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WHITELIGHTS

Real judged lifts. Zero self-reported numbers. This is what strong actually is.

Verdict

Is a 70 kg bench press good?

Short answer: it depends entirely on your bodyweight, and here is the table that says by how much.

At 82.5–87.5 kg bodyweight, 70 kg is the 3rd percentile of judged lifts — novice among people who compete.

Intermediate Advanced Elite World-class 0255075100 5080110140170200 kg lifted →
kg

Percentile

29,914 judged bench presss, men, 82.5–87.5 kg

No lift entered. The curve is every judged bench presss in this class — add yours to it.

Not your class?

70 kg is 154 lb. The chart is preloaded with it — change the number to check your own.

What 70 kg means at every bodyweight

The same lift is a different achievement at 60 kg and at 120 kg. This is the whole answer, not one row of it.

Men

BodyweightPercentileBandMedian for the class
up to 52.5 kg 76th Advanced 50.0
52.5–57.5 kg 47th Intermediate 72.5
57.5–62.5 kg 26th Intermediate 85.0
62.5–67.5 kg 11th Novice 100.0
67.5–72.5 kg 9th Novice 102.5
72.5–77.5 kg 4th Novice 115.0
77.5–82.5 kg 2nd Novice 122.5
82.5–87.5 kg 3rd Novice 125.0
87.5–92.5 kg 1st Novice 135.0
92.5–97.5 kg 2nd Novice 137.5
97.5–102.5 kg <1 Novice 145.0
102.5–107.5 kg <1 Novice 150.0
107.5–112.5 kg <1 Novice 155.0
112.5–117.5 kg <1 Novice 155.0
117.5–122.5 kg <1 Novice 162.5
122.5–127.5 kg <1 Novice 165.0
127.5–132.5 kg <1 Novice 161.0
132.5–137.5 kg <1 Novice 165.6
137.5 kg and above <1 Novice 172.5

Women

BodyweightPercentileBandMedian for the class
up to 52.5 kg 93rd Elite 46.5
52.5–57.5 kg 88th Elite 52.5
57.5–62.5 kg 83rd Elite 55.0
62.5–67.5 kg 77th Advanced 60.0
67.5–72.5 kg 72nd Advanced 60.0
72.5–77.5 kg 66th Advanced 62.5
77.5–82.5 kg 66th Advanced 65.0
82.5–87.5 kg 64th Advanced 65.0
87.5–92.5 kg 65th Advanced 65.0
92.5–97.5 kg 64th Advanced 65.0
97.5–102.5 kg 58th Advanced 67.5
102.5–107.5 kg 55th Advanced 67.5
107.5–112.5 kg 51st Advanced 70.0
112.5–117.5 kg 51st Advanced 70.0
117.5–122.5 kg 46th Intermediate 72.5
122.5–127.5 kg 43rd Intermediate 75.0
127.5–132.5 kg 42nd Intermediate 75.0
137.5 kg and above 32nd Intermediate 80.0

The road from here

LiftPercentileBand
70.03rdNovice
80.05thNovice
90.010thNovice
100.018thNovice

Men at 82.5–87.5 kg bodyweight. Percentile gained per 10 kg, so you can see what the next plate is actually worth.

Who these numbers describe. Everyone in this dataset entered a powerlifting competition. They are stronger than the general gym population, so a 50th percentile here is well above an average gym-goer — we would rather tell you that than quietly flatter you. Nobody has ever published a trustworthy random sample of what people lift in commercial gyms; what exists instead is app data that people type in themselves.

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Published by

Amit Sharma

Auckland real-estate agent and marketer. Builds free, sourced data tools.