You can gauge your strength by testing a handful of simple movements and comparing the results to established benchmarks for your age and sex. You don’t need a gym membership or expensive equipment. Pushups, grip strength, a loaded carry, and a few core holds can tell you more about your real-world strength than a single max bench press ever will.
Why “Strong” Isn’t Just About Lifting Heavy
Strength shows up in different ways. There’s raw force (how much you can lift once), muscular endurance (how many times you can repeat a movement), and functional strength (how well your body handles real tasks like carrying groceries, climbing stairs, or catching yourself during a stumble). A well-rounded picture of your strength covers all three. The benchmarks below give you concrete numbers to compare against, but they also reveal weak spots you might not notice in everyday life.
The Pushup Test
Pushups are one of the most studied and accessible measures of upper-body strength and endurance. The Mayo Clinic publishes age-based targets that indicate good fitness. Here’s what “good” looks like for continuous pushups done with proper form:
- Age 25: 20 for women, 28 for men
- Age 35: 19 for women, 21 for men
- Age 45: 14 for women, 16 for men
- Age 55: 10 for women, 12 for men
- Age 65: 10 for women, 10 for men
If you hit these numbers, you’re in good shape. If you exceed them comfortably, your upper-body pushing strength is above average. If you fall short, they make a useful goal to train toward. Drop to your knees mid-set and the test is over; count only the full reps completed with a straight body line from head to heels.
Grip Strength: A Surprisingly Powerful Indicator
Grip strength is one of the best single predictors of overall body strength, and research links it to longevity. Poor grip strength is associated with increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer in men, even after adjusting for muscle mass and body weight. It’s not that a strong handshake protects your heart directly. Grip strength reflects the health of your entire musculoskeletal and nervous system.
A population-based study published in BMC Research Notes provides average grip strength values in kilograms by age. For men (dominant hand):
- Ages 20–29: 47 kg (about 104 lbs)
- Ages 30–39: 47 kg
- Ages 40–49: 47 kg
- Ages 50–59: 45 kg
- Ages 60–69: 40 kg
- Ages 70+: 33 kg
For women (dominant hand):
- Ages 20–29: 30 kg (about 66 lbs)
- Ages 30–39: 31 kg
- Ages 40–49: 29 kg
- Ages 50–59: 28 kg
- Ages 60–69: 24 kg
- Ages 70+: 20 kg
These are averages, not elite targets. Scoring well above the mean for your age group is a strong sign of, well, strength. Many gyms and physical therapy clinics have a handheld dynamometer you can squeeze to get your number. Some pharmacies carry them too, and basic models cost under $30 online.
The Farmer’s Carry Test
Carrying heavy objects over a distance is one of the most functional tests of total-body strength. It loads your grip, shoulders, core, and legs all at once. A practical benchmark using dumbbells: carrying half your body weight in each hand for 30 seconds of walking is considered good. If you can hold that same weight for 60 seconds, you’re in strong territory.
For example, a 160-pound person would grab two 80-pound dumbbells and walk. If you have access to a trap bar (the hexagonal barbell you stand inside), a good standard is 1.5 times your body weight for 30 seconds. Two times body weight for 30 seconds is exceptional. These numbers come from athletic performance coaching, but they translate well to everyday life. If you can farmer’s carry at these levels, hauling luggage, moving furniture, and carrying kids around won’t tax you.
Core Stability: The McGill Big 3
Core strength isn’t about how many crunches you can do. Spine biomechanics researcher Stuart McGill developed three exercises that test your core’s ability to stabilize your spine under load. They’re called the McGill Big 3: the curl-up, the side plank, and the bird dog. Each is performed as an isometric hold (you hold still rather than moving through reps).
The protocol uses 10-second holds arranged in a descending pyramid. For the curl-up, you lie on your back, lift your head just a few inches off the ground, and hold for 10 seconds. The side plank is held from your elbow for 10 seconds per side. The bird dog has you on all fours, extending one arm and the opposite leg, holding for 10 seconds before switching.
A descending pyramid means you do a set of, say, 6 reps (each held 10 seconds), then 4 reps, then 2 reps, with short rest between sets. If you can complete the full pyramid on all three exercises without your form breaking down or pain appearing, your core stability is solid. If the side plank collapses on one side well before the other, that imbalance is worth addressing before it leads to back or hip problems.
How Muscle Mass Fits In
Strength and muscle size aren’t the same thing, but they’re related. The Fat-Free Mass Index (FFMI) gives you a way to assess how much lean tissue you carry relative to your height. It works like BMI but strips out body fat, so it rewards muscle rather than penalizing it.
For men, the ranges look like this:
- 17–18: Below average muscle mass
- 19–20: Average
- 21–22: Good
- 23–24: Very good
- 25: The natural upper limit for most people
For women:
- 13–14: Below average
- 15–16: Normal
- 17–18: Good
- 19–20: Very good
- 22: The natural upper limit
You can calculate FFMI if you know your weight, height, and approximate body fat percentage (many smart scales estimate this). An FFMI of 25 for men or 22 for women represents roughly the ceiling of what’s achievable without performance-enhancing drugs. You don’t need to be near that ceiling to be strong, but if your FFMI sits in the “good” range or above, you have a meaningful foundation of muscle to generate force.
Balanced Strength Matters More Than Peak Strength
Being strong in one direction but weak in the opposite one sets you up for injury. Research on athletes found that the ratio between opposing muscle groups, not the absolute strength of any single muscle, predicted who got hurt. In a study of soccer players, the balance between the inner and outer thigh muscles of the non-dominant leg was a significant predictor of groin injuries. Players with a poor ratio were far more likely to get injured, regardless of how strong their dominant side was.
You can check for obvious imbalances without lab equipment. Compare your left side to your right on single-leg exercises like lunges or single-arm rows. If one side struggles noticeably more, that’s a red flag. Also compare your pushing strength to your pulling strength. If you can bang out 30 pushups but can barely manage 5 pull-ups, your front-to-back ratio is off. A rough guideline is that you should be able to pull at least as much total volume as you push.
The Minimum Dose for Maintaining Strength
The World Health Organization recommends that all adults do muscle-strengthening activities involving all major muscle groups on two or more days per week. For older adults (65 and up), the recommendation increases to three or more days a week of combined balance and strength training to prevent falls and maintain the ability to handle daily tasks independently. Children and adolescents need muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least three days a week.
If you’re currently hitting those minimums and performing well on the benchmarks above, you’re strong by any practical definition. If you’re falling short on the tests despite training regularly, the issue is likely programming (what you’re doing in those sessions) rather than frequency. And if you’re not training at all but still curious where you stand, the pushup test and a pair of heavy grocery bags carried for 30 seconds will give you a quick, honest answer.