How Strenf grades strength & cardio

Strenf Standards Model v1 · strength dataset openpowerlifting-2026-06-06-aa0dd710.csv · generated 2026-06-12

Who you're being compared to

Squat, bench press and deadlift thresholds are percentiles of competitive lifters. Two numbers matter here and they are not the same number. The OpenPowerlifting archive file we used (openpowerlifting-2026-06-06-aa0dd710.csv) contains 3,941,811 competition entries. We did not compute percentiles from all of them. After filtering, 1,819,091 entries remained, and those are the rows the standards are derived from. The archive total is not the sample size.

That leaves 282,657 men / 131,210 women for squat; 393,838 / 155,997 for bench; 324,539 / 146,778 for deadlift. We do not filter on the archive's Sanctioned flag, so a small number of unsanctioned meet results are included.

There is no general-population barbell dataset anywhere — sites that imply otherwise are comparing you to their own self-reported user entries. We compare you to people who actually compete, and we say so.

The ladder

Elite = top 5% of meet entrants · Advanced = top 20% · Intermediate = 15th percentile of meet entrants (roughly: you could enter a meet and not finish last) · Novice and Beginner extend below the competitive population, spaced by the same ratio observed between rungs at the bottom of the competition distribution.

Measured vs modeled

Lifts contested in competition are measured directly. Everything else — cable, dumbbell and machine movements — is modeled: a fixed ratio applied to a measured anchor lift (e.g. overhead press ≈ 0.62× bench), with the ratio stated on each page. Those ratios are conventional strength relationships used in coaching practice, chosen by us. They are a modelling assumption, not a measurement and not a citation of published research. A modeled tier tells you where you stand relative to that assumption; only the three measured lifts carry an observed percentile. Machine and cable loads also vary by manufacturer, so treat those thresholds as guides.

For a modeled lift, women's thresholds come from women's competition results for the anchor lift scaled by the same ratio — not from competition results for the modeled lift itself, which do not exist.

Age adjustment

Multipliers are derived from Masters competition results (median best-ratio by age band vs the 24–34 peak band), interpolated smoothly. Your lift is scaled up before grading. This is a cross-sectional comparison between age groups who competed, not a record of individual lifters ageing, and it inherits the self-selection of people who still enter meets. Ages outside the fitted range are clamped to the nearest band.

Estimated one-rep max

Submaximal sets are converted with the Epley formula: 1RM = weight × (1 + reps/30). Like every 1RM formula this is an estimate, and it drifts upward as reps climb — treat conversions above about 10 reps as rough.

Running & cycling

Running is graded against population data: published finish-time percentiles from RunRepeat's analysis of 35 million race results across ~28,000 races. Each tier is a real published decile — Elite = top 1% of finishers, Advanced = top 10%, Intermediate = top 30%, Novice ≈ the median finisher, Beginner = top 90% (only the slowest tenth of finishers fall below it). Each distance uses its own deciles, because marathon finishers are a fitter, self-selected group than 5K finishers — projecting one distance onto another would distort the standard. The 1-mile tier (which RunRepeat doesn't publish) is filled with the Riegel endurance formula, T₂ = T₁·(D₂/D₁)^1.06 (Riegel, 1977 — public).

Cycling is modeled: no population percentile dataset exists, so its tiers come from published average-speed-by-ability bands repeated across coaching sources, with a mild slow-down applied for longer distances. Treat cycling tiers as guides, not measured percentiles.

Both are age-adjusted with an endurance-decline curve, and your effort is graded at its logged distance (interpolated between the benchmark distances).

Data & license

Strength: OpenPowerlifting, contributed to the public domain — this page is the attribution they request. Running: population percentile statistics published by RunRepeat (aggregate facts), scaled with the public Riegel formula. Strenf's derived standards are © Strenf, published openly here.