Bench press is the lift everyone asks about, and it's a fair question. It's a straightforward test of upper-body pressing strength, and because you're lying down, your legs aren't doing much of the work, so the number mostly reflects your chest, shoulders, and triceps.
The most useful way to read any strength standard is against your own bodyweight, not as a raw number. A 135 lb bench means something very different for a 130 lb lifter than for a 220 lb one. The table on this page uses your one-rep max divided by bodyweight, so you can find where you actually stand instead of comparing yourself to whoever happens to be on the next bench.
Bench Press 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 | 280 lb |
| 160 lb | 80 lb | 120 lb | 160 lb | 240 lb | 320 lb |
| 180 lb | 90 lb | 135 lb | 180 lb | 270 lb | 360 lb |
| 200 lb | 100 lb | 150 lb | 200 lb | 300 lb | 400 lb |
| 220 lb | 110 lb | 165 lb | 220 lb | 330 lb | 440 lb |
| 240 lb | 120 lb | 180 lb | 240 lb | 360 lb | 480 lb |
| 260 lb | 130 lb | 195 lb | 260 lb | 390 lb | 520 lb |
| Women · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 lb | 35 lb | 55 lb | 85 lb | 110 lb | 165 lb |
| 125 lb | 40 lb | 65 lb | 95 lb | 125 lb | 190 lb |
| 140 lb | 40 lb | 70 lb | 105 lb | 140 lb | 210 lb |
| 155 lb | 45 lb | 80 lb | 115 lb | 155 lb | 235 lb |
| 170 lb | 50 lb | 85 lb | 130 lb | 170 lb | 255 lb |
| 185 lb | 55 lb | 95 lb | 140 lb | 185 lb | 280 lb |
| 200 lb | 60 lb | 100 lb | 150 lb | 200 lb | 300 lb |
Bench Press standards by bodyweight (kilograms)
| Men · body weight | 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 |
| 120 kg | 60 kg | 90 kg | 120 kg | 180 kg | 240 kg |
| Women · body weight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 kg | 15 kg | 25 kg | 37.5 kg | 50 kg | 75 kg |
| 57 kg | 17.5 kg | 27.5 kg | 42.5 kg | 57.5 kg | 85 kg |
| 64 kg | 20 kg | 32.5 kg | 47.5 kg | 65 kg | 95 kg |
| 72 kg | 22.5 kg | 35 kg | 55 kg | 72.5 kg | 107.5 kg |
| 80 kg | 25 kg | 40 kg | 60 kg | 80 kg | 120 kg |
| 88 kg | 27.5 kg | 45 kg | 65 kg | 87.5 kg | 132.5 kg |
What's a good bench press?
Here's the ladder for men, measured as your one-rep max divided by bodyweight. Beginner is about 0.5x bodyweight, which is roughly where an untrained adult starts. Novice is around 0.75x. Intermediate, the level most consistent lifters reach after a year or two of real training, is about 1x bodyweight, meaning bodyweight on the bar for a single rep. Advanced is 1.5x, and elite is 2x, which is genuinely rare and usually takes years of focused work.
For women the same ladder shifts down: beginner around 0.3x bodyweight, novice 0.5x, intermediate 0.75x, advanced 1x, and elite 1.5x. A 150 lb woman pressing around 110 is solidly intermediate. And don't be discouraged if you're starting near the bottom of this. Almost everyone does, and the beginner-to-novice stretch is the fastest progress you'll ever see on this lift.
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 bench press
Getting stronger at the bench comes down to two things: better technique and steady progression. On technique, plant your feet, pull your shoulder blades back and down into the bench, keep a small natural arch, and lower the bar to your lower chest with your elbows tucked to roughly 45 degrees instead of flared straight out. A tight, stable setup lets you press more weight and keeps your shoulders out of a bad spot. The full walkthrough is in the bench press form guide.
On progression, the people who stall are usually the ones adding weight at random. A structured program takes that guesswork off your plate. StrongLifts 5x5 and Starting Strength suit beginners who can add weight most sessions; 5/3/1 works better once your progress slows and you need to push in longer waves. All three are on FORMA's programs page. Whatever you run, press at least twice a week, log your sets, and only add weight once you've earned it with clean reps.
Men vs women
The gap between men and women is wider on bench than on the lower-body lifts, and that's expected. Pressing strength leans heavily on upper-body muscle mass, where the difference between the sexes is largest. On squat and deadlift the male and female standards sit fairly close together; on bench they spread further apart. You can see it in the ratios here: an intermediate man benches about 1x bodyweight while an intermediate woman is around 0.75x, and at the top end it's 2x versus 1.5x. So if you're a woman sizing up your bench against the men around you, use the women's column instead. It's the honest comparison, and 0.75x bodyweight is a genuinely strong press.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 225 lb bench press good?
For most people, yes. Two plates (225 lb) is a real milestone. Whether it counts as 'good' for you depends on your size: at 180 lb bodyweight it's 1.25x, past intermediate and heading toward advanced. At 250 lb it's closer to 0.9x, still a strong intermediate. Bodyweight is the honest yardstick, not the plate count.
What's the average bench press by age?
Standards like these assume you actually train. Plenty of adults who've never touched a barbell bench well under half their bodyweight. Trained lifters usually peak in their late 20s to 30s and hold most of that strength into their 40s with consistent work. Age matters, but training age, meaning how long you've been lifting, matters more than the number on your ID.
Why is my bench stuck, and how do I add weight?
If your bench has stalled, three things usually fix it: add reps before you add weight, tighten your setup (feet planted, shoulder blades pulled back and down, small arch), and make sure you're pressing at least twice a week. A structured program like 5/3/1 or StrongLifts 5x5 builds the weight in for you so you're not guessing session to session.
What's a good bench press relative to bodyweight?
For men, 1x bodyweight is a solid intermediate mark and 2x is elite. For women, 0.75x is intermediate and 1.5x is elite. Judging by bodyweight is fairer than a raw number, because a 140 lb lifter and a 220 lb lifter aren't playing the same game when they both put 135 on the bar.
Is benching 135 (one plate) good?
One plate is a real first goal. For a 180 lb man it lands around novice, roughly 0.75x bodyweight. For many women it sits at or past the intermediate mark. If you're early in your training, hitting 135 for a clean set of five is a great target to chase.
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.