Strength Standards by Age: How Much Should You Lift?

If you participate in any form of regular weight training, eventually someone is going to get around to asking you how much you can lift. The answer to the query about the uppermost limits of your strength is one that you might not know the answer to, either because you’ve shied away from chasing your one-rep max, or you’ve simply had no interest in knowing it. 

All the same, if maximizing your strength is a goal that you’re pursuing, it can be helpful to have an approximate idea of what those numbers will look like when you’re trending toward the top tier on several common exercises. That way, you’ll know how well your performance metrics measure up with the majority of the people in your age group, even when you can only visually measure yourself against your immediate training peers.

Bench Press

It’s stunning to think that the bench press in its modern form didn’t even exist 100 years ago. In a relatively short period of time, it has become so frequently cited as a measurement for brute strength that “What do you bench?” is practically synonymous with “How strong are you?” in most fitness settings. Realistically, if you’re talking about a gauge for absolute pushing power, it’s tough to argue with that logic.

For most lifts, once you reach adulthood, the standards for each age group don’t shift very much. Therefore, if you’re a man between 20 and 40 years of age, you’ll be considered a beginner until you can bench press 150 pounds. A single bench press of around 215 pounds or more qualifies you as an intermediate lifter, and once you’re within hailing distance of 300 pounds — say 290 pounds or so — you’re judged to be an advanced lifter.

As you age, your strength will decline so gradually that you may not even notice the losses for quite some time unless you’re constantly chasing your one-rep max. An intermediate lift on the bench at age 50 will be about 190 pounds, and an advanced lift will be in the vicinity of 250. By age 60, you’ll definitely feel the difference, as it will only take a lift 160 pounds on the bench for you to be rated as intermediate, and 220 pounds will rank you in the advanced class. 

Deadlift

With all due respect to the squat and its claim to the title of “King of Exercises,” the deadlift is not only a similar gauge of lower-body strength, but it is actually easier for most people to perform. From a practical standpoint, it also provides the most rational answer to the question of how much you can lift, because you’re literally picking up the heaviest stationary weight from the floor that you possibly can.

If you’ve never deadlifted before, you might be surprised by just how much weight a human being should be able to lift. Even at the beginner level, you are expected to hoist 170 pounds if you’re 40 years old or younger. A 250-pound deadlift makes you a novice, 330 pounds plants you at intermediate, and 440 pounds will place you in the advanced class.

If your knees and back hold up as you age — which is a big if indeed — a 300-pound deadlift will indicate to everyone that your strength is intermediate by the time you’re 50, and a 390-pound deadlift will place you among the advanced. At age 60, a controlled deadlift of 250 pounds will showcase your intermediate strength, while a deadlift of 330 pounds — a figure 100 pounds less than your lifetime strength peak — will have you appraised as elite for your age.

Pull-Ups

While the natural difficulty of pull-ups varies from one individual to the next based on your overall body weight or the length of your arms, the primary value of pull-ups as an assessment tool rests in your ability to control your own body weight. In essence, if you can stabilize your own body while you pull it off the ground, you probably have an adequate practical strength-to-weight ratio.

Pull-ups are an exercise where the bar you have to clear to move up to the novice level is surprisingly low, at only five reps. However, to jump to intermediate, you need to get your pull-up count into the mid-teens, and you need to comfortably string together more than 20 pull-ups at a time to be considered advanced when you’re in the prime of life.

By the time you’re 50 years old, if you can perform anywhere near 10 pull-ups in a row, you’re considered intermediate, but it will still take about 20 to be considered an advanced lifter. By the time you’re 60 years old, even cranking out four pull-ups is considered an intermediate output, while just over 10 is enough to make you an advanced bodyweight trainee.

Train to Maintain

While it’s wise to approach training with a rational understanding where your strength ranks in comparison to others, it’s also important to acknowledge the value of continuing to train as you age. For all of these exercises, an advanced lift at age 60 is on par with an intermediate lift at age 20. Therefore, please feel encouraged by the knowledge that diligent exercise can grant you the strength of an average 20 year old even as you enter the domain of senior citizens.

Summary

1. For the most part, your peak strength potential for most exercises will not vary significantly between the ages of 20 and 40 years of age.

2. The increase in age between 40 and 60 results in a drastic reshaping of resistance training achievements in order to be considered intermediate or advanced. 

3. As one example, a 150-pound bench press at age 40 — the mark for identifying a weightlifting beginner — is nearly enough to be regarded as intermediate for a 60 year old.

4. The decline is especially dramatic between the ages of 50 and 60; 10 pull-ups is considered an intermediate performance at age 50, but it only takes four reps to sustain the same rating at age 60.

5. By continuing to train while you age, you can sustain your overall strength at the level of an average 20 year old even as you reach your 60s.