Normative data for the squat, bench press and deadlift exercises in powerlifting: Data from 809,986 competition entries

van den Hoek, Beaumont, van den Hoek, Owen, Garrett, Buhmann, Latella · 2024 · Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 27(10):734–742

What this work gives Aellic

809,986 drug-tested raw competition entries (571,650 male, 238,336 female). For male lifters aged 18–35 the 90th percentile lands almost exactly on Aellic's elite anchor: squat 2.83 versus our 2.75, bench press 1.95 versus 2.00, deadlift 3.25 versus 3.25 (all as 1RM ÷ body mass). Peer-reviewed backing for three of the twelve lifts, on the male side. The female elite anchors rest on strengthlevel alone; this paper's female 90th percentiles are lower (squat 2.26, bench press 1.35, deadlift 2.66) and were never used to set them.

Correction of 26 July 2026

The three number pairs were written as “2.83/2.75, 1.95/2.00, 3.25/3.25” without saying what the slash separated. It separates this paper's value from Aellic's anchor, both male — but it reads just as easily as male/female, and on that reading every second number is wrong. The pairs are spelled out now, the age band the percentile refers to is named, and the female anchors are declared for what they are: unbacked by this source.

The entry on the register was wrong. It was not replaced but kept, with what holds instead standing next to it.

Where this sits in the engine

1 declared site: constants and thresholds in the code that point at this entry.

Training Strength standards and ranks 1 site

Also in Training

To the full register Sites without a source Report an error