The deadlift is the single clearest read on total-body strength, and there is a widely used scale for judging your own pull. Reference tables from ExRx.net and databases like Strength Level, which aggregates more than 6 million logged lifts, classify a one-rep max in five bands: untrained, novice, intermediate, advanced and elite, all as a multiple of body weight.
The scale is not a moral verdict. It is a mirror. And for most non-lifting adults, the practical target most coaches point to is a deadlift of 1.5 times body weight, which is roughly where a novice becomes something more.
The peak-age standards, by sex
The numbers below are for adults between roughly 25 and 40, the decade when relative strength typically peaks. A 180-pound man at the intermediate line is pulling around 360 pounds. A 150-pound woman at the same line is pulling around 225.
Level Also read: 7 warning signs of oral cancer most people mistake for something minor | Men (× body weight) | Women (× body weight) |
|---|---|---|
Untrained | 1.00× Also read: Common kitchen oil linked to lower blood pressure in new study | 0.75× |
Novice | 1.50× | 1.00× Also read: A tiny eye implant restored vision in 81% of patients with advanced macular degeneration |
Intermediate | 2.00× | 1.50× |
Advanced Also read: This type of beverage can increase the risk of stomach cancer | 2.50× | 2.00× |
Elite | 3.25× Also read: For healthy aging, which protein you eat may matter more than how much | 2.50× |
These multipliers line up with what Strength Level sees in its aggregated data pool of 6,393,746 qualifying lifts, and with the percentile ladder that Gravitus reports from its own logged workouts. In Barbell Medicine's analysis of competitive powerlifters aged 18 to 35, the 50th-percentile male deadlift lands at 2.51× body weight and the 90th at 3.25×, with women at 1.67× and 2.35× respectively.
What the 1.5× benchmark actually means
For a non-lifter, moving from off-the-street strength up to a deadlift of 1.5 times body weight is a realistic first-year goal with structured training. It is also the line where the health benefits are largest. As Barbell Medicine puts it, "the biggest survival benefit came from moving out of the weakest third, not from moving from strong to elite."
That framing matters more than the exact number. Grip and posterior-chain strength are among the strongest predictors of long-term health outcomes, and the biggest gains sit at the bottom of the curve.
How the standards shift with age
Deadlift strength holds surprisingly flat through the late 30s in trained lifters, then declines. Strength Level's age-adjusted data shows a male intermediate pulling 340 pounds at 25 to 40 drops to about 322 pounds by 45, 301 by 50, 278 by 55 and 254 by 60. The female intermediate line falls in parallel, from 200 pounds at peak to 149 by 60.
Turned into a rule of thumb, that is roughly 92 percent of peak strength in the 40s, 83 percent in the 50s and 72 percent by 60, a curve that aligns with the age scaling used by Arvo's standards tables.
Age band | Share of peak strength |
|---|---|
18-39 | ~100% |
40-49 | ~92% |
50-59 | ~83% |
60+ | ~72% |
Training slows the slide
The decline in the powerlifting data is much shallower than what happens to sedentary adults. Barbell Medicine reports that older male masters powerlifters over 69 lose strength at roughly 0.35 percent per year, about a third the rate of sedentary peers.
Untrained adults, by comparison, tend to lose 1 to 1.5 percent of strength per year after 40, with the drop accelerating past 60. The gap is the training itself. Even modest weekly volumes of lifting appear to preserve a large share of peak strength into the 50s and 60s.
For most adults, the takeaway is smaller than the tables suggest. Consistency beats intensity, and the biggest single jump in health value is the climb from untrained to novice, not the climb from advanced to elite.
This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.