How much should a woman deadlift? A realistic guide by bodyweight and age

The deadlift is one of the most searched strength questions on the internet - and most of the answers are frustrating. Either they're vague ("it depends!"), US-focused, or they quote standards built from competitive powerlifters that make the average gym-goer feel like they're failing.

This guide gives you real numbers, calibrated for women who train seriously but aren't competing. We'll cover what's realistic by bodyweight, how age affects the picture, and - most importantly - what "good" actually means when you're comparing yourself to someone else.

First, the number most people are looking for

If you want a simple benchmark: an intermediate female lifter - someone with around two years of consistent training - should be able to deadlift approximately 125% of her bodyweight.

So at 70kg, that's around 87kg. At 60kg, around 75kg. At 80kg, around 100kg.

A novice female lifter - someone who has been training regularly for several months - should be able to deadlift approximately 101% of her bodyweight. And an advanced lifter, with several years of structured training behind her, is typically pulling around 161% of her bodyweight.

These are useful starting points. But they're also where most guides stop - and that's where things get interesting.

Why bodyweight ratios only tell half the story

A 50kg woman deadlifting 1.25x bodyweight (62.5kg) and a 90kg woman deadlifting 1.25x bodyweight (112.5kg) are not equally impressive lifts - even though the ratio is identical.

Lighter lifters generally have better strength-to-weight ratios. The physics of moving a barbell from the floor don't scale perfectly with bodyweight, so the 50kg woman is doing something harder relative to her size. Any honest strength standard needs to account for this - which is why the calculator on this site uses bodyweight-specific tables rather than a single ratio.

How age changes the picture

Most published deadlift standards assume you're between 25 and 35 - the window when most people hit peak strength. Outside that range, the numbers shift.

Strength typically peaks in the mid-twenties and holds fairly steady into the mid-thirties. After that, the research suggests a gradual decline - roughly 4% per decade from 35 to 45, then 10% per decade beyond that. This isn't a cliff edge. It's a slow slope, and consistent training delays it significantly.

What that means in practice: a 50-year-old woman deadlifting 100kg is doing something more impressive than a 30-year-old woman deadlifting 100kg - even though the raw number is identical. The 50-year-old's score should reflect that, and any fair comparison tool needs to account for it.

What does "good" actually mean?

This is where most articles lose the plot. "Good" is relative - and it depends entirely on who you're comparing yourself to.

The average woman does not deadlift. So if you're pulling anything at all, you're already ahead of most people who set foot in a gym. The standards that get quoted online - including on apps like Hevy and Strength Level - are drawn from people who actively track their lifts. That's already a self-selected group of serious gym-goers, which skews the numbers significantly.

On Who Lifts More, we calibrate our tiers against the general gym-going population - not competitive athletes or dedicated tracking app users. That means:

By that standard, a 70kg woman pulling 115kg is solidly Intermediate to Advanced - which feels right compared to the wider population, even if a powerlifting app would call it something more modest.

Comparing your deadlift to someone else's

This is where it gets genuinely complicated - and where most calculators fall short entirely.

Say you deadlift 115kg at 70kg bodyweight, and your training partner deadlifts 130kg at 90kg bodyweight. Who's stronger? The raw numbers say them. But their bodyweight gives them a natural advantage on a hip-hinge movement. Factor in bodyweight, and the picture shifts.

Now add gender, age and height into the mix, and a simple number comparison becomes meaningless. A 57-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman need to be judged by completely different standards - not just by gender, but by the physiological reality of where they are in their training lives.

That's exactly what this site calculates. Enter both people's stats and it tells you, adjusted for everything, who is actually lifting more relative to their own baseline - and what each person would need to lift to match the other.

A quick reference guide by bodyweight

For women aged 25 to 35 (adjust down slightly for older lifters):

The bottom line

A good deadlift for a woman depends on her bodyweight, her age, and who she's comparing herself to. The 1.25x bodyweight intermediate standard is a reasonable rough guide - but it doesn't tell you whether you're ahead of your training partner, how your lift compares across age groups, or whether your deadlift is stronger relative to your bench press.

If you want those answers, the calculator does it in about 30 seconds.