This said, I am heading to your FB page to like it to be sure I don’t miss anything more from you. Note: these dumbbell standards include the weight of the bar, normally 2 kg / 4.4 lb. Ammi, I suspect that you’re hypothesis either has research to support it or that it eventually will. Women taking steroids are in a league of their own as they are manipulating their physiology to function more like a man. These female standards were last updated June and are based on 363,000 filtered lifts. Thanks for your thoughtful article. If you’re at the “advanced” or “elite” stage in any of the exercises listed above, be damn proud of yourself, as that means you’ve trained hard and consistently. For example, I can full squat around 365 lbs right now, but there are Olympic weightlifters who can bust out 900 lbs. I should have been more specific. This exercise has an average weight of 65 lb, a best weight of 190 lb, and has been logged 13 times in the last year. But women need to realize where they stand so they can be proud of their accomplishments. I also train with men so that doesn’t help and they don’t understand that some things are just so muvh harder for women to do. Male Female Weight… I’m currently at the intermediate and advanced stages on all core lifts. 5 random women out of 100 can do a pullup? When I used to train at commercial gyms, people were very impressed with my workouts. To reiterate, if you took a random sample of 100 women I doubt that more than five could bust out a full range chin up. I’m definitely guilty of comparing myself to many of the trained women you show, but it helps set my goals for sure. 10-8-6-4-2 Back Squat. Conversely, this type of client can bust out bodyweight 45 degree hypers like it ain’t no thang and needs to hold onto dumbbells to make it challenging. Gracias for the chart Bret! While many women are biased because they base their perception of female-strength off of what they see advanced women doing in the gym or what they’ve seen on Youtube videos, I’m here to give you the real-life breakdown in terms of female-strength. For weights listed in categories like the dumbbell walking lunge, are you saying hold 30 lbs total or 30 lb dumbells? One individual may be horrible at squatting but excellent at deadlifting or vice versa. A year ago experienced a SLAP Lesion that was repaired by surgery in September. You’re probably right about that! Women are definitely capable of amazing strength and endurance, more than they realize or give themselves credit for. Stuart goes on to say that women should expect to achieve around 55-70% of these numbers depending on age and body weight. So I just wanted to say thanks as I can re-read this over and over and feel good about my 4 full range pull ups! Here’s what you might notice: 1. Best of all, we can only get better! I can speak about this with confidence as there aren’t many trainers out there who have trained more women than me in the past decade. After a year or two of training, you should almost be able to squat with a resistance equal to your body weight. (or try to, lol!) Now I assume the weight in the chart is measured in pounds (lbs)? I bet 1 in 1,000 women could perform the lower end of most of the feats of strength on the right side of the column, and probably 1 in 50,000 could perform the upper end of most of the feats of strength on the right side of the column. Practicing a few days a week is a great place to start. Elderly doesn’t even need to occur in the sentence. One individual may suck at upper body pressing but rock the house with upper body pulling. Gender. best weight. Advanced male lifters will deadlift 210% of their body weight (females 160%). Any chance you can update Kilgore’s [link below] for front squats, snatches, hip thrust, and other compound exercises? i am a bit of a big fish in a small pond. Most areas I fall in advanced or elite there are deff other areas that still need some work! Women tend to be strongest at the hip thrust, followed by the deadlift, followed by the squat, assuming sound training is performed for all three exercises. A Comparison of Skinfold and Circumference Methods in Predicting Body Composition in Weight Trained Subjects, About Us | Privacy | Terms | ADA | Facebook | Testimonies | Feedback | Store. It’s quite impressive for an elderly women (60+) to be able to squat and lunge with her own bodyweight and deadlift and press with a barbell. I rank in the Elite columns on your graph in everything but chinups (I’ll get there) but I rarely compare myself to other girls because I find it to be not the most motivational thing. Thanks a lot Bret! … average weight. Average joe: 1.5x bodyweight. Seeing that chart makes me want to push myself harder! way higher with more room in intermediate. Once the correct height has been selected and the bar is loaded, step under the bar. What is the average weight for women who are 5’6″ or 1.68 metres? I don’t really know anything about powerlifting. I’ve worked up to that so far. This is very helpful, especially since I, myself, wonder if I’m strong or I just feel strong. It’s just blanket inactivity that sets the bar so low. It’s not everyday you see some guy squatting with over three plates per side while going rock bottom, pulling over five plates per side in the deadlift, or hip thrusting with over four plates per side, nor is it common to see a guy performing chin ups with two plates strapped around his waist. My horse in this race is that I worry that women will see this and sell themselves short and not lift heavy. You’re very welcome!!! Am one of those heavier (ok.. Obese) girls who loves her strength training. Other ways to support the continued development of ExRx.net is by providing us periodic donations or placing an order in our Store. I found your article because as I just recently turned 60 and can’t find standards for the non traditional lifts such as front squat. That said, I do take the point that I probably am “Elite” when compared to the majority of women, as opposed to just the sub-group of women who lift regularly. Above average: 1.75x bodyweight. sort of thing? Think about it. She has now been stalled there for a while but I think it’s because she’s only doing one or two workouts a week. Baby steps on this one; in fact so far my trainer has me squatting to a bench (just tapping my butt on it) and using only 15 pounds. Step 2: Grab a weight plate and hold it out in front of your body with arms straight out. So that makes 1/9, which is very close to your 10% estimate. Beginners need to start off with their own bodyweight, ensure proper levels of mobility, stability, and motor control, and use basic progressions. I finally committed to it 2.5 months ago, and have been lifting an hour three times a week. In my book that makes a woman “elite.” Now, if we focus on powerlifting, Oly lifting, strongman, bodybuilidng, and strength-based position sports, then the feats at the right hand of the column are much more typical and probably wouldn’t be considered “elite.”. We have male and female standards for these gym exercises and more: bench press, squat, deadlift, shoulder press, pull ups, dumbbell bench press, … The angle on inverted rows and push ups can be elevated to make them easier. It is not uncommon for a tall women to front squat just the barbell but deadlift with over 135 lbs. The responses on this post and on my Facebook wall help reaffirm by beliefs. Each of us are going to have lifts that suck for us and lifts that are great for us. For example, goblet squats are a good intermediate exercise that bridges the gap between bodyweight and barbell squats. Probably a lot of powerlifters and especially Oly lifters could pull it off, I just haven’t really seen it happen. I’ve seen this with another woman who trains PL, she can do them all day long but still can’t bench over 95lbs. 30 lb dumbbells, so 60 lbs total. I often discount myself because I don’t “look” like a fitspo, but according to your chart I’m a freaking ROCKSTAR! What up Karla! Again, I suspect that the coefficients only start to be relevant once you are just working with that unique sub-group of women who already lift regularly and for whom the extra weight probably does mean a good bit of extra muscle. I have been training for about 10 months now at 136lbs and went for not able to do pull ups to 8reps in 4 months and now squatting 8reps @185. I focused on them for over a year and was able to do 8-10 in decent form, now I can do 3 but my bench has gone up about 15lbs in that time. I’m also 30 lbs over weight. How do you compare on the bench press? Out of curiosity, what height and weight are you considering to be ‘average’? Could you post a similar table for those exercises you said you omitted in order to keep it simple? But several women now have posted who are not comfortable with the chart. No fancy periodization scheme, no crazy Bulgarian squat protocol, no 20–rep squat program. Bench press standards help estimate how much the average man can lift. The average weight most adult men and women can bench press depends on age, fitness level, and other factors. I’m planning on doing my weekly Blog-watch, due to go out in about 11 hours, about this post. Dumbbells for upper body are often necessary to bridge the gap between bodyweight and barbells. They make more sense in that type of environment. I squat sometimes – squat down to see what’s in the bottom of the fridge. They need to progress optimally in range with range of motion, reptitions, resistance, and exercise variation. But I ended up taking out what I wrote, and it included the coefficient issue. Average Female Braced Squat Weight. Deadlift (started three weeks ago): The average squat for novice women was 1.6xBW, with the 72kg and 84+kg classes having only 1.4xBW squats and all other classes being more than or equal to 1.5xBW. Every successive training session you add 5-10 lbs to your squat weight. How to do Full Squat: Step 1: Set the bar on a rack; it should be just above shoulder height. See About Us and Featured Testimonies to learn more. I am a 58 year old female who just started lifting 2 years ago. The last time I stuck with a weight training program for six months, I was “elite” according to your metric. Great article Bret. Thanks for this. Hi, I know this article is really old but I just wanted to say that I absolutely love it! About Us. Typical, untrained women don’t show up at my doorstep being able to bust out barbell full squats. But for me the article itself really helps when im not feeling great with my progress. However, that chart…. And if they work on perfect form to stay safe! How to do Braced Squat: Step 1: Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, while standing as tall as you can. 3. times logged #15. popularity rank. I would LOVE to train a female powerlifting/Oly lifting type though and see how far we could push the envelope. I can bench 110, and I can do 8 reps. I’m 18. I’m very proud of these feats as it’s taken me many years to reach these levels, and when you’re 6’4″ tall some lifts just don’t come easy. This exercise has an average weight of 0 lb, a best weight of 0 lb, and has been logged 0 times in the last year. I wish you would have posted the barbell glute bridge data within your chart! I hear this all the time and then I watch people’s form and it’s horrendous. But the world record is over 1,000 lbs! As for the remaining 1/3 or 33% of the female population who is of normal weight, probably only a 1/3 of them perform proper resistance training. What do you think of that, fluke or is there something to it? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman full squat 225 lbs ass to grass with an upright posture. Regardless, I’m proud to say that I’ve reached a good number of advanced and elite levels on your chart. When I actually pulled myself up the first time I was kind of in shock. I can do a pull up! Since 1999, ExRx.net has been a resource for exercise professionals, coaches, and … ExRx.net provides free content and relies on advertisement income to maintain this site. I use the strength standards posted over at exrnet. Assuming you’re telling the truth, congratulations! Although there's no true average squat weight, you can make reasonable predictions using your body weight, level of conditioning — and sometimes a little math. Or maybe defining it…you mean ‘elite’ for women who aren’t bodybuilders or competitive lifters, right? But the best thing I love about strength training is your main competition is your last PB. This means around 10% of women are “competing” … A chart based on percentage of body weight in this case might be more useful. I hope you’re doing well. As for the remaining 1/3 or 33% of the female population who is of normal weight, probably only a 1/3 of them perform proper resistance training. In your situation, being surrounded by female football players, the goal isn’t always physique-based and is often strength-based, and there exist more advanced women who have been training for more years and have reached impressive strength levels, so this is where you may see a 160 lb woman at 15% bodyfat who has not used steroids. Have any videos on Instagram or YouTube that I could see? See standards in Kilograms. Or not? I did take exception to the term “elderly” for 60+ women lifters. Sports Science Topics & Research Guest Articles, Peer-Reviewed Articles (Journal Publications), Coaching, Personal Training, Programming, & Nutrition Topics, Coaching, Personal Training, Programming, & Nutrition Guest Articles, http://koin.com/2014/04/16/world-champ-nurses-lift-weights/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4yzKM_Ovc0, No anabolic steroids (this changes everything), Typical anthropometry (height, weight, body segment length ratios), Proper form (full range of motion – no partial reps). It’s important to not get discouraged or biased when watching these videos. I want to squat and bench equal to my body wieght and deadlift 1.5X that much. I compete with me and only me. Hitting parallel in your squats? You’re a true academic, but thank you for always giving what you know to the public and keeping it real for us all. Because I don’t believe you. Strength gains are fastest in month one and have slowed down markedly at the six month mark. And then the actual professionals will blow these figures out of the water. Thanks for it brah. Then, jump feet back out wide, extend arms to lower weight between legs, and push hips back into a squat. I’ve been doing them for the last 4 months and I love them! If you’re new to doing squats, aim for 3 sets of 12-15 reps of at least one type of squat. I’m known for being a trainer who loves strength and who pushes the strength envelope as far as possible, and I take women who have worked with top trainers and still manage to get them way stronger. I’m not content with my levels of strength, and I hope I never am! An elite female of this weight who competes should be able to squat around 211 pounds. I can deadlift around 565 right now, which is one of my best lifts. A 181-pound woman without any weight-training experience should be able to bench press 85 pounds, on average. Here, here, Carolyn. For women, it’s roughly 125% of your body weight on the bar. I’m use to Kilgore’s 1RM chart for men and at first thought the same should be done for women, but your chart is so much more practical when training a beginner. We see a lot of YouTube videos these days involving people performing astounding feats of strength. Including, what’s up with that crazy arch thing? He said he couldn’t see a single thing to correct on my barbell bench press form; in fact, he was shocked and said most people have terrible form on that lift. As a female I often feel like I should be lifting more since the men are able to do so much more. What is the average weight a woman can squat? I’ve always been able to do pull-ups, in 6th grade I can remember doing three and being the only girl in class able to do them, got embarrassed and just stopped there. The squat must be peformed below parallel in the bottom position. WAAAAY too high an estimate, in my experience. As a fat woman, I find your quick dismissal insulting. I have trained a good number of women of all ages,just be boosting up there self esteem with praise goes a long way . For individuals with average genetics, 1.5 times their bodyweight (1.5 x BW) is the point beyond which things start to get really hard. Now that I’ve been getting to a heavy weight it does get mentally challenging :O but I love a good challenge. I totally love this article. Note: these barbell standards include the weight of the bar, normally 20 kg / 44 lb. That might indicate that the Bench Press number below needs to be adjusted down even a bit further. Hey Sarah, you’ll need to do some personal experimentation to find the right starting weight. If they’re too high you might think “no way am I ever going to get there, best to quit”. Dumbbell strength standards are based on the weight of each dumbbell, not the weight of two added together. I’ve completed changed my training because of what you’ve been posting here and I can’t begin to tell you how much it’s improved my strength and posture. Carolyn Post a video of you doing it and I’ll paypal you 100 dollars. Totally pausing on bench press, and overall lifting slowly and deliberately, not rushing. I am posting this because I want women to know they may be able to lift a lot heavier than they think if they have the confidence to try. Strength Standards. seriously bret I love this blog post. How is it that you do not post coefficients versus this “standard” chart (one size fits all?) Hey Bret! : front squats, sumo deadlifts, barbell glute bridges, Bulgarian split squats, glute ham raises, close grip bench press, lat pulldowns, chest supported rows, seated rows, inverted rows, and dumbbell curls. I enjoy your articles! I am extremely hard on myself, and this is a reminder to celebrate how far i’ve come, and continue to push towards my goals. Great information thank you for the post. Please post a Youtube video here and then I’ll respond to your comment. And do it as long as possible. 3. : ). To perform this exercise do the following steps: Step 1: Place the squat rack bars at waist height and set the barbell across the bars. Good feeling, huh? Are you pausing for a moment on the chest during bench press?