades of sanctioned meets. The source is OpenPowerlifting, an open database of powerlifting results, with results from 200+ federations. Every result in it was judged by meet officials under federation rules. The Beginner-to-Elite level tables shown across the exercise directory are the FitnessVolt strength standards model, published alongside (never blended with) the competition percentiles.
On 13 lifts, the three powerlifts among them, the exercise page also shows gym percentiles from the Symmetric Strength self-reported gym dataset: lifts that gym-goers entered themselves, with no judge. They sit in the page's "in the Gym" section (for example, "Squat in the Gym") with the sample size for each cohort.
Reader-submitted lifts appear on an exercise page only after enough entries are logged for that lift. They are labeled as reader data and are never mixed into the other sources.
How Confident Are These Standards?
Each kind of figure answers a different question, and each comes with its own limits:
| Figure | Data Source | How to read it | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competition percentile | Judged raw meet results | Measured, but only for people who compete | Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift |
| Gym percentile | Symmetric Strength self-reported gym dataset | Real entries, not judged; sample size shown per cohort | Squat, Shoulder Press, Pull Ups |
| Level table, editorial | FitnessVolt strength standards model | Model estimate: targets, not a measured population | Squat, Bench Press, Barbell Curl |
| Level table, ratio-scaled | A base lift's table times one ratio | Model estimate, one step further from any data | Barbell High Bar Squat, Dumbbell Decline Bench Press |
Where a lift has an "in Competition" or "in the Gym" section, use it to see how measured lifters compare. Use the level table as a set of targets.
Why Data Quality Matters for Strength Standards
A strength comparison is only as good as its source. When standards are built from self-reported gym numbers without saying so, an honest lifter can end up measuring a real 1RM against inflated ones.
That is why Fitness Volt keeps three sources apart and labels each one: judged meet results for the competition percentiles on squat, bench press and deadlift, the Symmetric Strength self-reported gym dataset for gym percentiles on the lifts that have them, and the FitnessVolt strength standards model for the level tables on every lift.
Ready to check your strength levels? Browse all 412 exercises or use the E1RM Calculator to estimate your one-rep max first.
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