Average Bench Press: Strength Standards by Bodyweight

Ask how much the average person can bench press and there are two honest answers. The literal one is that an untrained man presses roughly half his bodyweight and an untrained woman roughly a third. The useful one is the question people are really asking: how does my bench compare to lifters who have been training as long as I have?

Strength standards answer the second version. They express a one-rep max as a multiple of bodyweight, because a 60 kg lifter and a 100 kg lifter pressing the same bar are not doing the same thing. The tables below give those multiples for five training levels, then turn them into real numbers at the bodyweights most people actually fall between.

Standards at a glance#

Each level is a one-rep max expressed as a multiple of bodyweight. Find your level in this table, then use the tables below it for the number at your weight.

Level	Men (× bodyweight)	Women (× bodyweight)
Beginner	0.5×	0.35×
Novice	0.75×	0.5×
Intermediate	1×	0.75×
Advanced	1.5×	1×
Elite	2×	1.35×

What each level means#

Beginner#

Your first weeks under a bar. You can press an empty barbell for controlled reps without help, and the number climbs almost every session because you are still learning the lift as much as building it.

Novice#

Three to nine months of consistent pressing. The setup is repeatable, the bar path stops wandering, and linear progression still works — you add the smallest plate available and it goes up.

Intermediate#

One to two years in, and the milestone everyone quotes: a bench equal to bodyweight for men, around three quarters of it for women. Progress arrives weekly rather than session to session.

Advanced#

Several years of deliberate training. One and a half times bodyweight puts a man ahead of essentially everyone else in a commercial gym, and adding 5 kg to the bar becomes a multi-month project.

Elite#

Competitive territory. Double bodyweight is the line between a strong gym lifter and someone who competes, and reaching it takes structured programming, a bench-specific setup, and years of accumulated work.

Men's bench press standards by bodyweight#

Every cell is a one-rep max, rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg or 5 lbs. Find the row closest to your bodyweight and read across.

In kilograms#

Bodyweight	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
60 kg	30 kg	45 kg	60 kg	90 kg	120 kg
70 kg	35 kg	52.5 kg	70 kg	105 kg	140 kg
80 kg	40 kg	60 kg	80 kg	120 kg	160 kg
90 kg	45 kg	67.5 kg	90 kg	135 kg	180 kg
100 kg	50 kg	75 kg	100 kg	150 kg	200 kg
110 kg	55 kg	82.5 kg	110 kg	165 kg	220 kg

In pounds#

Bodyweight	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
130 lbs	65 lbs	100 lbs	130 lbs	195 lbs	260 lbs
150 lbs	75 lbs	115 lbs	150 lbs	225 lbs	300 lbs
170 lbs	85 lbs	130 lbs	170 lbs	255 lbs	340 lbs
190 lbs	95 lbs	145 lbs	190 lbs	285 lbs	380 lbs
210 lbs	105 lbs	160 lbs	210 lbs	315 lbs	420 lbs
230 lbs	115 lbs	175 lbs	230 lbs	345 lbs	460 lbs

Women's bench press standards by bodyweight#

Every cell is a one-rep max, rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg or 5 lbs. Find the row closest to your bodyweight and read across.

In kilograms#

Bodyweight	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
50 kg	17.5 kg	25 kg	37.5 kg	50 kg	67.5 kg
55 kg	20 kg	27.5 kg	42.5 kg	55 kg	75 kg
60 kg	20 kg	30 kg	45 kg	60 kg	80 kg
70 kg	25 kg	35 kg	52.5 kg	70 kg	95 kg
80 kg	27.5 kg	40 kg	60 kg	80 kg	107.5 kg
90 kg	32.5 kg	45 kg	67.5 kg	90 kg	122.5 kg

In pounds#

Bodyweight	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
110 lbs	40 lbs	55 lbs	85 lbs	110 lbs	150 lbs
125 lbs	45 lbs	65 lbs	95 lbs	125 lbs	170 lbs
140 lbs	50 lbs	70 lbs	105 lbs	140 lbs	190 lbs
155 lbs	55 lbs	80 lbs	115 lbs	155 lbs	210 lbs
175 lbs	60 lbs	90 lbs	130 lbs	175 lbs	235 lbs
195 lbs	70 lbs	100 lbs	145 lbs	195 lbs	265 lbs

How to test your one-rep max safely#

Every number on this page is a one-rep max, but you do not need to attempt a true single to use them. Take a set you finish with one or two reps left in reserve — three to five reps is the sweet spot — and run it through the one-rep max calculator. Estimates from that range land within roughly 5% of a tested max, with none of the fatigue or risk.

If you do want to test, do it in a rack with the safety pins set just below chest height, or with a spotter who has genuinely caught a bench before. Ramp up with the warm-up calculator — singles around 60%, 75%, 85%, and 92% with two to four minutes of rest — then take one honest attempt. A second failed attempt in the same session tells you nothing except that you are tired.

Whichever route you take, test the same way every time. A touch-and-go rep, a paused rep, and a rep with hard leg drive and a big arch are three different lifts. Comparing across them is how lifters talk themselves into believing they have stalled when they have not.

How standards shift with bodyweight#

Bodyweight multiples are convenient, but they are not linear. Heavier lifters press more in absolute terms and less relative to their weight, because muscle cross-section grows more slowly than bodyweight does. A 1.5× bench at 60 kg is a harder feat than a 1.5× bench at 110 kg, even though the table calls both of them advanced.

Powerlifting coefficients exist to correct for exactly this. Run your lift through the Wilks calculator or the DOTS calculator and you get a score that compares lifters across weight classes fairly — the honest way to ask whether your bench is good rather than whether it is heavy.

It also means the quickest route to a higher ratio is not always more weight on the bar. Dropping five kilos while holding your bench steady moves the multiple just as surely, which is why a diet can make the tables flatter you before your press has changed at all.

How to move up a level#

Moving up a level is mostly a question of how long you keep adding. Beginners and novices should bench two or three times a week and take the smallest jump available every session where all reps move well. The progressive overload guide covers what to do when that stops working, which it will.

Past the novice stage, weekly progression beats session-to-session. A 5x5 program is the standard bridge: heavy sets of five, one small increase per week, and enough volume to keep building. Most lifters who reach an intermediate bench got there on something that unglamorous.

Advanced numbers need more than load. Add a second pressing day at a different intensity, treat close-grip bench and overhead pressing as bench work rather than extras, and give your triceps and upper back real volume — near 1.5× bodyweight the bar rarely stalls off the chest, it stalls at lockout.

Frequently asked questions#

How much can the average person bench press?

An untrained adult man benches roughly half his bodyweight — around 40 kg (90 lbs) at 80 kg (175 lbs) — and an untrained woman around a third of hers. The average among people who actually train regularly is much higher: somewhere between three quarters of bodyweight and bodyweight itself for men, and between half and three quarters for women.

Is benching your bodyweight good?

For a man, yes — it is the classic intermediate marker and puts you ahead of most people in any commercial gym. For a woman, a bodyweight bench is an advanced number that very few lifters reach without years of dedicated pressing. In both cases it means your technique is sound and your training has been consistent for a while.

What is a good bench press for a beginner?

Pressing the empty 20 kg (45 lb) bar for clean sets of five is a legitimate starting point, and half your bodyweight for a single is where most untrained men land. Chasing a number in the first month is the wrong goal — a repeatable setup, a stable bar path, and a full-range touch on the chest are worth more, and they make the weight climb faster afterwards.

How long does it take to bench 100 kg or 225 lbs?

For an average-sized man training consistently, one to three years. It is a bodyweight-ish bench for most people, which puts it right at the intermediate line. The variables that matter most are training age, how often you press, and bodyweight — a lifter who gains 10 kg of mass will usually get there considerably sooner than one holding weight steady.

Why is my bench press so much weaker than my squat and deadlift?

Because it should be. The bench uses far less muscle than either lower-body lift and has a much shorter range in which to apply force. The usual ratios at any given level are roughly 1 : 1.5 : 2 for bench, squat, and deadlift. If your bench lags well behind even that, the fix is normally more pressing frequency and more direct triceps and upper-back work.