Guide
Squat Standards
Quick answer
A squat standard without a depth is a story. High-bar, low-bar, and a squat that stops short of parallel are three lifts. An average that ignores that is not comparable to your log.
Estimate the squat you actually do on the squat calculator, then divide by body weight. Meet results are the honest public record if you want other people's numbers.
Estimates only. Testing a true max carries risk; use a spotter or safety arms. Not medical advice.
Squat calculatorBack squat and front squat, with a percentage chart.Open →On this page
- What has to match before you compare?
- What is the average squat?
- How do you raise it?
- Worked example: a 140 kg squat
- What has to match before two squats are comparable?
- Why is there no average squat by age on this page?
- How should a squat log read?
- Example squats that should not share a column
- Key takeaways
- FAQ
What has to match before you compare?
Depth, bar position, belt or no belt, and whether you paused. A high squat with 140 kg is not a deeper squat with 140 kg. Film a set if you argue with yourself about depth.
Front squats fail in the rack often enough that a high-rep estimate runs low. Do not convert it into a back squat.
What is the average squat?
Same problem as the bench and the deadlift. Averages need a group. Untrained adults, athletes, and powerlifters are not one group. We will not print a kilogram we did not measure.
Your own average across a few honest tests is the number that should change your training.
How do you raise it?
Squat, brace, and add small loads. Machines can add work. They do not replace the squat if the squat is the test.
Worked example: a 140 kg squat
Example only. An 80 kilogram lifter squats 120 kilograms for 5, high-bar, to a depth they could defend on video, with a belt. Epley is 120 × (1 + 5 / 30) = 140 kilograms. The ratio is 140 / 80 = 1.75. That is one squat. It is not the average squat for 80 kilogram people, and it is not a front squat.
Change the depth and the estimate is about a different exercise, even if the plate math is identical. A squat that stops well above parallel with 140 kilograms is not the deeper squat with 140 kilograms. The ratio will not save you from that. Film a set if you argue with yourself here.
How to increase your squat is what to do if the ratio is a disappointment. Deadlift standards is the sibling page: stance instead of depth, same refusal to invent an average.
What has to match before two squats are comparable?
Depth, bar position, belt or no belt, pause or no pause, and whether the walkout was a stagger or a settled setup. High-bar and low-bar move the torso differently. A safety-bar squat is its own lift. So is a Smith machine, which follows a track your squat does not.
Front squats fail in the rack often enough that a high-rep estimate runs low. Do not multiply a front-squat estimate by a homemade factor and call it a back squat. If you need the back squat number, use a back squat set.
Body weight on the morning of the set belongs in the note. A ratio from a weight you remember from last winter is a different person. The standards page is the general version: a ratio you can recompute, and no borrowed ladder.
Why is there no average squat by age on this page?
Age changes lifting. So does training age, which is not the same thing. A 40-year-old who has squatted for 15 years and a 40-year-old in their first month are not one cell. A table that collapses them, and also collapses high squats with deep ones, is not a standard. It is a blend.
A honest age table would name the sample, the sex, the squat, and the statistic. Until that exists in a source this site is willing to cite, the cell stays empty. Meet results are public if you want other people's numbers, and they are meet squats.
Track your own tests a few times a year, same depth, same bar. That series is the average that can change a program. Three made-up rows in the table above are only there so the arithmetic is visible.
How should a squat log read?
Depth is the column people skip and the column that makes the number mean something. 'Parallel' is a claim. A note that says 'hip crease below the knee, on video, high-bar' is a standard you can fail. If you will not film, at least pick a landmark and use it every time: a box, a pair of pins, the same coach's eye.
Bar position and belt go in the same row as the load. So does body weight. A ratio without those is a fraction that can be gamed by standing taller in the hole or by eating a big breakfast and forgetting to write it down. The arithmetic is not the hard part. The honesty is. Two squats with the same plates and different depth are two lifts, and only one of them belongs in the ratio you are tracking.
Front squats, pause squats, and safety-bar squats can live in the same notebook and must not live in the same column. If the goal is a bigger back squat, the back squat is the test, and the other tools are assistance. Add load only when the depth note still matches the depth you started with. An average squat by age would need the same honesty: sex, age band, bar position, depth, and a sample big enough to survive one strong lifter. Until a source like that is cited, this page leaves the cell blank on purpose. Your filmed sets are a better standard than a number with no method behind it.
Once a month is enough for a check-in squat if the weekly work is already honest. You do not need a new ratio every session. You need the same squat, a few times a year, deep enough that you are not embarrassed by the video. Everything else in the log is training. The ratio is just the summary you refuse to fake. If the video shows a higher squat than the note claims, correct the note. Do not correct the camera. A standard you can edit after the set is not a standard, and it will not survive a comparison with anyone else's number, including your own from last quarter.
Example squats that should not share a column
| Example | Body weight | Load | Ratio | What was written down |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 80 kg | 140 kg | 1.75 | High-bar, to depth, belt |
| B | 80 kg | 140 kg | 1.75 | Low-bar, high squat, belt |
| C | 80 kg | 100 kg | 1.25 | Front squat, no belt |
Example only. A and B show the same ratio with a different squat. The ratio did not notice.
Key takeaways
- Depth and bar position have to match before the numbers do.
- A ratio describes one squat, not a population.
- A front squat is not a converted back squat.
- Film the set if depth is the argument.
FAQ
Does high-bar versus low-bar matter?
Yes. The bar position changes the squat. Write it down before you compare two numbers.
What if I squat above parallel?
Then the standard is a high squat. Do not call it the same lift as a deeper one with the same load.
Can I turn a front squat into a back squat max?
No. There is no honest conversion on this site. Test or estimate the squat you care about.
Should belts be in the ratio?
A belt changes the set for a lot of people. Note it. A belted squat and a raw squat are allowed to be different numbers.
Why is there no average squat by age?
Same reason as the bench and the deadlift. No sample, no average. Age matters, and a blank cell is more honest than a made-up one.