Is 135 a Good Bench? How Rare It Really Is
For a 180 lb82 kg man, 135 lb61 kg is
Novice
- Men competing in our data who have benched it
- 97%
- Rarity
- most lifters
- On the bar
- one plate a side
What people claim
“What percent can bench 135?”, as the internet answers it
The numbers below are the ones that get repeated. Each one names whose data it is and whether anyone can trace it. Ours: 97% of men competing in our data, which is a count, not a guess, and describes people who compete.
- a 135 lb bench beats 90% of womenGravitus · 2026-09-06 · of female Gravitus users who share their bench workouts publicly · method: Uses each public-sharing lifter’s all-time best Brzycki-estimated 1RM; extreme outliers are removed. Standard columns target the 5th, 20th, 50th, 80th and 95th percentiles.Publisher's own users
- 60% of beginners bench less than 135 pounds during their first year of lifting weightsShane Duquette (Outlift) · 2025-05-09 · of men in the Outlift survey · method: survey: newsletter convenience sampleSourced
- After a year of lifting weights, 56% of guys could bench more than 135 poundsShane Duquette (Outlift) · 2025-05-09 · of men in the Outlift survey · method: survey: newsletter convenience sampleSourced
- 1:100Tim Henriques (T Nation) · 2012-11-21 · of women · method: coach opinionNo source found
- approximately halfDebbie Luna (Inspire US) · 2023-07-07 · of untrained men from their teens to their early thirties who weigh 175 to 200 lb · method: none found: bodyweight and age assumptionsNo source found
- 44%Debbie Luna (Inspire US) · 2023-07-07 · of adults between the ages of 13 and 40 · method: other: claimed combination of assumed male/female averagesNo source found
4 more repeated claims
- approximately 60-70%Debbie Luna (Inspire US) · 2023-07-07 · of trained male exercisers · method: none found: uncited trained-population estimateNo source found
- top 15%Debbie Luna (Inspire US) · 2023-07-07 · of trained female weight lifters · method: none found: uncited trained-female estimateNo source found
- nearly one-fifthDebbie Luna (Inspire US) · 2023-07-17 · of all individuals · method: none foundNo source found
- somewhere around 70%Debbie Luna (Inspire US) · 2023-07-17 · of resistance-trained women and average male lifters · method: none foundNo source found
At your bodyweight
Where 135 lands, by bodyweight
The same 135 lb61 kg is Novice at 132 lb60 kg and Beginner at 292 lb132 kg+. Drag the slider and watch the bands move under the bar.
- Beginner
- from the bar
- Novice
- from 13561
- Intermediate
- from 225102
- Advanced
- from 315143
- Elite
- from 360163
- World Class
- from 432196
At 180 lb82 kg, a 135 lb61 kg bench is Novice for a man. 99% of men competing in this bodyweight bracket in the data have lifted it, which is most lifters. That is 0.75× bodyweight.
Percentile by bodyweight
Who benches 135, by bodyweight
| Bodyweight | Level | Have lifted it | Rarity | Ratio to bodyweight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| under 14365 | Novice | 86% | most lifters | 1.02× |
| 14365–16575 | Novice | 97% | most lifters | 0.88× |
| 16575–18785 | Novice | 99% | most lifters | 0.77× |
| 18785–20995 | Beginner | 99% | most lifters | 0.68× |
| 20995–231105 | Beginner | 99% | most lifters | 0.61× |
| 231105–254115 | Beginner | 99% | most lifters | 0.56× |
| 254115–276125 | Beginner | 100% | most lifters | 0.51× |
| 276125+ | Beginner | 99% | most lifters | 0.46× |
| Bodyweight | Level | Have lifted it | Rarity | Ratio to bodyweight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| under 12155 | Advanced | 18% | 1 in 6 | 1.23× |
| 12155–14365 | Advanced | 35% | 1 in 3 | 1.02× |
| 14365–16575 | Intermediate | 50% | 1 in 2 | 0.88× |
| 16575–18785 | Intermediate | 55% | 1 in 2 | 0.77× |
| 18785–20995 | Novice | 56% | 1 in 2 | 0.68× |
| 20995–231105 | Novice | 62% | 1 in 2 | 0.61× |
| 231105+ | Novice | 70% | most lifters | 0.54× |
Percentile by age
Who benches 135, by age
| Age | Have lifted it | Rarity | Median at this age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 years old | 36% | 1 in 3 | 121 lb55 kg |
| 14 years old | 65% | 1 in 2 | 154 lb70 kg |
| 15 years old | 85% | most lifters | 187 lb85 kg |
| 16 years old | 93% | most lifters | 209 lb95 kg |
| 17 years old | 97% | most lifters | 231 lb105 kg |
| 18 years old | 98% | most lifters | 248 lb112 kg |
| 19 years old | 99% | most lifters | 265 lb120 kg |
| 20–24 | 100% | most lifters | 287 lb130 kg |
| 25–29 | 100% | most lifters | 309 lb140 kg |
| 30–34 | 100% | most lifters | 320 lb145 kg |
| 35–39 | 100% | most lifters | 325 lb147 kg |
| 40–44 | 99% | most lifters | 320 lb145 kg |
| 45–49 | 99% | most lifters | 314 lb142 kg |
| 50–54 | 99% | most lifters | 298 lb135 kg |
| 55–59 | 99% | most lifters | 276 lb125 kg |
| 60–64 | 97% | most lifters | 254 lb115 kg |
| 65–69 | 95% | most lifters | 231 lb105 kg |
| 70+ | 85% | most lifters | 193 lb88 kg |
| Age | Have lifted it | Rarity | Median at this age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 years old | 5% | 1 in 22 | 83 lb38 kg |
| 14 years old | 7% | 1 in 13 | 92 lb42 kg |
| 15 years old | 17% | 1 in 6 | 99 lb45 kg |
| 16 years old | 19% | 1 in 5 | 108 lb49 kg |
| 17 years old | 28% | 1 in 4 | 116 lb53 kg |
| 18 years old | 35% | 1 in 3 | 121 lb55 kg |
| 19 years old | 39% | 1 in 3 | 127 lb58 kg |
| 20–24 | 50% | 1 in 2 | 132 lb60 kg |
| 25–29 | 53% | 1 in 2 | 138 lb63 kg |
| 30–34 | 54% | 1 in 2 | 138 lb63 kg |
| 35–39 | 54% | 1 in 2 | 138 lb63 kg |
| 40–44 | 51% | 1 in 2 | 138 lb63 kg |
| 45–49 | 46% | 1 in 2 | 132 lb60 kg |
| 50–54 | 40% | 1 in 2 | 127 lb58 kg |
| 55–59 | 31% | 1 in 3 | 119 lb54 kg |
| 60–64 | 20% | 1 in 5 | 108 lb49 kg |
| 65–69 | 13% | 1 in 8 | 99 lb45 kg |
| 70+ | 6% | 1 in 16 | 88 lb40 kg |
What it takes
How long it takes to bench 135
Nobody has measured how long it typically takes to get here from a first session, so we would rather say nothing than guess. What has been measured is narrower, and it is below, labelled for what it is. Those are app logs that count from the day someone started logging, and coaches' opinions. These sources do not establish a reliable timeline for an individual lifter.
- Measured, with conditionsHardy: 42% reached it within a year, 54% within two; those who did took a median of 1.8 monthsStarting point: Below the applicable plate threshold based on best logged set in the first 2 weeks; training before logging unknown. The printed starting count is not the 12- or 24-month denominator; those denominator counts were not supplied.
- Coaches commonly sayEvan Porter: “a few months”Starting point: Fully grown man weighing about 130 pounds or more. opinion
- Coaches commonly sayInspire US: “within a year”Author opinion
For women, 135 lb is Intermediate territory, reached by 43% of women competing in our data; nobody has measured a typical timeline for women either.
135 lb61 kg is Novice for a 180 lb82 kg man on Stronger's scale. Use the bodyweight table above to find the level for your size; a strength level does not predict how long reaching it will take.
The path
- 13561HereNovice97% of men competing in our data
- 18584The rung aboveNovice90% of men competing in our data
Rep equivalents
Sets that equal a 135 bench
By the Epley formula, these sets predict the same one-rep max. Past ten reps the estimate gets loose, so the shorter sets are the ones to trust.
| Weight | Reps needed | Predicted max |
|---|---|---|
| 125 lb57 kg | 2 | 133 lb60 kg |
| 125 lb57 kg | 3 | 138 lb63 kg |
| 120 lb54 kg | 4 | 136 lb62 kg |
| 115 lb52 kg | 5 | 134 lb61 kg |
| 115 lb52 kg | 6 | 138 lb63 kg |
| 105 lb48 kg | 8 | 133 lb60 kg |
| 100 lb45 kg | 10 | 133 lb60 kg |
Read it the other way too: if you can bench 115 lb52 kg for a clean five, you almost certainly have 135 in you for a single, and it is worth finding out.
Plate math
How many plates is 135?
One plate a side on a 45 lb20 kg bar. Here is the arithmetic in both units.
Pounds
45 lb bar + 45 per side = 135 lb
One 45 per side. Gym slang counts the 45s: this is “1 plate”.
Kilograms
20 kg bar + 20 per side = 60 kg
135 lb is 61.2 kg. In a kg gym the closest loading is 60 kg, about 132 lb.
For women
135 for women
For a 140 lb64 kg woman, 135 lb61 kg is Intermediate. 43% of women competing in our data have lifted it, about 1 in 2. The women's standards are their own table for a reason. At the same bodyweight the women's Advanced line sits between the men's Novice and Intermediate lines, and a lift that is ordinary for a man can be exceptional for a woman.
Bench press standards for women, by age and weightHow we calculate
Where these numbers come from
Percentiles are built from 1,668,369 bench press competition results (one per lifter per meet) by 556,880 lifters, updated September 2026. We show the method so you can judge it.
The distribution. Our percentiles come from competition results in the OpenPowerlifting open dataset: each lifter's best successful raw bench, with sex, bodyweight and age recorded at the meet. These numbers describe competitive powerlifters, people who entered a sanctioned meet and trained for it. They are stronger than the general gym population, and far stronger than the general public. We say so wherever a percentile appears. Drug-tested divisions bench less at the median than untested ones (men: 276 lb vs 305 lb); the headline numbers pool both.
The levels. Six bands, the same six Stronger uses to score every lift in the app, and read the same way. The app divides your best estimated one-rep max by your bodyweight and compares it with a set of multipliers for each lift, so each cutoff is the floor of its band for that bodyweight, and crossing it puts you in. World Class starts at 1.2 times the Elite floor. We do not redraw the scale from the competition data; we put the competition percentile beside every floor so you can see how rare each level is among people who compete.
Testing a one-rep max. Warm up to it in jumps that get smaller as the bar gets heavier, take three to five minutes between the last attempts, and use a spotter or safeties. If you would rather not max out, take a set of two to six clean reps and let the calculator estimate it; the Epley formula we use is accurate to within a few percent under ten reps.
- Beginner
- The lowest band on Stronger’s scale, from the empty bar up to the Novice floor.
- Novice
- The second band on Stronger’s scale, from the Novice floor up to the Intermediate floor.
- Intermediate
- The third band on Stronger’s scale, from the Intermediate floor up to the Advanced floor.
- Advanced
- The fourth band on Stronger’s scale, from the Advanced floor up to the Elite floor.
- Elite
- The second-highest band on Stronger’s scale. Competition rankings are shown separately.
- World Class
- The highest band on Stronger’s scale, not a claim of a federation record or qualification.
Sources
- OpenPowerlifting open datasetOpenPowerlifting project2026-09-05CC0Percentile curves, milestone shares, age curves and population counts: 556,880 raw lifters (best successful competition bench each), sanctioned meets only, para and equipped divisions excluded.
- Stronger's Strength Score scale for the bench pressStrongerThe app's six levels per sex, as multiples of bodyweight. Each table floor is worked out for the middle of its bodyweight bracket, and the app scores a single rep about 3% above the weight lifted, so near a floor the app's level can differ from the table's.
All 24 cited sources
- IPF Technical Rules Book 2026, effective 01 March 2026, v3International Powerlifting Federation2026-03-01Competition rules for the bench press, squat and deadlift.
- Average Bench Press: Real Lifter DataGravitus2026-09-06Gravitus published statistic
- How Much Should You Be Able to Bench Press?Outlift2025-05-09Rarity claim about a bench milestone
- Is a 300-Pound Bench Rare?T Nation2012-11-21Rarity claim about a bench milestone
- How Many People Can Bench 135? Demographics ExplainedInspire US2023-07-07Rarity claim about a bench milestone
- How Many People Can Bench 315? Less Than You ThinkInspire US2023-07-17Rarity claim about a bench milestone
- How Many People Can Bench 225? Data From 6,500 Lifters Who Log Every SetHardy2026-09-03Time-to-milestone claim
- Bench 225: How Long Does It Take? How Many People Can Do It?Trusty Spotter2023-05-12Time-to-milestone claim
- Bench Press Standards for Men and Women (lb)Strength Level LimitedPublished standards table: By Bodyweight
- Bench Press Standards for Men and Women (kg)Strength LevelStrength Level published standards
- Bench Press Strength Standards for Men and Women (kg)StrengthLogPublished standards table: Bench Press Strength Standards by Body Weight
- Bench Press Strength Standards for Men and Women (lb)StrengthLogStrengthLog / Styrkelabbet published standards
- 2023 STRENGTH STANDARDS — Snatch – Clean & Jerk – Back Squat – Bench Press – Deadlift – PressLon Kilgore / Kilgore Academy2023Published standards table: BENCH PRESS (MEN) / BENCH PRESS (WOMEN)
- Basic Strength StandardsThe Aasgaard Company2012Published standards table: Bench Press - Adult Men / Bench Press - Adult Women
- Bench Press StandardsExRx.netPublished standards table: Bench Press Standards
- Bench Press Strength StandardsGravitus, Inc.Published standards table: Bench Press Standards by Bodyweight (lb)
- Max Bench Press CalculatorGravitus, Inc.Women's standards table: Bench Press Standards for Women (lbs)
- Bench Press StandardsStrength OriginsPublished standards table: Competitive Bench Press Standards
- Profiling the absolute and relative strength of a special operations police unitBMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation / Springer Nature2022-06-20Published standards table: Table 2. Bodyweight, strength data and overall change (Mean ± SD) for five TPs over 18 months — Bench Press Absolute Strength (kg)
- Bench Press TestBrianMac Sports CoachPublished standards table: A good 1RM for the bench press
- 1RM Bench Press Calculator - Test Your Upper Body StrengthTopend Sports / Robert WoodPublished standards table: 1 Rep Max Bench Press Table for adults (weight lifted per bodyweight)
- How Much Can the Average Person Bench Press?Healthline2019-06-14Published standards table: Bench press average by weight — Men / Women
- Lifter Classifications100% RAW Powerlifting Federation2012-01-01Women's standards table: Women’s Bench Press
- Triage Ultimate Health Targets Assessment ToolTriageMethodWomen's standards table: Bench Press (1RM) – (Weight: 1.5)
How our scale compares
Our six levels are Stronger's own scale, and the percentages beside them come from competition results. Below is a summary of the published tables people actually copy: whose numbers they are, whom they describe and how they were made, so you can see how a “good” bench on this page compares to what other sources call good. None of them measures the general population either.
- Strength Level Limited · 18 tables (lb, ratio, kg)Male and female Strength Level usersOriginally based on fixed Kilgore/ExRx tables in 2007. Publisher says July 2015 replaced that model with community-data regressions; May 2016 incorporated joint lift/bodyweight modelling. Current table belongs to the 2026 refresh. These are not independent probability estimates for all adults.
- StrengthLog · 12 tables (kg, lb)Men and women who use StrengthLogStrengthLog says the standards are calculated from user training logs; no Kilgore derivation is claimed. Sample date, age distribution, lift-verification protocol and detailed statistical construction are not supplied on the inspected page.
- Lon Kilgore / Kilgore Academy · 1 table (kg)Men and women, ages 15–89Author combines scientific literature, published drug-tested classic/raw lifting results and coaching observation. The author resource page explicitly says the 2023 revision supersedes prior tables. No cell-level dataset or reproducible estimation code is provided.
- The Aasgaard Company · 2 tables (lb)Adult Men / Adult WomenSource specifies Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd edition techniques. Every bench numeric cell matches the inspected 2007 ExRx table, but level names differ. This is documented numerical identity, not proof of an unpublished licensing or authorship history.
- ExRx.net · 1 table (lb)Adult men and womenExplanatory source credits Dr. Lon Kilgore, the training definitions in Practical Programming (Kilgore, Rippetoe, Pendlay), Starting Strength exercise technique and published lifting-performance standards. Numeric identity with the publisher-hosted 2012 Starting Strength sheet is directly established.
- Gravitus, Inc. · 5 tables (lb)Male / Female Gravitus usersPublisher-owned app logs; best estimated 1RM per lifter, Brzycki formula, extreme outliers excluded. Asterisks designate weight points with fewer than 50 lifters, estimated by the publisher through allometric scaling.
- Strength Origins · 2 tables (lb)Men / Women; raw, drug-tested, sanctioned full-power competitors, ages 16–65Publisher, not this inventory, processed OpenPowerlifting using Power Query; best-total performance per lifter-year, valid nonzero full SBD results, raw and drug-tested, weight classes rebinned to IPF style. No underlying data were downloaded or recomputed for this job.
- BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation / Springer Nature · 2 tables (kg, ratio)47 male Australian elite police officersPrimary retrospective cohort measurements; barbell touches chest, full extension, bench contact maintained. Same lead coach across tests.
- BrianMac Sports Coach · 1 table (ratio)men / womenAuthor-published coaching judgment; no cell-level dataset or derivation is given. A separate McArdle citation is used by the page’s assessment machinery, but the source does not prove these two good thresholds are that table.
- Topend Sports / Robert Wood · 1 table (ratio)adults; both sexes as stated by the publisherThe author explicitly attributes the scores to personal experience, not a federation, research sample or ACSM norm.
- Healthline · 1 table (lb)Men / Women, ages 18–59; page explains sex as assigned at birthThe page links ExRx for these standards. Unlike the fixed numerical 2007 ExRx/2012 Starting Strength cells, this page prints ranges. No inspected evidence establishes how those range endpoints were constructed.
- 100% RAW Powerlifting Federation · 1 table (lb)Women competing in 100% RAW; ranking-informed performance classes, not population normsFAQ identifies PowerliftingWatch rankings, primarily 2008–2010, as the backbone of Elite standards, with formulas, federation input and judgment. Other classes are related to Elite. The female FAQ explicitly discusses limited participation and hypothetical stronger fields. No uniform male×factor derivation is stated.
- TriageMethod · 1 table (ratio)Women using the publisher’s health-targets assessment; no sampled population disclosedPublisher explicitly sets female standards at approximately 60–75% of male standards, varying by movement. This is a stated coaching method; no fixed 0.6 factor is applied or inferred here.
What apps publish about their own users
- Strength Level: average bench of 212 lb among male Strength Level cohort; no fixed bodyweightMethod: Self-submitted lifts feed fitted strength/bodyweight distributions. Rep sets can be converted to estimated 1RM. Not a general-population figure.
- Strength Level: average bench of 112 lb among female Strength Level cohort; no fixed bodyweightMethod: Self-submitted lifts feed fitted strength/bodyweight distributions. Rep sets can be converted to estimated 1RM. Not a general-population figure.
- StrengthLog / Styrkelabbet: average bench of 100 kg among male users in the 24,408-user bench standards cohortMethod: Public standards cite users’ training logs, but do not fully disclose selection, deduplication or fitting. Not a general-population figure.
- StrengthLog / Styrkelabbet: average bench of 47 kg among female users in the 24,408-user bench standards cohortMethod: Public standards cite users’ training logs, but do not fully disclose selection, deduplication or fitting. Not a general-population figure.
Our own figure, for comparison: the median competitor in the data benches 281 lb127 kg (men) and 127 lb58 kg (women).
Questions people ask
135, answered
How many people can bench 135?
97% of men competing in our data have benched 135 lb. Among women competing it is 43%. These are people who compete; in the general population the share is much smaller, and nobody has measured it.
Is 135 a good bench?
For a 180 lb82 kg man, 135 lb is Novice. Whether that is “good” depends on your bodyweight: at 132 lb60 kg it is Novice; at 292 lb132 kg it is Beginner. These are Stronger app levels, not measured ranks among all gym-goers.
How many plates is 135?
135 lb is one plate a side on a 45 lb bar: 45 lb bar + 45 per side = 135 lb. In kilograms the closest loading is 20 kg bar + 20 per side = 60 kg.
How long does it take to bench 135 lb?
We do not have enough data to give an honest estimate yet. Individual progress varies with training history, consistency and recovery.
Is 135 a good bench for a woman?
For a 140 lb64 kg woman, 135 lb is Intermediate; 43% of women competing in our data have lifted it. The women's standards
How many reps of 110 equals a 135 bench?
By the Epley formula, 7 reps. Rep-max estimates are least reliable past ten reps, so treat it as a target, not a certificate.
How many reps of 135 does it take to bench 185?
By the Epley formula, 11 reps at 135 lb predicts a 185 lb single. That is past the ten-rep range where the estimate stays honest, so read it as “not there yet” rather than a target: build the single from heavier sets of three to six. The 1RM calculator does the arithmetic for any weight and rep count.
Does 135 include the bar?
Yes. A bench is always counted as the total on the bar, and that is how every number on this page is recorded. 135 lb on a 45 lb bar is one plate a side; the nearest kilogram loading is 60 kg (20 kg bar + 20 per side = 60 kg), which is why the kilogram figure and 135 are close cousins, not the same lift.
Does a touch-and-go 135 lb count the same as a paused one?
In a training log, most people count it; on a platform it does not. The IPF's technical rules require the bar to be held motionless on the chest until the referee's press command, and our percentiles come from meets judged to a pause, so a paused 135 lb is what the 97% figure describes. A touch-and-go rep is somewhat easier, by an amount that varies lifter to lifter, and Stronger's scale does not distinguish the two. Log which one you did and compare like with like.
Sources: IPF Technical Rules Book 2026, effective 01 March 2026, v3 (International Powerlifting Federation, 2026)
Track your strength level as you work toward 135.
Stronger scores every bench set you log against these standards, adjusted for your bodyweight and sex, and shows a strength level for each muscle group, chest, shoulders and triceps among them, on a colour-coded body map. That is the Strength Score.
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135 lb bench press: Novice for a 180 lb man. 97% of men competing in our data have lifted it.