Your squat is the clearest single test of lower-body and whole-body strength most people have easy access to. It loads your legs, hips, and back at the same time and punishes anything you skip, so where your squat sits usually tells you a lot about the rest of your training.
Standards make the most sense relative to your bodyweight instead of as a flat number, because a 150 lb lifter and a 220 lb lifter aren't moving the same thing when the bar reads 225. Every level below is a one-rep max (1RM) divided by bodyweight, so a 1.5x squat means one and a half times what you weigh for a single hard rep. Read the numbers as a map of roughly where you stand, not a pass/fail line. They're estimates calibrated to public benchmarks like StrengthLevel, ExRx/Kilgore, and Symmetric Strength, not readings from a database we run.
Back Squat standards by bodyweight (pounds)
Target one-rep max at each level, rounded to the nearest 5 lb. Find your body weight in the left column.
| Men · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 140 lb | 105 lb | 175 lb | 210 lb | 315 lb | 385 lb |
| 160 lb | 120 lb | 200 lb | 240 lb | 360 lb | 440 lb |
| 180 lb | 135 lb | 225 lb | 270 lb | 405 lb | 495 lb |
| 200 lb | 150 lb | 250 lb | 300 lb | 450 lb | 550 lb |
| 220 lb | 165 lb | 275 lb | 330 lb | 495 lb | 605 lb |
| 240 lb | 180 lb | 300 lb | 360 lb | 540 lb | 660 lb |
| 260 lb | 195 lb | 325 lb | 390 lb | 585 lb | 715 lb |
| Women · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 lb | 55 lb | 85 lb | 140 lb | 165 lb | 220 lb |
| 125 lb | 65 lb | 95 lb | 155 lb | 190 lb | 250 lb |
| 140 lb | 70 lb | 105 lb | 175 lb | 210 lb | 280 lb |
| 155 lb | 80 lb | 115 lb | 195 lb | 235 lb | 310 lb |
| 170 lb | 85 lb | 130 lb | 215 lb | 255 lb | 340 lb |
| 185 lb | 95 lb | 140 lb | 230 lb | 280 lb | 370 lb |
| 200 lb | 100 lb | 150 lb | 250 lb | 300 lb | 400 lb |
Back Squat standards by bodyweight (kilograms)
| Men · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 kg | 45 kg | 75 kg | 90 kg | 135 kg | 165 kg |
| 70 kg | 52.5 kg | 87.5 kg | 105 kg | 157.5 kg | 192.5 kg |
| 80 kg | 60 kg | 100 kg | 120 kg | 180 kg | 220 kg |
| 90 kg | 67.5 kg | 112.5 kg | 135 kg | 202.5 kg | 247.5 kg |
| 100 kg | 75 kg | 125 kg | 150 kg | 225 kg | 275 kg |
| 110 kg | 82.5 kg | 137.5 kg | 165 kg | 247.5 kg | 302.5 kg |
| 120 kg | 90 kg | 150 kg | 180 kg | 270 kg | 330 kg |
| Women · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 kg | 25 kg | 37.5 kg | 62.5 kg | 75 kg | 100 kg |
| 57 kg | 27.5 kg | 42.5 kg | 72.5 kg | 85 kg | 115 kg |
| 64 kg | 32.5 kg | 47.5 kg | 80 kg | 95 kg | 127.5 kg |
| 72 kg | 35 kg | 55 kg | 90 kg | 107.5 kg | 145 kg |
| 80 kg | 40 kg | 60 kg | 100 kg | 120 kg | 160 kg |
| 88 kg | 45 kg | 65 kg | 110 kg | 132.5 kg | 175 kg |
What's a good back squat?
For men, the ladder runs like this on a one-rep max, as a multiple of bodyweight. Beginner is about 0.75x, roughly where an untrained adult male lands after his first few weeks under the bar. Novice, around 3 to 6 months in, is about 1.25x. Intermediate, the classic "been training seriously for a year or two" mark, is about 1.5x bodyweight, and it's the number most people actually mean when they ask what a good squat is. Advanced is about 2.25x and takes years of focused work. Elite sits near 2.75x, which is rare among drug-free recreational lifters.
For women the shape is the same, shifted down a bit. Beginner is about 0.5x bodyweight, novice about 0.75x, and intermediate about 1.25x. Advanced is roughly 1.5x, and elite about 2x. Be honest with yourself about the starting point: an average adult who's never trained is usually at or below the beginner line, and that's a normal place to begin, not a bad one. The climb from beginner to intermediate is also the fastest strength you'll ever add, so early progress feels quicker than it will later on.
What the levels mean
- Beginner. New to barbell training, in your first few weeks; strength near an untrained adult's baseline.
- Novice. Roughly 3 to 6 months of consistent training, still making fast newbie gains.
- Intermediate. About 1 to 2 years of steady training; you've hit the well-known bodyweight milestones.
- Advanced. Several years of focused training; visibly strong and stronger than most people in any gym.
- Elite. The top tier of dedicated drug-free recreational lifters; rare and earned over many years.
How to add weight to your back squat
Adding weight to the squat comes down to two things: making every rep look the same, and following a plan that progresses on purpose. On technique, hit at least parallel on every rep (hip crease below the top of the knee), take a big breath and brace your whole trunk before you descend, keep the bar stacked over your midfoot, and drive your hips and chest up together out of the hole so you don't tip forward. Half-reps that quietly creep up in weight aren't progress; they just move the goalposts.
For loading, a beginner can add a little to the bar almost every session, which is exactly what programs like StrongLifts 5x5 and Starting Strength are built around. Once that stalls, a weekly or wave-based plan like 5/3/1 keeps the bar moving without burying you. All three are on FORMA at /programs. If you want a full breakdown of setup, cues, and the common faults that cost people depth and pounds, the complete guide is at /exercises/barbell-back-squat.
Men vs women
The male-female gap is smaller on the squat than on any pressing movement, and the ratios show it. An intermediate woman squats about 1.25x bodyweight against a man's 1.5x, roughly 83 percent, where the same comparison on the bench sits closer to 70 to 75 percent. At the beginner end it's about 0.5x for a woman versus 0.75x for a man, and at the top it's around 2x versus 2.75x. The practical takeaway is that a strong female squat lands closer to a man's than most lifters assume, so women shouldn't scale their expectations down as far as they might on upper-body lifts. That's why the table gives women their own column instead of just multiplying the men's numbers by a fixed fraction.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 315 lb squat good?
A 315 lb squat, three plates a side, is a genuinely strong lift for most people. For a 200 lb man that's about 1.58x bodyweight, which lands solidly in the intermediate-to-advanced range; for a 165 lb man it's closer to 1.9x, knocking on the advanced door. Lighter lifters get more credit for the same bar weight, which is exactly why standards use bodyweight multiples instead of one flat number.
Is squatting 2x your bodyweight good?
Yes. A double-bodyweight squat is just short of our advanced mark for men (2.25x) but well past intermediate (1.5x), so it's a strong number most gym-goers never reach. For a woman, 2x bodyweight is the elite tier, the top of the table. Either way it reflects years of consistent training, not a few months.
What's an average squat by age?
These standards describe lifters roughly 18 to 39, when relative strength tends to peak. An untrained adult male often starts near 0.75x bodyweight (our beginner line) and an untrained woman near 0.5x. Both drift down with age, since large powerlifting datasets show strength declining past your 40s, so an intermediate-level squat for a 55-year-old can sit below the 1.5x mark listed here. That's normal, not a failure.
Why is my squat stuck, and how do I add weight?
Most stalls trace back to one of three things: adding weight faster than you can recover, losing depth as the bar gets heavy, or running a program with no real progression built in. Eat and sleep enough to actually recover between sessions, keep every rep at least to parallel so you're comparing like for like, and follow a plan that tells you when to push and when to back off. When a jump every session stops working, move to weekly or wave loading like 5/3/1 (on FORMA at /programs).
What's a good squat for a woman?
A good intermediate squat for a woman is about 1.25x bodyweight, with advanced around 1.5x and elite near 2x, all on a one-rep max. Novice sits near 0.75x and a true beginner around 0.5x. Because the gap to men is smaller on the squat than on pressing lifts, a strong female squat is closer to a man's than most people expect.
Sources & references
These standards are calibrated to widely-referenced public benchmarks (StrengthLevel, ExRx / Lon Kilgore, Symmetric Strength) and published as honest estimates, not measurements from a FORMA database. Treat each value as the center of a range. They're for general comparison, not medical advice. See the full strength-standards methodology.