This article analyzes women’s powerlifting data to show required strength to to win as well as how strong you need to be to at least podium in women’s open powerlifting meets.
With data from 10 of the most recent “open” powerlifting competitions (based on meet results from openpowerlifting.com), I filtered the information down to make sure that it included a few key criteria for female powerlifters:
- Lifters must be 24-39 years old (in the “Open” Age Category)
- Lifters must be participating in the drug tested division
- Lifters must be competing in a full power category (performing the squat, bench press and deadlift on the same day). Participation in single or 2-lift events (ex. bench only, deadlift only or push-pull divisions) was not included in the data set.
- Lifters must be competing in the raw category, meaning knee sleeves, wrist wraps and a lifting belt are permissible, but no supportive equipment such as knee wraps, squat suits, bench shirts or deadlift suits are allowed. Not all federations allow for the use of knee sleeves, but with sleeves offering such a small advantage over sleeveless, this was not a big enough difference to cause exclusion.
This article will show you both how strong female powerlifters might need to be to win as well as the “lowest” total you could still acheive a podium position with at an upcoming powerlifting meet in the female open division.
After analyzing the data, I aimed to create 2 data sets:
- The highest total (sum of the heaviest squat, bench press and deadlift) from all of the meets, per weight class
- The lowest total that still put the lifter in at least 3rd place in their respective competitions and weight class.
The women’s 57 kg (~125lbs) and 110kg (~242 lbs) were by far the most competitive to take 1st place but the 57kg class was harder to get on the podium. With the given data set, the 57kg class only had one elite lifter as the entire data set, leading to this outlier result.
Looking at weight classes with >4 lifters, the 63kf and 100kg classes had the toughest competition across the board (ie. were the “most competitive”), meaning there were the fewest default medals awarded due to often having >3 lifters per meet per weight class.
With the above in mind, we can look at DOTS score which allows us to compare relative strength of all lifters across all weight classes. While in the short term, we might see spikes in certain classes, at a high level in the long term, the higher the weight class, the higher the totals are. Use of the DOTS formula to equate for bodyweight/relative strength in order to see which weight class is the most competitive with everything else held equal led to the following findings in women’s powerlifting in the USA.
When looking at DOTS data, it is clear that the 63 through 84 kg weight classes were the most competitive which is in line with typical findings due to the bell curve of competitors in those more “average” weight classes.
Additional info you need to know about this data:
- The “highest” 1st place number is essentially the number you’d need to hit to give yourself the statistically highest odds of winning, regardless of who else shows up to the meet but often this number is quite a bit higher than the winning total at most meets. The bigger the gap is between the 1st value and min. to podium value, the higher the odds of this being an outlier result are.
- This is a relatively small data set with only ~ 80 lifters, so there are some notable outliers present that skew the data. I am working on putting together a data set of ~1200 lifters which should get a more valuable data set. This will be posted on my Instagram. I’d invite you to follow me there if you’re interested to see the full data when it’s published in January 2025.
PS _ here’s 2 ways I can help you
1. Follow me on Instagram (@strongeryoupt) for free lifting advice, programs and more powerlifting content. You can DM me the word “BENCH GUIDE” and I’ll get you a copy of my bench variation PDF that outlines the programming style we used to add 40+ lbs to JR’s Bench.
OR
2. Apply to join my “Platform-Ready Blueprint” and become a case study. We’ll work with you 1-on-1 (in-person or online, depending on location) to consistently increase your PRs.
It takes less than 60 seconds to apply HERE in order to find out more information and see if you’d be a good fit.
