Deadlift standards by age and bodyweight

Adult deadlift standards work as bodyweight multipliers. Adult male: untrained 1.0×, novice 1.5×, intermediate 2.0×, advanced 2.75×, elite 3.25× of bodyweight. Adult female: untrained 0.7×, novice 1.0×, intermediate 1.4×, advanced 1.85×, elite 2.25×. Below 18, the engine flips into teen mode — soft framing only (still-building / typical / above-typical-beginner / unusually-strong), per AAP guidance against maximal lifts before skeletal maturity. Two different scales for two different populations.

The multiplier values here are ExRx-aligned StrengthMath methodology— the directional shape of the ladder mirrors ExRx's published training-population table; the exact per-band numbers are this engine's framing of the ratios, not a peer-reviewed dataset. The deadlift ladder runs higher than every other lift on the calculator — untrained 1.0× of bodyweight (vs 0.8× squat, 0.7× bench), elite 3.25× (vs 3.0× squat, 2.5× bench) — a structural feature of the lift, not inflation. Run your numbers through the StrengthMath calculator hub (or read the band logic in the methodology page) to see where you land.

Adult male deadlift standards

The adult-male multiplier ladder runs untrained 1.0× → novice 1.5× → intermediate 2.0× → advanced 2.75× → elite 3.25× of bodyweight. The 1.5× bodyweight deadlift is the litmus that splits novice from past-novice — what most non-lifting men can build to in a structured first year. The 2× bodyweight deadlift is the milestone that gets casual coverage; it actually sits at intermediate, not at the elite ceiling, and the lifter pulling 2× of their own bodyweight is in the middle of the ladder, not at the top of it.

Multipliers are ExRx-aligned StrengthMath methodology. Bodyweight and lifted weight must be in the same unit; multipliers are unitless and carry through identically for lb-mode lifters.

The largest single jump on the adult-male deadlift ladder is the 0.75× of bodyweight gap between intermediate and advanced. Most natural deadlift progress stalls in the back half of intermediate (1.8–2.0× of bodyweight) and the climb to 2.75× takes years of structured work — pulling-specific accessory work, programming the deadlift around recovery instead of every-other-day, lots of patience on bar speed. If your deadlift is parked at 2× of bodyweight, you haven't plateaued; you're where most serious lifters live.

Adult female deadlift standards

The adult-female multiplier ladder is structurally similar but lower across the board: untrained 0.7× → novice 1.0× → intermediate 1.4× → advanced 1.85× → elite 2.25× of bodyweight. The female-vs-male gap on deadlift sits roughly at 0.7× of the male multipliers across the ladder — narrower than bench, comparable to squat, because lower-body and posterior-chain training-population gaps are smaller than upper-body gaps. The female elite ceiling at 2.25× of bodyweight is a serious lifter at any weight class, and competitive female lifters routinely clear novice and intermediate adult-male multipliers.

Multipliers are ExRx-aligned StrengthMath methodology. The female-vs- male ratio gap describes population averages, not individual capacity.

The litmus number on the female ladder is bodyweight deadlift at 1.0× — which sits exactly at novice. A clean bodyweight pull for an adult female lifter is the equivalent of a 1.5× bodyweight pull for an adult male; both clear novice cleanly. That's a more useful framing than the absolute number, because absolute-load comparisons across sex obscure how the band is structured.

Stance and bar are part of the standard

The bench multiplier ladder doesn't care about grip width or arch — a bench is a bench. The deadlift cares about stance and bar. The multiplier ladder above is stance-agnostic in the sense that it reads any 1RM and assigns a band, but the underlying ladder shape was calibrated against straight-bar conventional and sumo deadlifts (the two competition-legal deadlifts in IPF / USAPL). Trap-bar pulls run measurably higher 1RMs for the same lifter — Swinton 2011 found a mean 8.2% advantage (n=19 male powerlifters) on the trap-bar relative to the straight bar, with lower peak moments at the lumbar spine and higher peak moments at the knee.

What that means in practice: a 220 kg trap-bar pull and a 220 kg straight-bar conventional pull from the same lifter are not the same number, and the band assignment from the higher-leverage variant runs one notch hotter than the lower-leverage variant would. If your deadlift number comes from a trap bar and you're comparing to a friend pulling straight-bar conventional, expect to land one band higher than the band a re-test on a straight bar would give. The full variant question — conventional vs sumo, trap-bar leverage, RDL versus pulling, deficit and paused work — gets its own page at deadlift variants strength differentials. Grip strategy — mixed vs double-overhand vs hook — gets a separate page at deadlift grip strategy, because the strongest grip and the safest grip are not the same grip.

What “ExRx-aligned” means (and what it doesn't)

ExRx publishes a strength-standards table that has been the de facto field reference for training-population bench / squat / deadlift / OHP norms since the 2000s. It's training-population synthesis — assembled from gym-floor and coaching reports rather than from a peer-reviewed dataset. That makes it broader than competitive-lifter databases (everyone in OPL is, by definition, a competitor) but it also means ExRx isn't Tier 1 — it isn't in JSCR or Sports Medicine, and there's no validation paper to cite for the multipliers.

The directional shape of the ladder used here — untrained → novice → intermediate → advanced → elite, with intermediate at roughly 2× bodyweight for adult-male deadlift — is consistent across ExRx's published table. The exact per-multiplier values in the engine are StrengthMath's framing of those ratios, rounded to clean tenths for table-readability. This is why the methodology page labels the adult tables as “ExRx-aligned” rather than “ExRx-published” — the structure is borrowed; the exact numbers are this engine's.

What that means for you: read the band as a directional placement, not a sealed-tight benchmark. The difference between 1.95× bodyweight (high-novice) and 2.05× bodyweight (low-intermediate) is well inside the noise the multiplier ladder is calibrated for. If your deadlift sits 5% under a band line, you're in that band for all practical purposes.

OpenPowerlifting context (adult only)

OpenPowerlifting (openpowerlifting.org) aggregates results from sanctioned powerlifting meets — IPF, USAPL, USPA, WRPF, and dozens of other federations. Every entry in the dataset is a registered powerlifter who competed at a meet, which makes OPL useful for adult competitive percentile context but structurally unsuitable as a population mean. The OPL population is self-selected: people who don't pull much don't enter powerlifting meets.

Stance is also coded in OPL — sumo and conventional both legal in most federations, and the percentile distribution within each style is meaningfully different at the same bodyweight. If you're a sumo puller comparing to OPL, filter for sumo entries; the absolute numbers at any given percentile in sumo run a few percent higher than conventional in many weight classes, mostly because the leverage at the bottom is shorter.

OPL is not used for ages under 18. Most powerlifting federations restrict youth competition, the under-18 entries that do exist are sparse and self-selected, and the AAP recommendation against maximal lifts at this age makes a competitive percentile a poor framing tool for a teen lifter regardless. The teen-mode soft bands on this site never reference OPL.

Teen mode (under 18): soft framing only

For a lifter under 18, the engine returns a different shape: still-building, typical, above-typical-beginner, or unusually-strong — never elite, advanced, or intermediate. The thresholds are anchored to the adult-male novice multiplier (1.5× bodyweight on deadlift) as a stable reference scale, with cutoffs at 50%, 100%, and 150% of that anchor:

The teen anchor is the same shape as the bench and squat teen anchors — only the underlying novice multiplier changes (1.5× for deadlift vs 1.25× for squat vs 1.0× for bench). Adult bands are calibrated against population-level competitive distributions, OpenPowerlifting data is sparse and skewed for under-18, and growth-driven changes in bodyweight and skeletal maturity over a single year produce ratio fluctuations that adult bands aren't calibrated for. The soft framing isn't a polite hedge; it's the right shape for the data we have.

The recommendation that anchors teen mode is verbatim from AAP:

Preadolescents and adolescents should avoid power lifting, body building, and maximal lifts until they reach physical and skeletal maturity.

That's the 2008 AAP policy statement, retained verbatim in the 2020 clinical report. The carve-out is narrower than “don't lift”: supervised resistance training with proper technique is considered safe and broadly endorsed for kids who can follow instruction. The carve-out is for competitive powerlifting, bodybuilding, and singles/doubles at maximal load. Submaximal training and rep-based programming stay green-lit. The just-turned-adult transition at 18 is a place where the engine flips into adult mode but the AAP nuance still applies — see the worked example at Is a 200 kg deadlift good at 18?

What these standards do NOT capture

The multiplier ladder reads exactly two numbers — your deadlift and your bodyweight — and assigns a band. It doesn't see stance (conventional vs sumo), bar (straight bar vs trap bar — Swinton 2011 found roughly 8% higher trap-bar 1RM), grip (mixed lifts more than double-overhand; hook is its own thing), equipment (belt vs raw, straps vs no straps), pulling style (touch-and-go vs strict singles), training age, fatigue state, or whether the rep was a grindy maximum or a tidy single. It also doesn't model age decade for adults — a 60-year-old at 2× bodyweight is intermediate by the same band line as a 30-year-old, even though the two pulls mean different things in context. The full list of un-modeled factors lives on the methodology page alongside the engine's own disclosure.

Grip is the most common adult reason a band assignment feels off. A straps-up training pull is not the same lift as a raw-grip competition pull, and the multiplier ladder assigns the same band regardless. If your deadlift PR is a strapped pull, expect to land one band lower if you re-test grip-limited; if your PR is mixed-grip, expect a small drop on a strict double-overhand. The grip strategy page covers the tradeoffs in detail.

To plug a submaximal set into the multiplier framework, run your 3-rep or 5-rep load through the 1RM calculator first to get an estimated 1RM, then divide by bodyweight. The deadlift-specific +10% LeSuer adjustment is covered at how to estimate deadlift 1RM from reps. Formula choice is covered in detail in the best-formula comparison.

Common questions

What is a good deadlift for a man? For a woman?

Bodyweight-relative, like every other lift. The StrengthMath strength-standards engine uses ExRx-aligned multipliers: for adult men, untrained 1.0× bodyweight, novice 1.5×, intermediate 2.0×, advanced 2.75×, elite 3.25×. For adult women, untrained 0.7×, novice 1.0×, intermediate 1.4×, advanced 1.85×, elite 2.25×. An 80 kg man pulling 160 kg is intermediate; a 65 kg woman pulling 90 kg is intermediate. The 1.5× bodyweight deadlift is the gym-floor litmus for adult-male novice — a clean year of structured pulling for most non-lifting men.

Why are deadlift multipliers higher than squat multipliers?

The deadlift involves the largest muscle groups in the body acting through a shorter range of motion than the squat, which is why the deadlift typically outpaces the squat by 25–50 kg for the same lifter. Untrained adult-male deadlift opens at 1.0× of bodyweight versus 0.8× for squat; the elite ceiling sits at 3.25× of bodyweight versus 3.0× for squat. The novice anchor at 1.5× of bodyweight is the same number that anchors teen mode for deadlift, and it's a useful gym-floor litmus: pulling 1.5× of your own bodyweight is the line between 'starting' and 'past-starting' as a deadlifter.

Do these standards assume a specific stance or grip?

No. The multiplier ladder is stance-agnostic — conventional, sumo, and trap-bar all enter the same band table once you have a 1RM. Trap-bar 1RMs run roughly 8% above straight-bar conventional for the same lifter (Swinton 2011), so a trap-bar number that lands 'advanced' on this ladder might land 'intermediate' if you re-tested with a straight bar. Grip is similar — mixed grip lifts more than double-overhand, hook grip is its own thing. The engine doesn't see equipment, stance, or grip; it reads the 1RM and the bodyweight. The variants question gets its own page; see the deadlift-variants comparison.

How do I read these standards for a 17-year-old?

You don't — the engine returns teen soft framing for ages under 18. Adult bands (intermediate, advanced, elite) are not assigned to minors, and OpenPowerlifting is not used for under-18 framing. The teen-mode bands are still-building / typical / above-typical-beginner / unusually-strong, anchored to the adult-male novice multiplier (1.5× bodyweight deadlift) as a stable reference scale. At 18 the engine flips into adult mode — but the AAP guidance against maximal lifts before skeletal maturity has a 'just-turned-adult' nuance worth being explicit about; see the worked 200 kg at 18 example.

Where does OpenPowerlifting fit in?

Adult competitive context only. OpenPowerlifting aggregates results from registered powerlifters at sanctioned meets — the entire population is a competitor, so OPL percentiles run far above gym averages. If your deadlift number sits at 'elite' against the ExRx-aligned multiplier ladder, that places you near the median of competitive powerlifters in the same weight class. Use OPL for percentile context, never as a population mean. Sumo vs conventional is also a meaningful split in the OPL data — both are legal in most federations, and a 'top 10% deadlift' looks different in each style.

Where to next

If you came in with a submax-rep number rather than a tested 1RM, start with the 1RM calculator plus the deadlift-specific reps-to-1RM guide to read your band on this page's tables. To compare your deadlift against a bench number at the same training age, the typical deadlift-to-bench ratio is covered at deadlift-to-bench ratio: what's typical. For the variants question (conventional vs sumo, trap-bar, RDL), see deadlift variants strength differentials. For the grip question, see deadlift grip strategy. The methodology page documents the adult-vs-teen split and the sourcing posture in full.