Strength varies widely by age, sex, body weight, and training experience, so there’s no single number that tells you where you stand. But there are well-established benchmarks for several common tests, from push-ups and planks to barbell lifts and grip strength, that let you compare yourself to population averages for your age group. Here’s how to gauge where you fall.
Push-Ups: The Simplest Test
Push-ups require no equipment and give you a quick snapshot of upper-body pressing strength and endurance. The American Council on Exercise provides these ranges for what counts as “good” performance:
- Ages 20–29: 22–28 for men; 15–20 for women
- Ages 30–39: 17–21 for men; 13–19 for women
- Ages 40–49: 13–16 for men; 11–14 for women
- Ages 50–59: 10–12 for men; 7–10 for women
- Ages 60–69: 8–10 for men; 5–11 for women
If you want to know what “excellent” looks like: a man in his 20s would hit 35–45+, while a woman in the same age range would reach 25–35+. By your 50s, excellent drops to 22–30+ for men and 15–20+ for women. The women’s figures from these norms are based on a modified (bent-knee) push-up, so if you’re doing full push-ups, you’re likely performing above these numbers.
Grip Strength: A Surprisingly Important Marker
Grip strength is one of the best single predictors of overall strength, and clinicians use it as a health marker well into old age. All you need is a hand dynamometer, which many gyms and physical therapy offices have. Here are the averages for your dominant hand, measured in kilograms:
- Ages 20–29: 47 kg for men; 30 kg for women
- Ages 30–39: 47 kg for men; 31 kg for women
- Ages 40–49: 47 kg for men; 29 kg for women
- Ages 50–59: 45 kg for men; 28 kg for women
- Ages 60–69: 40 kg for men; 24 kg for women
- Ages 70+: 33 kg for men; 20 kg for women
Notice that men hold relatively steady through their 40s before declining, while women see a more gradual slide starting in their 40s. If your grip falls below 27 kg for men or 16 kg for women, that crosses the clinical threshold used to flag low muscle strength in sarcopenia screening. Those cutoffs matter because weak grip is linked to higher fall risk, disability, and even mortality in older adults.
Bench Press Standards by Body Weight
For barbell lifts, your body weight matters as much as your age. A 180-pound man and a 130-pound man shouldn’t be compared to the same number. The standards below represent a one-rep max (the most you can lift for a single repetition) for adults aged 18–59.
Men
A 165-pound man who has never trained would be expected to bench 90–120 pounds. With a few months of consistent training (novice level), that jumps to 115–150 pounds. An intermediate lifter at the same weight, someone with roughly a year or two of serious training, should handle 140–185 pounds. Advanced lifters push 195–255, and elite competitors reach 245–320.
At 198 pounds, the numbers shift up: untrained is 105–135, intermediate is 160–215, and advanced is 225–290.
Women
A 132-pound woman with no training background would bench around 60–70 pounds. At the intermediate level, that climbs to 80–95 pounds. An advanced lifter at the same body weight reaches 95–125, and elite performance starts at 115–150 pounds.
At 165 pounds, an untrained woman benches about 70–80 pounds, while an intermediate lifter hits 90–115 and an advanced lifter reaches 110–145.
Men tend to be strongest in their 20s and 30s and can continue adding to their bench press during this window. In the 40s, a gradual decline typically begins.
Strength-to-Bodyweight Ratios
If you want a simple way to evaluate your overall barbell strength without hunting through detailed charts, strength-to-bodyweight ratios give you clean targets. These represent intermediate-level performance, meaning you’ve trained consistently for a year or two:
- Squat: 1.5 times your body weight
- Bench press: 1.2 times your body weight
- Deadlift: 2 times your body weight
- Overhead press: 0.8 times your body weight
- Pull-ups: 8 reps at bodyweight, or 1 rep with an extra 20% of your body weight added
So if you weigh 170 pounds, an intermediate squat would be around 255 pounds, and an intermediate deadlift would be 340 pounds. These ratios are most applicable to men in their 20s and 30s. Women and older adults can use them as aspirational targets, but the absolute numbers will be lower and that’s completely normal.
Core Strength: Plank Hold Times
Plank data is harder to find broken down by age, but a study of college-aged adults (18–25) offers useful reference points. Among those participants, the 50th percentile plank hold was about 1 minute 50 seconds for men and 1 minute 35 seconds for women. The 75th percentile was 2 minutes 15 seconds for men and just over 2 minutes for women.
If you’re older than 25, expect these numbers to come down somewhat. Holding a plank for 60 seconds with solid form is a reasonable baseline for most adults, and anything over 2 minutes suggests strong core endurance regardless of age.
Functional Strength After 60
For older adults, the ability to get out of a chair without using your arms is one of the most practical strength tests available. The 30-second chair stand test, developed by the CDC, measures how many times you can stand up from a seated position in half a minute. Scoring below these numbers indicates a risk for falls:
- Ages 60–64: fewer than 14 for men; fewer than 12 for women
- Ages 65–69: fewer than 12 for men; fewer than 11 for women
- Ages 70–74: fewer than 12 for men; fewer than 10 for women
- Ages 75–79: fewer than 11 for men; fewer than 10 for women
- Ages 80–84: fewer than 10 for men; fewer than 9 for women
- Ages 85–89: fewer than 8 for men; fewer than 8 for women
You can do this test at home with a standard-height chair against a wall. Cross your arms over your chest, stand up fully, sit back down, and count your reps for 30 seconds. If you’re hitting the numbers above or higher, your lower-body strength is in a healthy range for your age.
Why Strength Declines With Age
Starting around age 30, your body naturally loses about 3–5% of its muscle mass per decade. These changes are subtle at first but become more noticeable after 60 and accelerate from there. This process, called sarcopenia, is the main reason strength benchmarks drop with every decade.
The good news is that strength training dramatically slows and even partially reverses this loss. The World Health Organization recommends muscle-strengthening activities at moderate or greater intensity on at least 2 days per week for all adults. For adults 65 and older, the recommendation increases to varied, multicomponent physical activity on 3 or more days per week, with an emphasis on exercises that improve balance and prevent falls.
The rate of decline is not fixed. Someone who trains consistently in their 50s can be meaningfully stronger than an untrained person in their 30s. Your training history matters more than your birth year, which is exactly why the strength standards above are organized by experience level, not just age. If you’re below average for your age group, a few months of consistent resistance training is typically enough to change that.