The barbell row is your main horizontal pull, and it's a good read on how strong your upper back, lats, and grip really are — the muscles that balance out all your pressing. Because you're bent over and holding the load with your whole posterior chain, a strong row tends to track a strong deadlift and a strong bench rather than existing in its own bubble.
The standards here are a one-rep max (1RM) written as a multiple of your bodyweight, so a lighter lifter and a heavier lifter get judged on the same honest scale. Find your weight in the table and read across. One caveat up front, because it matters more on the row than on most lifts: almost nobody tests a true 1RM here — it's awkward and easy to turn into a cheat lift — so you'll usually estimate yours from a hard set of five and match it to the strict version of the movement.
Barbell Row 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 | 70 lb | 105 lb | 140 lb | 210 lb | 245 lb |
| 160 lb | 80 lb | 120 lb | 160 lb | 240 lb | 280 lb |
| 180 lb | 90 lb | 135 lb | 180 lb | 270 lb | 315 lb |
| 200 lb | 100 lb | 150 lb | 200 lb | 300 lb | 350 lb |
| 220 lb | 110 lb | 165 lb | 220 lb | 330 lb | 385 lb |
| 240 lb | 120 lb | 180 lb | 240 lb | 360 lb | 420 lb |
| 260 lb | 130 lb | 195 lb | 260 lb | 390 lb | 455 lb |
| Women · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 lb | 35 lb | 50 lb | 70 lb | 100 lb | 130 lb |
| 125 lb | 40 lb | 55 lb | 80 lb | 115 lb | 150 lb |
| 140 lb | 40 lb | 65 lb | 90 lb | 125 lb | 170 lb |
| 155 lb | 45 lb | 70 lb | 100 lb | 140 lb | 185 lb |
| 170 lb | 50 lb | 75 lb | 110 lb | 155 lb | 205 lb |
| 185 lb | 55 lb | 85 lb | 120 lb | 165 lb | 220 lb |
| 200 lb | 60 lb | 90 lb | 130 lb | 180 lb | 240 lb |
Barbell Row standards by bodyweight (kilograms)
| Men · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 kg | 30 kg | 45 kg | 60 kg | 90 kg | 105 kg |
| 70 kg | 35 kg | 52.5 kg | 70 kg | 105 kg | 122.5 kg |
| 80 kg | 40 kg | 60 kg | 80 kg | 120 kg | 140 kg |
| 90 kg | 45 kg | 67.5 kg | 90 kg | 135 kg | 157.5 kg |
| 100 kg | 50 kg | 75 kg | 100 kg | 150 kg | 175 kg |
| 110 kg | 55 kg | 82.5 kg | 110 kg | 165 kg | 192.5 kg |
| 120 kg | 60 kg | 90 kg | 120 kg | 180 kg | 210 kg |
| Women · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 kg | 15 kg | 22.5 kg | 32.5 kg | 45 kg | 60 kg |
| 57 kg | 17.5 kg | 25 kg | 37.5 kg | 52.5 kg | 67.5 kg |
| 64 kg | 20 kg | 30 kg | 42.5 kg | 57.5 kg | 77.5 kg |
| 72 kg | 22.5 kg | 32.5 kg | 47.5 kg | 65 kg | 87.5 kg |
| 80 kg | 25 kg | 35 kg | 52.5 kg | 72.5 kg | 95 kg |
| 88 kg | 27.5 kg | 40 kg | 57.5 kg | 80 kg | 105 kg |
What's a good barbell row?
For men, the ladder runs like this: a beginner rows about 0.5x bodyweight, a novice around 0.75x, and you reach intermediate at roughly 1x — a bodyweight row for a single. Advanced is about 1.5x, and elite sits near 1.75x. Most guys who've never trained the row start down around that 0.5x beginner mark, so a true bodyweight row isn't a given; it's a real milestone that takes most people a year or two of consistent work.
For women the same rungs are 0.3x beginner, 0.45x novice, 0.65x intermediate, 0.9x advanced, and about 1.2x elite. So an intermediate woman is rowing about two-thirds of her bodyweight, and an advanced woman is closing in on a full bodyweight row. A quick sanity check for either sex: your strict row usually lands in the same neighborhood as your bench press, so if one is way ahead of the other, that's the lift to bring up.
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 barbell row
Most stalled rows are a form problem wearing a strength problem's clothes. Set your torso somewhere between parallel and about 15 degrees above it, brace your abs, and keep your lower back flat instead of rounding to heave the bar up. Pull to your lower ribs or belly button, lead with your elbows, and squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top rather than yanking with your arms. If your back angle rises every rep or the bar bounces off your thighs, you're borrowing momentum to move a weight that's too heavy — drop it and earn each rep strict. Our full bent-over row form guide walks through setup and the common mistakes with cues you can actually feel.
To actually add weight, run a program that pushes the row on a schedule instead of maxing it on a whim. Linear plans like StrongLifts 5x5 and Starting Strength add a little to the bar each session while newbie gains last; once that dries up, a percentage-based plan like 5/3/1 moves you forward in slower, more sustainable jumps. You'll find all three on FORMA's programs page. Whichever you pick, log your rows, keep the reps strict, and add the smallest plate you've got rather than chasing big jumps. A strict row that climbs 2.5 lb a week beats a sloppy one that stalls inside a month.
Men vs women
The row is an upper-body pull, so the gap between men and women is wider here than on the squat or deadlift. Level for level, women row roughly two-thirds of what men do: an intermediate woman is around 0.65x bodyweight against a man's 1x, and an elite woman about 1.2x against a man's 1.75x. That comes down mostly to upper-body muscle mass, and it's why we publish a separate women's column instead of scaling the men's numbers down by a flat percentage. If you're a woman, judge yourself against the women's column — pulling 0.65x your bodyweight in a strict row is genuinely strong, not a consolation number.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 135 lb barbell row good?
It depends on your bodyweight, since the standards are relative. At 180 lb, a 135 lb row is 0.75x bodyweight — right at the novice mark, a solid start but short of the 180 lb (1x) that would make you intermediate. If you weigh 155 lb, that same 135 lb is closer to 0.9x and knocking on the advanced door. One 45 lb plate per side is a legit early milestone for most lifters; it's just not the finish line.
What's a good barbell row for my bodyweight?
As a multiple of bodyweight on a single rep, for men: about 0.5x is beginner, 0.75x novice, 1x intermediate, 1.5x advanced, and 1.75x elite. For women it's 0.3x, 0.45x, 0.65x, 0.9x, and 1.2x. So a 200 lb man rowing 200 lb is a solid intermediate, and a 140 lb woman rowing about 90 lb is at the same level. Find your bodyweight in the table above and read across to see where your row lands.
What's a good barbell row by age?
These numbers describe healthy adults roughly 18 to 39, when relative strength tends to peak. Strength tapers off gradually with age, so a row that sits at the intermediate line in your 20s might read as advanced for the same person at 55 — the standard hasn't changed, your baseline has. Teenagers and lifters past about 45 should expect somewhat lower numbers and shouldn't treat the young-adult table as a verdict on their training.
Why is my barbell row stuck, and how do I add weight?
Nine times out of ten a stalled row is a technique or programming issue, not a weak back. Check that you're not standing up as you pull or bouncing the bar off your thighs, because cheating the weight up hides where you're actually strong. Fix the strict form first, then run a real progression: add a small amount each session on StrongLifts 5x5 or Starting Strength while that works, and switch to 5/3/1 when the linear jumps stop. Rowing heavy once and hoping isn't a plan; adding 2.5 lb at a time on a schedule is.
Should I test a true 1RM on the barbell row?
Most lifters shouldn't, and most don't. A max-effort row tempts you into heaving with your hips and back, which is more of an injury risk than a useful test, so hardly anyone has a clean row 1RM. Instead, take a hard strict set of about five reps and estimate your max from it with a one-rep-max calculator. Just compare the strict version to these standards — a cheat row with extra body English and hip drive can read 10 to 20 percent higher than a genuinely strict pull.
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.