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WHITELIGHTS

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

Verdict

Is a 90 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, 90 kg is the 10th 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?

90 kg is 198 lb. The chart is preloaded with it — change the number to check your own.

What 90 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 90th Elite 50.0
52.5–57.5 kg 76th Advanced 72.5
57.5–62.5 kg 58th Advanced 85.0
62.5–67.5 kg 36th Intermediate 100.0
67.5–72.5 kg 31st Intermediate 102.5
72.5–77.5 kg 16th Novice 115.0
77.5–82.5 kg 9th Novice 122.5
82.5–87.5 kg 10th Novice 125.0
87.5–92.5 kg 5th Novice 135.0
92.5–97.5 kg 5th Novice 137.5
97.5–102.5 kg 4th Novice 145.0
102.5–107.5 kg 3rd Novice 150.0
107.5–112.5 kg 4th Novice 155.0
112.5–117.5 kg 4th Novice 155.0
117.5–122.5 kg 3rd Novice 162.5
122.5–127.5 kg 3rd Novice 165.0
127.5–132.5 kg 4th Novice 161.0
132.5–137.5 kg 3rd Novice 165.6
137.5 kg and above 3rd Novice 172.5

Women

BodyweightPercentileBandMedian for the class
up to 52.5 kg 99+ World-class 46.5
52.5–57.5 kg 98th World-class 52.5
57.5–62.5 kg 97th World-class 55.0
62.5–67.5 kg 95th World-class 60.0
67.5–72.5 kg 94th Elite 60.0
72.5–77.5 kg 90th Elite 62.5
77.5–82.5 kg 91st Elite 65.0
82.5–87.5 kg 89th Elite 65.0
87.5–92.5 kg 90th Elite 65.0
92.5–97.5 kg 90th Elite 65.0
97.5–102.5 kg 86th Elite 67.5
102.5–107.5 kg 87th Elite 67.5
107.5–112.5 kg 84th Elite 70.0
112.5–117.5 kg 82nd Elite 70.0
117.5–122.5 kg 77th Advanced 72.5
122.5–127.5 kg 77th Advanced 75.0
127.5–132.5 kg 77th Advanced 75.0
137.5 kg and above 66th Advanced 80.0

The road from here

LiftPercentileBand
90.010thNovice
100.018thNovice
110.029thIntermediate
120.043rdIntermediate

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.