Average Bench Press Weight: Novice to Elite Standards

Every gym goer has, at one point or another, wondered what the average bench press weight is. As common as this question is, it’s not exactly easy to find good data to answer it. In this article I’ve reviewed several credible sources, and compiled some great bench press information. I’ve included statistics on bench press standards by percentile, as well as goals to aim for by bodyweight, and gender. Keep reading for more.

This was an interesting topic to look into. There is a plethora of data on certain topics relating to bench press averages, but there is no research study that actually examines the average bench press for males and females. However, I’ve found some nuggets of information in the literature, to help clarify the average bench press weight. Here’s a quick overview of the article.

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The Average Bench Press Weight Overview

• An average untrained adult male can bench press 135lbs
• An average untrained adult female can bench press 75lbs
• The average strength athlete can bench press 220lbs male, 105lbs female
• Barbell bench press weight is massively dependent on bodyweight and size

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In the next section I’m going to review how much weight male and female athletes can lift at each percentile. This metric doesn’t take into consideration bodyweight, athlete age, or training experience. We’ll dive into some of those categories further on in the article.

If you want a more comprehensive article on different training standards for functional fitness athletes then check this out. If you’re really curious, you can also check out this article where I list the performance standards for top level CrossFit athletes.

Male and Female Bench Press Strength by Percentile

In this section we will review the heaviest average weight each athlete can lift for one rep. This data is split by male and female. It covers athletes that are between 18 and 40 years of age. This data comes from Beyond the Whiteboard. They are an excellent fitness tracking and monitoring software app that tracks the performance of tens of thousands of athletes.

In the chart below you can see the percentiles listed on the vertical axis, and the heaviest weight they lifted for one rep on the horizontal axis. In general the trend is fairly linear across the percentiles, for both men and women.

I find this chart interesting for several reasons. First, you can watch Youtube videos all day of athletes pushing huge weight on the bench press. This tends to give us a false sense of what is a good or even above average bench press.

Since this data comes from BTWB users, a group who regularly go to the gym, it’s likely representative of intermediate and above weight lifters. Even for a group that goes to the gym, a 225 pound bench press (Male) is above average. For females, that would be equivalent to a 110 pound bench press.

In fact, less than 10% of these regular gym goers can bench press above 300 pounds. I feel it’s important to point out that if you tracked bench press performance for a power lifting gym, you would find higher numbers, but the point still stands.

As a reference point, I can tell you from personal experience that in the 20+ years I’ve been working out in the weight room, I’ve only seen one person bench more than 400 pounds, and only a handful bench more than 300 pounds.

In the next section we will break down the average bench press by lifting experience, as well as bodyweight. Before we do that I recommend you check out this program, which is designed to increase your strength as well as your cardiovascular endurance.

Beginner, Intermediate and Advance Bench Press Weights

It should be obvious to most of you reading this that the amount of time you spend in the gym correlates strongly with the amount of weight you can lift, as well as your strength gains. Often times this is also highly correlated with increased muscle gain. You can often tell a beginner lifter apart from an intermediate lifter just by looking at them.

I know this isn’t fool proof, but it’s often been noted that weight categories in powerlifting are actually height categories, because the best lifters tend to be those that have the most muscle mass per unit of height.

In the charts below you can see the weight lifted on the vertical axis. The athlete weight category is the horizontal axis, and each bar is the expected bench press performance by training experience per weight class.

Each strength training experience level breaks down as follows. Untrained athletes have no experience with the lifts, but can execute them with proper form. A novice lifter has a few months of experience. Intermediate lifters have around a year of experience, with advanced and elite lifters having many years of experience.

I think these are good bench press goals for male athletes, across each strength level. In my opinion, most average sized adult males should be able to bench press their bodyweight. You can see this goal matches closely with athletes between novice and intermediate stages.

A seasoned lifter should be bench pressing 1.5x their body weight. This matches with an advanced lifter. Elite lifters, especially in the lighter weight classes, are knocking on double body weight bench territory, which is quite an impressive achievement. Next let’s look at the ladies. Before we do that, don’t forget to join the email list below so you don’t miss any more awesome articles.

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Female Bench Press Standards by Weight and Lifting Experience

Female bench press performance follows a similar trend. Performance increases with weight and experience lifting. The magnitude of increase doesn’t track that of the males. I believe there are several reasons for this.

First, dudes spend a lot of effort trying to improve the bench press. I’ve yet to find the same level of interest from most female athletes. Moreover, there are physiological differences between male and female lifters. Females generally cary two thirds of the upper body muscle mass as men. This will naturally create an upper-body strength deficit. Check out the chart below.

We can see from the chart that only the elite females are benching more than their bodyweight. I’ve found that most women should aim for a 50% of bodyweight bench press goal, up to the intermediate level. Past that, they should aim for 75% of their bodyweight. Only about 5% of the female lifting population will ever bench press their bodyweight or above.

This data comes from Dr. Lon Kilgore, and is the result of many decades of raw powerlifting analysis. In the next section we’ll take a look how the aging process affect the one rep max bench press for men and women.
If you’re looking for a strength oriented functional fitness plan then this is tailor made for you.

Aging and Bench Press Performance

In the first chart you can see that an average American male, in the 198 pound category, benches 215 pounds, in the intermediate category. Once this athlete enters the 40+ year old age group, that lifting performance drops to 185lbs. Past 50 years of age, this hypothetical man benches 160 pounds.

This is a 14% drop into the 40’s. From the 40’s to the 50’s, the drop is another 14% total reduction in maximum bench press strength. As you’ll see, this is a more precipitous drop than the ladies experience.

The trend is fairly obvious. Men lose around 15-30 pounds per decade they age. While this might seem depressing, their is some evidence that hard training athletes can maintain their strength levels all the way to their late 50’s. Next, let’s look at the ladies as they age.

Female Bench Press Weights and Aging

For female lifters the trend is the same as the males. If we look at the 148 pound females, with intermediate lifting experience, they are lifting 105 pounds. Once they hit 40+ they drop to 90 pounds. At 50+ years of age, we are looking at 85 pounds.

This is an average drop of 14% into the 40’s, and a 6% from the 40’s to 50’s. It’s interesting that women lose less relative strength than the men do. One possible explanation is that men and women lose differing amounts of power fibers in their upper body as they age.

It could also be a survivorship bias in the data. Perhaps as men age, less and less of them engage in heavy lifting, hoping to reduce risk of injury. I could also imagine that women who engage in the bench press in their 40’s and 50’s might spend more relative effort on this lift. I think it needs more study.

In the next section let’s look at some great options for those that want to increase their upper body strength and fitness level. I will include several different types of programs, including some of my premium programs.

Finding Your Best Strength Program

In this section I’m going to recommend several of my more popular strength oriented lifting plans. Some of these plans will be for athletes looking to build pure strength. Other programs will help you build strength and muscle mass. Lastly, I’ll include some of my most popular hybrid programs for athletes who want to be seriously strong with a huge aerobic engine.

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• 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program (Muscle Mass + WODs)
• 8 Week Hybrid Strength and Endurance Training Plan (Strength + Conditioning)
• 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program (Strength + WOD)
• 9 Week Advanced Strength Program for Functional Fitness (Strength+Accessory+WOD)
• 7 Week Free Strength Training Program (Pure Strength + Mass)
• 6 Week Muscular Growth Program (Traditional Lift + WOD)

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I recommend checking out a few of these programs to see which ones fits your fitness goals the best. Each of these programs was designed for a specific type of athlete, so read a bit on each one to figure out what you like. Now let’s wrap this article up.

Final Thoughts

While we’ve focused exclusively on the average bench press weight in this article, much of this applies to overall strength. I think it’s incredibly important to engage in regular strength training no matter the age. It’s clear that even 70 plus athletes can build strength in their later years.

I think one of the most important things to remember is that you need to build strength, you don’t need to do any certain movement. For example, I often recommend the hex bar deadlift over the conventional deadlift. It’s a safer movement and you can actually use more weight.

This same attitude carries over to bench press, back squat, and other heavy barbell movements. You need to find variations that you feel comfortable doing. Don’t just hammer on a movement, only to eventually injure yourself. Be smart!

If you have any comments or questions about weight training, put them in the comments section below, and I’ll get you an answer. Now get out there and get training. Don’t forget to join the email list below!

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