Guide
Deadlift Standards
Quick answer
Conventional and sumo are different pulls. An average deadlift that mixes them, and mixes gym hitches with meet locks, is not an average you can use.
Divide your pull by body weight on the strength level calculator. For meet context, look at actual attempts. This page will not invent a kilogram and call it average.
Estimates only. Testing a true max carries risk; use a spotter or safety arms. Not medical advice.
Deadlift calculatorEstimate a conventional, sumo, or trap-bar max.Open →On this page
- Which deadlift are you talking about?
- What is the average deadlift?
- How do you get a bigger pull?
- Worked example: a 180 kg pull
- Which pulls are not the same lift?
- What would a real average deadlift publish?
- How should a deadlift log read?
- Example pulls, same bar, different ratios
- Key takeaways
- FAQ
Which deadlift are you talking about?
Conventional, sumo, and trap bar do not share a max. Straps and a belt change a gym pull. A meet pull has commands and a lockout someone else accepts. Write the rules next to the number.
The calculator defaults conventional and sumo to Brzycki and asks you to stay at lower reps. High-rep pulls are a grip test.
What is the average deadlift?
There is not one number for the public. Meet databases show what entered lifters pulled, by weight class and sex. They do not show the person who deadlifts once a month in a commercial gym.
If someone quotes an average with no sample, treat it as a guess.
How do you get a bigger pull?
Pull more often than you max. Heavy singles and sets of 3–5, from the same start position, beat a monthly ego attempt. Keep the back position you can repeat.
Worked example: a 180 kg pull
Example only. A lifter weighs 90 kilograms and wants a conventional deadlift number. They pull 160 kilograms for 5 clean reps, no straps, from the floor, with a lockout they would sign. Brzycki is weight × 36 / (37 − reps): 160 × 36 / 32 = 180 kilograms. The ratio of that estimate to body weight is 180 / 90 = 2.0.
That 2.0 is a description. It is not 'average,' and it is not 'elite.' If the same lifter pulls sumo for 5 and gets a different estimate, the ratio is about a different lift. If the fifth rep hitched, it was not a fifth rep. How to increase the deadlift is the training page. This one is only about reading the number.
LeSuer and colleagues found that prediction equations underestimated the deadlift in their sample of untrained students. A 180 from a formula can sit under a real single, or it can sit over one if the set was ugly. Leave a margin the first time you try anything near it. Squat standards has the same warning with depth instead of stance.
Which pulls are not the same lift?
Conventional, sumo, and trap-bar pulls start in different positions. Straps change the top end for a lot of people. A belt changes the brace. A meet pull has commands and a referee. A gym pull has a mirror and a playlist. Write the rules next to the load or the ratio is theater.
Deficit pulls, blocks, and paused deadlifts are training. They are not the standard you compare with a meet database. If the database is filtered to equipped lifting and you pull raw, you are not in that table. OpenPowerlifting at least tells you the attempts are from meets.
High-rep deadlifts miss for another reason. The hands often quit before the hips do, so the formula thinks you are weaker than a heavy double would show. The calculator asks you to stay at lower reps on conventional and sumo for that reason.
What would a real average deadlift publish?
The group, the sex, the age cut if age is in the table, the stance, the equipment, and whether the number is a mean or a percentile. Also how many people. A single impressive pull in a video is not an average, even if the caption says it is.
This page will not type a kilogram into that blank. Strength standards explained is the short version of the same refusal. Your own average across a few honest tests is the only average that should change your next cycle.
If you want to get stronger rather than classified, pull the same start position often, keep a few heavy sets of three to five, and add a small plate when the lockouts match. The ratio can wait until the bar has actually moved.
How should a deadlift log read?
One line is enough if it has the right words: date, stance, load, reps, belt or straps, and whether the last rep locked out without a hitch. '200 kg, felt strong' cannot be compared with anything, including your own pull from March. The ratio needs body weight on that day, not the weight you wish you weighed.
Keep conventional and sumo in separate columns even if you train both. People switch stance and then announce a personal record that is a different exercise. The calculator will estimate either one. It will not add them together into a truer max. A mixed column is how a sumo pull becomes a conventional 'record' without anyone lying on purpose. The log lied by omission.
When you do want other people's numbers, filter a meet database by sex, weight class, and equipment, and remember you are looking at people who entered a meet. That is a useful ceiling to stare at. It is still not a target the page is willing to assign you. Your next small plate is the target. A deadlift average by age, printed without the stance and the sample, is the same kind of empty cell as the bench charts this site refuses. Age changes pulling. A made-up kilogram does not document that change. It just fills the hole.
If you pull both stances in one month, record them as two lifts that happen to share a bar. Progress on one does not automatically transfer. A stronger sumo lockout can leave the conventional start on the floor exactly where it was. The ratio you quote in public should name the stance in the same breath, or you are borrowing a number from a lift you did not do. The same rule covers a hitch: if the bar climbed the thighs, write that down and do not feed the set to a formula. A clean four is a better estimate than a messy five, and it is a different standard from a meet lockout.
Example pulls, same bar, different ratios
| Example | Body weight | Pull | Ratio | What was written down |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 90 kg | 180 kg | 2.00 | Conventional, belt, no straps |
| B | 90 kg | 160 kg | 1.78 | Sumo, belt |
| C | 75 kg | 180 kg | 2.40 | Conventional, straps |
Example only. Not meet results and not an average deadlift. C is not comparable to A until the straps come off the note.
Key takeaways
- Say which deadlift, and under which rules.
- A ratio is not a rank.
- Meet results are not the commercial-gym average.
- High-rep pulls are a poor way to estimate a single.
FAQ
Is sumo cheating?
No. It is a different setup with different rules about the hands and the stance. Compare it with other sumo pulls.
Do straps count?
In a gym log, only if you write them down. In a meet, the rules say no. A strapped pull is not the same standard.
Why not publish an average deadlift by age?
Because this site did not measure one. An age cell without a sample, a sex, and a rule set is a costume.
Is a trap bar a deadlift?
It is a pull from the floor with different handles. Keep it out of a conventional column.
What ratio is 'good'?
This page will not pick one. Double bodyweight is a round story people tell. Your log is the standard you can actually check.