van den Hoek et al. 2024 (Powerlifting)
About this reference
OpenPowerlifting records from sanctioned competitions held from 1968 through 2022. The analysis reports the heaviest successful squat, bench press, and deadlift relative to bodyweight by sex and age group. An athlete can contribute an entry from more than one competition.
Known limitations
- Powerlifting competition entries only; the sample does not represent the general population, recreational gym members, or athletes in other sports.
- The paper reports age-specific P10-P90 deciles. FitnessNorms uses P10 and P90 as displayed P5 and P95 proxies, and estimates P25 and P75 from the midpoints of P20/P30 and P70/P80.
- Age brackets are broad UN age classifications (12-17, 18-35, 36-59, 60-79, 80+), not single-year or decade brackets.
- The 80+ lift-by-sex cells are small in several tables, ranging from 36 entries for male squat and female bench press to 789 for male bench press.
- The same athlete may appear at multiple competitions, so 809,986 is an entry count rather than a count of unique people.
- Training history, training methods, and health status were unavailable. The study cannot establish what training is required to reach a percentile.
- The analysis pooled 15 federations. The authors summarised common lift criteria, but competition commands and judging rules were not identical across all records.